[Fangman]

Bought a printer for a friend from Amazon and today got an email offering the usual range of accessories - inks paper etc including compatible 1290 colour ink cartridges at 1p each. Ordered 10 just for my mate and luckily checked the bill before clicking confirm.

£45.00 postage for items charged at 10p

Always check anything from Amazon as to what the carriage will be as their outside supplier seems to charge 4.50 per item not package!

[Steve]

To be fair this is not a scam, its a down right rip off but its not a scam

[Fangman]

Sorry not politically correct - should it be "scum" they certainly "creaming" it off the top!

[Dave]

Ah, but this is not Amazon itself but a person selling on their site ? Think they are trying to break into EBAY land

[Rob Barron]

I bay a lot of stuff from Ebay but I have to say I am now in the habit of looking straight down at the postal charge when I go to a page I am interested in. Oh, and while you are looking at the postage, check the postal insurance as that could well add a compulsory amount on top.

It is absolutely normal for the Honk Kongese postings to be selling something very cheap but then to add loads of postage and the reason they do that is because they can genuinely say they sold something for £15 instead of £50 to lessen the amount of any import duty.

It is a matter of common sense that nobody can afford to sell an inkjet cartridge for 1p. That is clear as day. It was therefore likely that the price including postage was going to make up the price of the cartridge to a reasonable figure, perhaps £3 for the cartridge and £1.50 for postage. Obviously then you would not expect normally to pay separate postage for eacg one but the fact is when buying from HK and other places that work in this manner, it will usually say under the postage details: We do not offer a discount on postage for multiple orders' as that is where they make their money.

I do agree with Steve that this can be called a rip-off and to some maybe even unethical but I don't think it can be called a scam as the postage details are clearly listed before you hit the PAY button.

But it is good that Phil has highlighted this and the importance of making sure you check the final bill before you commit to paying. If the bill suddenly shoots up to an unreasonable level, just click on the X and close the window down.

Thanks for the heads up Phil.

[Charlotte]

Always read the small print ...

Amazon Marketplace Delivery Rates

where it clearly says you will pay a separate delivery charge (of £4.00 + 50p per kg in the case of photo stuff) for EACH ITEM even within the same order + from the same seller.

These delivery rates are set by Amazon, not the seller.

As Rob said, you have to use common sense - would YOU sell these goods for 1p?????? If the answer is 'no', then probably nobody else would either

To compensate for Amazon's policy on delivery rates, i.e. no combined p&p for multiple items, this seller has done the next best thing to promote sales - he's brought the actual purchase price right down, to make the total cost as reasonable as possible. Therefore, if each item is reasonably worth £4.51 (to buy in a shop) then what difference does it make how the total amount is appropriated between purchase price and delivery charge? If it costs less than £4.51 in the shops, then buy it in a shop. Or go look on ebay, where you will find the same thing is happening. Royal Mail's increase in postal charges has had an adverse affect on online auctions + small online retailers, so much so that I can see us all going back to shopping in the High Street instead. Major online retailers are still managing to deliver for about £5 per order, so it's often worth ordering everything you need all in one go, and using a major online retailer.

As an aside, I recently bought a lens from a Hong Kong seller on ebay, and even with the high p&p it was still cheaper than buying it locally (I saved about £20) + I received it within a couple of days. These deals, however, have to be carefully considered, as they are not all as transparent + honest as I was fortunate enough to find here. When buying online, you have to do your homework, to avoid bad experiences.

Back to basics: Any deal that seems too good to be true probably is.

[danpen]

I agree with Charlotte, I tried to sell some books through amazon once and they have set prices for postage and packing depending on the type of item, I had the opposite problem to this seller the costs to send a large book were not covered by the p&p I could charge so I had to adjust the price of the book to ensure I'd covered it and got enough to make it worth the effort.

I took the next lot to Oxfam, maybe they'll do someone more good than the few pounds I was able to get.

cheers

Daniel

[orangepeel]

Originally Posted by Rob Barron

I bay a lot of stuff from Ebay ...

It is absolutely normal for the Honk Kongese postings to be selling something very cheap but then to add loads of postage and the reason they do that is because they can genuinely say they sold something for £15 instead of £50 to lessen the amount of any import duty.

as I understand eBay, they charge their fee based on the selling price BEFORE shipping. That may explain why some sellers have high shipping and lower prices. I've certainly bought things for 1p and £30 shipping in the past.

[Rob Barron]

Just to avoid people becoming paranoid about Ebay which only seems to be talked about when something negative happens, here are just some of the purchases I have made and every single sale has been a hassle-free experience:

Canon 28-70mm f2.8 L series lens:
rrp - £900 I paid - £509 including P&P Saving: £391

Canon 300mm f4 L series + 1.4x TC + 2x TC + UV Filter (all in as new condition):
rrp in total: £1750. I paid £511. Saving: £1239

Canon 100-400mm L series zoom (6 months old, as new):
rrp £1400, I paid £780. Saving: £620

Total saving on just 3 sales: £2250

I have MANY other sales and have conservatively saved myself about £4,500 over the last three years. I realise that the prices there are rrp and street prices are a bit less but the savings were still huge.

To keep this balanced, here are the only two things I have ever had a problem with:

I bought a 2nd-hand tripod, it had the QR plate missing and was thus useless. The seller made a fuss saying he didn't know so wasn't responsible but eventually I got a refund through Paypal. It was only £21 anyway.

I bought a xenon blue headlamp bulb. It blew in three days. I emailed the seller who refunded my money AND sent me a new one to replace it with.... which is still working fine! Things happen, could have been the same from any shop.

So, Ebay is not all bad, used with a bit of common sense and due care, paying by Paypal or a credit card to ensure you have protection, it can save you a lot of money.

Cheers,
Rob

[Fangman]

The thread was not based on ebay - I have had no problems and postage is usually stated clearly. This was an order in response to a purchase of a printer from Amazon who are supposed to be a reputable company but it seems willing to act as an agency for other more devious suppliers.

[Charlotte]

With respect Fangman, I do not see how the seller in your given example here was devious. In fact I think I illustrated in my original reply how Amazon p&p works + that there is nothing that the seller did that can be construed as devious - he does NOT set the p&p, that comes from Amazon. Yet you still maintain this seller was 'devious'??

[Fangman]

Went on the seller's site and they p&p charge the £4.50 per item. Amazon does the same for all computer items from a single cartridge to a high end computer. It was really a warning to check before hitting that "confirm order" button.