Postage - am I just being tight?

Paint Me Proud

Paint Me Proud

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I saw an exercise sheet on Swish Equestrians website that I liked the look of and was only £19.99 in the sale so I decided to buy it.

However when I got to the checkout the postage was £7.99 and I felt this was very steep, especially just for one small-ish item. As a result I didnt buy the item but emailed Swish to ask if they had a cheaper postage option for single items.

I got a reply stating that £7.99 was the fixed postage by the courier and that Swish dont make any profit off the postage and was the only option whether I order 1 item or 100!

I thought maybe I was just being tight with my money so have had a look on several other websites to see what they charge. They are as follows:-

Swish Equestrian - £7.99
Equestrian Clearance - £4.99
Hope Valley Saddlery - £4.99
Old Dairy Saddlery - £4.95
Horse Health - £4.95
Derby House - £4.95
Rideaway - FREE :D

So as you can see Swish is £3 more expensive than the others. If it's fixed by the courier I think Swish are perhaps being ripped off themselves.

Am I just being tight not wanting to spend the £7.99 on postage?

(On a plus point while lookijng for postage costs I saw a nice exercise sheet on Rideaway, in the XL size I need, that was £27 but with their free postage, so works out the same as the one from Swish, on principle I feel more inclined towards rideaway!)
 
No I would walk away too!

TBH I almost always take the best (total) price over anything else, but paying more than £4-5 postage tends to grate. I understand the costs (having worked for a mail order company myself in the past) but as a private seller on eBay I sell everything free postage and just pay the postage.
 
Don't get me started on postage. I live in a PA postcode and always get charged Highlands &Islands postage price even though I'm neither! I also go for best all in price.
 
Depends what courier they all use. I avoid companies that use either of the main 2 that are known for being rubbish, and will happily pay Swish more because they use Fed Ex :)
 
DD265 said:
No I would walk away too!

TBH I almost always take the best (total) price over anything else, but paying more than £4-5 postage tends to grate. I understand the costs (having worked for a mail order company myself in the past) but as a private seller on eBay I sell everything free postage and just pay the postage.
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That's the thing really that when I sell rugs on eBay I never pay more than £5 to send them a courier so cant understand why Swish charge so much
 
Not tight at all, I would rather pay more for an item to get free delivery!! I love loads of stuff on hope valley but I always hate having to pay 4.99 for postage, so where possible I buy everything on ebay because most of the time you can find someone who does free delivery
 
To send a saddle cloth (folded in half) by Royal Mail 2nd class signed for is £5.99. Classed as a medium parcel because of the size. Weight can be up to 25KG.

Postage costs are a bit of a rip off but I will happily pay a fair price if they use a decent courier.

Lots of companies do free delivery over a certain spend - I do wish some of them would lower their threshold!
 
god don't talk to me about postage!!! try living in France, Derby House charge £26 .99 for their postage compared to Eq Clearance £ 4.99.all the rest are between £12 -20 and Ebay is the worst of all, i don't even know where they pluck their figures from, 2 pairs of knickers at £2.99. postage £ 10. 67 , that's not even a proper amount for gods sake!!!!!!! half the companies in Europe won't even deliver to France as they get ripped off here with post *disappearing * and the rest charge more than the item!
i could go on and on........!!
 
I just add the price of the item to the postage & decide if I'm willing to pay that for the item I want to buy. If I think it's ok then I buy, if I don't then \I buy from somewhere else....simple. It's your choice.
 
In the early days of Ebay people used to charge pennies for expensive items and about £50 postage as a way round paying the sellers fees until they put a stop to it. It's a mine field. All you can do is go for the best overall price.
 
I have emailed companies about postage before, the last was leonard coombe as I only wanted a browband, they kindly sent me an invoice for a lower amount to stick it in an envelope and bog standard post.
Some things I look at total price, on ebay if several the same sort of price I will opt for one that says royal mail as deliveries are always easier.
Can't remember the last time I paid more than £5 for postage really though.
 
I used to work for a courier, a one of the main ones. The bigger the contract the better the price, so if you where sending out as many items as say Amazon the cost would be a pennies, the less you send the more the price.
£7.99 could well be the standard price, the courier will make money on some and not on others so a fixed price can work. If they did send stuff and you had pay according to the couriers tariff based on weight or volume £7.99 would probably be cheap!
It does very much depend on the courier, smaller private ones cost more and they will send it through a big couriers network a lot of the time. Big companies charge less because of the volume they deal with and an established network.
Would I pay £7.99? No probably not for an ex sheet but would for a large item, I pay about £15 for when buying from a company in Germany but its a large box of stuff and still works out cheaper than buying the same items over here.
Its been a while since I worked in that area, I was made redundant funnily enough, but can't imagine much has changed.
 
Paint Me Proud said:
I saw an exercise sheet on Swish Equestrians website that I liked the look of and was only £19.99 in the sale so I decided to buy it.

However when I got to the checkout the postage was £7.99 and I felt this was very steep, especially just for one small-ish item. As a result I didnt buy the item but emailed Swish to ask if they had a cheaper postage option for single items.

I got a reply stating that £7.99 was the fixed postage by the courier and that Swish dont make any profit off the postage and was the only option whether I order 1 item or 100!

I thought maybe I was just being tight with my money so have had a look on several other websites to see what they charge. They are as follows:-

Swish Equestrian - £7.99
Equestrian Clearance - £4.99
Hope Valley Saddlery - £4.99
Old Dairy Saddlery - £4.95
Horse Health - £4.95
Derby House - £4.95
Rideaway - FREE :D

So as you can see Swish is £3 more expensive than the others. If it's fixed by the courier I think Swish are perhaps being ripped off themselves.

Am I just being tight not wanting to spend the £7.99 on postage?

(On a plus point while lookijng for postage costs I saw a nice exercise sheet on Rideaway, in the XL size I need, that was £27 but with their free postage, so works out the same as the one from Swish, on principle I feel more inclined towards rideaway!)
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I bought a flymask from Rideaway this morning (our last one having been eaten by sheep or foxes) and the postage was £4.95, increasing the cost by more than 25% - I think their free delivery is only on items over £79.
 
One reason why postage may seem to be more than you would pay if posting the same thing yourself, could be because the seller is VAT registered and is obliged to charge VAT on postage.
 
i use courriers on a regular basis. I could send most packages for under £5 but thats with the courriers i feel are more risky, judging by these replies im paying to much..i pay £7 for next day on parcels , the packaging cost £1 per parcel and the time for an employee to package...its a lot more time consuming than people seem to think. I insist on signed for as there are customers who would never miss a rip off oppertunity. Royal mail is an absolute no no for me after they lost £1,800 in one day four parcels and they are the only ones who cost the same for all uk postcodes.
 
I HATE paying postage on horsey stuff..probably because I buy so much of it. I now try to save up a wishlist for each website instead of purchasing just one thing at once, to try and get it all on the one postage charge.
 
Whenever I've sold stuff postage has often cost more than expected even shopping around. As soon as you have something that doesn't fit the small parcel dimensions, creeps over the 1kg barrier and has a value of say £100 it gets more expensive. Recent one was some hoof boots, ended up using Myhermes but still paid £6.

As a buyer I just look at the overall price.
 
A little tip for ebay shoppers - if the seller is a 'shop', try contacting them to make the purchase direct rather than through ebay. You may find you get a discount as they won't have to pay fees on what you're buying!

I did this last week, saved myself £20! (Oh, and they threw in free 1st class postage!) :D
 
Expensive postage stops me buying something almost every time. They need to get a new courier organised if they really are making nothing from £7.99 postage. I suspect they are being fibbers.
 
annagain said:
In the early days of Ebay people used to charge pennies for expensive items and about £50 postage as a way round paying the sellers fees until they put a stop to it. It's a mine field. All you can do is go for the best overall price.
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Ebay have got you by the short and curlies these days it seems. Not only do they charge a percentage of your sales - they also charge a percentage of the postage you charge! I couldn't believe it when I checked my latest invoice! I've been charging the correct postage amount, plus a tiny bit extra for my time, trouble, costs etc. Think I will seriously consider asking more for the item and offer free postage in future!
 
They'll pay maximum of £5.50ish for a parcel so the no profit is rubbish.

I once ordered a neckwarmer from hope valley, was £2.99 with £4.99 postage. I didn't grumble as I didn't think £8 was bad for it anyway but when the parcel arrived it had 2 neckwarmers and a note saying the carriage seemed excessive so have another on us!
 
cowgirl16 said:
I didn't think VAT was chargeable on postage?
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Yes it is for business sellers - although when I buy postage through Royal Mail it's exempt. I don't know whether that's because I'm buying through Royal Mail (rather than a courier) or because I'm a private individual rather than a business.

cowgirl16 said:
Ebay have got you by the short and curlies these days it seems. Not only do they charge a percentage of your sales - they also charge a percentage of the postage you charge! I couldn't believe it when I checked my latest invoice! I've been charging the correct postage amount, plus a tiny bit extra for my time, trouble, costs etc. Think I will seriously consider asking more for the item and offer free postage in future!
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Don't forget that PayPal charge you on the £15 total (not just the £12 for the item!) including postage too. The benefit of offering free postage is you automatically get 5 stars for the postage cost rating, but you'll find buyers give the most ridiculous offers if you entertain those. List something for £10, free postage, and get offered £4. If you took it - and paid £3.90 postage, you wouldn't even cover the fees...
 
I often check online shops compared to their ebay prices and their ebay is often cheaper, I presume because the competition is more obvious/accessible.
 
I particularly hate it when online shops don't make it easy to see their postage charges - sometimes you have to go to checkout, register with them, give all your address details etc., and only then do you find out there is a hefty postage charge. I often end up with several tabs open on the computer to see which website offers the best deal, but I think some companies think that once you have inputted all that info you will just go ahead with the sale anyway. Of course, shops that offer 'free postage' have calculated that into their costings, but at least you can see straight away the total amount you will be expected to pay.

To the OP, another company selling exercise sheets, rugs etc who offer 'free delivery' on all orders are Maxima Equestrian, so worth a look.
 
Depends on what I want, where it is from and who the courier is. There are a couple which I avoid at all costs and would pay more for the same item to avoid them. I would also consider if there were a couple of other things I could get at the same time to make it a cheaper average cost.
 
I thought rideaway was only free above £75
Vio-vet is fab with free delivery over £29, very fast too
I generally use ebay because I also see postage as wasted money
 
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