Unbelievable Postage Rates
Two days ago I was sent a link to beads that a UK bead maker is selling on ebay, along with the link sent by a customer and friend she also included a question asking me why I can afford to charge my regular postal rate when others were charging three times that amount and in some cases even more such as five or six times more as shown in the link.
After replying to her email explaining that we just charge the amount it cost us, I spent some time searching etsy and ebay to find out just how much some makers are charging and to be honest with you the results were in my opinion a disgrace, nothing more than shameful.
I found a number of sellers charging £3.00 postage on a set of beads, plus extra for each item added, how the hell these people come to this amount is a mystery to me and I think I'm experienced enough to know what postage rates with the royal mail are, having sent thousands of beads to customers, both first class and recorded. One such seller was charging such a high price that if you were to obtain just three sets of beads from her, the postage would be £8, yes £8 !
I've been trying to find a good reason for such charges for the last couple of evenings and to be honest with you I just can't ! Here in the barn we use the up to date postal rates of Royal Mail and even use postal scales to weigh our post which I hope leads to us charging the correct rates, so if our rates are correct how can these people justify their huge charges.
As for the excuse of sending beads in cute little gift boxes or bags, well they cost pennies to buy as most of you who make jewellery will already know so the extra cost definitely doesn't come from there. Bubble wrap and padded envelopes are again very cheap, so yet again no answer there, the only possible reason I can think of is profit, having the cheek to make profit from customers on postage, customers who already spend their hard earned cash with these bead makers, customers who feel they can trust these people, some of which they give their custom on a regular basis, what sort of bead makers are these people, it makes me feel ashamed to be part of a craft where this goes on, it's just straight forward greed !
Deceitful, devious, underhanded, whatever you want to call it, it just ain't right and I for one invite any bead makers who charge £3 or more for postage on their beads to email me and explain the reasons why, you all know how to contact me, I'm not going anywhere, lets hear your excuses.
The funny thing about it is that these people are very often those who moan about lack of sales or their auction prices not reaching what they did, makes you wonder how their minds work, do they think to themselves, mmmmmmm prices low so I'll put the postage up to make up for it, no, they wouldn't, would they ?
I suggest the next time you get some beads through the post just check the cost of the stamps used, this will give you an idea of just how much profit these so called honest bead makers are making from the postage.
Sorry for the rant but it makes me mad to think this is going on, luckily there are still those selling their beads who are very fair with the cost of post and packing, I guess this tells a lot about someone.
Now onto the bead side of things, it was a long day here at the barn, I had focals to make plus more larger spacer sets to list on etsy, by the way, some of you may have seen the website as now gone, I feel sad about it but hope to get a new one up and running very soon and until that happens my etsy shop will be selling spacers and such things as the lucky dip spacer sets, so I hope most will still find what they need.
This morning I spent the early hours throwing some pots on my wheel, it was great sitting there with the birds singing and the early sun filling the garden, a great way to start the day.
Ok, I'm off for a cuppa and to let my little four legged mates out for a run around, a cuppa sitting in the garden watching the bats is always a nice way to finish the day.
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