Hi Shootproof,
Attached are two screenshots showing a client purchase of an 8x6 print in the UK. The price I put on the print was £4. The client eventually paid £8.90 (over double the advertised price), and, as the studio to ensure the sale went ahead, I paid £7.80 to send it to the print shop.
On further inspection of the sale, I discovered two things, both of which I believe are forbidden in the UK:
1 - The cost of sales was £1.12, postage was £4.90 (which in of itself is exorbitant), totalling £6.02. VAT charged on the sale was ALSO calculated on the postage cost, meaning that I paid £1.20 in VAT - more than the actual print itself! I don’t believe this is allowed - VAT should be on cost of sales ONLY, NOT postage.
2 - The line underneath the final total of £7.80 demonstrates a 3.9% and £0.30 additional charge for the use of a credit card. As I understand it, in the UK businesses are not allowed to pass on credit card fees to the consumers. Therefore I also think that this is not allowed.
All this means that I calculate the total amount I SHOULD have paid in ensuring this sale went through was the cost of sales, the VAT on the cost of sales and the postage ONLY - totalling £6.24 - a full £1.56 less than the sum I did actually pay
If this has happened on every print sale I’ve ever made through Shootproof, someone somewhere owes me quite a lot of money.
Additionally, circling back to the postage - how does the postage for a single 8x6 photograph cost £4.90 - nearly £5?! This means that the client literally paid double the initial list price of a photo. How is this right?
I’m pretty angry about all these things. I know the sums of money involved are tiny, but scaled up, I’m beginning to think we are being taken for mugs. Additionally, Shootproof, I think you are breaking the law in some shady trading practices - I’m not sure of this, I’m just a lowly photographer and certainly no lawyer, so can someone please explain all this to me and put me back in my box?
Many thanks
Ed
