Ebay shipping help

[osand_4721]

Hey everyone,I am currently selling some items from my collection(video game) to support my family. However, I recently encountered an issue where a customer selected a $16 option, and I ended up covering the cost myself. How can I prevent this from happening again? I just want to ship via letter mail.

[reallynicestamps]

Since you are selling, you can only ship LetterMail within Canada.

Otherwise you have to use package rates-- which are much higher.

Start with Canada.

Letter Mail must be no more than 500 grams and 2cm thick.

Normally it would not be tracked but for domestic shipping you can add Registration at the PO counter for $9.75

This may be more expensive than domestic parcel rates which are normally tracked.

If you have your Solutions for Small Business account you may get a discount at the counter on some services.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/business/small-business.page?

Printing your shipping label through eBay may give you even better discounts.

You cannot print LetterRate or Registration labels online.

For US shipping you will be using parcels.

On DVDs not so much, but on ANYTHING GAMING use a tracked service.

List anything you must ship by parcel here on dotCA, because only here can you use Calculated Shipping.

Parcel rates are based on dimensions, weight and destination.

This means that eBay will show the customer the counter rate for shipping.

Make sure your dimensions and weight are perfect. Use metric.

If there is an error you could find you are paying for a larger parcel than your customer paid you.

Remember to set your prices allowing for currency exchange. Your listings will show on dotCOM if you give a shipping service and price.

Your shipping costs include packaging and labour. Don't try to be nice to the customer about this. It will not be appreciated.

Shipping is hard. We didn't talk about International shipping or about bending the rules.

Shipping is the hardest part of mail order.

BTW- on that Resident Evil game, the description says there is no manual. Put that information in the Condition box, because your customer will not see it in the Description. He may never even see the Description.

And list as much as you can as soon as you can.

You can ask for fewer restrictions every 30 days.

You are right to avoid Auctions. You may find it useful to enable Immediate Payment Required.

And you do have a Managed Payments account set up already, right?

Payments are the second hardest part of mail order.

[pjcdn2005]

On your recently sold item you give just one shipping option for which you charge $4 so that is the only one the buyer could choose.  Your listing did state that you would ship with regular parcel, not lettermail so that is your mistake.  If it had said lettermail you could have then wrapped up your package, put the correct amount of stamps on it and then mail it as a lettermail. You can't buy a label for lettermail, you use stamps.

If you want to use lettermail within Canada your listing should state lettermail or use one of the generic standard or economy shipping options,