Shipping calculator

[73rhc]

I don't know if this has ever been covered in another thread. But here it is. I, recently, sold an item with all of the info for the shipping calculator in the listing. When the buyer is Canadian, the shipping amount shows when sending the invoice. But this is not the case for US buyer (and maybe other international buyers)

Now, I have to go to Canada Posts website and get the shipping cost. This seems ridiculous, as it is extra work and should be calculated automatically. The second problem is that the buyer is saying that the price is not what he saw. Even though, I input the exact weight and dimensions, as the listing. The only thing that I could suggest to him, was that maybe he was seeing it in USD and my listing is in CAD???

So needless to say, the buyer is not happy. Even thought, I gave him all of the info to see for himself. And explained that I'm absorbing $5 on the shipping cost. As I charged $30. But in reality it will cost $32 plus $3 in eBay fees.

[pjcdn2005]

I've never heard of a shipping price showing up to the buyer in a listing but not being on the invoice. Are you sure that it was set up properly and that there was a U.S. shipping price showing in the listing?

I notice that on your carburators listing sold yesterday that there is a shipping cost to Canada but not to the U.S. If you set the calculator up for expedited USA then the dimensions put in could be too small as the minimum measurements are different to the U.S then within Canada.  Neither the ebay calculator or the CP calculator on their site warns you that the dimensions are too small. In fact, on the CP site, they even give you a price for packages that are too small for expedited.

Minimum dimensions for expedited USA - 21cm x 14cm x.5cm

Expedited or regular parcel within Canada - 10cm x 7cm x 1mm

[pocomocomputing · Accepted solution]

Most of the time when the shipping calculator gives the message "Shipping cost cannot be calculated. Please enter a valid Postal Code." it is improper dimensions for the shipping service selected by the seller.

If I look at you recently sold listings, I see two listings with this issue.  If I check your active listings, I see 25 of your 264 listing with "Shipping not specified".

To check listings for issues like this is easy. View all you active listings, sort by price + shipping lowest, change the shipping to country to USA and enter a zip code (90210 is easy to remember from the old TV show of that name), go to the last page of the search results, the ones with "Shipping not specified" are listed at the end.

The most common issue with this is using Expedited Parcel USA. The minimum dimensions are 21 x 14 x 0.5 cm. However, the minimum dimension for the Expedited Parcel Canada (and Regular Parcel Canada) are 10 x 7 x 0.1 cm.  When you enter the dimensions in the eBay online Sell Your Item form (SYI), there is no checking (or very minimal at best) of dimensions entered and the shipping services selected. So you will not get any errors displayed in the SYI form. However, when your listings is live, checking is done and the message "Shipping cost cannot be calculated. Please enter a valid Postal Code." (USA seller on eBay come will see Zip Code wording.)

Other errors are using Light Packet and being over the 2 cm thickness limit.

This issue has been brought to eBay.ca Canada attention a few times over the past 5 years that I know of (I complained the first time 5 years ago and several times since and others members as well). It was just brought up again by pjcdn2005 in the weekly session Wed this week.

So it is up to the seller to be aware of the issue and know their dimensions entered are correct for the shipping service selected. Seller Beware.

When listing, I would suggest checking the active listing by entering a Canadian Postal code, then a Zip code and then choose a foreign country. Tedious.

Or use the search I mentioned above to check all active listing with a Canadian Postal Code, a USA zip Code and a couple of international countries.

Tedious but this is eBay. A seller has to learn about these issues and protect themselves.

[mr.elmwood]

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@pocomocomputing wrote:

Most of the time when the shipping calculator gives the message "Shipping cost cannot be calculated. Please enter a valid Postal Code." it is improper dimensions for the shipping service selected by the seller.

If I look at you recently sold listings, I see two listings with this issue.  If I check your active listings, I see 25 of your 264 listing with "Shipping not specified".

To check listings for issues like this is easy. View all you active listings, sort by price + shipping lowest, change the shipping to country to USA and enter a zip code (90210 is easy to remember from the old TV show of that name), go to the last page of the search results, the ones with "Shipping not specified" are listed at the end.

The most common issue with this is using Expedited Parcel USA. The minimum dimensions are 21 x 14 x 0.5 cm. However, the minimum dimension for the Expedited Parcel Canada (and Regular Parcel Canada) are 10 x 7 x 0.1 cm.  When you enter the dimensions in the eBay online Sell Your Item form (SYI), there is no checking (or very minimal at best) of dimensions entered and the shipping services selected. So you will not get any errors displayed in the SYI form. However, when your listings is live, checking is done and the message "Shipping cost cannot be calculated. Please enter a valid Postal Code." (USA seller on eBay come will see Zip Code wording.)

Other errors are using Light Packet and being over the 2 cm thickness limit.

This issue has been brought to eBay.ca Canada attention a few times over the past 5 years that I know of (I complained the first time 5 years ago and several times since and others members as well). It was just brought up again by pjcdn2005 in the weekly session Wed this week.

So it is up to the seller to be aware of the issue and know their dimensions entered are correct for the shipping service selected. Seller Beware.

When listing, I would suggest checking the active listing by entering a Canadian Postal code, then a Zip code and then choose a foreign country. Tedious.

Or use the search I mentioned above to check all active listing with a Canadian Postal Code, a USA zip Code and a couple of international countries.

Tedious but this is eBay. A seller has to learn about these issues and protect themselves.

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What Poco says. I keep forgetting this and have to increase dimensions when I am printing labels. Cdn packets are bad because the Expedited label is so large. The packet itself meets the minimum for mailing, but not for the label. Expedited to the US, same deal. The packet meets min dimensions, but not for the size of the label.

[73rhc]

I may have checked the wrong service? But the dimensions are not a problem for Expidited. As they are 30cm X 20cm X 15cm and the weight is 5 kg.

As for the buyer, I'm just going by what he messaged me. Maybe he never saw a quote, who knows.

[73rhc]

Thanks poco! The search suggestion helped a lot!

I think I will go back to flat rate.