Shipping to different zones in Canada

[deejay727]

As a seller in Ontario, I find that Canada Post has lower rates to ship an item to Ontario or Quebec than to BC or Newfoundland. Hoe do sellers deal with this issue or how do I indicate this in my ad?

[ypdc_dennis]

Use calculated shipping -- ebay.ca will tell the  buyer the Canada Post rate to their location. This requires you to know the approximate weight and dimensions of the shipping package  when you set up your listing.

Note: does work for listings made on eBay.com

[momcqueen]

Flat-rate only for eBay.com. Does *not* work with eBay.com and Calculated Shipping unless shipping from the USA. (I’m confident that was a typo because ypdc_dennis is the most accurate and logical person we have on eBay Community.)

eBay Canada is trialing a Flat-Rate Zone beta right now that you can use in the manner in which you’re describing too. I have not used it so I don’t know how tricky it might be.

[mrdutch1001]

I have been using flat rate shipping on both dotCA and dotCOM for more years than I can remember.  Any significant overages in shipping costs are refunded to buyers in those zones closest to my location, and I may  give up a couple of dollars here and there for those most distant locations from me, but using the averages that I have worked out over the years, is the system that works out well for me. Although this method may not be as accurate as calculated shipping, it works for me and has done so for more than 10 years.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Flat rate works much better when you're selling the same item the vast majority of the time. When every item is unique it's just not feasible. For a recent time period on $600.00 in sales paid out almost $325.00 in postage. Attempting to factor that amount in with so many variables is almost impossible. The shipping charges are what the shipping charges are. No way around that.

-CM

[momcqueen]

The Zones rates beta is here. I wish I knew how tricky it might be to work with so I would be able to offer meaningful advice on it. 

https://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/shipping-returns/shipping-rate-tables.html

[mrdutch1001]

Since eBay's Zones Shipping rates system seems a whole lot more complicated than what I came up with for my own flat rate shipping rates many many years ago, I won't be messing with that at all(and of course eBay is also encouraging sellers to offer a combination of free shipping and paid shipping to buyers, based on location). I will stick to what I know works for me, a much simpler flat rate shipping method that I have have been using for the past 10+ years....

[deejay727]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments.

[ladybug2785]

After getting burned too many times we have gone to calculated plus $1 for within Canada for item selling on .ca. For this example the dimensions are 23cm x 17cm x 7cm 108g. Canada post expedited. With a range of $10 to $25 to ship the same item to different Canadian locations where does one put the flat rate at? We were doing $16.50 CAD flat rate since the last price hike and found that local (Winnipeg) or close buyers were not liking the extra $6 cost and  we were paying an extra $8.50 + $2.50 FVF out of pocket for too many remote locations. A refund of the extra does not fix the local person who did not buy because of the too high shipping. Also remember ebay grabs 10% of that $25 shipping turning the real cost into $27.50

Beware that with calculated there is no longer an option for local pickup. Then when someone wants local pickup ebay pulls the bs of threatening things while trying to communicate with the buyer to do the pickup, like phone number and or address. Ebay how could you be so stupid?

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@ladybug2785 wrote:

After getting burned too many times we have gone to calculated plus $1 for within Canada for item selling on .ca. For this example the dimensions are 23cm x 17cm x 7cm 108g. Canada post expedited.

.... Also remember ebay grabs 10% of that $25 shipping turning the real cost into $27.50

---

Real cost?

Calculated shipping gives the over-the-counter no-discount Canada Post price to the Buyer for the shipping. It does not use the Seller's actual cost. The ebay.ca shipping FVF is often covered when you buy the label online with the Solutions for Small Business discount.

Using your example: 23cm x 17cm x 7cm,  108g actual, 548g volumetric.

...

To mail across my street in Ontario:

Calculated: $14.24

Actual if label bought online: $12.70 + 10% FVF on calculated (1.42) = $14.12

...

To mail Ontario to Whitehorse, Yukon:

Calculated: $17.07

Actual if label bought online: $15.70 + 10% FVF on calculated (1.71) = $17.41

...

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s3

[momcqueen]

"Beware that with calculated there is no longer an option for local pickup. Then when someone wants local pickup ebay pulls the bs of threatening things while trying to communicate with the buyer to do the pickup, like phone number and or address. Ebay how could you be so stupid?:"

I use Calculated Shipping and offer Local Pickup and have steadily for six years. They are not mutually exclusive. What is mutually exclusive is offering Local Pickups and Best Offer with Immediate Payment Required. You absolutely cannot offer Local Pickup if you have Immediate Payment Required enabled on your listings. Well, that's not true actually. You can but your buyers cannot pay cash.

There are two places to enable Local Pickup. One is with shipping which is what you're talking about. Don't use that one, it's for selling appliances and stuff. Use Cash on Pickup as your Payment Option instead.

With some effort, ebay could make Local Pickup a lot better of a feature for its buyers and sellers, I agree. I've been asking towards that for about six years now, it's not seen as a high priority. I get the sense not many sellers want to use it, but I use it regularly to sell. Like now. All my latest sales have gone to local buyers (toys) because it's far too late in the game to ship anything anywhere in time for Christmas. 

[momcqueen]

"Real cost? Calculated shipping gives the over-the-counter no-discount Canada Post price to the Buyer for the shipping. It does not use the Seller's actual cost. The ebay.ca shipping FVF is often covered when you buy the label online with the Solutions for Small Business discount."

Yes and no. Calculated shipping allows the seller to offer a percentage discount on the over-the-counter rate. It's in Site Preference and then the shipping settings. 

Carrier discountsThe actual choices for carrier discountsWhere to add Local PickupShipping settings

[ladybug2785]

We have payment on pickup enabled. It says payment on pickup not cash on pickup. This is in payment options. But this is not offering pickup.

We are not talking about an item that is local pickup only. We are talking about local pickup as an option for local buyers when the auction has calculated shipping. Unless you turn off calculated shipping there is no checkbox to offer local pickup and no field to add a pickup cost if there is a cost. That goes away too.

Without that check box being checked there is no way for the buyer to select local pickup as a shipping option in cart or checkout. It is just not there. We tried it again tonight and triple  checked with a colleague's account in the same room for almost an hour. We tried every possible way and there is no option in cart or checkout unless there was a check in that box that is not there when using calculated.

Then when you try to send the buyer your contact details in an ebay message to arrange local pickup it is not allowed by ebay. Then you get a threatening message from ebay accusing of trying to sell outside ebay and if you do it again you will get suspended or kicked off. This even happens when a buyer tries to send us his phone number in an ebay message. We get threatened by ebay for that too.  You cannot email him either as the buyers email is not available to the seller until payment has been made then it is in paypal.

[maximus7001]

"Then when you try to send the buyer your contact details in an ebay message to arrange local pickup it is not allowed by ebay. Then you get a threatening message from ebay accusing of trying to sell outside ebay and if you do it again you will get suspended or kicked off. This even happens when a buyer tries to send us his phone number in an ebay message. We get threatened by ebay for that too.  You cannot email him either as the buyers email is not available to the seller until payment has been made then it is in paypal."

We have this same problem too but have found a partial solution for local pickup when the item has calculated shipping. We also have "payment on pickup" enabled in payment options. If you only have one phone number and it is the one registered with ebay it will get flagged for sure. Send the buyer a different 7 digit phone number that has for sure never touched ebay before then it will not get flagged as trying to sell outside of ebay. This may be troublesome if your city has multiple area codes. Then send the buyer a revised invoice with 1 cent shipping and instruct them again to not to pay with paypal as local pickup is cash only. Then after the buyer picks it up and pays you cash you mark it payed and shipped so you dont get a late shipping defect.

However if the buyer tries to send a phone number that has touched ebay before it wont make it through and the warning still comes from ebay about trying  to sell outside.

[momcqueen]

Trying to be clever in Messages is not necessary.

Send Invoice for local pickups using Local Pickup as the shipping option and the invoice comment/message/instructional field as the area in which to provide your contact details and address.

[momcqueen]

The item has already been Sold so it’s not as if there’s anything to obfuscate.

[momcqueen]

There's no need for the subterfuge in messages. Simply tell your buyer via messages that once he or she has made their purchase, you will Send Invoice will your contact details at the bottom.

Find your Sold and Unpaid item in Seller Hub under Awaiting PaymentSelect Local Pickup from your Shipping OptionsAdd your location and contact number here

Once again, after the buyer has made the Purchase, you're not going to be penalized for trying to take business off platform because that business has already been conducted and the sale is made. All you're doing now is accepting Cash on Pickup or Cash in Person from the buyer. No need to be sneaky about it since there is nothing wrong or sketchy about this process. 

We have always offered Local Pickup; we have always communicated carefully with buyers in messages to do so, and we have NEVER gotten that warning from ebay about doing so. Well, once. When another user who is continually flagged for it sent me an unsolicited message, we got the warning when opening their message to reply. 

I would strongly advise against anyone trying to be sneaky while doing Cash on Local Pickups when there is instead an easy and acceptable way to work within the accepted rules that I have outlined above.

[momcqueen]

[momcqueen]

'Previous screenshot' I meant. Typo City. But this is the idea.

[momcqueen]

"Without that check box being checked there is no way for the buyer to select local pickup as a shipping option in cart or checkout. It is just not there. We tried it again tonight and triple  checked with a colleague's account in the same room for almost an hour. We tried every possible way and there is no option in cart or checkout unless there was a check in that box that is not there when using calculated."

I don't want a buyer to be able to select Local Pickup as part of the checkout flow without speaking first to me to make an appointment to do so. 

Send invoice after purchase. Your invoice must say Local Pickup on it even if you accept PayPal for pickups if you want to be protected as a seller via Paypal's terms.

Also, I'm not open to drop-in Cash Payments. Those are by appointment only and those appointments are made via messages after Send Invoice.