eBay Calculated Shipping Malfunction: item dimensions show Tracked Packet available when not

[momcqueen]

Warning to sellers who ship internationally via ebay's Calculated Shipping tool. The tool is allowing buyers to pick service by Tracked Packet (and displaying cost for it on the listing as if it were available as an option) when, in fact, the item exceeds the volumetric weight for service by anything less than International Xpresspost which costs, on average, $100 more than Tracked Packet.

I discovered this tonight after a larger item sold to a buyer in France. I was not worried because I use the calculated shipping tool and the item weight and dimensions show me I can send it for Tracked Packet rates of roughly $60 which is what the buyer paid for shipping.

But when I go to Paypal Shipping to print the label this is not the case. I double check it with Canada Post and discover it exceeds either the weight or dimensional limit set for service by Tracked Packet. I suspect it is the dimensional limit that is exceeded. I know Tracked Packet is good for weights up to 2 kg so what is the matter with the tool for not knowing this too?

This has cost me an extra $100 in postage which I have paid out-of-pocket. I have lost money on this transaction, and not a little bit either. I cannot cancel without getting a defect, no matter that this is not my fault and the blame lays with a technical failure. And I already know the buyer won't agree to paying $158 in postage because she already sent me a message saying that she felt $60 was too much. 

I'm very disappointed by this failure of the ebay calculated shipping tool. 

Is this a known error about which I have simply been blissfully unaware until now?

[momcqueen]

I am quite unhappy about this turn of events but I don't know what I could have done differently to avoid it. I used the tool to calculate shipping, I entered the item weight and dimensions, the buyer purchased and paid for it. I discovered the error when I went to purchase and print the postage label. After purchase and payment of the item, there is nothing that I can do except ship. And that meant paying $158 for postage by Xpresspost because Tracked Packet -- the service bought by the buyer -- isn't actually available for an item of this size despite what the ebay calculated shipping tool told the buyer and I. That was the mistake, it wasn't one of my own creation whether by accident or plain ignorance. I used the tool, and the tool was wrong.

But how do I get this fixed? Who do I ask to fix it? Customer Service? I think it would take me three hours to explain it to someone there (by the time the problem was actually understood) and then they would still simply tell me that I should have just cancelled, refunded and taken my defect-and-negative-feedback lumps from the buyer. I wasn't going to do that, it wasn't the buyer's fault that ebay messed up the postage calculations and then what if it might just be the final bad experience this buyer could handle? They leave ebay forever because of shenanigans like this? I don't want that on my watch, I work very hard to meet and exceed buyer expectations. 

Who is going to fix this? Who is in an actual position to do so? Raphael at Board Hour? 

I don't even know where to start. 

[pjcdn2005]

It is up to you but I would send him the info in an email rather than post it on the board on Wednesday.  Then he can foward the info to whoever deals with the shipping calculator.  I just think that it is more likely that you will get compensated when you are dealing one on one rather than on a public board. Jmo

[momcqueen]

You're probably right in that a private email is a smarter approach. I'll collect my thoughts and do this tomorrow.

[momcqueen]

I've composed my opus with all my supporting evidence and await his reply. 

[momcqueen]

Follow-up to settle the matter. 

Raphael is now departed form ebay Canada and my issue was left unresolved so I took matters into my own hands and spoke with two different people at ebay Customer Service -- the final a supervisor who did actually call me back -- so I walked them both through the process that led to the calculated shipping tool error and while they couldn't adjust my selling fees as I had requested to reflect my overpayment for the label, they could and did send me a coupon for the amount I was out-of-pocket which I have promptly and happily spent on more things to sell here. 

Win win. 

If there is a moral to the story, it's to follow your gut, and then don't take no for an answer.

The first agent told me I could have just cancelled the order after I discovered the error and not to worry about the defect but thanked me for not doing so in order to create a better buying experience for the buyer which we knows benefits everyone here.