Ebay consistently undercharging for shipping
Summary: ericsells75 raised an issue regarding Ebay consistently undercharging for shipping on the labels purchased via Canada Post. They noticed a discrepancy between what buyers were charged and what was ultimately paid for the shipping label, blaming it potentially on being unable to select 'Regular Parcel' over 'Expedited Parcel' which sometimes costs more. reallynicestamps suggested it could be due to a fuel surcharge, while pjcdn2005 and recped clarify the differences between the two services and recommend adjusting shipping settings. ypdc_dennis and lotzofuniquegoodies provide additional insights into how shipping calculations are handled differently for regular and expedited parcels, further explaining volumetric weight calculations and the corrections made by Ebay. The conversation highlights issues with tax, insurance, and service changes that could contribute to the inconsistencies experienced by sellers.
*I THINK I know why - My shipping settings all use Canada Post Regular Parcel but when I buy the label i can only choose Expedited Parcel* I know in the past expedited can sometimes be a little more. Do you think this is the issue?* And if so, any idea why we can't choose regular parcel? I can update my shipping settings to use expedited but i always get so nervous making global changes like this.
This has happened on all of my sales over the last week.
1 - I use calculated shipping
2 - I choose to display and charge the ebay discounted rate as set in settings.
Take today for example. Buyer was charged 26.34 shipping. I went to buy a shipping label and changed nothing, the weight and dimensisons remained exactly the same yet i was charged 28.08 for the label. The customer paid 26.34.
This has happened on all recent shipments. Any idea why the discrpency?
dinomitesales
·1 year agoRegular Parcel and Expedited Parcel are taxed differently depending on where they're going which is why there are occasionally slight variations in the total price of a label (but you'd never know that buying your labels through eBay since they don't provide any sort of price breakdown).
If you're shipping by Expedited Parcel then your listings should be showing Expedited Parcel so the eBay calculator can charge the correct rate to the buyer. Canada Post stopped offering Regular Parcel service I assume because it was irrelevant - it's the same price as Expedited Parcel (aside from taxes) but is a faster service and includes a free $100 insurance coverage.
pjcdn2005
·1 year agoIt is possible that expedited is a bit more than regular parcel but in the past they were the same price more often than not, especially if you were using a commercial label such as on eBay. If you run the dimensions etc through the CP calculator it should give you an idea of the difference in price.
Edit - I did a quick comparison on the eBay calculator and the price was the same for both services for a smaller parcel but regular parcel was less expensive when I did an example for a bigger parcel. It might be best for you to change the service on your listings.
recped
·1 year agoRegular Parcel and Expedited Parcel have always been the same price, Regular is the Retail version, Expedited is the Commercial version.
The "bonus", Expedited has a 1 day shorter estimated delivery and comes with $100 of insurance, Regular Parcel comes with neither.
ypdc_dennis
·1 year agoExpedited uses a different calculation for volumetric weight so the cost can be higher than Regular. Canada Post made the change a few years ago. So box size matters.
LxWxD cm / 6000 equals kg value for regular
LxWxD cm / 5000 equals kg value for expedited
lotzofuniquegoodies
·1 year ago@ypdc_dennis
Definitely correct on that interpretation!!! For a time period when you checked rates either from a listing or using the eBay Calculator Tool if you had both options showing in Canada it showed identical rates. Somewhere along the way eBay figured out the devisor was NOT the same (not sure exactly when) and they corrected. As standard practice I have always displayed both reg and expedited so customers could see for themselves.
As a side when eBay corrects something internally, it just happens. There is no announcement. Just it suddenly becomes.....
-Lotz
As an FYI during my bit of time off I was doing some comparing and auditing of my shipping options. If I checked 1 of my listings on ca the order used for shipping options mirrored my listing at time of creation. Because majority of listings were created when Small Packet Air was still a thing it was listed first when rates were lower compared to tracked. Going forward to now Small packet air still shows first with the higher rate due to the applied discount. Check same listing on dot com and tracked shows first for some unknown reason. But a good thing. (Buyers will still see ALL available options if they click on shipping but not every buyer does that.) I still am having random buyers who will pay for Small packet air to USA. I just upgrade to tracked and refund as I see fit.) There were other spotted nuances but those are the main fun ones. This is an important fact to consider when buyers search by lowest shipping.
@ericsells75
@dinomitesales
A detailed explanation of shipping charges is apparently on the horizon for Canadians. Fortunately they have fixed the country o origin thing. Unfortunately they have not grasped that if you enter a multiple quantity in the customs form the system does not do the math for combined weight. You have to do that math when you create the label. ALL customs invoices I've worked with in the past automatically did that math. (Unit weight(s) and package weight are supposed to be 2 different entities for customs purposes).
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoPossibly the fuel surcharge? Although gas prices have been falling, down to $1.759 here.