EIS Shipping Fees
Summary: The discussion focused on the topic of shipping fees associated with a particular service referred to as 'EIS'. It seems participants provided multiple rounds of input about the charges, though the specific details of these shipping fees or any resolutions to the concerns raised were not included in the conversation content.
Is it just me or do the shipping fees from the hub in Mississauga to buyers seem excessive? Maybe scaring off potential customers.
22 comments
merritt-motorcycle-salvage
·6 months agoThis is what international buyers see when other options are included with EIS
merritt-motorcycle-salvage
·6 months agoIncluding any other shipping options in addition to EIS is pointless because at checkout it says in bold pay tarriffs for anything other than EIS
john_koenig99
·6 months agoIt's a contentious point but some people don't mind to pay for tariffs. if they want (or need) the item, and the overall price is right (shipping and fees and all), they'll buy it. That's it.
merritt-motorcycle-salvage
·6 months agoSOME people. The whole EIS and canada post blue banner is an absolue joke. There is no blue banner for UPS or FEDEX, yet nothing but problems with buyers refusing to pay when they receive using those methods. It is an absolute disgusting joke what is going on with the blue banner and canada post.
rdemaree
·6 months agoEbay Canada needs to invite Canadian sellers to join the pilot program where we can sign an agreement that our packages will be shipped duty free at the risk of penalties.
Outside of the EIS being an inferior slow and expensive program to chitchats/ stallion express/ netparcel/ swiftpost I cant even use it even if I wanted to because they are so restrictive on what they will allow to be shipped.
It is almost as if the EIS isnt meant for everyone! Who would have guessed!
rdemaree
·6 months agoThese new changes hurt the competitiveness of Canadian sellers. Fine if you’re a casual seller but some of us arent casual sellers and rely on this income.
john_koenig99
·6 months agoYou complain about the new changes, but eIS Canada has helped me (and a lot of other "casual sellers") to be able to open to new markets and new buyers, as well as to the US market, suddenly closed last year thanks to the policies of the one that shall not be named.
And I am making a real profit, if not a living wage scale, but profit none the less, which, if I had the interest and time, I could make it into a quite profitable and income generating business.
rdemaree
·6 months agoEIS is objectively worse than chitchats, stallion express, swiftpost and netParcel for the majority of sellers.
Like I mentioned- my products are mostly CUSMA approved (they have no tariffs at all) and they are simultaneously listed as “dangerous “ according to the EIS so I can’t even ship them through that expensive and slow service even if I wanted to.
Why should my listings have a tariff warning if there are no tariffs on CUSMA items and I can’t even use EIS because the program restricts so many items? It doesn’t make sense!
I’ve shipped to every continent on earth multiple times and many obscure countries way before EIS. It really is such an unnecessary program for many sellers. If it works for you I’m happy for you but many sellers get absolutely nothing from it.
vintageandglamor
·6 months agoWe turned off EIS. It was showing buyers EIS shipping costs as primary default on the item page even though our direct shipping is half the price (and sometimes 1/5th the price).
No one wants to pay $25 to ship a $30 item.
Ebay needs to offer sellers the option to prepay duties(and clearly state it on the listings, and give those listings preferential treatment) or an option for sellers to offer their own DDP vs DDU shipping options at checkout.
EIS is really only good for odd countries like the EU that have their own responsible person and packaging laws, as well as high risk countries ( like Mexico, etc). But there is also no way to pick and choose which countries we can offer EIS vs direct on.
marnotom!
·6 months agoI just went to the .com site and checked a Canadian listing that has both UPS Standard and eIS as shipping methods and UPS was given priority both in list view and on the listing page . Did you opt out of eIS a while back? This might be something that was addressed by eBay after seller feedback.
Having said that, I suspect that a lot of your items would be problematic for eIS to handle anyway, so you're probably wise in avoiding it. eIS Canada doesn't currently deal with high-risk countries, as you probably know, and from what I've seen, eIS USA seems to be getting more selective on a listing-by-listing basis about what countries it supports.
See my previous post linking to a thread about a pilot workaround for sellers shipping DDP. Trump has declared DDU a no-no, so I doubt you're going to see a DDU option supported by eBay.
reallynicestamps
·6 months agoDon't second guess your buyers.
They would not be shopping in Canada if they could buy it cheaper in the USA.
And remind any who ask that the eIS charge includes all import fees and sales taxes.
marnotom!
·6 months agoSort of.
eIS's shipping charges and "import fees," if applicable, are separate line items.
Also, eBay buyers in most of the countries served by Canadian eIS have to pay sales taxes at checkout regardless of the location of the seller or the shipping method being used. We Canadians, on the other hand, are still in the dark ages when it comes to tax charges on internet purchases from other countries.
reallynicestamps
·6 months agoEIS charges to the Buyer include the import fees (duty, VAT/sales tax/tariff) making them seem higher than the simple postal or courier rate.
Those import fees are still being paid because the shipper will not hand over the shipment until they are.
Which may be a doorstep surprise for the buyer.
The services fees of the shipper may vary. There were a lot of complaints before GSP /eIS was introduced for US sellers about UPS/FedEX service fees of $25 or more.
The GSP fee was reckoned by Canadian posters as being about $5.
More to the point.
EIS is a Seller Protection policy.
We don't see the buyer's address until the import fees are paid.
Our responsibility for delivery ends at the plant in Mississauga.
And.
The buyer is shopping in Canada because they can't find the item closer to home or any cheaper.
Don't second guess the buyer.
john_koenig99
·6 months agoCompared to what is the right question. For buyers in Europe, for example, eIS shipping prices are a bargain compared to tracked Xpress Post or even international tracked parcel. At least for my listings.
marnotom!
·6 months agoCompared to what? eIS’s rates from the hub are generally a bit less than Canada Post’s standard parcel and small packet rates, but more than what you’d pay a consolidation service such as Chit Chats or Stallion.
And if you’re accustomed to sending your merchandise untracked and without customs documentation by international letter-post, eIS isn’t even going try to come up with something comparable.
rdemaree
·6 months agochit chats/ swiftpost/ netparcel/ stallionexpress totally obliterate EIS in every way for USA customers. Especially if you are selling CUSMA products.
EIS is for people who have no other choice.
It certaintly isnt economically competetive.
marnotom!
·6 months agoDo you find you have to do lots of hand-holding with your US buyers to assure them that they won't be paying import fees after the fact, @rdemaree?
rdemaree
·6 months agoYes! and I know for a fact ebay is kneecapping me and my sales with their ridiculous one size fits all tariff warning message. Ebay isnt a hobby to me, its my income and im not a lazy seller I take everything I do very seriously and ensure my products are CUSMA approved and ship through CUSMA carriers etc.
Ebay is being incredibly lazy and dishonest with the tariff warnings and attempting to strongarm sellers into using EIS.
It is a terrible program unless you only sell socks, stamps or other little trinkets and live out in the woods and are a casual seller. It is more expensive, slower and restricts probably 1/3 or more of products that most carriers will ship. I understand offering it as an option but strongarming everyone into using it is unfair. I literally even cant use it because I sell artists oil paints and as we all know artists oil paints have been known to be incredibly dangerous!/sarcasm
They need to give CUSMA sellers a REAL option and/or change the tariff warning or get rid of it entirely. I lost nearly 1/3 of my customers last year and ill bet this year will be even worse. I will also likely lose my top rated seller status at some point this year after having it for 6 years straight. Due to no fault of my own.
It really is a shame ebay is taking a bad situation and making it worse for honest hardworking sellers.
marnotom!
·6 months agoI agree this is a frustrating situation for Canadian eBay sellers, @rdemaree. I think part of the problem is that Canada has gotten off relatively lightly as far as tariffs go compared to other countries. The message that US buyers see applies to listings from pretty much every single country out there, and eBay's site coding isn't able to differentiate between a CUSMA compliant listing and one that isn't.
I don't know if you've seen this thread. It discusses a workaround of sorts that seems to be in the development stage. eBay seemed to target Asian sellers first, probably because of their numbers. While Canada seems to be in a better position to take advantage of this workaround, we weren't really brought into the fold, probably because we don't have the numbers (Canada's population is comparable to that of California's, but we probably don't have nearly the same number of active eBay sellers as Cali does) and because eBay Canada can't deal with onboarding sellers to eIS and this sort of workaround at the same time:
https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Blue-Banner/td-p/532908
recped
·6 months agoYes EIS (both here and for the US/UK are ridiculous and yes you can get lucky if you have large and/or heavy items, use flat rate and don't enter weight and dimensions for somestic shipping.
EIS operates on a guessing system in this case and can either guess very high or very low, every once in a while they get lucky with a correct guess.
Even if you provide exact details of weight/dimensions when you combine domestic shipping with the EIS "guess high" policy the final amount for buyers is often totally crazy.
merritt-motorcycle-salvage
·6 months agoNothing but crickets from ebay about the false message shown to US buyers saying they have to pay import fees upon delivery for canada post calculated shipping. We shouldnt be forced to use EIS. It is beyond ridiculous. Is there no honesty left in this world. How does the loss in sales benefit anyone.
coolthings123
OP6 months agoI must clarify. Some of the fees. There seems to be no consistency.