Anyone Else Having problems with Incorrect Shipping Rates on Items Over a Kilo?

[dianequeenofstuff]

First off this old ID is with .com but I list on CA. ( I have 3 other ID's with CA)

In the past few months I have been getting emails from customers asking why the shipping rate is so high on items over a kilo?

I have come up with a few flippant answers (Canada Post must have signed a non-compete clause in the North American Trade Act)   but I did sell two items in the last couple of months that weighed over a kilo and had to refund shipping.

The last time it was a $23. refund the time before it was about the same.

What that tells me when I look at the shipping page on Paypal is that because I have to change the measurements back to metric while the weight is still in kilos is that it's a technical glitch.

Or should I say the return of technical glitch?

Hard enough to sell stuff when your not able to cross the boarder to ship in the States, but to have eBay sabotage your sales too!

BTW it's not just this site that is experiencing the incorrect calculation of shipping rates, my power seller site that is all CA was the site that issued the first refund.

[dianequeenofstuff]

If you paid $33,  the actual dimensions entered when printing the label could not have been 40x40x40cm, otherwise shipping would have been more.

Your right, according to the CP web site it is.

 Perhaps you got confused when doing the conversion and ended up with 16x16x16cm (16"=40cm)

Nope, not a senior's moment this time. 

Just changed them to CM from Inches.

The rate didn't change at all after I switched the measurements.

My discount was around $3.45 if I remember correctly.

What I did do was guess at the measurements in the listing then used a Styrofoam container with smaller dimensions of 29 cubed.

2.5 kilo

Still did not change the amount showing at the top of the Paypal CP page from when it was 40" cubed.

I would have remembered seeing the higher shipping rate.I was looking for it.

Tell you what, I'll have the rep from eBay buy an item and we will sort it out from there.

Seems to be the less time consuming way to go.

Thanks for all your help.

[pjcdn2005]

If you paid $33,  the actual dimensions entered when printing the label could not have been 40x40x40cm, otherwise shipping would have been more.

Your right, according to the CP web site it is.

So...if the CP website says that it is one price ($60+) for 40cmx 3, and the ebay shipping calculator is figuring out the same amount, than ebay must be figuring it out based on cm, not inches as you suspect.  If you go into that listing, I'm sure that the dimensions will show as being in cm, not inches. Plus...the calculator would not figure out a price for 40" x3 as that is larger than the maximum size allowed by CP. 

What I did do was guess at the measurements in the listing then used a Styrofoam container with smaller dimensions of 29 cubed.

2.5 kilo

Ok.that confused me. Guessed? Does that mean that you didn't measure the box and that you inputted the dimensions of 29cm?

40" does not convert to 29cm (40"=101.6cm) so your theory that the numbers changed into inches doesn't stand up there. 29cm is less than a foot...although I know little about car parts, I would have thought that a carburetor would require more room than a square 11.4" box

Still did not change the amount showing at the top of the Paypal CP page from when it was 40" cubed.

I would have remembered seeing the higher shipping rate.I was looking for it.

You should not have seen a price unless you changed one of the fields. As I mentioned, the way that I have seen it work is that the numbers are exactly the same between the listing with calculated shipping and Paypal. The only difference is that the dimension field is changed to inches. The weight still remains at kg. So unless you changed one of those fields,paypal should not give you a price as it will not go on to the next page if you use metric in one field and inches in the other.

I think that the reason we are seeing this in different ways is that you think that the dimensions were converted in the listing and I'm convinced that the change happens in paypal and does not affect the price. Perhaps you don't remember what numbers you originally put in the listing but anytime I have seen inches field appear in Paypal, the numbers are still the same numbers that I put as dimensions in the listing. Nothing was changed in my listing but when I went to Paypal, the cm field now said inches. That happens when I use calculated shipping and use expedited. I don't remember anyone else mentioning it so perhaps it doesn't happen for everyone.

Tell you what, I'll have the rep from eBay buy an item and we will sort it out from there.

Ok, hope you get things figured out.

[pocomocomputing]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I think that the reason we are seeing this in different ways is that you think that the dimensions were converted in the listing and I'm convinced that the change happens in PayPal and does not affect the price. Perhaps you don't remember what numbers you originally put in the listing but anytime I have seen inches field appear in Paypal, the numbers are still the same numbers that I put as dimensions in the listing. Nothing was changed in my listing but when I went to PayPal, the cm field now said inches. That happens when I use calculated shipping and use expedited. I don't remember anyone else mentioning it so perhaps it doesn't happen for everyone.

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I have had the issue with the dimensions listing in the eBay listing in cm being passed to PayPal shipping with the same numbers but with inches checked instead of cm.  The weight stays in kilos and is not put in pounds and ounces.

I do not use PayPal shipping as much as before so I have not seen this problem recently.

[dianequeenofstuff]

Ok.that confused me. Guessed? Does that mean that you didn't measure the box and that you inputted the dimensions of 29cm?

I don't always box up my items. That rare item took 2 years to sell and it's hard to sell it in hand stuffed in a box. I measure the item, add a buffer zone, weigh it, add the appropriate amount of packing weight and run from there. Just happened that I was given a really good Styrofoam box that weighed less and was smaller.

I write up all my listings in Turbo Lister (do not upload from TL, I manually list them on the site) and delete them from TL as soon as they sell, with the second last Turbo Lister download crashing when I tried to save them to back up, add a systems crash in  January and the fact that TL was taking up way too much space on the drive so it was cleared out,  I do not have the original copy. That item was off line after the web site hack in August, I just recently posted it again.

I don't have an original copy on this machine (I switched machines the other is on it's last legs) so I just guessed at the measurements. 

All this is neither here nor there, the issue is he paid $61. and according to the CP web site that was right. When I got to Paypal it was the price I expected it to be, under $40. There is an error somewhere.

Maybe we should just chalk this up to aggrevated user error on my part?

Thanks for all your help.

[pocomocomputing]

If you listed with one set of dimensions and weight that you guesstimated when you created the listing, then the eBay listing shipping calculator will show the shipping cost for that set of dimensions and weight.

When you sell the item, the dimensions and weight in the listing are passed on to PayPal shipping with that data filled in.  If you change the dimensions and or weight in the PayPal shipping calculator and they are smaller than what was passed, then the PayPal shipping calculator may give a lower price as well as the PayPal shipping discount. If a big difference in the dimensions, then the difference may be significant.

So it appears that the change in data input in the listing to smaller data used in the PayPal shipping calculator is the reason for the $30 difference in what was charged and what it cost you to ship. Also the PayPal shipping discount will also be lower than the eBay listing shipping calculator. (eBay does not know if you are going to the post office and paying full rates or using PayPal shipping with discount so it lists with full value. A seller using PayPal shipping will pay less than what the buyer sees which is a bit misleading to the buyer. You can control the listing shipping cost displayed using a setting called calculated shipping discount but that has its own issues. For another post if you want to know about this.)

When you started this topic you said there was a glitch in the eBay shipping calculator and that it was overcharging. It does not appear so. The data was changed between the eBay listing data and the data used in PayPal.

This appears to be a case of Garbage In, Garbage out.  If the eBay listing data entered is a best guess based on past experience, even the most experienced seller will make a mistake and guess under or over. Most of the times it may not be significant and sometimes it can be a large difference like in you case.

This is not to criticize you but to point out how important accurate data is for the shipping calculator to function properly. For some services that use dimensional weight, then the choice of a shipping box can be very important as I showed about. A small difference in dimensions on a light item can give a difference in the shipping cost since dimensional weight will kick in.