Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

So with the possiblity of another strike with Canada Post can a mass change be done with shipping options ? What i mean by this is in ebays settings is there a way to do a full change on your shipping options to use other postal services. I have over 2600 lisitngs and it seems in order to change those from my primary service using Canada Post i need to go in and change each one seperatly. I don't see a place in the settings to do a mass change instead of doing each listing seperatly. This is something ebay should change so that if any shipping company shuts down we are able to quickly change those options to another shipping provider. The issue is like back in Novemeber with Canada Post buyers see shipping times of like 2 months and that stalls sales. My sales tanked last time Canada Post went on strike. 

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Re: Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

“My sales tanked last time Canada Post went on strike.”

Sadly, I think this is going to be the case this time around too, if a strike occurs. You can do calculated and select the other courier companies. But it’s far more likely that people will just stop ordering once a strike is announced.

To do a mass edit on your listings, you select them and do a bulk edit and change the Shipping Policy to a Calculated option. I would recommend that instead of doing a flat rate and relying on the gig couriers because they may not service the areas your buyers may be in.
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Re: Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

IF<IF>IF there is any mail disruptions we will have the same shipping choices and/or lack of shipping choices as previously ...but this is NOT the holiday buying season so I don't believe there will be that much of an impact and not so much of concern.

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Re: Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

Sorry, I should have provided a clearer step-by-step instruction on how to Bulk Edit your listings:

- Go to your Active Listings from the Listings tab
- Just above the start of your listings there’s an “Edit” option in Blue
- Click on the “Edit” option and select “Edit all xxx listings”

It will take you to the Revise Listings page. From there:

- Select all your listings at once by clicking the box in the headings next to Status, Photos, Title
- A check mark should appear in the empty box next to each listing
- Hover to Bulk Edit
- Select and click on Shipping Policy under the Delivery heading
- A window will open with the heading Shipping Policy
- There will an option “Change to”
- Select the Shipping Policy you want to use
- Click “Apply” and it should change the policy for all selected listings

You may have to do it in batches if we’re talking about over 2600 listings. I know there’s a maximum number of listings that can be edited at once. Hopefully someone else can chime in on how many because I’m not certain.
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Re: Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

chicweb
Community Member

I suggest you to look at other providers like Chit Chat and Stallion.

 

You can use their services. They have their own network of carriers. They provide a way to send items cheap without tracking, if you were using lettermail. It's a bit more than lettermail, but not that much.

 

The only downside, is that you will have to drop the items to a dropspot or do like me, wait for a bit of volume then ship the items consolidated to them. Just don't forget to add times in handling for this and maybe a few dollars in handling fees. Shipping items in can cost 10 or 15$ depending of weight and distance.

 

Either add 1$ handling fees and wait to ship 10 or 15 items, or add more fees and ship less.

 

It's not the best, but that's better than nothing.

 

You should use business policies and then update accordingly.

 

Unfortunately, eBay doesn't provide any calculated methods for those carriers. So you have to use a flat rate or use UPS/FedEX only if you really want to use calculated shipping.

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Re: Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

Chitchat and Stallion have good rates and an excellent reputation.
However they are not available in much of Canada- just those with high populations.

 

FedEx is unreliable, and have a nasty habit of increasing their fees after accepting the shipment, leaving the seller without the proverbial paddle.

 

UPS is expensive.

 

Hoping that if there is a strike, the union decides to go Work To Rule and/or revolving strikes, which at least keeps the mail moving.

 

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Re: Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

In addition to what other people have suggested, you can also try Sendle and/or ICS.  You can get a Sendle account with the good rates directly. I think for good ICS rates you need a 3rd party like Click Ship but I'm not positive.

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Re: Canada Post strike and Ebay shipping options ?

Yes you absolutely can change your shipping policies on mass. You can go into your business policies section and change each individual shipping policy by clicking on the policy you wish to edit and then edit the carriers and it will automatically update every listing in that category or policy for you. I have about 8 policies total so it's not so bad. This will mass edit the policies. This is the safest way to assure your policies are updated based on your weight calculations, or flat rates, or international shipping policies. You can also use the Listing's Tool Filter to select all the listing in a certain category and then mass click them all and it will say edit all. Then you will be taken to another screen in which you can again select them all there will be another button that says edit click on that it will take you to an option to bulk edit. Then when you go to the bulk edit screen you can then scroll down to where it says shipping policies, again click that and it will allow you to change your listing's to whichever shipping policy you select. Then click submit at the bottom right of the window and it will update all of your listing's to the new shipping policy. My recommendation is to do it from the business policies section first as this groups your items and you can see them as well. You can also create a brand new shipping policy and then transfer them from the old policies into the new and improved one. If you are selling similar off other people's items remember you also inherit their shipping policies typically. So it's good to sell similar off of your own perfect listing. So if you have 100 hundreds of different ones you may need to start by making a new one for each ebay category you sell in and then go back to bulk editing then selcted listings you want to add to your new and improved shipping policy. It will be faster then doing each one individually. I have been there so I understand and I hope this helps you. it will take work but going forward your life will be easier now adjusting them. I'm not sure how many categories you sell in but if it's only one your in business and it should be easy. If not try and find 5 to 10 that work to your liking and weight calculations. Also look in your shipping preferences to see if you have calculated shipping rules and promotional shipping rules. By the sounds of things you may have inherited many shipping policies from selling similar off other people's listing's. So if so just create a few new shipping policies of your own by category or weight, and then click them and bulk edit them and add them all into your new shipping policy. I'm not sure how many listing's you can bulk edit at a time but this is a way to speed up your process. I hope this helps
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