eBay

38e_avenue · ‎08-26-2021

Hi,

I am thinking about switching my international shipments from ChitChats to Shippo. I recenlty ahd only problems with Chit Chats - they offer Asendia (cheap, but so slow, that a defect for late delifery is almost 100% assured) or expensive First Class International (very expensive, slow, and not reliable - recently 2 packages just disappeared - tracking shows they never left Canada to the US). While I still plan to use Chit Chats for domestic US delivery (cheap, reliable and needed to keep my TRS blue ribbon on Ebau.com), I need to find a replacement for Chit Chats international shipments. I used Canada Post for years, and even if some packages were lost (about 2-3 per year), I sold many hindreds of items to different countries around the world. Since I switched from Canada Post (5 USD shipping charge - letter) to 18 USD (USPS), I do not sell anything internationally any more - the sales fell over the cliff. A new solution is needed. Any suggestion? What are the Shippo charges for little packages under 0.2 kg? I saw at Shippo an option to ship by DHL or Fedex with 90% discount. Does it really work? Please share your experience. Thank you!

femmefan1946 · ‎08-26-2021

Review the countries where packages were lost.

Is there a pattern?

Some countries have very poor postal/customs systems.

You can Block countries (or continents) that you do not want to ship to.

I Block only four countries, two of which are war zones.

ypdc_dennis · ‎08-26-2021

Pretty sure Shippo does not offer discounted shipping from Canada for DHL or FedEx (I believe it is just for shipments made from the USA).

Have you checked out netparcel ?

either via www.paypal.com/shipnow

or directly at www.netparcel.com

Canada Post comparison:

0.2kg to the UK (August fuel surcharge, level 1 SB discount) would be

$12 for Small Packet Air (untracked) or $24.50 for Tracked Packet.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-26-2021

I wasn't aware of any special discount through Shippo for Fedex or DHL but hopefully someone else has more information. It wouldn't surprise me if the discounts were just for the US.

If you are using Shippo for Canada Post you would receive the same discount as you would through SnapShip...it would be based on your small business level. If you don't have small bus. number you can apply online and its free. I'm just at level one and the discounts for small packet international are very small. I believe that the discounts for international tracked services are higher.

38e_avenue · ‎08-26-2021

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Review the countries where packages were lost.
Is there a pattern?
Some countries have very poor postal/customs systems.
You can Block countries (or continents) that you do not want to ship to.
I Block only four countries, two of which are war zones.

3 last packages were lost in Canada - the tracking show they never reached the US (or were never actually shipped by Chit Chats at all.) Other shows "delivered", but the recipient says it was not. I also shipped to the UK - the same issue - tracking shows delivered, buyer says no.

Concerning the countries, there is no visible pattern - latest countries were: Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei (imagine!), Bahrain, Slovenia, Belgium. I once shipped to Rwanda, and it arrived safely to its destination.

38e_avenue · ‎08-26-2021

@ypdc_dennis wrote:
Pretty sure Shippo does not offer discounted shipping from Canada for DHL or FedEx (I believe it is just for shipments made from the USA).

Have you checked out netparcel ?
either via www.paypal.com/shipnow
or directly at www.netparcel.com

Canada Post comparison:
0.2kg to the UK (August fuel surcharge, level 1 SB discount) would be
$12 for Small Packet Air (untracked) or $24.50 for Tracked Packet.

Thank you! The Netparcel is worth of trying. I shipped for the last 20 years with Canada Post, only recently switching to Chit Chats - just to maintain my Blue Ribbon on Ebay.com. I thought - naively - I will sleep better having my parcels tracked. Instead, tracking causes an idditional headache. I had recently a parcel shipped to Philadelphia. It arrived there in 5 days, then was held by the local post office for 3 weeks...

femmefan1946 · ‎08-26-2021

Other shows "delivered", but the recipient says it was not. I also shipped to the UK - the same issue - tracking shows delivered, buyer says no.

FWIW - You are not responsible for those.

Just one possiblity- porch pirates.

If your shipper shows Delivered, eBay will back you up.

You can sympathize with the buyer (Have you checked with your housemates? Inside the screen door? Any of the neighbours? Have you filed a police report? A complaint to the actual delivery company?)

With the exception of Belgium, I would consider all those countries (even Brunei) to have weak postal/customes services.

38e_avenue · ‎08-26-2021

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Other shows "delivered", but the recipient says it was not. I also shipped to the UK - the same issue - tracking shows delivered, buyer says no.

FWIW - You are not responsible for those.
Just one possiblity- porch pirates.
If your shipper shows Delivered, eBay will back you up.
You can sympathize with the buyer (Have you checked with your housemates? Inside the screen door? Any of the neighbours? Have you filed a police report? A complaint to the actual delivery company?)

It's what I do if such a situation arrives. But even if I am not responsible I would not risk a red donut. I am always trying to find a reasonable solution, or immediately send a full refund, if the buyer insists. The UK guy seemed to be a honest buyer, he wrote several long e-mails, so I proposed him a replacement. He accepted, got the replacement, left a very nice feedback. Thieves do not send long e-mails. A typical e-mail from a thief looks like that: "I did not get my item. I want my money back". It took years before I accepted the dishonest buyers as an integral part of doing business online ...

hlmacdon · ‎08-27-2021

Shippo is not really going to help you there as whatever courier discounts they might offer wouldn't be less than Asendia or USPS First Class international if that is the sort of package you are shipping now. You aren't going to find much better as you are already scraping the bottom of the barrel for tracked costs for what you can access from Canada. Your problems are more related to where you are choosing to ship to at the moment given the less than ideal performance of postal routes to smaller countries during COVID.

You could go the route of importing your own packages to the US commercially and playing the game of border travel compliance and requirements. Buying your postage for Asendia or USPS first class via Pirateship would be cheaper and faster and more reliable than Chitchats potentially. That would also get you the option of perhaps using Ebay Standard International service through .com. International costs are high and aren't going down unfortunately.

andcha2191 · ‎12-23-2021

Ship to Europe, Japan, Australia NZ, UK, China, Everything else is iffy imo. Some Euro Countries you really need to investigate. Do your research.

brettjet38 · ‎12-23-2021

"But even if I am not responsible I would not risk a red donut."

In case you are not aware, FB has zero impact on your eBay account, eBay does take use it to evaluate your account. It is an outdated by-product of the 20th C, which many members no longer use when shopping.

Take a look at Buyers who do not leave FB, go look at their profile, the majority who do not leave FB usually never leave FB. ever...

...or use to leave FB but have stopped, even though they still shop.

Things Change.

intimewithmusic · ‎12-26-2021

Just letting folks know this thread is old....‎(08-26-21)

That said I find shippo excellent. They have a lot of options. You should use due dilligence to learn what they are. EG: You can use your own courier accounts or their courier accounts and get their discounts. If you use your own IE: Canada Post Sm Biz they charge you a small per transaction fee. (6 cents ) but the accumulated total contributes to your Canada Post Level Disc. If you spend more than $2500/yr with CP use your own account but link it to Shippo.

If you use them for UPS they charge you a $6.50 transaction fee. In my case I have my own UPS acct and fing it's best to deal direct with UPS. I don't know about DHL or FEDEX transaction fees or discounts but here is a list of their International couriers available to you.

Be sure to take time to understand all of the options available. for me there was a learning curve. After that I've used them 90% of the time without worry. I never have any problem speaking with them when I have a question.

ITWM

parts_and_diecasts · ‎01-04-2022

I don't even look at the username...yet, there you are with the best answer on the feed as usual!

love your no non-sense no sugar coating direct to the point approach

parts_and_diecasts · ‎01-04-2022

the marginal International sale is usually not worth it given that you have the largest consumer market at your footsteps and you can ship relatively cheap there. I know it sounds romantic to be able to say you have buyers in Australia, Netherlands, Japan...unfortunately, because we live in Canada, it is not a reliable nor competitive option, especially in this day and age of a major pandemic leading to significant international shipping delays.

I stopped selling international a couple years ago after a couple consecutive INRs and now only focus on US/Canada (US mostly tbh), never looked back.

dupuisch · ‎01-03-2023

Chit chats is garbage now, I was a long-time user and their prices are absolutely appalling, they also will sometimes randomly charge you for packages that have been delivered over 30 days prior claiming they weren't measured or weighed correctly. Keep in mind this is OVER 30 DAYS AFTER DELIVERY. I'm just starting my transition over to Stallion Express.

byto253 · ‎01-03-2023

It is fortunate that you are in Toronto where there are a lot of options. Here in Ottawa, there is much less choice and Chitchats is the best for small items. Larger items they are often not much of, or any, saving.

38e_avenue · ‎01-04-2023

@dupuisch wrote:
Chit chats is garbage now, I was a long-time user and their prices are absolutely appalling, they also will sometimes randomly charge you for packages that have been delivered over 30 days prior claiming they weren't measured or weighed correctly. Keep in mind this is OVER 30 DAYS AFTER DELIVERY. I'm just starting my transition over to Stallion Express.

I recently came back to ChitChats, mainly because they opened a new branch around the corner. They offer better prices - recently I shipped 20 items with them in one day only - CP would charge me about 80-90 dollars more for that. The main problem with them are the returns, which are not exisiting. I got 2 "returns" from the US last year, they charged me 5 dollars for each, and then just "disposed" them (read: put into the garbage). Not a very pleasant experience, since I sell antique, not replaceable items .....

zee-chan · ‎01-11-2023

@38e_avenue wrote:
@dupuisch wrote:
Chit chats is garbage now, I was a long-time user and their prices are absolutely appalling, they also will sometimes randomly charge you for packages that have been delivered over 30 days prior claiming they weren't measured or weighed correctly. Keep in mind this is OVER 30 DAYS AFTER DELIVERY. I'm just starting my transition over to Stallion Express.
The main problem with them are the returns, which are not exisiting. I got 2 "returns" from the US last year, they charged me 5 dollars for each, and then just "disposed" them (read: put into the garbage). Not a very pleasant experience, since I sell antique, not replaceable items .....

Both counts of these experiences certainly is concerning for me now. I haven't had any sales back in December (I have been very busy in December with work so it was fine anyway) and recently just sent a bunch of offers out to my buyers. Two did end up buying something so I checked the current postage for CC vs Snap Ship...

Shipping from Vancouver BC to USA:

~225g: CP SMAir $11.60, CC $7.72

~450g: CP SMAir $15.20, CC $14.68

So for the 200-225g range items, it would still make sense to use CC as it's a $3.88 difference. But for the 250-450g range, the saving is only 52 cents now... so if tracking isn't essential to a seller, then it'd make very little sense to use CC unless someone lives very close to a branch (or have enough volume) to make that tiny saving worthwhile. That $5 fee mentioned by 38e really does makes a huge difference too. I have yet to experience any loss with CC but I certainly don't want to pay another $5 out of pocket just for them to dispose of a parcel for me... whereas with SMAir return for undeliverable is included.

byto253 · ‎01-11-2023

For Chitchats I have my own US return address at a holding service that is just across the border and about an hour from Ottawa. The nice thing is they hold it for a full year for one $5US charge.

I was not having luck getting the return address changed online with chitchats so called them and it was taken care of right away. So far I have only had positive experiences when calling or emailing them with questions or for help.

Anyway, that is a work around for the returns that works for me as I will go there at least once in a year.

38e_avenue · ‎01-11-2023

@byto253 wrote:
For Chitchats I have my own US return address at a holding service that is just across the border and about an hour from Ottawa. The nice thing is they hold it for a full year for one $5US charge.

Sounds good. Would you please tell us more, or send me a PM? Thank you!