Including Extra Terms / Fees in Description Allowed?

[the.onestop.shop]

Hello!

I am a Canadian eBay.CA seller who recently started listing on the .COM side as well. I've started doing this for various reasons, but I've run into a potential roadblock.

When using Flat Rate Shipping on .CA, we are able to use a Shipping Table to surcharge any customers from high cost areas like Newfoundland, or Nunavut. But on .COM you cant choose specific regions within Canada on the Shipping Tables. And if we use Calculated shipping, .COM charges all Canadian customers the same rate of like $16CAD no matter where in Canada they are located. So the problem is that I'd have to Flat charge like $30+ if I want to cover possible customers from high shipping regions, which of course would scare off most other Canadian orders.

So now my question for you all is if it is allowed to include extra Terms / Conditions / Fees in our descriptions, like for example: " Shipping rate does not apply to customers located in Newfoundland, PEI, Nunavut, or Yukon. Please contact us for proper shipping rates before purchase". Would including something like that allow us to then surcharge a customer after the fact in case they buy the listing without reading that. Or would we be able to cancel the order in case they want to argue that they should only be charged the flat rate on the listing, or would we still get a defect on our record for doing that?

Thanks for any help, and feel free to offer any other solutions to this.

[byto253 · Accepted solution]

No, that will not fly.  And if you start cancelling because buyers will not pay an extra fee those will be strikes against you.   Flat rate is exactly that, an all in flat rate.

I sell on .com and it is a trade-off.   What you can do for items that the higher cost is an issue is specify Canada as a ship to location with "contact" for shipping and in the description indicate the estimated shipping cost to regions in Canada.

Or just go an average flat rate knowing that on occaision the shipping will not go in your favour.

[msau4301]

byto has given some good advice already!

I just wanted to see if your listings on .com are in US dollars (I don't sell on .com but I would have thought that would be a big plus in doing so!) If it is in US dollars part of the extra money from the exchange would help offset some of the price also. For instance if shipping charge was $16 US that is approximately $21 Canadian. I would choose a flat rate just slightly above the average for most of Canada and unless you have a lot of sales to PEI, Nunavut, Yukon, etc you will wind up ahead on most shipments and that would help compensate the shortfall on the occassional pricier trip.

[femmefan1946]

@msau4301  All listings on dotCOM must be in US dollars.

When a listing originally made on dotCOM is viewed on dotCA, the Search may show us the cost in loonies, but the actual listing will show both prices.

And so on.

An item listed on dotCA which has the shipping cost to Germany given, will show up on dotDE Search in euros but the actual listing will have the price in both loonies and euros.

[the.onestop.shop]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Unfortunately it was all what I had already suspected.

While averaging the shipping is definitely an option, I have had many customers from these high priced areas, even a repeat customer!, so I don't like our odds in that scenario. I did a rate estimate and shipping even a funko would cost $34 CAD to Nunavut using StallionExpress which is typically the cheapest possible shipping service we've found in Canada. 

Also, since our only "international" shipping would be to Canada, it won't let us just leave it empty and select "contact us", it forces you to actually input a service and cost once you turn on international shipping.

I think for now I probably will just keep .COM for US orders only. Feel free to continue offering solutions if anyone can think of something!

[byto253]

I see that on .com you have to input an international ship to flat rate for one non-US location, then you can only select a "contact for" option that is either worldwide or a limited number of countries that does not include Canada.  

About the only work around I can see to use .com and handle both Canada and the US is to pick a country such as Japan or Australia where you would not expect to get buyers from and put in a crazy high shipping cost; then you can select worldwide shipping - contact for cost.

The downside is you may deal with shipping cost requests from all over the place, and if you don't really want to ship there would need to quote them a super high price.  Certainly not ideal, but I don't see another way the handle it.

Setting that aside as cumbersome, I believe you can list the same item on .com with US only shipping, and at the same time on .ca with Canada only shipping.  Of course, when it sells on one site you need to end the other listing ASAP.   But then each country is dealing with their own currency and it is simplier than taking shipping cost requests from around the globe.     If others can chime in if that is allowed, please chime in.  

[femmefan1946]

Pretty sure that's not allowed -- listing the same item twice on one account but on the same site.

You'd have to change the wording of the title if you didn't want the bots to notice.

And be very very aware of the duplicate listing- like having some warning for yourself in the title. Like "US /Canada shipping only" trailing off at the title end.

Seems very complicated.

Two different accounts would need the same care.

[pjcdn2005]

It's allowed as long as the listing on each site has different 'ship to' location. As @byto253  mentioned, the .ca listing could show shipping to Canada. The .com listing could show shipping to the US.   If there is no shipping to the US on the .ca listing it would not show on .com so would not be considered a duplicate listing.  The eBay reps have confirmed this in the past.

[byto253]

Yes, one would be on .ca and the other on .com.    Thanks for the feedback, I though I read that this was an ok practice, as long as the ship to locations did not overlap.  

[flipistics]

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@the.onestop.shop wrote:

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Unfortunately it was all what I had already suspected.

While averaging the shipping is definitely an option, I have had many customers from these high priced areas, even a repeat customer!, so I don't like our odds in that scenario. I did a rate estimate and shipping even a funko would cost $34 CAD to Nunavut using StallionExpress which is typically the cheapest possible shipping service we've found in Canada.

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I know you only picked this as an example, but would a Funko not fit in a Canada Post medium flat rate box?

[the.onestop.shop]

Has anyone told you that you are a beautiful BEAUTIFUL human being?

This is why I posted here, I knew someone would know a solution. This is exactly what I needed! I completely forgot about the flat rate boxes. Now I can put flat rate shipping for $20, or even $15 if I want to eat the cost, and it can ship anywhere in Canada! And I've mainly used the .COM side for smaller items, that definitely would fit in even smaller flat rate solutions like the envelopes too. Brilliant!

Thank you!

[the.onestop.shop]

Thank you for all of your solutions. I never considered the listing in both sides idea, its definitely worth considering especially for items I have multiple quantities of which nullifies any risk!