Is there a way for buyers to see discount shipping fees at their end for tracked parcels?

[luv4orphans]

Slow sales. 4 in the last 3 months. 

Have had 3 of those sales since they introduced the discounted shipping rates on tracked parcels and its quite obvious buyers are not getting the discounted rates at their ends.  Paying full shipping costs and then I need to reimburse the difference. 

Am I missing something here. Do I need to adjust something here. Most of my items are listed using the calculated method because of the variety of what I sell. So the calculator should have adjusted to the new rates and buyers should see those instead. 

How is this helping our sales any? Its not. It should have been automatic that buyers see the discounted prices on their end. I am not a tech savvy person but I find this ridiculous.  Why is this not showing up.  Do I need to adjust something here or what. 

The last sale was yesterday where the buyer paid $28.09. The discounted prices was $12.96.  Its not an error on my part. It shows me the discount I am getting. Am I supposed to pocket this extra money?

Discount should have been automatically adjusted and buyers should see it on their end.  Just maybe it could boost our sales. 

[pjcdn2005]

Tracked and small packet USA are based on weight, not destination.  A package that weighs 500 grams cost the same to send from Ontario to  Hawaii as from Ontario to New York. 

The prices do vary by destination if you use Expedited Parcel or Xpresspost.

[ricarmic]

Whilst I also sell stamps, I generally sell "bunches" of them in batches right up to bankes boxes size.

Virtually everything I sell (always) is "free shipping".

I have only ever used flat rate shipping whether on .COM or .CA.

Because I'm a stamps on the boxes kinda guy I have the rate tables printed out anyway. It is pretty easy to pick a reasonable number for flat rate shipping anywhere in the world with some practice. I've been doing it "always".

The rate tables are in this document:

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/doc/en/support/prices/business-prices.pdf  

And to use them you'll need to print off this table too for your postal code:

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/tools/rate-code-table-lookup.page 

(note that it appears to be broken at this exact moment)

[luv4orphans]

Yikes. You need good eyes for that one table. Rows of numbers across the page with what is probably the different regions at top, Is that worldwide or just Canada?Then I would just need to figure out which region I am dealing with and the weight of my package. Is that it?And a new set of eyeballs. 

[luv4orphans]

Okay. I have the Expedited Lite package for Canada downpath now. That's easy enough. US has always been easier to ship to also as shipping prices don't fluctuate so much. Surprised by what it can cost at times when shipping to US depending on where it is. It can be quite expensive.

Within Canada we don't know. The flat rate boxes so far I know of. I will need to study this further.

It should have automatically been put into the system when they offered the discounts. If using a flat rate, then up to the seller to do it whether they want to or not. Easier to do from there where you see.  Not so with calculated you don't see what's at the other end. I will study the flat rates a bit more and see. Maybe just need to get the hang of it. 

[reallynicestamps]

The trick is  to use the whole chart when you ship the first time.Then write down what it cost to that destination.

And keep filling in spaces as you get new sales.

You will probably never have a sale to Nunavut, or even Happy Valley NL,  and the entire customer rich Golden Triangle in ON  is going to be one price.

[reallynicestamps]

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Many offers that have been arriving for the past few years are rediculously lowball.

I don't see those because I have set parameters on Acceptable/Not Acceptable offers.

I only see the Not Acceptable offers when I Accept one that is reasonable.

The previous offers are shown then.

I use them to decide if I need to track. Along with my psychic powers of course.

There have been a few Best Offers accepted where I ignored that I had $2 allowed as shipping cost (offering Free Shipping) and shipped Expedited for $15 or whatever because I wanted Proof of Delivery to That Guy.

[ricarmic]

Yes once you have the weight you can use the table to figure out a good "average" flat rate shipping price for that item.

I've written down my average shipping prices for up to 3 KG (Canada, USA, International) as those are my most commonly used ones. Keep in mind that with free shipping these are built into the price so the buyer doesn't know what portion of the price is represented by the shipping cost.

The regions (for Canada) link I included is still not working, seems ebay's not the only site with glitches!

[msau4301]

I know this is a frustrating one for sure but at present there is no way for the buyer to see those lower (temporary? let's hope they extend past December) rates. As others have said the main reason would be eBay doesn't know which sellers are using their labels and therefore getting the discount (some people maybe don't have a printer, get confused how it works, etc) and do it the old fashion way at the post office.

It would be nice if they do figure out a way but I think the only thing they could do would be to have a special shipping service (or at least name) like they do with Expedited Lite. Expedited Lite shows correct low rates in all listings and it's exclusive to eBay but anyone using it HAS to use eBay labels to get rate.

eBay would almost need to have an equivalent for Tracked Packet or Expedited shipping in Canada (maybe even call it eBay Tracked Packet, etc.) whereby if sellers chose that for calculated it would show correct rates. But we don't know what, when or if anything will happen.

In the meantime you could remove your $2 handling, it's not a big difference but if you are getting the extra amount in the end it would help cover expenses (even dollar store bubble wrap is expensive these days I know!) and I understand flat rate doesn't work with a wide range of items (it doesn't work for me either). I just keep in mind when I'm doing up my listings that I might price it a little lower since some money will be coming from shipping. I know for me if I'm buying anything (anywhere) I look at the item price and shipping as a total when making my decision to buy or not. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@msau4301 wrote:

I know this is a frustrating one for sure but at present there is no way for the buyer to see those lower (temporary? let's hope they extend past December) rates. As others have said the main reason would be eBay doesn't know which sellers are using their labels and therefore getting the discount (some people maybe don't have a printer, get confused how it works, etc) and do it the old fashion way at the post office.

It would be nice if they do figure out a way but I think the only thing they could do would be to have a special shipping service (or at least name) like they do with Expedited Lite. Expedited Lite shows correct low rates in all listings and it's exclusive to eBay but anyone using it HAS to use eBay labels to get rate.

eBay would almost need to have an equivalent for Tracked Packet or Expedited shipping in Canada (maybe even call it eBay Tracked Packet, etc.) whereby if sellers chose that for calculated it would show correct rates. But we don't know what, when or if anything will happen.

In the meantime you could remove your $2 handling, it's not a big difference but if you are getting the extra amount in the end it would help cover expenses (even dollar store bubble wrap is expensive these days I know!) and I understand flat rate doesn't work with a wide range of items (it doesn't work for me either). I just keep in mind when I'm doing up my listings that I might price it a little lower since some money will be coming from shipping. I know for me if I'm buying anything (anywhere) I look at the item price and shipping as a total when making my decision to buy or not. 

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@msau4301 

@luv4orphans 

It is possible for sellers to show discounted rates. This is how it has worked in settings on dot com for the past 2 months.

https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf/carrier#

Same feature display on ca: Percent only. If/when this works on ca you should be able to show either counter or level 4. It would be total conjecture as to if Level 1,2 or 3 would be available for anyone who uses those rates.

https://www.ebay.ca/ship/prf/carrier

I've been having to refund with the same regularity because of the discrepancy for the buyer paid and the discounted rates.

-Lotz

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

devon@ebay 

Sample: What buyer sees. 300 gram parcel

Discounted eBay Rates USA

Discount Intl(UK) Rates

Shouldn't buyers be able to see realistic shipping rates from Canadian sellers too?

-Lotzofuniquegoodies

[luv4orphans]

The flat rates stay the same. They are built in and it should never affect those.

You won't get this discounted rate from the post office if still using that old fashion method that's a given.

The ones where the calculator is being used should adjust automatically to show the discount price at the other end. No ifs and buts about it. They are offering it yet buyers don't see that. WTH. 

I am not sure about removing the $2.00 handling fee. In this case the buyer paid $28.00, cost of shipping was $12.91 so if I take the $2.00 they still paid $26.00, double.  Still quite a hike. I didn't charge a fee initially but after a while I was coming out of these dollar stores with $30-40 worth of supplies, I decided to.  

If someone sees $13. shipping charge vs. $28. it might help budge them into buying that item. Some people pass cause of this. If I build in the cost of shipping into my items then I need to jack up the price so again no sales.  

Expedite Lite is here to stay so that's easy enough to figure out. For the larger items why isn't the calculator working properly and showing the discounts. 

I sell on Etsy also and they are offering the same discount to December for buyers in the US. Their calculator shows the actual discounted rate at the other end. It generates more sales which is what all of us want. Buyers actually see the discounted rate. Imagine that. Same as here, there's flat rates and calculated rates. 

I am not a computer tech but why feasible on one site and not on the other.