Parcel Sizing Issue - metric vs Imperial & ebay customer service

[boutiquestepup]

I am having trouble with ebay's automated shipping calculator, and ebay customer service. I have been at this on and off for about 3 months, with Ebay customer service  and the ebay app customer service and they said that they don't have the answer, and they will get back to me and no one ever does. 

I have a shopify store where I create my listings and send my listing on 11 different channels and one of them with the ebay app from shopify, and have my listings sent onto my ebay store. (that I have been operating since 2005). 

I have created shipping policies on my ebay store with the help of an ebay staff several years ago, and I have a light weight parcels which are in size  22cm x 20 cm x 10 cm in metric and when I create my listing on shopify and send them onto ebay I use this shipping rules. 

The problem is the all my listings on ebay.com are showing  min imperial measurements in ebay.com 22 inches x 20 inches x 10 inches. The shipping cost for a small item that should be $8.00 is showing as $34.00, and not shipping overseas because it is to big for small packet.

When you create a listing from the ebay app you can only fix the listing on shopify, ebay does not allow you to fix the listing directly onto ebay. 

No one is getting back to me, I need HELP!!!

[clemowbooks]

Since the problem is the app, have you considered not using it to list?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@boutiquestepup 

Would it be possible for you to set up a separate set of rules for selling on dot com using imperial measurements?

-Lotz

[pjcdn2005]

Could you please give a couple of item numbers that have this problem.  I"m not sure if I'm looking at the same listings you are having problems with. Please also give us the dimensions and weight that you are using for those listings.

How did you come to the conclusion that the calculator  is defaulting to inches?

[pjcdn2005]

As far as I can tell, their listings are in Cdn$ so they are listed on .ca, not .com.

[boutiquestepup]

The beauty of shopify is that it syncs all channels, including my brick and mortar store. When I sell something in the brick and mortar with shopify point of sale, it  remove the items sold from ebay and amazon,facebook, instagram etc. I cant go back to listing in all stores. Ebay created a pretty good app. It's just the shipping that need to be sorted out. I need to talk to someone at ebay that understand this. Talking here I think I may have found my own solution. Perhaps I need to change everything to imperial system.  

[boutiquestepup]

yes I list on .ca since beginning

[boutiquestepup]

I list directly on .ca at this point I am not considering selling directly on .com

[boutiquestepup]

for example the shipping rules I use to for Ty Beanie Product is Canada small packet 200 grams and 23cm x 20 cm, 10 cm. the shipping to the USA should be under $9.00 it now show as over $20.00 , I had a client that purchased a beanie baby shipping to Brazil and they paid $34.00 in shipping. I refunded the overcharge, I need to fix this. 

[boutiquestepup]

If I log into my ebay store via ebay.com, and then go into active items on .com and view this item for example

eBay item number: 114389196583 and on my view of this active item, you click on the CALCULATED it shows this view, on the attached picture. You can see that it is taking my measurements in metric an using for imperial measurements. 

I used shipstation for shipping, and when it is an item sold on ebay the information it retrieves from ebay, the dimensions are all messed up, like 342.23 x 4532.4345 x 4532.34

[boutiquestepup]

here is picture of what I see for measurements when login via .com

[pjcdn2005]

Small packet and Tracked Packet don't use dimensional weight so I don't see how they would have anything to do with those prices for the US and overseas.  I think that your business policies need to be looked as they don't seem to be consistent.

You have quite a few Ty  Beanie products. I see some of them have shipping for small packet US at $9.23 so the policy must show a weight under 250 grams.   The ones that show prices of $12.10 would have a weight of 251 - 500 grams.

I don't see any that are shipping for $19.45 with small packet. Those ones are set up with tracked packet at $19.45 which would be for weights of 251-500 grams.  Those listings also show shipping costs for expedited parcel US and xpresspost US.    Even if you want to leave those with tracked packet as the least expensive shipping cost, you should redo your policy.  When a buyer looks at items on the search screen, they are usually shown the price that was entered first on the listing or on the policy. So in your case, those listings are showing the shipping cost for expedited ($32.80)on the search page...rather than the lower cost.

[pjcdn2005]

When you look at listing 11438919658 on .ca, what are the dimensions?

The Canadian prices do seem to be out on some of your listings and since domestic parcel services do use dimensional shipping, that would affect your Canada shipping rates.  But if the 23x20x10 was actually going in as inches, the calculator would be figuring out postage in cm at 59x51x26 and when I use a postal code from Sudbury to my postal code on the Canada Post site, the price would be $40 for regular parcel and $100+ for xpresspost. When I enter my postal code on ebay for that listing, I see $21 for regular parcel and $43 for xpresspost so I don't think the problem is that the measurements are being converted to inches...unless my conversions are out.  It really does seem that the problem is the policy itself. If you go back to the policy used on that listing, is it really using those small dimensions?  If I use 23 20 10 on the CP site to AB, the cost should be about $16

On this listing the search page is also showing the higher xpresspost price rather than the regular parcel price so you need to switch the entry order.  To be honest I don't use business policies and I am assuming that's how it works .  If you enter shipping services on the listing itself, the first one you enter will be what shows on search page so I am assuming policies work that way too.

[pjcdn2005]

Sorry  I don't want to put too much info in one post but have one last comment for now.

It might be time to sit down and redo all of your policies. Here is another odd one...item

383181188909.  I would think that item would be under 100 grams when shipped but the shipping cost is for a package 101-250grams as it shows $11.33 to the UK with small packet.  But the US price does not have small packet at all. It has Tracked packet, expedited and xpresspost.  It's unlikely that buyers will want to pay $18 plus shipping to the US for a $5 or $6 item. 

Could that bun maker be shipped under 2cm thickness? If so, you might want to use lettermail for within Canada. Right now it shows $23 to AB so I suspect that those measurements are out too.

[boutiquestepup]

If I understand correctly. You are saying that it does not matter for small packet USA the size of the parcel? For example this ebay item you are referring to 383181188909.  when I look at this listing this is the measurements it is showing 33 inches x 25 x 25 inches. It should be an enveloppe size 33 x 25 x 10 centimeter. However ebay.com is converting to inches

[boutiquestepup]

I never used the policies before and ebay were offering service to the sellers tohelp them create shipping polices. At the time I thought that it was a good idea. As far as I concern, since I started the policies it's been nothing but problem. I have to figure a way to clean this mess.

[pjcdn2005]

Small packet and Tracked Packet USA are based on weight only. There are maximum and minimum dimensions but that just means your parcel has to be within those dimensions. The pricing is not based on size..just weight.

Small and tracked packet international  pricing is based on weight just like in the US. The only difference is that the price varies by country.

That screenshot is from the .com site but your listings are using the Canada Post calculator on .ca.  Listings on .ca do not use the .com calculator because it doesn't have any Canada Post info.  Plus, it is showing 250 oz which is 12 pounds and your listings don't appear to be  charging US or overseas buyers for 12 lbs. I have no idea why those numbers are showing there but they shouldn't matter as you are not listing on that site.

[pjcdn2005]

 Setting up or revising shipping on the amount of listings you have would be a huge task not to mention overwhelming but once it was done right, I'm sure that it would work well.  I don't know if there is anyone here who uses policies that could give you an idea of how they set there policies up. 

As we already know some of your listings have high shipping but you also seem to have some listings with low shipping to a few locations. For example, item 113968276369 isn't using calculated shipping. It shows $9.99 shipping to Canada, the US and to some other countries.  I know that they would definitely cost more to ship them to most places.

Sorry to bombard you with all the info, I'll stop for now unless you ask something specific. 🙂

[kawartha-ephemera]

I logged on to .com to checkout just a very few of your listings.

With each listing I tried various ship-to scenarios, cannot say I found anything amiss with your Beanie Babies setup. Using USA 90210 as a ship to location and also to the United Kingdom the calculator produced correct small packet air quotes.

However, when I sampled a couple of your Skate Boot listings such as 382406989752  and 112862429485 there was a problem when I asked for a USA 90210 quote, the dreaded Shipping cost cannot be calculated. Please enter a valid Zip Code appeared.

With the error, I obviously was not shown any services but I'm guessing the boots are maybe heavy enough to require Expedited USA or Expresspost USA.

Could the messed-up dimensions be invalid values for those services? I don't know as I rarely use Expedited or Expresspost to the U.S.

Attached are screenshots of what I found viewing 382406989752 on ebay.com using ship to locations in Ontario, USA and United Kingdom.

[boutiquestepup]

Policies are easy to use, I all ready have most of the listings fixed. What unit of measure are you using? Am I wrong to use metric measures?