w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
@toby**bleep**zu wrote:
If separate countries are used instead of "worldwide", then americans wouldn't see the international choice
"I believe that Toby is saying the opposite of what you are saying. If you use the list of countries instead of worldwide, the doubling up is prevented. Or, if you use worldwide, you have to use a generic term for all international. Many of your .ca listings show 2 choices for the US."
I believe you're right, but I don't think it's quite as simple as Toby states. This is another example of eBay's inconsistent programming logic. When I use 2-tier international shipping on .ca, 1 for U.S., and 1 for "worldwide" (in conjunction with my exclusion list), I don't get double entries for U.S. shipping in my listings.
However, on .ca I sometimes want to be able to list a specific shipping cost to the U.S., then break out international into locations which are closer (e.g. European countries), and further ("worldwide") for a higher shipping cost (i.e. 3 tiers of international shipping). Apparently, as you suggest, this causes the programming to pick up the U.S. a second time (as part of worldwide).
The screen shots below are examples of this difference between 2 and 3-tier international shipping. They show two different .ca listings. The first only displays U.S. shipping once under the Shipping tab on the listing (despite the fact that "United States" is actually selected twice on the first listing shown here -- go figure!). The second screen shot is my 3-tier international option, which I use when items can't go by the single international Light Packet rate. Here the U.S. shipping is displayed twice in the listing -- the actual U.S. cost plus the highest international rate (which tells me it's picking up that rate from the highest "worldwide" option I've selected).
How stupid that eBay can never seem to get this right. The programming should be designed to be able to recognize when "United States" has already been filled in as a shipping option.
So the reason you see double U.S. shipping entries on some of my .ca listings is dependent on whether I've used 2 or 3-tier international shipping options. I've been too busy to spend time trying to figure out how (or if) this can be corrected, but I don't think there is a way around it where 3 tiers are needed. My U.S. buyers, as you say, will see two rates but will likely choose the lower one. In any case, I have only a few straggling listings left on .ca.
... since the ship to list of countries isn't complete, I use worldwide and then exclusions otherwise some countries such as New Zealand will be excluded by default."
This is exactly what I discovered some time ago, i.e. that without using "worldwide", NZ doesn't get picked up. Instead of using "Oceania" (as in the exclusion list) to include Australia and NZ in the checkbox, they simply use "Australia". Why this is so baffles me, since they use "Europe" to capture several countries. Another stupid idiosyncrasy of eBay's shipping options.
1) 2-Tier international shipping, where only 1 U.S. shipping rate shows on the listing (shipping only to Canada, the U.S. and particular other countries). The trouble with using this option all the time to avoid double U.S. shipping displays is that the "ship to" list doesn't include other international countries I might want to ship to). This is not a typical listing of mine, because I don't normally like to use the "Buyer contacts for costs" option:
2) 3-Tier shipping, where two U.S. shipping rates show on the listing:
Here's another example. Screen shot #1 shows the "Worldwide" SYI options chosen, which results in 2 U.S. shipping rates on the listing (one of which is actually the overseas cost). Screen shot #2 are the alternative shipping options, and shot #3 is the result (U.S. shipping displayed only once).
The problem with the options shown in Screen shot #2 is that, as I said above, eBay doesn't properly list the various parts of the world. For instance I was finding that by selecting that option, NZ was being eliminated. It took me months to discover my NZ buyers weren't seeing a specific shipping rate on my listings.
So it seems either you choose "Worldwide" and put up with the double U.S. shipping display, or select your countries and end up unwittingly omitting a few. As is often the case on eBay, it's not a matter of choosing the ideal option for your listings, but deciding which is worse?
As usual, I've spent far too much time trying to sort out an eBay conundrum. I'm done with eBay for today.
#1) -- SYI form with "Worldwide" chosen (results in a double entry for U.S. shipping on the listing):
#2) -- SYI with specific countries and "will ship to" chosen (results in only 1 U.S. shipping in listing). The irony here is that "United States" is actually checked off twice -- once for the particular U.S. cost and once in the "will ship to" section. As I said, not every seller will want buyers to have to contact them to get a shipping quote, so this isn't ideal either. Also, unfortunately, neither the "Asia" nor the "Australia" selection includes NZ (which for me is a significant problem).
#3) -- Here is what the listing shows if the options in #2 above are used -- a single U.S. rate:
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