Shipping....Something Is Not Right Here...

[towertreasuretrove]

So I sold a box of books and here are the shipping quotes that I got...

Canada Post Priority-USA             $165.95 (!)

Canada Post Xpresspost-USA   $66.57

Canada Post Expedited-USA      $44.72

Chit Chat USPS Priority                  $19.82

Chit Chat USPS Media Mail           $9.96 (!)

LOL...Canada Post should buy these guys out take USA bound packages to the border themselves........On second thought, please don't!!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@towertreasuretrove 

In late '80ies, I was shipping 50 Lb multipiece shipments, Winnipeg to most of Manitoba for $5.95 by Purolator. A big 5 Cents per additional lb up to 100 lbs. 500 Lbs was under 40.00 to Thunder Bay by trucking company overnight. And no fuel surcharges. Canadapost for 500 gram package 1.60 anywhere in Manitoba. Didn't have to worry about an upcharge for dimensional weight.  Miss the olden days when Canadapost was ummmm reasonable and reliable!! Didn't even have tracking back then. Mind you we were a volume shipper so had very good rates. UPS was even quick and affordable to the USA. I don't miss processing customs forms from back then so mind you that's a plus. Sadly, all delivery prices have gone up....Big time!! The new reality...No more free rides or even ones with a deep discount, per say!! Well unless you're the competition.  😞

-Lotz

PS. According to the dot com board, USPS raised their rates recently and are factoring in dimensions. Not sure how much the increase was.

[femmefan1946]

LOL...Canada Post should ... take USA bound packages to the border themselves...

Ummm.

They do.

That's how the Universal Postal Union works.

Canada Post pays other countries to deliver mail posted in Canada to other destinations.

And the USPS pays Canada Post to deliver their mail within Canada.

Which is why Trump's notion of dropping out of the UPU is even stupider than travelling to meet up with Kim Jong-Un, instead of making the weaker despot come to him. US businesses (and residents) would be unable to move anything outside their own borders without using a private company.

Here are the current USPS international rates by the way.

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

You can see that USPS international shipping rates are more in line with Canada Post equivalents than their domestic rates.

Macintosh and Jonathan.

[billybishop72]

So how can Chit Chats Shipping do it for $19.82 while Canada Post needs $44.62 for the same service?

[recped]

Chit Chats are not doing anything except taking your package across the border (for which they charge anywhere from 85 cents to $2 (maybe more for really heavy packages).

You the seller also needs to buy a USPS shipping label but you can use Media Mail which is very cheap. Canada Post eliminated the Book Rate about 40 years ago, they still have a Library Rate but you must be an actually public library to use it.

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[marveling-matilda]

Something has not been right with the CPC real-time quotations for the past year.

I have put in the actual unpacked weight and the eBay quote is still outrageous compared to the CPC rate for small business whether I am shipping to Canada or the USA.

eBay should not be generating 130-200% higher compared to my API.  There is no apparent ratio when I tried to create stats on it a variety of items to specific locations.

UNACCEPTABLE!

[femmefan1946]

I'm a little puzzled that you are using the unpacked rate, although I recognize that packing every listed item in advance would be silly.

Are you using metric measurements?  Canada Post went metric in 1974 and all other systems are basically guesswork.

There have been consistent complaints for years if not decades about Calculated Shipping (many resolved by switching to metric) but most are that eBay gives a shipping cost that is too low. 

The eBay rate that our customers see is the Canada Post published rate. We do get some discounts (about 5% at the moment) on some package services. Many sellers use the tiny discounts to cover packaging/handling costs.

I took a peek at your listing for 8 Libbey cocktail glasses with a shipping cost of $112 to me here on Vancouver Island.

And wow.

Then I looked closer and saw that you have four services allowed.

Now, I have opinions about giving customers too much choice, but.... I believe if you switched those prices around so that the CHEAPEST service  (Expedited at $31.30) came first and Priority (at $112) came last, you would see the lowest cost for shipping on your listing and in Search, which might be more encouraging for customers.

I'm a little vague, but I think you are charged your shipping FVF on the first listed shipping service and not on the one chosen, which would also increase your costs.

What advantages does Priority really give your customer over Expedited?

[ypdc_dennis]

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@marveling-matilda wrote:
... I have put in the actual unpacked weight and the eBay quote is still outrageous compared to the CPC rate for small business whether I am shipping to Canada or the USA.  eBay should not be generating 130-200% higher compared to my API. 

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eBay calculated shipping does NOT use your Canada Post business rate.

It uses the over-the-counter no-discount Canada Post base rate. You see those rates on the Canada Post website calculator when you are not signed into your Canada Post account.

The Canada Post discount percentages vary depending on the service. What eBay needs to do is update the eBay discount method Sellers can apply to their shipping. Currently it is a flat rate applied to all services, it should allow discounts based on individual services (tracked vs expedited for example would have different discounts).

Canada Post also adjusts rates every month with their fuel surcharge.

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/kb/details.page?article=fuel_surcharges_on_m

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[ypdc_dennis]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

...  I'm a little vague, but I think you are charged your shipping FVF on the first listed shipping service and not on the one chosen, which would also increase your costs.

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From: https://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/shipping-returns/shipping.html

If you list on eBay.ca and a Canadian buyer purchases your item, your final value fee for shipping is calculated using the shipping service that the buyer chooses.

If you list on eBay.ca and an international buyer purchases your item, your final value fee for shipping is calculated using whichever service is less expensive, either:

• The first domestic service in your listing that isn't express, or
• Your international shipping service

[femmefan1946]

Thanks that was what was confusing me.

But-- more important to making the sale, if the cheapest service is the one you choose first when setting up your listing, I THINK that is the one the customer sees on the listing, while the other, more expensive choices are only on the Shipping page.

Right? Or still confused?

[ypdc_dennis]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

But-- more important to making the sale, if the cheapest service is the one you choose first when setting up your listing, I THINK that is the one the customer sees on the listing, while the other, more expensive choices are only on the Shipping page.

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That's the way it used to be (first on the shipping list, first shown), but I have read that eBay is experimenting with how it is displays shipping this year, so all bets are off.

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