Tracked Packet International question

[winner188]

How to offer tracked packet international only to the countries where tracked packet is offered?

If I choose tracked packet international and check the box for worldwide shipping will it only be offered to countries where tracked packet is offered?

I know tracked packet is not available everywhere.

[pjcdn2005]

Tracked Packet will only be offered to countries that have that service if you are using calculated shipping.  All of the other countries will show that 'seller will ship to (name of country) please contact for shipping costs. (which is what many of your listings show now)

But what many sellers do is they use calculated shipping and offer tracked packet and xpresspost. The countries that don't have TP will be shown a cost for xpresspost.  My feelings that if you are going to ship somewhere, you should have a shipping price listed. Many buyers will not bother to message you asking for a price and they will just move on to other listings.

[momcqueen]

Pj has the right of it but you may want to know in advance that there is currently a problem with Calculated Shipping costs from ebay.ca displaying on listings. Add to Cart is the workaround. That works exactly as it should. Learn more at https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Site-Issues/Calculated-Shipping-does-not-show-up-for-USA-buyers-Check-y...

[bassox333]

There are many countries that we can't ship either TP nor Xpress. Which is where Int'l Parcel Air comes into play. It's a pain, as for some unknown reason we cannot print labels through PayPal using this option (have not tried Shippo) but the service can be purchased through Snap Ship or at the counter. It does have tracking. And when we've used it is comparable to small packet air in terms of delivery times.

However, as momcqueen mentioned, this is all moot as shipping costs are not being displayed for INT'L customers, which explains the slow down in sales. We run a lot of auctions so the idea of 'adding to cart' to get shipping is not working for our customers. They're simply looking elsewhere.

[momcqueen]

You're right, Add to Cart doesn't work for an auction if international buyers are looking for a postage quote. This is a big problem and it negates any value that Add to Cart as a workaround for Buy It Now listings brings to the table. In that respect, if I relied on auction listings, I'd probably not run auctions until this was fixed and move instead to BIN or at least auction with a BIN option. 

[pjcdn2005]

Thank you for the correction, I had forgotten about international air.  

I agree that the calculator problem has got to be hurting some sellers.  Buyers can still see the shipping cost in the search view so hopefully some will still bid keeping that shipping amount in mind.

[momcqueen]

This glitch is definitely not a good situation for buyers that rely on running auctions. With my Buy It Nows, it really hasn't affected my outside-Canada sales so far as I can tell. I do have some Auctions running but those are more to keep the listings active (because I've used my allotment of BINs) and live than with an expectation they'll actually sell to someone.

If I was a seller who relied on buyers looking for auctions, I'd be feeling pretty neglected and fearful and resentful right now.

I can only hope that adding Fixed Price as an option to those auction listings so that the postage cost shows on Add to Cart might work, and that also ebay might consider allowing the sellers who decided they needed to do that as a workaround in order to address the glitch, could get that upgrade at no extra cost. I think the auction-affected ebay.ca Calculated Shipping sellers could band together and appeal for that to happen. I know I would. 

[winner188]

Thanks for your help and comments.
How long has this calculated shipping glitch been going on and is EBay working on a fix.

[momcqueen]

Ebay is working on a fix, yes, but how long it will take to fix remains to be seen.

Calculated Shipping began to behave oddly (after being pretty much flawless for years) in or around November. Since then, however, the scope and depth of the problem seems to have increased and affected more sellers and more of their listings.

If you are a seller who relies on Auctions and buyers looking for auctions as the foundation of your business model, I would add Fixed Price as an upgrade to your listings. With a fixed price listing (Buy it Now or BIN) you can Add to Cart to see the postage costs properly reflected there. 

There are enough small oddities going on with the Item Listing page that I'm beginning to suspect ebay is working behind the scenes on a new page design layout and the fallout is that our Shipping tabs are no longer showing. Tinfoil hat time. 

[winner188]

If the problem started in Nov of 2017and its Feb 12 now.
That seems like a long time to fix a glitch, is EBay not doing there job.
Sellers are losing sales and money because of this.

[momcqueen]

It was a much smaller glitch to start, not like it is now. Also, I’m not losing sales because all my items Add to Cart and show postage as they are Fixed Price. My outside-Canada sales as steady and the same volume as ever.

[winner188]

Once again thanks for your help.
If I use fixed price will my items also -ADD TO CART? Will I avoid this glitch by using Fixed Price ?

[recped]

I don't see much of the OP's items that can be done with flat-rate shipping for overseas and unless it's one the quirky situations where tracked packet is actually cheaper it's not necessary for the OP's generally modest value items.

[bassox333]

Awwww... Eureka.   Look at item # 222579217341 

For all those who are having trouble with shipping calculator on ebay.ca.  

We've confirmed on several seller accounts that the problem -IS- offering  Int'l Parcel Air and / or Surface.  As we're removing this option from our listings, the shipping costs are calculating properly again.  Except for the error message to the US, but the customer is able to at least -SEE- the shipping costs!  This is good news.  

So our shipping options (on most items at least) are Small Packet Air to the US (even though we eat shipping and send Tracked), Tracked Packet Int'l, and Xpresspost and it seems to be working.  

Please let us know if others find the same.  This is encouraging!  Though still broken.  But hey, it's eBay, right?  Or possibly Canada Post's back end, who knows.    

[pjcdn2005]

I posted a link to this thread on the calculating shipping thread on site issues so that others looking specifically at that thread can see your solution.   I'm curious to see if it will work on all of your listings.

[bassox333]

Thank you, very curious as well.

[momcqueen]

I’ll try and report back.

[bassox333]

I hope that it works for you, though I know that you ship mostly tracked packet to the US so..

So far, we're getting consistent results. Whether or not this will hold true is debatable. Perhaps Canada Post is changing something in the background. Or eBay. Or who knows what.

[momcqueen]

It seems to work but I'm not one hundred per cent confident this is a great workaround. I mean, it is. It fixed shipping for most places. At least there is that. Unless the euro resets itself overnight. I will pass this along to tyler directly. 

[momcqueen]

Euro. I meant error.

It's a huge step forward in terms of trying to fix for ourselves whatever it is broken but I'm worried that we'll all revise our 895,000 listings only to have it pop back again. 

Thanks for sharing.