What percentage of your sales result in INR claims?

[rosepeak]

I seem to be getting a spike in INR claims this year which I'm not used to. Most of my buyers are very patient too and waited way beyond (like a month after) the last expected delivery date but it still seems that at least 10% of my lettermail shipments are not beling delivered. Is this normal? I'm starting to get paranoid and wondering if the clerk at the postal outlet I go to has a grudge against me and is stealing my packages or something, as well as getting more frustrated and thinking about changing my business model entirely.

Edit to Add: Lettermail within Canada

[flipistics]

Lettermail within Canada or to the USA / Overseas?

[rosepeak]

Lettermail within Canada.

[recped]

Lettermail withing Canada? Not a single one in 40 years of mailorder, including the Covid period.

Is it the video games? Those buyers are sketchy from what I hear.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Unless you have multiple selling accounts, I would consider it bad luck more than anything. At first glance, 10 percent seems insane. Looking at your sold listings, you have approx. 39 sales in the last 90 days. So we're talking 2-4 INRs?

I think in your scenario, it's just a case of bad luck over a small sample size. Over a full year of sales, most people who do higher volumes of sale seem to average less than 1 INR for every 100 or so untracked Canadian orders. That may vary by category though. I assume certain categories can be higher risk. With only 13 sales a month, if you get unlucky and get 2 INRs in a month that's over 10 percent of your sales. That's probably what is happening here, it's too small of a sample size to make anything out of. 

If you do not have a high volume of sales, a small streak of bad luck can skew this average. 

[femmefan1946]

For your low priced items consider using Free Shipping.

DON'T PANIC!

Free Shipping means putting your cost for shipping into your askingprice.

Which is cheaper a $7.99 item with $2.99 shipping  or a $10.98 item with Free Shipping?

For multiple purchases (and Free Shipping encourages multiple purchases and yes, the buyer is paying shipping on every one) you could then use the new Expedited Lite shipping at a reduced cost.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Canada-Post-Expedited-Lite-for-Collectibles/b...

Which has tracking.

But basically, with LetterPost we are trading potentially more sales against the chance that the buyer will falsely claim non-delivery.  Without tracking we cannot win that Claim.

On the whole though, as others have said, two bad transactions out of ten in the past week or so feels worse than two bad transactions out of the 38 you have had in the past three months.

Refund promptly and Block those buyers.

And they may not even be scamming. Most 'lost' packages are merely delayed. Which doesn't help the seller much of course.

[ricarmic]

If you haven't seen these before here is my annual review of INRs:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/RICARMICs-Self-insurance-cookie-jar-statistics-to-end-of... 

I don't notice any siginifcant difference so far this year.....

[rosepeak]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Free Shipping encourages multiple purchases and yes, the buyer is paying shipping on every one

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Offering combined shipping encourages multiple purchases too. I actually prefer to buy from sellers who separate the item price from the shipping price because 1) I find that the tax at the end is lower than if I were to buy the item for the same overall price but with free shipping, 2) the seller may sometimes offer "combined shipping", which means a reduction of overall cost and 3) when the item price includes the shipping cost, that high item price usually gets transferred on the shipping label and incurs higher import duty charges if the order is international.

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

you could then use the new Expedited Lite shipping at a reduced cost.

I thought that's only available to items sold in the Collectible category and only for packages under 200 grams?

[femmefan1946]

Yes, but any of your 'collectible' items, like stickers and possibly DVDs , would fit into that category.

Don't try for a one-size-fits -all shipping method.

Shipping is the hardest part of selling by mail order.

Another way of reducing your costs for shipping by mail is to buy discounted mint postage stamps here on eBay.  The Dominion of Canada has never demonetized any stamps, in fact, you can even use stamps of Newfoundland on your mail.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

eBay has lowered a lot of incentive to offer "free" shipping, because they no longer display the total price in the search listing. If you offer paid shipping, your item is more likely to attract clicks because the price will appear lower in the search. 

Take an item that costs $4.99, with $4.99 shipping vs an item that costs $9.99 w/ "free" shipping. If someone searches it, eBay shows them something like:

Item 1:

$4.99

Item 2:

$9.99

Free Shipping

The search obfuscates the extra charge for shipping. Especially for a category that attracts casual buyers, the way the search displays listings rewards people who don't offer free shipping. People still may click away if your total price when they checkout is too high, but getting someone to choose your listing from the 'Best Match' search is half the battle to making a sale. 

The upside of free shipping is better non-sponsored placement in the Best Match. Nobody knows the Best Match algorithm, but most people speculate that it boosts sellers who offer things like free shipping, hassle free returns, quick handling time, etc.

If you sell in a category where it is easy to cross-sell people on similar items, free shipping is also a detriment because it lowers the incentive for a buyer to purchase more than one item. The upside is that if a buyer is going to buy more than one item anyways, you make more money because they aren't receiving a discount. With that said, you can set up store wide rules that offer people a set discount when they buy more than one item, so if your cost structure is similar with each item you can still offer free shipping and set it up so that someone saves the appropriate amount. It's just a little bit more complicated to maintain and market. 

I assume that eBay's logic with not showing total prices from the search is that they want people to click on and engage with listings. If I see $4.99 instead of $9.99 (4.99+5.00 shipping), I am more likely to click on the listing, and once I click it maybe I can be convinced to buy it from the listing. If I saw $9.99 right out of the gate, maybe I think that is too much and don't click on it at all. The problem with this is that it hurts the sellers who offer "free shipping", because even with the "Free Shipping" text, their items still appear more expensive on the search (even when they aren't).

[flipistics]

I haven't had a single INR with lettermail in quite a long time now (over a year I think), and my lettermail store averages a little over a sale a day. I could see categories like sports cards or (especially) currency being higher risk, maybe video games to some degree (I haven't had issues with them yet). 

Things that you can do to help prevent mail getting lost:

1. Check addresses with Canada Post's address complete. This helps make sure you format the address properly and helps guard against the buyer entering the information wrong. Just the other day I had someone who reversed the street number and unit number. A good mail carrier would likely have got it there anyway since the other address didn't exist, but at the very least it can delay it.
2. Select economy shipping rather than lettermail as your shipping method (you can still note in the decription that it will be sent lettermail). This gives extra time in case the mail gets stuck somewhere for a few days. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
3. Make sure you aren't cheating in thickness or weight. Most postal employees don't have the time or motivation to check, but some can get bored from time to time. If a lettermail item is returned, that process can take a month or more before you receive it back. I know some people will send items 2.5 or 3cm thick and cross their fingers. I don't recommend that. Buying a slot template is well worth the money so you can test the thickness of your items easier.
4. Make sure you have good quality labels (assuming you're using them) and bubble mailers. Some brands of labels don't stick too well and will begin to peel, and some bubble mailer brands don't allow things to stick overly well either. This causes the labels to stick to other letters and then get ripped off. I learned this one the hard way when I started.
5. Use labels rather than writing the address manually. Even if you think you're writing it neatly, it's very easy to misread handwriting. I saw this happen to a reseller on Youtube. They posted part of the address and asked people what they saw (presumably thinking everyone would read it the same), and the results were about 50/50.

[rocketscollectibles]

Overall roughly 1%. As previously said if if you sell only 10 items a month and suddently have 2 INR, you're at 20%. It's the sample size making things worse than it's maybe is. It's not reliable datas. 

[rosepeak]

I've had four INR claims this past half year. And I'm getting more paranoid that my local post office clerk has a grudge against me when I realized recently that he keeps overcharging me. I had a bunch of packages to ship by lettermail and he literally took the heaviest one, weighed it and charged ALL my packages the same price according to that package's weight (300+ grams which is $5.09+tax).

I weighed all my packages at home beforehand and most of them were under 200 grams as they were lightweight DVDs and pamphlets (which should cost $3.09 each), a few were under 300 grams (which should cost $4.44), and only one was over 300 grams (which costs $5.09), but he charged all my packages $5.09 and I ended up overpaying quite a bit. I told him my packages can't possibly all be the same weight but he told me that he's just using an approximate for all the packages as that's just how they do things. Even if that's the case I find it a bit too convenient that he used the obviously heaviest and biggest of my packages as the model for his approximate.

Is this normal or even legal?

[ricarmic]

This is not normal and as I (potentially incorrectly) understand it, if the PM applies the "like the previous one" process for multiple packages, it brings the same attributes to them all, which is what it looks like happened to you.

I recall when the main system changed and it caused different/frustrating work for my local posties when it changed because they used to do them in "batches" before that. They can't now.

@dinomitesales might have some insider insight about this that might help....however if a PM has their own view/way, there isn't much one can do except got to another PO and/or wait until another PM shows up.....

[rocketscollectibles]

Buy stamps and drop in mail boxes.

Something i noticed by going at the office is that their main job is to find problems with your packages. So much that sometimes they see problems where there is none. They'll always try to make you pay the higher rate if there's any grey zone. They'll also won't accept any single gram overweight or centimeter oversize, they are always extremly strict.

When you drop in mail boxes, it cost them more to return to sender than accept as is. So you will very rarly have returns.

I shipped more than once packages that should theorically be $1.30 or $1.94, with $0.92 of stamps, and they don't return if it's not excessive. Like them, i don't waste my time and my money. If i notice the package is 10g overweight or 5mm oversize after packing i ship and that's it. It doesn't return. 

[femmefan1946]

I put stamps on my LetterMail shipments.

I'm able to buy stamps well under counter price, so not only do I put the right amount on each envelope, but the counter clerk never sees those.

They go right into the post box outside the PO.

I only take parcels to the counter and I have usually either printed a label at home or have it stamped already.

I do prefer if I am putting stamps on my packages, to round down from what I think will be the cost, since I do like to have a receipt with the number on it.

[rosepeak]

I used to use stamps to ship my packages but found the process very time-consuming so I stopped. I wish they would just issue $3.09 stamps, $4.44 stamps and $5.09 stamps instead of so many other smaller values that don't represent the typical cost of a package.

I've seen some sellers using lettermail shipping labels that they generated themselves. Does anyone know how to do that?

[flipistics]

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@rosepeak wrote:

I used to use stamps to ship my packages but found the process very time-consuming so I stopped. I wish they would just issue $3.09 stamps, $4.44 stamps and $5.09 stamps instead of so many other smaller values that don't represent the typical cost of a package.

I've seen some sellers using lettermail shipping labels that they generated themselves. Does anyone know how to do that?

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I use postal indicia. I think you can only use an all-in-one lable for very, very small packages since there's requirements for where various things are on the letter. The nice thing is that you can print out a sheet of the labels whenever you want (I use 1x2" labels for them) and you never have to have stamps on hand. You do have to hand the items in over the counter though. They can't be dropped in a box.  When you're ready to send them off, you simply go to Canada Post's EST site and enter in the weight of each letter and pay. Bring the sheet you get to the post office when dropping the letters off.

There's a trade-off of not having to have stamps on hand with it taking very slightly more time, but it's really not a big deal.  The added benefit is all of your lettermail cost totals are available monthly on the Canada Post website which makes bookkeeping dead simple.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/support/articles/postal-indicia-requirements/overview....

[dinomitesales]

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@rosepeak wrote:

I had a bunch of packages to ship by lettermail and he literally took the heaviest one, weighed it and charged ALL my packages the same price according to that package's weight (300+ grams which is $5.09+tax).

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Yea... that's not right. At all. If this was just a regular clerk then go back and complain to the Post Office Manager. If said manager parrots the same thing then report this to Canada Post. They most definitely should NOT be doing this. Can't speak to the legality of it but they're purposely overcharging you, which isn't cool.

If you mail many Lettermail items in a specific weight category you can just ask the clerk to print you off a bunch of meter labels in the correct denomination that you can take home with you and apply at your leisure. There's a button on the main screen that allows them to print a meter label (basically a 'stamp') in any denomination, in whatever quantity they select. I'm blanking on what the button is called but I'm pretty sure it's just labeled "Print Postage".