Where buy return shipping labels - US buyer sending back to Canada

[itolduandso]

I don't get many returns but I had a buyer last year who didn't want to buy the shipping himself and expected me to give him the shipping label. I ended up refunding him in full instead of the return.

In case like this, where do I buy labels most cost-effectively?  Where would you go as a Canadian seller buying shipping from US to Canada? Buy at UPS, USPS, or Stamps.com, or Shippo?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@itolduandso wrote:

I don't get many returns but I had a buyer last year who didn't want to buy the shipping himself and expected me to give him the shipping label. I ended up refunding him in full instead of the return.

In case like this, where do I buy labels most cost-effectively?  Where would you go as a Canadian seller buying shipping from US to Canada? Buy at UPS, USPS, or Stamps.com, or Shippo?

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Easiest way that I know of would be at Shippo. That way if they don't use you get a credit....Eventually. At this point in time there is nothing built into eBay Labels to create reverse postage. Canada to Canada you can use CP and your CC to pay.

-Lotz

[byto253]

@lotzofuniquegoodies  has the answer for a label 😎.

As an fyi, you are not required to provide a return label, just to offer to send funds up front to pay for shipping.   I had a situation with a $300 sale that the person wanted a return label claiming not as described.  I messaged them and  offered to pay for the shipping up front as per the online eBay options.   The buyer refused saying they would return when they get a label, so I said I would check with eBay. 

I called eBay and they indicated that for international a label is not available and I had proceeded correctly.  End of the day, they refused to do a return without a label, filed an SNAD and got refunded without a return.  I called Ebay and that decision was immediately reversed and Ebay refunded me.    The autobot made an incorrect decision on that one.   The fact that I had called a couple of times to ensure I was following Ebay direction likely helped with the reversal.  I have more details in the thread below.

That said, I didn't know about using Shippo for a return label at the time, and that would have saved a lot of headache and stress!  

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Ebay-reversed-a-decision-error-and-refunded-me-Will-they...

[dinomitesales]

You can actually sign up for a PirateShip account and use it to purchase USPS labels using what they call their "Simple Export Rate". I used this to provide a return shipping label to a US buyer a couple of months ago and it went smoothly.

The PirateShip website will allow you to use a Canadian credit card to purchase the USPS label.

Check out this video, it's where I learned how to do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSIsMUarO3E

[itolduandso]

The Simple Export Rate from PirateShip suggestion is a great tip. It adds another option to consider for shipping internationally by using Stallion Express to take the package to US border and ship by USPS from there. I don't know how that stacks up against PostNL at StallionExpress, but it's going to cost less than Aramex and defitively less than Canada Post or UPS shipping from Canada internationally.

[itolduandso]

FYI ..Simply Export Rate beats 1-2 lbs package international (non-US/Canada) rates by about 7-9 CAD compared to already cheap shipping rates from Stallion.   For other intenrational (non-US/Canada) rates PirateShip is not better than Stallion.