eIS and the Lettermail "Problem"

[ecgt]

For years a large part of our business model has relied on shipping items such as DVDs, certain video games, comic books, CDs and other items that are eligible for Lettermail within Canada. Said items would be shipped  using Tracked Packet to the USA or Internationally.

The Lettermail method of shipping within Canada is extremely cost effective to the extent that many items are only competitive when shipped via Lettermail. 

Since eIS uses the domestic shipping on file when an international buyer places an order, we now have a problem. The eIS program requires that we use a trackable method. Lettermail is non-trackable. More than a third of our items only offer Lettermail as the domestic option.

We were enrolled in the eIS program on October 9 and made our first sale this morning (a Blu-ray). Unfortunately, the item in question offers Lettermail as the domestic shipping option. We charged $6 for Lettermail in this case. All of the tracked shipping methods available to us generally cost $18 or more for an item of this size.

We aren't willing to eat that cost, so we decided to cancel the transaction. This is not something we want to do because if we start cancelling transactions over and over it could lead to an account suspension.

We decided to check the eBay Shipping Label prices for the item before cancelling the transaction and were met with a potentially good surprise.

Shipping the Blu-ray from Halifax to the Mississauga hub via eIS is only $8 for Canada Post Expedited Parcel with eBay Shipping Labels for the item in question (in this case a parcel weighing 200 g in a 22 cm x 16 cm x 12 cm box). Knowing this, we are going to eat the $2 and give this a shot.

We checked to see what it would cost to ship a record using a record mailer (600 g in a 33 cm x 33 cm x 4 cm box) and the Canada Post Expedited Parcel price came up as $9.

The UPS prices were also less than expected, but were several dollars more than the Canada Post options in the tests we did.

If this is accurate, then it suggests that eBay and Canada Post (as well as UPS) have made deals on cheaper shipping to the hub and haven't made an announcement as of yet.

We realize that we are among the earliest invitees to the program. Has anyone else had a sale via eIS yet? If so, what is your experience in terms of shipping prices to the hub using eBay Shipping Labels?

[byto253]

That is just wrong.  Even if the $8 had HST added it is still way to high.    

Do you have to purchase a shipping label to the EIS Hub from eBay or can you arrange your own shipping there?  

[rainbow71113]

I had this happen with a Fedex to Germany, not only did they charge her the vat, brokerage and duty/taxes etc but they charged me fuel surcharge with brokerage so my label on ebay was $36 and when it came back to charge me it was $90+ ebay refunded both of us but that's the last time I used fedex...UPS has charged a dollar more here and there but that's not a problem. 

[rainbow71113]

thanks for doing that, I was wondering about it-now how does it show up on the US side...are there 2 shipping rates? one for my listing and one for els? The one I'm sending right now is only a light lettermail so it wouldn't have a high shipping anyway

[marnotom!]

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@ecgt wrote:

We just got charged $12.63 for the shipping label to the eIS hub that was quoted as being only $8.00 when we purchased the label. Dimensions are accurate.

If we aren't receiving accurate shipping rate quotes when purchasing shipping labels to the hub this entire program is dead on arrival. 

We are very **bleep** off right now. As a result of this we net less than $3 profit on this item. This is a disaster.

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I think this issue is more about the glitchiness of Expedited Lite pricing right now than something that's specific to eIS.  It's discussed a bit on this thread:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Expedited-lite-packet-rates/m-p/530734

[ecgt]

It definitely seems like there is no problem arranging your own shipping to the hub, though it looks like other users have had problems with things getting delivered by Chit Chats.

Since they offered $8 shipping for Expedited Parcel via eBay Shipping Labels we decided to give it a shot. It seemed like they were offering a deep discount.

It still isn't clear whether or not shipping to the hub using Lettermail is acceptable.

[ecgt]

That's a separate issue from the eIS program, though, right?

[ecgt]

We paid for Expedited Parcel, not Expedited Lite. 

[marnotom!]

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@ecgt wrote:

We paid for Expedited Parcel, not Expedited Lite. 

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$8.00 is more in line with Expedited Lite than discounted Expedited Parcel, though. The glitch you experienced is probably related more to the eBay shipping label client than it is to the eIS set-up.

[byto253]

Somewhere there has to be the same accountability for eBay as sellers have for their listings.  Regardless of who the finger is pointed at, the seller should be make whole on this as it was false information provided on the eBay site by eBay. 

 As a seller I am held accountable and responsible for what I put out there and eBay makes darn sure I am and we pay when there are errors.  Seems like a double standard that there is a mess with quoted shipping costs and it is just ooops, so sorry, you lose again.  

Unacceptable for a company this size. 

[rainbow71113]

that's absolutely correct, once I got a negative because the cover story on a magazine was only 3 pages and I called ebay and said...I didn't publish the magazine...but they said I had to have the negative because it was the buyer's "perception" of the transaction. What nonsense...so now I try to put how many pages on each of the cover items.  

ecgt-you should call ebay-they might refund the difference that you were charged.

[chicweb]

This is weird... because the feedback about the content of a magazine is not about the seller or the transaction.

It's like receiving a bad feedback as a seller because of a bad movie in a DVD or a bad story in a book... Sellers don't have to be held accountable for personal taste.

 There's a difference between a seller feedback and a product review. The eBay agent should have known that.

[rainbow71113]

I have seen negatives because someone didn't like the movie and I always wonder if the seller tries to get it removed. I've even seen neutral when somebody bought some yarn and hadn't got around to knitting it yet....utter nonsense...I also think the feedback should be about the transaction but buyers seem to be clueless. 

[rainbow71113]

speaking of lettermail....I read somewhere that they are letting items less than $100 that are NOT from a business through without COO and manufacturer info on the envelope. I've sent about 6 small envelopes with just my name and address written on instead of my labels with no contents info and all have gotten through and must faster than the stuff I've sent with Chit Chats

[chicweb]

I'm not sure I understand. Manufacturer info on labels/envelop?

We do not write any manufacturer info on any labels or envelop when shipping. Lettermail = Sender address, receiver address. Tracked national = Same thing with bar code and weight/service used. That's all. (As I understand, for eIS, the receiver address contain the ebay special code).

Content info is not needed on label at all for national postage (tracked or not).

[dinomitesales]

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@wheelersndealers wrote:

I may be able to shed some insights in a week or so. I've sent a 8 or 9 packages to the hub so far. Some were tracked some were lettermail (low value that if I lose I lose type thing that just wasn't worth the added cost for tracked shipping). I have shipping set for $4.99 and it will cost $8 for tracking to the hub on most packages that I would ship as I messed around with different size boxes and weights. I am in the Moncton N.B. area for reference. So for alot of my shipments I sprung for the tracking but a few $7-$8 sales I sent via lettermail. I will let you know if I get any reprecussions or warnings for doing so but they were able to be just marked as shipped just like any normal domestic orders using lettermail would. 

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@wheelersndealers 
@widgetc 
Any update on the untracked shipments sent to the hub? Do they show any information on the order details (possibly an acceptance note, or an international tracking number assigned to the order)?

[rainbow71113]

sorry I was referring to sending lettermail to the US....seems they are letting things under $100 that are not from a business go through 

[an_709184]

Another problem is that eIS shipping cost will be shown in the search results instead of the cheaper lettermail option, driving people away from clicking on the listing. There needs to be an option to change that or disable eIS per listing basis.

[byto253]

Are you shipping lettermail directly to the US and not using EIS?  In that case put the flat rate lettermail  shipping cost as an option in your listing, as that is lower than the EIS rate it is what buyers will see.   

EIS will only show up if it is the lower cost option or for calculated shipping. 

[an_709184]

Yes, that is what I am currently doing. I think that is only the case when you are viewing the listing, but when your lising is shown from the search results, eIS shipping cost is shown by defaut. I tested it on Tuesday, from USA and from different countries around the world, maybe they changed it since.

[shawnspeller]

$6 for lettermail, woof. Blurays are heavier than I thought.