Ask Shippo!

tyler@ebay
Community Member

Have a burning question for Shippo that you just can't seem to get an answer to? Need clarification on processes, how-tos, or procedures? We'll be hosting the Shippo team again to respond to your questions on the 12th of September!

 

This thread will unlock and be available for you to post on the 12th all day. On the 13th we'll get all posted questions to Shippo for review and they will begin responding the 13th and14th.

 

Mark your calendars and prep your questions - we'll see you then!

Tyler,
eBay
Message 1 of 23
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22 REPLIES 22

Ask Shippo!

Hi everyone, the tread is now open. Feel free to ask your Shippo related questions here, and they will be answered directly by the Shippo team.

Message 2 of 23
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Ask Shippo!

We’re excited to be here and answer your questions. This forum is open all day so please ask away!

 

Note: we will be answering where we can quickly throughout Wednesday but some questions will take a bit more time to fully research, so you may see answers come in piecemeal. Rest assured we will be answering all questions!

 

Thank you everyone for their contribution.

Just a reminder, we have a dedicated team for helping eBay Canada sellers at Shippo. You can get in touch with us at:

  • ebay-ca-support@goshippo.com
  • We are available: M-F, 9AM - 9PM ET and with limited hours on the weekends.
  • We have support available in French as well.
Message 3 of 23
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Ask Shippo!

Hello.  I have a question about Shippo insurance.

 

When buying insurance for an item shipped via a method without tracking such as small packet, is it necessary to acquire a postal stamp showing the item was shipped or is it all right just to drop the package into a mail box?

 

 

Message 4 of 23
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Ask Shippo!

Can we use Shippo for shipping items which are not eBay items?

 

Also, is there way to use Shippo to ship items which are personal items and not items sold via a venue?

 

Is there a way to buy a USPS label and send it to a buyer in the States for returns?  If so, how would we do that?

 

 

Message 5 of 23
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Ask Shippo!

The two postal outlets I use (both in Rexall stores) are still unable to scan labels prepared by Shippo.  Even though I know that Canada Post will scan them in the evening, I've been in the habit of getting the postal clerk to scan them in the event they get missed at the CP depot (which has happened on occasion).

 

One of the clerks said they received special instructions from Canada Post but they don't work (I think they just don't understand them).  Evidently they have to enter it as a merchant's originating point which, if they do, cancels the tracking number, which makes absolutely no sense to me.  So I've asked them to simply throw them in the mail for pick-up without scanning.

 

I don't know if this is an issue that can be addressed by Shippo or if I have to contact Canada Post directly to receive instructions to pass along to the postal outlet ... silly as that sounds.  I have a feeling, however, that you have heard this complaint before.

 

Thanks in advance for any insight you might have.

Message 6 of 23
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Ask Shippo!

I printed a label on July 7th, realised immediately It was not correct and requested a refund through Shippo. Shippo obviously sent my request to Canada Post as I received an email from CP on July 18th. It said that the request was being processed and the credit would be to the "original method of payment or via MMA". (Whatever that means?) I have still not received my refund from Shippo. PayPal used to take 14 days, it has now been 60 days from Shippo, far too long. Please advise how and when you will refund me.

Message 7 of 23
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Ask Shippo!

(Can you maybe repost this thread somehow or float it the top spot that it is immediately visible as a new content? I went looking for it five times between yesterday and today before I thought to look under Shippo as a Topic in the Discussion area.) 

 

Anyhow, my question is about metric measurements. 

 

Shippo has kindly reset my units of measure to metric at least eight times now but they always still show in inches. Pounds moved to grams just fine but the centimetres are constantly translated to and displayed as inches, and Shippo says this is because of the way ebay communicates those units of measurement for export into the Shippo platform.

 

Which might be an explanation except that my units of measurement are set up as metric in all of my listings too.

 

What is wrong here? It is a source of irritation to me that I have to rest my parcel dimensions to centimetres every single time I go to print a new label. 

 

Also, it takes too many clicks to get from my Order to the Shippo platform now that I'm signed up and have an existing account. There's the screen that says it's taking you to Shippo, the Shippo page that only offers you a sign-up for new accounts, and then finally you can click on someplace to go to another page to sign in with your existing Shippo account. Could you maybe offer a shortcut to existing accounts sooner? 

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

Again, I have to say that Shippo Customer Service have been outstanding to deal with. If only Canada Post could get all their authorized dealers trained, we'd be rolling. 

 

Maureen 

 

 

 

Message 8 of 23
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Ask Shippo!

The description of parcel contents displayed on the label is taken directly from the first few words of our eBay title of the item sold, and there doesn't appear to be a place to override this .... at least one that I can see.

 

For example:

 

Showing "Alien 4-Pc. Gift Set" is not explanatory (or often an abbreviated version "1 Pkg. Alien 4-Pc. Gi" is shown).

 

I want the label to state "Ladies Skin Care" with the appropriate HS code.

 

Is there a place to insert our own description of the contents?

Message 9 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@sylviebee wrote:

Hello.  I have a question about Shippo insurance.

 

When buying insurance for an item shipped via a method without tracking such as small packet, is it necessary to acquire a postal stamp showing the item was shipped or is it all right just to drop the package into a mail box?

 

 



Hi sylviebee, thank you for the question.

For context, Shippo insurance is provided through our insurance partner Shipsurance so we’ll defer to their FAQ for the answer to this one:

 

See FAQ #10: http://www.shipsurance.com/questions

Canada Post shippers: We are aware that Small Packets may not contain a tracking or customs number. In order to cover your packages with Shipsurance, make sure that your shipments have some form of indication of acceptance from Canada Post. You can have your Postal Representative or Post Master provide an acceptance stamp on your shipping receipt that indicates their acceptance into the mail flow.

 

So yes, it looks like you will need to acquire a postal stamp to show that the item was shipped since there is no tracking included for small packet.

Message 10 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@sylviebee wrote:

Can we use Shippo for shipping items which are not eBay items?

 

Also, is there way to use Shippo to ship items which are personal items and not items sold via a venue?

 

Is there a way to buy a USPS label and send it to a buyer in the States for returns?  If so, how would we do that?

 

 



Yes! You can definitely use Shippo for non-eBay items – whether personal or sold through another venue. There are two steps:

 

Step 1: Inputting the order on Shippo

There are 3 ways to do this:

  1. Manual input (at the top right corner of the Orders page) where you can type in your to and from addresses and package information. This is good for those 1-off personal items.
  2. CSV upload (also at the top right corner of the Orders page) where you can systematically upload a large number of orders all at once.
  3. If you have storefronts on other selling channels (ie: Shopify, Magento etc) you can go to our Connect tab to sync orders from those platforms. Similar to how eBay works, these orders will automatically populate on Shippo, where you can create labels, and tracking numbers will be synced back to the original storefront.

 

Step 2: Connecting another carrier account

To create shipping labels for these non-eBay orders, you’ll need to add a carrier account. The default Canada Post connection that was set up during onboarding is for eBay orders only, reserved for special eBay rates.

 

To add another carrier, you can go to the Carrier page and select “Add carrier account”. You can input the same Canada Post small business account number that was used in the initial setup but it will now pull your own rates from Canada Post.

(Note: if you signed up for a new account for the first time when you first signed up for Shippo through eBay, please be sure to log into Canada Post to complete the registration before it can be used.)

 

If you want to add other carriers like Purolator, FedEx, UPS, and others, you can also choose to do that on the same page. We automatically pull in any negotiated rates you have.

 

To answer your USPS return label question, which is related to carrier accounts, Shippo does come with master accounts immediately upon sign up. USPS and DHL Express (for US originated shipments) are two of them.

 

For returns from the US to Canada, you’ll need to manually input the order information.

 

1)  Take note of your customer address and package information. On the Orders page, head to "Create Order"

2) Input your customer's address as the "Sender Address", and input your return location as the "Recipient Address"

3) Input your package information, customs details, and select from the available USPS or DHL Express rates.

4) Purchase label, download, and send to the customer.

 

You'll be charged for the label as usual in your invoice. If your customer does not use the label, you will receive a refund after 30 days – which also voids the label.

Message 11 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@jt-libra wrote:

The two postal outlets I use (both in Rexall stores) are still unable to scan labels prepared by Shippo.  Even though I know that Canada Post will scan them in the evening, I've been in the habit of getting the postal clerk to scan them in the event they get missed at the CP depot (which has happened on occasion).

 

One of the clerks said they received special instructions from Canada Post but they don't work (I think they just don't understand them).  Evidently they have to enter it as a merchant's originating point which, if they do, cancels the tracking number, which makes absolutely no sense to me.  So I've asked them to simply throw them in the mail for pick-up without scanning.

 

I don't know if this is an issue that can be addressed by Shippo or if I have to contact Canada Post directly to receive instructions to pass along to the postal outlet ... silly as that sounds.  I have a feeling, however, that you have heard this complaint before.

 

Thanks in advance for any insight you might have.



Really sorry for the experiences you have been having at some postal outlets. Shippo has been working closely with our contacts at CP to address all of these issues our customers.

 

We reached out to Canada Post for some feedback on this and they recommended that if there is actually a problem with scanning of the labels, there may be an issue with how you are printing your labels. Per CP, There have been some noted instances where customers are choosing ‘Print in grayscale (black and white) or ‘Save ink/toner’ which have made the barcodes unreadable and unable to scan.  The customer should be choosing ‘actual size’ and ‘choose paper source by PDF page size’.”

 

Can you please reach out to the Shippo Support team (ebay-ca-support@goshippo.com) with both of the Rexall locations where you are having issues, and we’ll have CP reach out directly for them? We haven’t heard about an option that will cancel your tracking number, and we agree, this certainly doesn’t make sense. Hopefully this is simply a miscommunication that we can work through with the CP team.

 

If you drop off the package at any dropbox, it should be able to be processed without any issue. Thanks for your patience!

Message 12 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@vintagenorth wrote:

I printed a label on July 7th, realised immediately It was not correct and requested a refund through Shippo. Shippo obviously sent my request to Canada Post as I received an email from CP on July 18th. It said that the request was being processed and the credit would be to the "original method of payment or via MMA". (Whatever that means?) I have still not received my refund from Shippo. PayPal used to take 14 days, it has now been 60 days from Shippo, far too long. Please advise how and when you will refund me.



Hi vintagenorth,

Sorry for the confusion here - Shippo refunds should also take 14 business days to process, just like Paypal. We completely agree, 60 days is way too long.

 

Refunds are processed, by default, as Shippo credit that is applied to your next invoice after. The refunded labels reduce your overall invoiced amounts.

 

Specifically, I see that the refund you may be talking about was applied on your 9/12 invoice. It’s marked as “(refund)” and is a negative line item. You can see your billing and invoice details here: https://app.goshippo.com/billing/. Hope that answers it for you!

Message 13 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@jt-libra wrote:

The description of parcel contents displayed on the label is taken directly from the first few words of our eBay title of the item sold, and there doesn't appear to be a place to override this .... at least one that I can see.

 

For example:

 

Showing "Alien 4-Pc. Gift Set" is not explanatory (or often an abbreviated version "1 Pkg. Alien 4-Pc. Gi" is shown).

 

I want the label to state "Ladies Skin Care" with the appropriate HS code.

 

Is there a place to insert our own description of the contents?



Hi jt-libra - definitely agree that the title that is pulled from eBay and auto-populating in the customs items may not be the most descriptive or clear identifier.

 

You can adjust the text by editing the customs item, or if you have multiple customs and simply want to remove all of them with one click you can do so as well.

 

1) Adjust the Customs Item in Step 1, during the customs declaration section:Pasted image at 2017_09_13 02_08 PM.png

2) Enter your preferred items information and HS code:

Pasted image at 2017_09_13 02_09 PM.png

 

3) Now your customs item will have the correct information

Pasted image at 2017_09_13 02_10 PM.png

 

Message 14 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@mjwl2006 wrote:

(Can you maybe repost this thread somehow or float it the top spot that it is immediately visible as a new content? I went looking for it five times between yesterday and today before I thought to look under Shippo as a Topic in the Discussion area.) 

 

Anyhow, my question is about metric measurements. 

 

Shippo has kindly reset my units of measure to metric at least eight times now but they always still show in inches. Pounds moved to grams just fine but the centimetres are constantly translated to and displayed as inches, and Shippo says this is because of the way ebay communicates those units of measurement for export into the Shippo platform.

 

Which might be an explanation except that my units of measurement are set up as metric in all of my listings too.

 

What is wrong here? It is a source of irritation to me that I have to rest my parcel dimensions to centimetres every single time I go to print a new label. 

 

Also, it takes too many clicks to get from my Order to the Shippo platform now that I'm signed up and have an existing account. There's the screen that says it's taking you to Shippo, the Shippo page that only offers you a sign-up for new accounts, and then finally you can click on someplace to go to another page to sign in with your existing Shippo account. Could you maybe offer a shortcut to existing accounts sooner? 

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

Again, I have to say that Shippo Customer Service have been outstanding to deal with. If only Canada Post could get all their authorized dealers trained, we'd be rolling. 

 

Maureen 

 

 

 



Hi Maureen,

First off, thank YOU for answering so many great questions on Shippo Central for everyone. We appreciate your patience and your support 🙂 Glad that you’ve had good experiences with our Customer Service team as well, we're working really hard to help everyone with the transition. So really glad to hear this feedback from you. 

 

We don't quite have a good answer around the dimensions yet... so I'll get back to you on that in a few.

 

But to your point on how to get to your Shippo account faster:

You can go to our website directly at www.goshippo.com and login at the top right corner. This will drop you onto the Orders page.

 

In case you do want to access Shippo from eBay order, the sign up flow that you're talking about should also have an option to log into your account. And since you're fully setup with Shippo, you'll get dropped right into the Orders page again. 

 

Screen Shot 2017-09-13 at 2.56.03 PM.png

Message 15 of 23
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Ask Shippo!



 

 

Pasted image at 2017_09_13 02_10 PM.png

 


I have been wondering about the above screen. Why does it say "Remove All Items. The weight of all items combined must not be higher than the parcel weight." I do know what this means but I get this message all the time and seem to spend time trying to get the weight to be accepted. On the customs form the weight is of the actual items less the packaging, or at least that is how it was when we used the PayPal customs form. Is yours different?

Message 16 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@shippo-help wrote:

We’re excited to be here and answer your questions. This forum is open all day so please ask away!

 

Note: we will be answering where we can quickly throughout Wednesday but some questions will take a bit more time to fully research, so you may see answers come in piecemeal. Rest assured we will be answering all questions!


@shippo-help

 

Please use the post reply Quote option to quote the post that you are answering within your reply. It is hard to go back and forth to see the original question and your answer. It is also difficult to know which post you are answering when a member has made multiple posts.

Message 17 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@mjwl2006 wrote:

(Can you maybe repost this thread somehow or float it the top spot that it is immediately visible as a new content? I went looking for it five times between yesterday and today before I thought to look under Shippo as a Topic in the Discussion area.) 

 

Anyhow, my question is about metric measurements. 

 

Shippo has kindly reset my units of measure to metric at least eight times now but they always still show in inches. Pounds moved to grams just fine but the centimetres are constantly translated to and displayed as inches, and Shippo says this is because of the way ebay communicates those units of measurement for export into the Shippo platform.

 

Which might be an explanation except that my units of measurement are set up as metric in all of my listings too.

 

What is wrong here? It is a source of irritation to me that I have to rest my parcel dimensions to centimetres every single time I go to print a new label. 

 

Also, it takes too many clicks to get from my Order to the Shippo platform now that I'm signed up and have an existing account. There's the screen that says it's taking you to Shippo, the Shippo page that only offers you a sign-up for new accounts, and then finally you can click on someplace to go to another page to sign in with your existing Shippo account. Could you maybe offer a shortcut to existing accounts sooner? 

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

Again, I have to say that Shippo Customer Service have been outstanding to deal with. If only Canada Post could get all their authorized dealers trained, we'd be rolling. 

 

Maureen 

 

 

 



Maureen, to the unit of measurement issue:

 

Although we have worked on multiple fixes for this, apparently the root of the issue has still not been addressed, and that's why some sellers unfortunately are still running into this issue.

 

We are working to fix this permanently so that we maintain the unit of measure that you are inputting in eBay. We definitely understand why this is frustrating when you need to adjust every dimensions on every order! We’ll reach out directly when this is fixed on production. 

 

Again, thanks for your patience. 

Message 18 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@vintagenorth wrote:


 

 

Pasted image at 2017_09_13 02_10 PM.png

 


I have been wondering about the above screen. Why does it say "Remove All Items. The weight of all items combined must not be higher than the parcel weight." I do know what this means but I get this message all the time and seem to spend time trying to get the weight to be accepted. On the customs form the weight is of the actual items less the packaging, or at least that is how it was when we used the PayPal customs form. Is yours different?


Although I'm not too clear on how PayPal customs form used to work so it's quite possibly different. With Shippo, the total weight of the customs items together, must equal the weight of the shipment that was first entered. 

Message 19 of 23
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Ask Shippo!


@shippo-help wrote:

Really sorry for the experiences you have been having at some postal outlets. Shippo has been working closely with our contacts at CP to address all of these issues our customers.

 

We reached out to Canada Post for some feedback on this and they recommended that if there is actually a problem with scanning of the labels, there may be an issue with how you are printing your labels. Per CP, There have been some noted instances where customers are choosing ‘Print in grayscale (black and white) or ‘Save ink/toner’ which have made the barcodes unreadable and unable to scan.  The customer should be choosing ‘actual size’ and ‘choose paper source by PDF page size’.”

 

Can you please reach out to the Shippo Support team (ebay-ca-support@goshippo.com) with both of the Rexall locations where you are having issues, and we’ll have CP reach out directly for them? We haven’t heard about an option that will cancel your tracking number, and we agree, this certainly doesn’t make sense. Hopefully this is simply a miscommunication that we can work through with the CP team.

 

If you drop off the package at any dropbox, it should be able to be processed without any issue. Thanks for your patience!


Will do .... thanks very much!

Message 20 of 23
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