Letter from eBay re Shippo

[katlover1952]

I received today an email from eBay stating "Enjoy your discounted shipping rates from Canada Post" as the heading then further down it says "shipping rates from Shippo for Canada Post will expire July 1st". I read the email but just was not quite sure what they meant. Does this mean there will no longer be discounts?  Did anyone else get this & do they know what it means??

[brettjet38]

So glad I just kept using Paypal/Canada Post works just fine for me.

Shippo was a waste of time and effort, glad I decided to disregard the whole shippo fiasco!

[ypdc_dennis]

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@sylviebee wrote:

That's a drag.  I've learned to really like Shippo as a convenient way to ship.  I can create a label there in less time than PP,  but I can go back to PP shipping.

Can someone remind me why we ever switched from PP shipping?  Don't we still get a discount there?  I realize that the Shippo discount was a little better but the difference isn't huge, or do I have that wrong?

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Up until the time eBay switched to Shippo, PayPal did have some discounts on eBay sales (even earlier, before PayPal became a separate company, there was a backdoor method that allowed eBay discounts on all shipments -- those were the pleasant days of saving).

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Once the switch was made PayPal had some additional discounts directly from Canada Post for a short period of time.

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Both PayPal and Shippo had special Small Packet Air discounts of almost 20% from Canada Post until July/2017 to Jan 15/2018.  Canada Post's effort to bury Light Packet.

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Since then all PayPal rates for selected Canada Post services (PayPal does not offer everything) are identical to your Solutions for Small Business discount.

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I figured back in January that the eBay discount was about 6-8% better for Expedited Parcel (Canada and USA) and for Tracked Packet USA.

-..-

[pjcdn2005]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

About discount that does end July 1, 2018, does anyone know when it will be no longer displayed/included with the eBay postage calculator?

-CM

There has never been a CP discount shown on the eBay postage calculator unless you set up a general percentage discount in shipping preferences for your own listings.

Otherwise, standard retail rates are shown.

I agree with the other poster that it shouldn't be necessary for ebay to notify buyers that prices are changing. Few sellers passed on those discounts to their buyers anyway.

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[mrdutch1001]

"PP decided to get out of the shipping label business" -

That's what eBay wanted its sellers to believe so that sellers would switch over to Shippo...

There are many many online selling venues that use PayPal as their only payment system and therefore PayPal online shipping remains alive and well.

[mrdutch1001]

likewise...I never signed on with Shippo.

[tomerific]

SOLUTION FOR ANYONE WITHIN A COUPLE HOURS OF TORONTO/GTA:

CHIT CHATS EXPRESS
http://chitchatsexpress.com/

[triber]

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@brettjet38 wrote:

So glad I just kept using Paypal/Canada Post works just fine for me.

Shippo was a waste of time and effort, glad I decided to disregard the whole shippo fiasco!

 I agree with you Brett, I never changed to Shippo, just kept using Paypal and I do get a small discount there. Tried Snap Ship a couple of times when Paypal was down, but it was so hard to print a label, that might be a computer problem.

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[ypdc_dennis]

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@tomerific wrote:
SOLUTION FOR ANYONE WITHIN A COUPLE HOURS OF TORONTO/GTA:
CHIT CHATS EXPRESS
http://chitchatsexpress.com/

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Nice that you are a fan -- but you are really overpushing -- especially that "couple of hours".

...

I'm about one hour from a ChitChats location IF the traffic is in my favour.  So I figure about $50 for my time (minimum wage) and car cost for one round trip to them.  With my current type and level of sales the  CCE "savings" don't cover that extra cost.

-..-

[bpl521_sell]

So as I understand it there is no longer a discount with Shippo, and unless you like the Shippo interface and are ok with the potential hassle of having a Shippo label inducted at the post office then just use Canada Post Snap Ship. 

[mrdutch1001]

Yes,  Canada Post Snap Ship is an option...requires payment of shipping labels via credit card.

Can also use PayPal shipping...payment for labels through PayPal.

[rose-dee]

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@bpl521_sell wrote:

So as I understand it there is no longer a discount with Shippo, and unless you like the Shippo interface and are ok with the potential hassle of having a Shippo label inducted at the post office then just use Canada Post Snap Ship. 

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Yes, I am still having issues with Shippo labels not being able to be scanned at the Post Office.  The other day our regular P.O. clerk was away and her replacement struggled to figure out how to input the label until she decided to get on the phone to CPC.  After going through a few people she finally got someone who knew what to tell her to do to process the label -- half an hour later.   Unfortunately I had sent my husband to the P.O. with the parcel, and he wasn't fully aware of the problem (or had forgotten I'd mentioned it months ago when we first had to get our usual P.O. clerk up to speed).  It wasn't the new clerk's fault, Shippo or eBay should have ironed that out with CPC long ago. 

I find Snap Ship is really no more trouble than Paypal.  Of course Paypal still picks up the eBay transaction details, which is helpful and time saving for record-keeping purposes.   So I'll likely be going back to Paypal once the extra discounts are gone from Shippo, and use Shippo or Snap Ship only as back-ups. 

[femmefan1946]

Shippo does have one asset.

We can print USPS labels, which is handy if we need a return label for unhappy American customers.

It may also be possible to print labels from other postal systems, but I've never had to check.

[kawartha-ephemera]

I agree, even though the Snapship service has other advantages the need to input addresses is it's shortfall, so PayPal wins I guess.

I must say though that I'm impressed how well Snapship autofills Canadian addresses, too bad they don't have access to a US. Database too.
Also, if one holds a dedicated credit card (with x % cash back) account Snapship is cheaper and is full service. The old axiom "a penny saved is a penny earned" may apply for some.

[bpl521_sell]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:
I agree, even though the Snapship service has other advantages the need to input addresses is it's shortfall, so PayPal wins I guess.

SnapShip now allows saving recipients, which is a bit handy if you want to start a label and come back later or a repeat customer. Maybe the feature was always there, but just noticed it a month ago.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@rose-dee wrote:

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@bpl521_sell wrote:

So as I understand it there is no longer a discount with Shippo, and unless you like the Shippo interface and are ok with the potential hassle of having a Shippo label inducted at the post office then just use Canada Post Snap Ship. 

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Yes, I am still having issues with Shippo labels not being able to be scanned at the Post Office.  ...  It wasn't the new clerk's fault, Shippo or eBay should have ironed that out with CPC long ago.

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CANADA POST should have fixed this stupid scanning issue last year.  Canada Post supplies the label specification to Shippo and Canada Post does the scanning. This is Canada Post failing to do a proper job.

[momcqueen]

I'm the last person to don the mantle of conspiracy theorist but it's almost as if Canada Post doesn't particularly want Shippo to succeed in this arena. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Now if only Snap Ship would let you pay with either Debit or Paypal. Not everyone wants to use their credit card/has a credit card every time they have a transaction with Canadapost. In speaking to their customer service department, additional options aren't even on the horizon. You would think they would realize more payment options would generate a greater portion of direct business.

-CM

[sylviebee]

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@ypdc_dennis wrote:

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CANADA POST should have fixed this stupid scanning issue last year.  Canada Post supplies the label specification to Shippo and Canada Post does the scanning. This is Canada Post failing to do a proper job.

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That's just one of the problems with CP.  Every time I use their on line service there's an issue.  Can't tell you how frustrating it is to spend an afternoon printing one label using their site.

It seems to me that it's possible that CPC might be pushing Shippo out hoping to eliminate the middle man with the idea that shippers will go directly to the CPO's site.  If they want to do that then they need to fix these issues.   Shipping is their only job so there's no excuse for all the problems. 

[femmefan1946]

Maybe, but it sounds more like eBay 's US-centric staff forgot to renew or upgrade their deals with Canada Post and thus lost the discounts they were offering for the first year or so of service.

I agree that CP staff and more often postal outlet staff have not been properly trained about how to deal with Shippo labels.

My own workaround on that is to accept that I won't get a rubber stamp on my paid and numbered labels without a lot of hassle at the counter. Then I drop my parcels in the letter box outside and go on my merry way.

I don't use any labels very often, but the terminal workers seem to be properly trained and the tracking kicks in when the parcels get there.

[rose-dee]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Shippo does have one asset.

We can print USPS labels, which is handy if we need a return label for unhappy American customers.

It may also be possible to print labels from other postal systems, but I've never had to check.

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Yes, good point, I'd forgotten about that (thank goodness I haven't had to use it yet).   Since I've been fully plugged into Shippo since eBay switched over, I'll just leave it as a backup provider for such cases (fingers crossed!).