After shipping quote discrepancy, eBay rep says don’t use FedEx

[moforacing]

I haven't sold many things on eBay so I learned this the hard way.

The short story. If you are going to ship items through eBay that weigh more than 70 Ibs., and are large or oversized, DO NOT USE FEDEX.

The longer story. Through a source outside of eBay I bought a pair of automotive leaf springs in December 2011. This item was shipped to me via FedEx Ground to a commercial address. The item weighed 86 Lbs. Size as measured, 58" inch Long, 7" inch Wide, 10" inches Tall. My cost to have this item shipped to me at the time was $45 dollars.

Fast forward six years, I decide I didn’t need these leaf springs for my project and find a buyer for them outside of eBay. BUT, I notice eBay is offering a nice discount on shipping through FedEx. So I talk to the buyer and an agreement is made for me to list the item on eBay so that he can purchase them through eBay and he can take advantage of the shipping “discount” through FedEx. Seems so simple right!? Wrong!

Here’s how it went down. I use eBay’s online shipping quote estimator. Given the same weight and measurements as post above, a quote of $68.89 is generated. I apply that estimated shipping charge to the eBay item. Buyer purchases the item. I go to print the shipping label, but, there is an issue. The item needs to be shipped to a residence which can only be done through FedEx Home Delivery which has a weight limit of $70 Ibs. Remember, my package weighs 86 Ibs., so I cannot use FedEx Home Delivery. In order to use FedEx like we wanted to get the eBay “discount”, the package would have to be shipped to a commercial address via FedEx Ground. Why was I not alerted to this when I the quote was generated? So I call eBay and they say so sorry, use UPS which is a lot more money. I contact buyer. I ask buyer if he has commercial address I can ship to via FedEx Ground. He does not. We elect to divide the package into two separate packages and for him to pay the difference to use FedEx Home Delivery. So again going by eBay’s online shipping cost estimator, an estimate of $56.95 each is generated. The weight of each item is 43 Ibs. Size of both packages as measured, 58" inch Long, 3" inch Wide, 10" inches Tall. The buyer sends me an additional $45.01 more to cover the extra shipping cost. I print the label. I drop it off at FedEx. While at FedEx I confirm on their scale that my weight is correct. While I’m there, nobody at FedEx measures my packages or alerts me to a potential issue. Fast forward to when I get my eBay invoice and it seems a bit high. I go and look at the shipping charges and find I was billed $82.14 for each item not the quoted $56.95. I contact eBay and ask them about the charge. They tell me FedEx uses “Dimensional Weight”, not “Actual Weight”. I say, how come I was not alerted to this? (A) When I generated the quote. (B) When I generated the label. (C) When I dropped the item off at FedEx. The eBay rep points to the fine print and tells me the online shipping estimator tool is an estimate. Okay so it’s ball park estimate, $56.95 or $82.14, that’s a close enough estimate and my fault if I thought it would be closer to what I was quoted. Then the eBay rep tells me they have had lots of issues with FedEx and lots of customer complaints, but for whatever reason, upper management won’t drop FedEx as a shipping vendor. Then I’m told by the eBay rep to not use FedEx anymore, instead use UPS.

Well thanks eBay for looking out for your customers. I just lost $50 dollars because your online shipping estimator, *fine print*, is a big pile of manure and the shipping company you refuse to cut ties with is just about as worthless. Thanks so much eBay for looking out for me. Since then, I immediately closed my remaining eBay listings and posted my items in free forum classified ads, of which some of them have already sold... With NO final value fees... With NO final value fees on Shipping... And NO PayPal fees.

So there you have it eBay. As a result of your disregard for your customers and for your greed in

absorbent fees, I will not be buying or selling anything through your service again.

Sincerely,

Angry customer... Not that you give a rats ass.         

[phcd1]

I'll admit, I didn't read you your full rant but I can assure you you need to look at the word "dimensional weight" for your issue. Also, you need to verify the address, verify weight limits ect. its not up to eBay that it is a commercial address or not. FedEx is billed at delivery. Leaf spring are going to be cost prohibitive to ship, that much I know (unless they are VERY rare).

[moforacing]

I see what you are saying but you've missed the point. And that is, if eBay wants to provide a front end or the illusion of providing full service shipping options to their sellers, then they could perhaps make some improvements to avoid further issues like these. This isn't only me we’re talking about. The eBay rep I talked to on the phone today told me he had just spoke to another customer with a similar grievance.

Anyway here's a few examples of what I’m talking about:
 
When a seller is creating their listing. The item hasn’t been sold so there isn’t a shipping address to get an accurate shipping quote. Yet the eBay shipping estimator will allow the seller to select for example one of the boxes marked as FedEx Home Delivery/FedEx Ground together as one for one given price. This is inaccurate and misleading. These are not the same shipping services, they come with their own rules and limitations, but eBay’s shipping function makes it seem as though they are the same thing, they are not and this difference can cost the seller quite a bit in shipping cost they didn’t account for.

Next when creating the shipping label, the eBay label application has stop gaps set in place to keep the seller from making an inaccurate shipping label. Like for example, if the ship to address is residential, the app automatically selects FedEx Home Delivery and won’t allow the seller to select FedEx Ground. FedEx Ground won’t ship to a residence. So now that the app has automatically selected FedEx Home Delivery, if the seller tries to put in a shipping weight of more than 70 lbs., a stop gap mechanism initiates a message in red writing that says, “Weight can not exceed 70.0 lbs for FedEx Home Delivery”. So my question is, why can’t eBay provide these same sort of stop gaps on the front end of their shipping estimator and not after the listing has ended? Another example of this is if the seller tries to input an insured value greater than the purchase price, again, a stop gap mechanism initiates a message in red writing that says, “Declared amount can not be greater than the item(s) total price”. So what I'm trying to convey is simialr stop gaps at the shipping estimator might provide better service to sellers and reduce further issues like these; writing in red pops ups that guide the seller to a more accurate and meaningful shipping quote. If eBay doesn't posses the technology to do this, then perhaps they should not offer the illusion of offering the service in the first place.
 
As I mentioned in the original post, I paid just $45 dollars to have these items shipped to me 6-years ago by the same shipping provider. So I shouldn’t be the least bit alarmed when it just cost me $165 dollars or nearly four times the original amount to ship them?

Oh well, I’m sure the eBay fan base will be along to tell me eBay is infallible and there is no need for any improvements with their services.
      

[missjen831]

Customer service tells you what you want to hear and those call center peggys don't know anything about shipping. 

[usgamecollector]

i stopped using fedex because they would add like a $4 charge to most orders for home addresses that ebay would not put in their calculator.

[berserkerplanet]

@moforacing

There is what I consider to be a bug in the estimating calculator http://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator and possible the calculator in the listings which I discovered yesterday while looking into a similar issue: the calculator gives a quote for over 70# FedEx shipments with no indication of the Home Delivery 70# max weight limitation. (and that calculator assumes residential destination which implies Home Delivery).

I don't know what the solution to that would be because that calculator is meant to be a very simplistic interface that lumps FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery in the same estimate (user would have to understand that the estimate given would be less by amount of Residential Delivery Surcharge if going to commercial address)

I'm going to be harsh here. but it was incumbent on you as the shipper to research and understand FedEx shipping and not rely on eBay's primitive interface to handle everything (especially with your shipment on the fringes of weight and size).

The eBay calculator does account for dimensional weight no matter what ignorant eBay CS reps say or what other posters (who don't understand or even use FedEx) here claim. And, as we will see, dimensional weight was NOT in any way an issue here.

Working backwards from your actual 2 pkg shipment numbers it looks like it was a zone 8 shipment.

43#  58"x10"x3" pkg has a dim weight of 58x10x3/166=11# so is ignored (as less than actual)

L+G=58+(10+10+3+3)=84" which is <130"  so incurs no oversize surcharge

L >48" so it doew incur an $11 additional handling surcharge.

Base rate for 43# to zone 8 = $49.15

HD Residential Surcharge = $3.45

Addl Handling SC = $11

Fuel SC = 4.25% and applies to base+res

Est charge per pkg should have been: $65.84  (online undiscounted rates using service guide)

Here is what eBay label flow yields:

The eBay discount brings the manually calculated estimate above in line with the actual label amount and in line with your $56.95 per package number.

(something is wrong with the eBay calculator Fuel Surcharge number - FedEx Fuel SC has been 4.25% for a while, but the calculator is using 3.35%, and I have no idea where it is getting that number from. Going to have to think on it but looks like another bug @Anonymous)

So far everything is pretty much in line with what you said.

(I can't think of anything offhand that could have happened other than another package being on top of yours when weighed on the FedEx lines, or FedEx just fabricating numbers - because the actual weight is so much greater than the dim weight, even if the box were smashed and measured as a larger volume or your measurements were all low by 3 inches, dim wt still wouldn't come close to actual weight. Same for L+G - the box couldn't approach 130". There is nothing else. Except maybe address correction SC at $14 a pop or ?)

What exactly appeared on your eBay invoice? What weight, dimensions, and other surcharges are claimed there that brought the cost to $82.14? If we can figure out what happened, should be able to help you get a credit or refund if it is a spurious charge.

Are you saying you were charged a total of $164.28 (2 x $83.14) on your eBay invoice, or that the total charge for the 2 pkgs was $83.14?

Please answer the above questions.

Addendum: Just looked at you sold listings and see no sale of leaf springs on this ID. I did notice that you are in Idaho, so my assumption of zone 8 destination may be incorrect. Where did you ship the pkgs? The east coast? What origin (83501?) and destination zipcodes?

[arun7500]

If you're going to use FEDEX, use them on their site, not ebay's. Ebay doesn't figure dimensional weight or delivery type (residential/business) . A problem long running, but like anything else involved with ebay, they have little interest in fixing it.

[berserkerplanet]

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Ebay doesn't figure dimensional weight or delivery type (residential/business) . A problem long running

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I unblocked you long enough to ask why you continue to spew this trollish **bleep**.

Prove those assertions with numbers and screenshots Morty.

[moforacing]

"Are you saying you were charged a total of $164.28 (2 x $83.14) on your eBay invoice, or that the total charge for the 2 pkgs was $83.14?

Please answer the above questions.

Addendum: Just looked at you sold listings and see no sale of leaf springs on this ID. I did notice that you are in Idaho, so my assumption of zone 8 destination may be incorrect. Where did you ship the pkgs? The east coast? What origin (83501?) and destination zipcodes?" 

Actual Invoice amount = $82.14 times two, Total $164.28

The following is what shows up on my invoice, twice x2.

Bill Wt: 106.0LB
Addn Hndlg Amt: $11.00
Freight Amt: $80.61
Fuel Amt: $2.62
Pref Price Disc: $-18.54
Resi Amt: $3.45

Origin zip code = 83501 (ID)

Destination zip code = 08701 (NJ)

My original quoted shipping price of $56.95, at time of label generation, took into account a $150 dollar declared value for each item. 

[moforacing]

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@missjen316 wrote:

Customer service tells you what you want to hear and those call center peggys don't know anything about shipping. 

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But... they hear issue after issue all day long and make advisory statements based on exactly that. 

[mr_lincoln]

@moforacing  I for one am very glad you posted this ... earlier this year there were many threads on FedEx over charges.  I expereinced it too where the calculator said one price and the Buyer paid a lower price after an order and I got stiffed for the difference.  I put together a post for the Weekly Chat, it went live first thing and was promptly removed (off topic for that week) and sent (I was told later) to an"administrative area for review and NOT viewable any longer in The Community.  close to 6 weeks went by and I asked about it again on the Chat, nobody had an answer and they were going to check on it ... nothing new to my knowledge on the subject.  Okay, I get the "fumbling" (what we used to call it in the industry when you wanted an issue to simply go away) and that it may not be a high priority ... I just don't use FedEx unless absolutely necessary ... and maybe that's the plan.

I think there may be a number of things in play here, FedEx has to be offered because they are a major carrier in the US and wordlwide but I suspect eBay does NOT aggressively negotiate with them for correcting all the problems with using their service.  I think eBay would be happy if everyone used USPS whom they've negotiated deep discounts with in foreign Asian countries and I suspect FedEx and UPS simply won't play ball there.

So yes, a good rant like yours is 110% justifiable ... I will defend it because the FedEx Overcharge happened to me and others ... DOCUMENTED. 

[berserkerplanet]

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Bill Wt: 106.0LB

Addn Hndlg Amt: $11.00
Freight Amt: $80.61
Fuel Amt: $2.62
Pref Price Disc: $-18.54
Resi Amt: $3.45

Origin zip code = 83501 (ID)

Destination zip code = 08701 (NJ)

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Everything above looks correct except for the 106 lb bill wt and the $80.61 Freight amount (which is the correct list rate base amount for 106# to zone 😎

The Additional Handling, Residential, and Fuel surcharges are applicable (except the Fuel SC percentage is too low and wrong), and the destination zip does not incur any delivery area surcharges.

There is exactly a $4 difference between the line amounts above and the $83.14 total you say you were charged per package, and $3 could be accounted for by the $150 declared value, but why isn't it noted in the line charges and what's the other $1? (unless declared value was $301 to $400 not $150)

However, you were definitely overcharged from what I can see.

The odds of both your packages geting weighed while other packages were sitting on top of them and coming out to the same 106lb weight is zero.

It looks like FedEx fabricated a huge dimensional weight for both pkgs, effectively claiming the pkgs were on the order of 60" x 24" x 12" instead of the actual 58"x10"x3".

 @Anonymous needs to step in here and get you some help to get a refund for the overcharge.

[mcampbell71]

Is UPS Ground the best alternative for a bulky, heavy item? 

[missjen831]

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@berserkerplanet wrote:

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Ebay doesn't figure dimensional weight or delivery type (residential/business) . A problem long running

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I unblocked you long enough to ask why you continue to spew this trollish **bleep**.

Prove those assertions with numbers and screenshots Morty.

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@berserkerplanet Curious how you blocked him? Lithium doesn't have that feature. We can't block each other unfortunately. We can only block private messages. I wish we could block posters here though especially one on this thread!

[berserkerplanet]

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