media mail glitch buyers being undercharged SELLERS are being OVERCHARGED as tech tries to FIX
Sunday 4/14/2024
eBay tech made a terrible mistake and are billing customers less than actual shipping Rate for media mail
This is costing sellers money and that money is being sucked up by eBay
An example is that the buyer is charged LESS than the actual amount when they chose Media mail as the shipping service. After long discussions a glitch caused the system to give buyers a 10% shipping discount.
As I have never seen a shipping discount even available I checked every one of my listings and none that are current showed any shipping discount. The reason for these phantom charges is unknown. I expect eBay will give back the money once they are able to repair the glitch. In the meantime I was led to a workaround. Go to account settings (under your name) down the menu to shipping preferences. Check to make certain this tech error has not affected your shipping discount settings by clicking edit. If you see a box checked under a % remove the check then reset. This is a temporary fix which you should continue to check on until eBay tech gets their act together. In the meantime message eBay customer service under shipping and report anything that has been checked.
Thisshipping error caused by a technical glitch costs sellers the % that the tech error caused by checking a box.
I did not know this area for shipping even existed and as I had never seen this before I became aware by printing out labels were the payment amount from buyers was clearly too low and labels cost much more than I was getting from buyers. Document and report this as it is a tech error and sellers need to get credited for the glitch. I am posting as eBay keeps these mistakes secret from sellers in the hopes they won't get caught overcharging. I don't think it was deliberate but as you all know tech sits on a throne that sellers have no access to.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoPlease give us some item numbers to check. We ship Media Mail all the time and haven't noticed anything off yet, but we ship so many orders over the weekend especially that we could have just not realized it.
Edit: I checked your most recent sold item, 355608082673, which shows on the listing $5.61 for Media Mail shipping, which matches the Media Mail price for a 3lb package, which looks right for that lot of discs. Was the buyer charged that amount, or were you charged more, or is that not one of the problem listings?
pjcdn2005
·2 years ago@Anonymous
Are you sure your buyers are paying the lower shipping charge? Some of your listings are showing one shipping cost on the search page but when I click on the listing, the correct price is showing. For example item 355607414194 (Pixar’s blu ray) shows a shipping cost of $3.72 to zip 33434 on the search page but on the listing itself the shipping is $4.13. When I add the item to my cart, the cost stays at $4.13. The difference is 10% but the buyer is paying the non discounted price.
I see the same thing on some non media mail listings too. Item 355472424444 (ukulele case ) shows me a shipping cost of $28.49 on the search page and in the listing and in my cart, the cost is $31.65 ground advantage. So something is odd on the search page but yiu should be receiving the correct shipping amount.
One listing is undercharging for media mail but that is not an eBay problem as the listing is using a flat rate, not calculated shipping. That is item 355265938783. (Mice and men dvd) It’s been listed at $4 media mail and $4.35 GA.
an-57470
OP2 years agoActually I am experiencing Media Mail problems The listings are showing rates that are not correct and buyers are paying what is on the listings I am not seeing this on other items. eBay is showing several incorrect prices. I am told this is a technical issue.
mam98031
·2 years agoAre you using Calculated Shipping? If so make sure it is set up correctly as there is a setting were you can pass the discount on shipping Ebay has acquired for us onto the buyer. So it would reduce the amount they pay. Check your settings closely.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoAside from the calculated shipping problem, you have a few listings that are flat rates, not calculated. They look to be below cost as well.
an-57470
OP2 years agoYes positively certain So far 6 orders were charged incorrectly starting on Saturday
all are USPS Mefia mail and all are 10% less than they should be
there are others that are also less than normal however they are not less than the actual label
There was a box that had been checked off for a shipping discount I have never used a shipping discount
I did not know how to find it There is an SR number in place from customer service It appears that during
an eBay maintenance some users were effected. There is a section where one can offer a discount on shipping. I did not know this existed and I have been on eBay 23 years.
‘Boxes under this were accidentally checked off. So some tech glitch I was told it was going to be fixed and those effected would be reimbursed for the mistake. I had to go in and manually correct nearly 100 listing as well as unchecking the box. Fortunately I use free shipping on many items those were not compromised.
Several other have reported this but I am uncertain how many were affected. There are often tech issues during maintenance over the 23 years I have been here I have seen several but this is the first time I have seen
shipping costs that were wrong.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoI am posting as eBay keeps these mistakes secret from sellers in the hopes they won't get caught overcharging. -
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while I agree that eBay does not always post everything that they know unless a seller is a "big time seller" it seems that they would notice that the shipping is costing more than the buyer pays, and even then........... poor business model if they are not catching it.
Good on you for noticing the difference.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoCould you give a specific example, including the package weight, how much the buyer paid for shipping and handling, and how much you paid for the label? Thanks. If there is indeed some systemic eBay error or glitch, I'm surprised that there are not other posts about this.
dhbookds
·2 years agoCheck to be sure you don't have a discount for buyers.......
https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf/carrier
Because we get no discount on media mail, having a % off will cause a buyer to pay less than the real cost..... you can mitigate that by adding a handling charge to your media items.....
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoDoes Media Mail go by weight?
Some of your sales look rather heavy.
And is there a limit how much a Media Mail can weigh?
I'll let other here answer those questions...which might come into play.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoYes, Media Mail is priced per pound, regardless of the Zone it's going to. Weight limit is 70 pounds.