Navigating Extra Shipping Fees on eBay
Summary: houseofcharm1 is seeking advice on how to add additional shipping charges on eBay beyond what the platform calculates, due to needing multiple boxes for shipping a large ceramic collection. chrisseascornerthisnthat and bashort suggest using a flat rate and calculating potential costs with external tools. Other participants, including mamacassidy and christworks, emphasize that eBay does not allow adjusting shipping fees post-sale and advise absorbing the extra costs or canceling the sale properly. houseofcharm1 expresses frustration at eBay's limitations compared to other platforms.
Hi all, how do I go about adding extra shipping charges over and above Ebay's calculation? I listed that in the ad body, a huge amount of ceramics, 100pcs, and stated that it would likely be 3-4 boxes and to ignore Ebay's calculation?. How do you handle these situations to maintain transparency with buyers while ensuring your costs are covered? Ebay charged $87 and it will likely be 2-3x that figure. Thanks!
houseofcharm1
OP2 weeks agoSo it worked out OK. Spread the weight around and am out just 75. out of 160ish. Thanks for the help.
mam98031
·3 weeks agoIf you have a shipping amount stated in your listing when a buyer purchases the item, that is it. That is all you get. No matter what you may say in your listing. You are simply NOT allowed to charge more.
If you want to continue to use calculated shipping, then make sure the information in enter is as close as you can get to the actuals. If that isn't possible, then you may not want to use Calculated Shipping and go to a stated / fixed shipping amount that you enter into the listing. You will need to decide what works the best for you.
houseofcharm1
OP3 weeks agoI've been spoiled by other platforms that deal with the shipping on their end and just send a labels. They take about the same % as ebay also but provide more intervention.
houseofcharm1
OP3 weeks agoThanks for the input. I used Ebay's calculator but mentioned that it will be different and ship in 3-4 boxes. Now I have to hope for human nature when I present the overage. I haven't printed the Ebay label yet so maybe I can cancel that.
mamacassidy
·3 weeks agoAre you talking about the Purinton pottery that you sold? Because if you're talking about an item that has already sold, you are not allowed to add any additional fees after the sale. It is up to the seller to determine the shipping costs before the listing is made.
In this case, you can either ship the items and pay any overage out of your own pocket or cancel the sale and re-list with the correct numbers.
christworks
·3 weeks ago@houseofcharm1 As @mamacassidy said, you cannot go back and ask the buyer for more money after the sale. It doesn't matter what you stated in the listing. That is a direct violation of eBay policy.
I think you need to eat the cost and consider it a lesson learned. If you do cancel the sale, you need to use the out of stock reason. You cannot blame the buyer as that would also be a policy violation.
Again, I stress, you need to eat the cost and ship however many boxes it takes. If not, you may find yourself with negative feedback and strikes on your account by eBay.
Going forward you need to know what the shipping will cost. When it is something I know will take multiple boxes, you want to use flat rate shipping or free shipping. Keep in mind free shipping is merely a flat rate shipping cost to the buyer of zero dollars. You must still buy the shipping label(s) which is why you must consider the cost to ship.
Given the value and risk of breakage and returns with that particular item, I would have used a shipping table to indirectly limit how far I had to ship it. I'd hate to have to ship multiple boxes of breakable items to Zone 8 and hope that not one of the 115 pieces gets damaged.
Make sure you double box every box!
caldreamer
·3 weeks agoYou cannot charge the customer extra money for postage after they purchase the item. That is not allowed on EBAY.
bashort
·3 weeks ago · EditedMany times when you put the weight and size like one box it will actually be cheaper to ship in multiple boxes.
On UPS it is always cheaper to ship a over 50 pound box in multiple boxes and keep them under 50 if possible.
I would figure how many boxes and their size and weight that I wanted to ship in and then figure it as one big box, go to pirate ship or somewhere and play around with what size and weight you need for one box for the ship calculator to cover the multiple boxes. The problem with flat rate on something like this is there will be a huge difference depending on shipping zone
chrisseascornerboutique
·3 weeks agoI would do a flat rate. Figure it out yourself how much it will be on a service like Stamps.com (I always use this and never eBay labels. Then change your shipping to flat rate for that amount of postage required. Add up the weight of the boxes and do each separately, but post it as a total figure of all three. You may want to note that shipping will be high due to...... in the listing as an explanation.