Buyer Chose Shipping Service Not Included or Featured on My Listing-How Is This Possible?
I am not new to EBay, but I am new to this forum. Recently, I sold an item that included free shipping and the buyer chose a shipping service that was more expensive and was not included by me in the item listing. Since it was free shipping, I only chose/allowed the cheapest shipping services on the listing for the item. My question for the community is: How is it possible for a buyer to choose a shipping service not chosen by the seller? Is this possible? I can't see the buyer's checkout screens, so I can't see if EBay offers other shipping services to buyers other than those offered by the seller. Does EBay do this? I would think that if a seller chooses the shipping services, then there choices would be the only ones appearing to the customer.
I looked in shipping preference settings for a way to fix this, but I don't see a setting for this. Where do I look?
Has any one else had this problem? How can a buyer choose their own shipping service if it is not selected in the listing?
washingtonbob
·4 months agoNever experienced that before. Wondering if you cloned the listing from someone else, and that setting was enabled in that listing. Then it carried over. Usually if you choose a service, that is the service that is defaulted at the time of shipping.
Bob
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoTurns out I made a mistake
luckythewinner
·4 months agoNever mind, I see someone found it.
duffy4444
·4 months agoBy the way, gorgeous kitten on your avatar. Reminds me of my beloved Miyako, pure white with deep blue eyes. May he RIP.
Cheers, Duffy
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoHi Duffy. This kitten here on the forum avatar is not mine, but a picture from the internet. On my seller profile, which is different, that's Oliver, who is a Turkish Van kitty and runs our house.
I am sorry about your loss of Miyako.That is very hard to lose a special loved cat.
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoThank you! I appreciate your feedback.You have a lot of experience with this
onefootflipper
·4 months agoI suggest not ever offering your buyers shipping choices, this minimizes your profits, ties your hands with shipping and will increase your returns.
If you offer no choices and don't list it as priority or expedited then you can literally just send it however you want, whatever method is cheapest for you, provided it arrives on time.
When you offer a choice between UPS, USPS, and Fed-Ex then you tie your hands to using that service because you offered the choice. Now you are going to Fed-Ex to ship one $7 item because the buyer chose that off a drop-down box.
When you offer faster shipping times as an option then you get the time sensitive customer. That customer is going to start their mental shipping clock the second they place the order, regardless of what your handling time is. This is especially dangerous when offering services faster than priority. You might have 3 day handling and be closed on weekends. But that customer who orders something at 7PM friday night and pays for next day air is going to expect it to arrive in time for his party on saturday. Meanwhile you actually went out of your way to ship it out the next morning. However it still gets returned and you eat that massive next day air shipping because it did not arrive on time.
There are 3 kinds of customers who will pay for faster shipping, and only the first 2 are common. #1. People who need something by a certain date and will likely return the item when it shows up late. #2. People using stolen credit cards, since they don't care what gets charged. #3. Reasonable business buyers who need a critical business item as soon as possible, these people are not going to return because they need it, they just paid for faster because downtime costs money.
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoThank you. I seem to have made a mistake. I appreciate your comment.Live and learn right?
klhmdg
·4 months agoI would never use UPS on here.
UPS has many extra charges that they bill the seller for after delivery and since UPS contract is with eBay its a PIA to get any corrections.
USPS is easy and will pick up.
I think at times buyers get confused with too many options, so I only offer USPS.
inhawaii
·4 months agoIt is impossible for a buyer to select a shipping service not on your listing.
It just can't be done.
Buyers can only select shipping services that YOU selected when you set up the listing.
Good luck.
klhmdg
·4 months agoYou made a mistake in your listing.
The last item you sold has - Free USPS Priority Mail, as Free AND you also offer UPS Ground Saver - $9+
You need to set up free shipping as generic shipping -
When you say Free Priority shipping you have to ship Priority.
If you offer another option like - UPS Ground Saver (not free per your listing) the buyer can chose that and you have to ship that way.
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoThank you. I did make a mistake.
I appreciate your time. Thanks for clarifying.
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoYou seem savvy and experienced. I have some shipping questions, when you have time and if you don't mind.
1.) How do I set up free shipping as generic shipping? (How do you mean generic shipping?)
I thought if you clicked on free shipping while listing, that meant all services you select are free on the listing.
2.) How can one seller see what another seller has sold? and see what they offered as shipping?
How were you able to see how I shipped it? I looked on your store (very nice BTW) and could not find what you sold.
What is the trick to seeing that, and can a seller opt out of showing what they sold?
Thank you in advance if you can answer any of these questions.
Thanks,
Dana
stephenmorgan
·4 months agoSome of these tasks are detailed and it is hard to post understandable instructions.
Search online for videos that will explain how to do the tasks. You can look at several videos until one makes sense to you.
I don't believe "generic shipping" is an eBay term. Search instead for "Flat Rate eBay Economy Shipping".
Same with finding what a person has sold search for "see someone's recent sales history on eBay"
tobaccocardyahoo
·4 months agoYou probably committed an error.
Many sellers who offer free shipping choose to make it a generic method, like "economy shipping". It is the safe way to go.
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoI may have committed an error, but I don't know what it was. I thought I did offer only economy shipping, but the person chose USPS Priority mail. It was really weird.I can't figure out how they did that.It wasn't a choice I provided.
gone.c-33
·4 months agoIf this is about the baccarat set, it did offer Priority:
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoOhhhh..... Thank you so much for this screen shot. I did make an error.I didn't see that before the sale so I didn't realize that, and then after the sale you can't see what was offered on the original listing. ( I checked)
So buyers CANNOT choose a shipping service other than the one the seller selects.
Your reply has been enormously helpful.THANK YOU. I appreciate your time. You are awesome!
danapointbooksandart
OP4 months agoOne more question-Do you as a seller recommend UPS? Are they reliable? Should I offer it?
I was trying to give my customers choice, and they are competitive to USPS....
tyler_bauman
·4 months agoi've had less no problems with ups and i prefer them over usps, and they tend to be slightly cheaper
theteamsetguy
·4 months ago@danapointbooksandart ,
I use FedEx ground more than UPS. Usually FedEx is faster and cheaper for ground from my experience.
Disclosure: I'm a happy shareholder of FedEx.
crand.kathe
·4 months agoWhen I first started about a year ago, I used UPS exclusively because it was closer to me, but I found that shipping was much higher than USPS Ground Advantage. So I now use USPS for smaller packages and FedEx Home Delivery for larger items. Found that was the best fit for me.
ryry-jj
·4 months agoYou can always click on that specific listing and select "sell similar" to see how you listed it
jdbelt1960
·4 months agoI had that happen once and when I checked my listings found several items had mysteriously switched to priority shipping. I had to reset my shipping back to ground advantage for each item.