Comments about shipping to Hawaii
Hi. I'm an eBay buyer in Hawaii. I'd like to know what sellers experience when they ship to Hawaii. Does eBay make it clear that USPS Ground Advantage delivery times to Hawaii are erratic, and can take up to 3 - 6 weeks? Do eBay shipping tools make it easy for you to offer an appropriate upgraded shipping option for Hawaii, where the buyer can choose to pay more at checkout, say the difference between your "free shipping" cost and a USPS Priority Flat Rate option? And are the Flat Rate boxes/envelopes easy for you to select from, to fit the item size? I ask because I would really like to be able to upgrade my shipping option most times. And it's a pain to have to contact the seller and ask them if I can do this, but it's even more of a pain, for me and the seller, to have to suffer through the really long delivery times to Hawaii that have been happening lately.
FYI: USPS Ground Advantage is generally a poor option. "Ground" to Hawaii means the item goes to a West Coast port, like San Francisco, where the tracking info stalls for weeks at a time while the package waits for available space on a barge that will take it to Hawaii, which takes several more weeks.
Mahalo!
lakefor94
·8 months ago@vinnie541
I use USPS Priority to HI, AK and PR on listings with USPS GA as my offered shipping. I just upgrade and don't look back.
They are excluded from any listings with UPS as the carrier.
I never look at what eBay estimates as delivered dates on anything I ship OR what eBay shows the buyer.
If I want to see what actual delivery dates might look like, I bring up PirateShip and check UPS and USPS offerings there to see what they "think" the actual delivery date will be, to the day.
From there I select the appropriate carrier and service according to delivery date and price.
vinnie541
OP8 months agoI like your strategy 🙂 Thanks for the info.
inhawaii
·8 months agoI buy quite a bit of stuff on ebay.
Most orders ship GA and get to me in a week or less.
A few of them take over a week.
I've never ever had an order take more than 2 weeks.
vinnie541
OP8 months agoREPLY DELETED--SEE NEXT POST PLEASE
vinnie541
OP8 months agoInteresting. Do you primarily buy smaller items? I’ve found that the smaller packages do mostly get here quickly.
Here’s a list of delivery times I’ve experienced with GA to Hawaii over the past year.
Date USPS had package # Days Transit to Maui
EBAY PURCHASES:
12/24 21
12/11 43
11/1 21
10/27 3 (small item)
10/29 16
8/10 26
2/12 19
1/27 15
1/27 2 (small item)
1/27 3 (small item)
1/27 7 (small item)
1/27 2 (small item)
AVERAGE GA TRANSIT TIME FOR 7 EBAY NON-SMALL PACKAGES: 23 DAYS
NOT EBAY PURCHASES (to add more general GA data)
11/22 24
11/26 22
7/21 29
7/7 3 (small item)
6/27 15
5/22 18
5/19 3 (small item)
3/12 9 (small item)
AVERAGE GA TRANSIT TIME FOR 5 NON-SMALL NOT-EBAY PACKAGES: 22 DAYS
inhawaii
·8 months agoThank you.
Very interesting.
Could being on Maui have anything to do with it?
Do all packages go to the airport/Honolulu post office first before the outter islands?
vinnie541
OP8 months agoHi. I see my GA packages go from San Francisco directly to Kahului, by barge. So perhaps there are less frequent barges coming to Maui than Oahu and that causes Maui times to be longer. The Priority Mail packages do go to Honolulu Airport first, and then go on to Maui and it usually only takes one extra day for that to happen.
vinnie541
OP8 months agoFinal thoughts.
Yes, we are aware in Hawaii of the long delays that are frequent. But that's the price for living on a remote tropical island 🙂 But here are some further thoughts:
- I am grateful for the sellers that do ship to Hawaii. Many don't, and that stings.
- Having the option to upgrade easily to Priority would really be nice in some cases. I know that sellers on the mainland would not usually foresee the issue of long delays to Hawaii, unless they've had this happen to them and it caused problems. But living here, it's a constant concern. It sure would be nice if eBay made this issue more visible to sellers, so it's easy for sellers to provide (remember to provide) a Priority shipping upgrade option at checkout.
- As a buyer who had a very long delivery time recently, I was essentially forced by eBay to open an INR case. If I didn't do this by 30 days after the estimated delivery date had passed, I would've negated my coverage under eBay's money back guarantee rules. I imagine this may have created some discomfort with the seller, when I otherwise would've been willing to wait a bit longer to see if the item showed up, and now the seller might think of me as "one of those impatient Hawaii buyers". This is really on eBay, to create a more productive/easy experience, rather than leave it up to buyers and sellers to deal with unusually long delivery times that are not in their control. I'm afraid that more and more sellers may decide it's too much hassle to ship to Hawaii. Instead, the hassle could be lessened by my suggestion of sellers offering the buyer the option to pay for a shipping upgrade to Priority.
12345jamesstamps
·8 months agoI shipped something to Bahamas from San Francisco on January 13th and it was received on today...January 23th by USPS ordinary mail...
I know it's not Hawaii...but heck, it's on the other side of the USA.
mommaknows
·8 months agoA few months back I sent one item to Colorado and one to Hawaii from Southern California and both Ground Advantage. They were brought into the post office at the same time.
Hawaiian package arrived in 4 days and the Colorado package took 7.
Just saying.
vinnie541
OP8 months agoYes, times do vary. My point is that it would be nice for me to have the option to pay a bit more for Priority, so there's higher chance of receiving in timely fashion if that's what I need :). It's no fun to be in the midst of a project, not have a part available in Hawaii, and then have to wait a possibly long time to receive it via eBay.
mommaknows
·8 months ago@vinnie541
I get it.
Unfortunately, the USPS has been so wonky. It really depends on where the item is shipped from and what hubs it goes through to get to you. Between the issues with fire, floods and winter storms it just depends.
I really was amazed at how quickly my item got to the islands.
You may want to touch base with @inhawaii and see if he has any information that would be helpful.
buyselljack2016
·8 months agoProblem with offering the option is that some will still pay the GA price and get upset when the item is late.
I stopped offering shipping to HI, AK, PR and protectorates for items that I would expect to be slowed by taking the barge across the Pacific.
vinnie541
OP8 months agoYeah, I hear you. But it's a shame to exclude all Hawaii etc. buyers due to some buyers being inconsiderate/clueless. Maybe eBay should automatically include a message to HI, AK, PR buyers on the checkout screen to say "if GA is selected there will likely be long delivery time due to recent USPS restructuring. Select Priority Mail option if time is critical."
bdmh-enterprises
·8 months agoI think I've only sent ESE there and only one person ever complained about the time and that was within the last month. Told them that HI usually takes longer than eBay states but if they felt it was too long to file an INR. Never heard from them again, tracking still says it's in San Diego lol.
I believe most ESE and 1st class letters usually go by air though.
soh.maryl
·8 months agoIt has always seemed to me from reading these boards that most buyers in Hawaii are aware of the extended time their purchases can take to arrive and are willing to make allowances for this.
Plus there's the fact that USPS delivery to almost anywhere even the continental US are taking more time than anticipated due to the way the USPS currently operates. And now many of us are about to come up against slow travels due to the whopper of a winter storm that we are anticipating.
tobaccocardyahoo
·8 months agoWhen I cared more, I used Priority Mail to Hawaii.
I no longer care as much, use Ground Advantage and have no complaints on the few sales I make to the state.
Much of what I sell is of historical interest, over 100 years old, and not relevant to the history of Hawaii. That means there are few buyers for it, and there is no urgency for those who are interested.
mozartbach1971
·8 months agoI've shipped many items to Hawaii and can't recall any problems. It's just like shipping items to any other state in the country.
itsjustasprain
·8 months agoI thought I read someplace that Ground Advantage packages under 1 pound are sent by air. (Wish I could find that source again now.)
vinnie541
OP8 months agoYes I read something like that somewhere as well. It seems for light weight, small packages there is a chance that it will get popped onto a flight if there is space. This may even happen for larger GA packages, but is is more rare.
robbie31415
·8 months agoThis is true.
They are supposed to, however mistakes happen.
Its on the USPS website.
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/USPS-Ground-Advantage
Items weighing 15.99 oz or less travel by air to Alaska, Hawaii, and offshore destinations. Items weighing over 15.99 oz travel by ship to Alaska, Hawaii, and offshore destinations
robbie31415
·8 months agoNo.
Ebay does a horrible job explaining this.
Tis why I only do priority to Hawaii.
Have had a few Hawaii buyers select Ground Advantage then they open INRs.
Essentially they get the item for free because while it sits in a boat not getting a scan, buyer can complete an INR payout.