Cost calculation for buyer thru new forwarding facility in Glendale Heights
Customer wanted to negatiate a deal by ordering a handful of moderately priced books. As we bargained back and forth, I created a private page for him. We reached a deal - which included me paying shipping anywhere in the USA - and I sent him the link. It was two week's worth of sales in one day, so I should be a happy seller.
As the exact weight was unknown when I created the page, I left the weight and the box size undefined. It defaulted to 1 ounce in a 1 x 1 x 1 inch box. Since I was paying for shipping, it shouldn't matter.
But he looked at the page yesterday, and noted in an email that he had an extra 17 dollars of shipping added. I told him that I would look at the page again, and that I would make sure that it was indeed free shipping as I had promised. Late last night, without waiting for my reply, he paid for them.
The ship-to address was the one place in the entire country that could cause a problem: the new eBay forwarding facility in Glendale Heights IL. I believe that eBay quoted him 17 dollars for shipping a 1 ounce package internatiionally from Illinois. However, the package will weigh about 14 pounds.
So I have to fix this. I see two ways to do it:
1) Ship the books, and tell him that there may be an increase in fees, but that I will cover it.
But I don't have even a ballpark idea of what the shiping fees will be, nor do I have any way of knowing if he pads them.
2) Cancel the sale, tell him that I screwed up, redo the page with the correct weights, and tell him to order again.
Any advice is welcome, especially any that incorporates knowledge of what international sales look like from the buyer's point of view.
pjcdn2005
·3 years agoIf your listing had free domestic shipping the $17 would be the cost of shipping from Illinois to the buyer's location. Since the international shipping is probably more than $17 it might be best to cancel and refund and then correct the listing. I'm not sure exactly what would happen but I suspect that the EIS would refuse to forward the parcel because the weight is wrong or send it back to you at your expense. I doubt that they would simply charge you more and I'm sure that they would not bill the buyer for it. But read section 8v at the following link as it does mention what happens if the weight is wrong.
https://pages.ebay.com/internationalshippingprogram/seller/terms/
stuff4divas
·3 years ago@schraders_books Not sure I understand:
but you had to put the weight and dimensions on the shipping label page in order to correctly pay the true shipping cost to the eBay consolidation center.
is this an ebay int'l shipping package?
pjcdn2005
·3 years agoBut I think that the correct weight on the label would only change the price to the shipping center, not to the buyer's location.
stuff4divas
·3 years ago@pjcdn2005 correct. the int'l shipping is charged to the buyer separate
schraders_books
OP3 years agoSo, are you saying that eBay does flat rate shipping: one flat price from Illinois to Canada, regardless of actual weight? That would resolve my problem, but I have trouble believing that eBay would have a policy like that.
pjcdn2005
·3 years agoNo. That's not what I'm saying at all. They definitely do not do that. I was saying that entering the correct weight on the label wouldn't change the portion that the buyer was charged. The buyer is charged solely on the information that you provide in the listing.
When you use EIS you need to enter the package weight and dimensions on the listing, otherwise the shipping cost is not accurate and they then estimate what the buyers pay. Because the package is so heavy, there is a good chance that the amount they charged the buyer based on your listing will not be enough and the buyer won't receive the package as I mentioned in my first post.
schraders_books
OP3 years agoNo, actually, I don't. As long as the seller is offering 'free' shipping - which I am - the postage can be - and is - calculated after the sale.