Shipping Prices Seem Off
Summary: mistkistcranberry explained that eBay's shipping calculator shows costs as if the package were taken directly to the post office, which might be higher than buying a label online. This was in response to a discussion about shipping prices appearing inaccurate.
Since the changeover to the new USPS Ground Advantage, I have noticed that shipping rates are way off. I use the "eBay calculates shipping" option, put in my box size and weight and eBay calculates the shipping based on the address of the buyer. Since that changeover, the rates have increased almost two-fold. But, the weird part is, while the buyer sees a much higher shipping price and pays it, when I go to purchase the shipping label, it is much much lower on my end.
For example, I sold three mugs. The buyer paid $19 in shipping for USPS Ground based on what eBay calculated for her. When I went to purchase the shipping label on my end, it was only $12 and the box I ended up using was larger and weighed more than I put into the calculations, so it really should have cost more.
I fear this is going to turn buyers off from buying my items because shipping is being calculated much higher than it actually is costing me. I have been having multiple offers come in low, because people are trying to balance out the shipping cost, or they are messaging me and asking if I can lower it because the shipping cost is more than the price of the item. I don't want to start getting bad reviews or graded down because people think I am pricing the shipping too high.
Any thoughts on why it is doing this? Any suggestions?
mistkistcranberry
·1 month ago · Editedebay's shipping calculator calculates how much you would pay if you took the box to the post office and paid for postage in person. The $19 is what you would pay if you didn't have the advantage of buying a label online. I have been turning 3 lb and more items into free shipping and figuring out max cost to me. Almost ready to do it to 2 lb items.
justjoenow36
·3 years agoShipping prices seem off too? How about trying to achieve deliveries under the new "ground advantage"? My shipping was going fine thru July 9th but now, under this new package system, I am getting 3-4 complaints every few days that my packs are getting delayed, lost or arriving late so **bleep** is going on USPS?
Anyone else seeing this??
klhmdg
·3 years ago@justjoenow36 maybe start a new post for this issue.
justjoenow36
·3 years agoIt's ok brother, someone else already did and USPS needs to get an earful from us sellers as this is not right. They cannot change something but not disclose that the new change will have a huge impact on delivery times.
lynns_deals
·2 years agoYes, I just deleted all of my ground advantage. I lost a few dollars in shipping for each of the items I chose this shipping for since first class is now gone! I deleted all ground advantage and will only ship priority now. I do not understand how Ebay is calculating this but the discount is going to the buyer and not to the seller and in fact you are losing money. Ebay is going the way of Amazon - just turning out to not be worth it.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoYou must have made an error in setting up the listings. I checked a few of your recent Sold items that had very low shipping, and they were offering First Class "Large envelope" postage rather than Ground Advantage.
When USPS merged First Class package postage into the new Ground Advantage service last July, the prices for packages up to 15.99 ounces did not change at all.
wastingtime101
·3 years agoIf you previously offered Parcel Select then you were charging buyers actual cost of postage.
USPS did something very strange when they split off the old Parcel Post into the same service with different names for retail and commercial - Retail Ground and Parcel Select.
Now that USPS has normalized it, Ground Advantage is like Priority and other services where there's a retail rate and a commercial rate for the same service under the same name.
The setting can be found on this page to pass on your carrier discounts to buyers:
https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf
When you offer carrier specific discounts it will apply to all USPS services, not just Ground Adv.
Since eBay charges a fee on total cost (item + ship + tax) buyer pays, by charging commercial rates you are losing money on every single package. If you want to make up for that you can add a handling fee or increase your item costs - or simply charge retail rates for a built in cushion.
When you apply the change you may not see it reflected on your live listings because of this text on the help page, "changes you make only apply to new or edited listings where a shipping cost applies."
To apply the carrier discounts, first change the setting on your shipping preferences page and save. Then pull all your listings into the bulk editor and submit changes. Even though you're not making any actual changes to the listings, you're submitting a revision that will force listings to reindex and that shipping setting to take effect.