USPS shipping rates increased??
I don't remember seeing anything about the USPS shipping rates going up. I went to print a label for a padded flat rate envelope and see it went from $8.30 to $8.54.. Was there any announcement about this?? Did I miss it?? TIA
35 comments
devon@ebay
Hey @sunnydaze45! The Shipping team reached out and wanted to share the following:
"The Shipping team is aware of the USPS rate fluctuations. A resolution is in place and rest assured, sellers who were negatively impacted will be credited."
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoThanks @devon@ebay will those credits be automatic or will sellers need to reach out to support individually? Was this an intentional change that got pushed out too early or something else?
fern*wood
·2 years agoGlad to see you back on the board!
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoWe now have multiple other reports of sellers being charged incorrect shipping prices this week, including some where they apparently had elected to pass on the shipping discount to buyers, resulting in the buyers being charged *less* than sellers were charged for Ground Advantage labels.
Here are the posts I've seen so far:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Flat-rate-envelope-increase-1-7/m-p/34212615
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Ebay-charged-me-8-54-for-a-priority-padded-flat-rate-envelope/m-p/34216770
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Ebay-shipping-calculator-screwing-up-big-time-today/m-p/34215995/highlight/true#M466747
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Ebay-shipping-calculator-screwing-up-big-time-today/m-p/34216562/highlight/true#M466766
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Shipping-rates-incorrect/m-p/34217297/highlight/true#M466790
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay @brian_burke@ebay @shippingteam@ebay - when is eBay going to address this issue?
wastingtime101
·2 years agoAll the shipping rates were back to "normal" today so whatever the issue was, it appears to be fixed.
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoOh my....now it's bugging out and loading old rates for some ship on days and the changed rates for other days.
For example, if I select ship on Wednesday 1/10, it's showing the changed rates.
But if I change the ship on date to Friday 1/12, it switches back to the old rates.
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay @shippingteam@ebay - what is going on here?
The rates we are seeing would tend to indicate this is an intentional change but obviously the fact it is bugging out when switching between days I would assume is not "working as intended".
Is there a ticket for this? Is eBay bringing the rates in line with adjustments others made in November?
Getting out ahead of this with an explanation *before* the rate increase on January 21 would be a good idea as the confusion is only going to get worse if the rates change again at that time.
techvaluesatoz
·2 years agoI've not done an exhaustive search in this specific Community Messages area, under Buying & Selling, Shipping, but I have been hearing at my local POs and reading in multiple internet news sources of the USPS shipping cost increases coming this month, January 2024. These would almost necessarily affect the rates you'll pay through ebay Labels for USPS services. I would expect their competitors to consider the previously announced USPS increases to implement increases they may also want to make.
I also just received an email from Pirate Ship describing both increases and decreases in various USPS rates. With my quick read, it looks like it's going to be more expensive to offer free shipping (via USPS Ground Advantage) on lightweight, lower cost items, and also to ship print and recorded media via Media Mail; while Ground Advantage and Priority Mail will be more competitive on some Flat Rate and heavier shipments up to about 20 lb and travelling longer distances.
On some days I travel to USPS, UPS, and to FedEx shipping locations, depending on several factors, cost being only one consideration.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoHere's a link to the new USPS rates which will go into effect on January 21. The Commercial prices in Notice 123 used to conveniently match those charged by eBay, but lately eBay has been charging less for some Priority Mail weight/ zone combinations. I suspect that the rates hiccups this weekend are related to implementation of the new USPS rates and related discounts available to online postage providers including not only eBay but also Pirateship et al.
https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/January%202024%20Price%20Change%20112223%20-%20Notice123.pdf
booji_girl
·2 years agoThis happened to me yesterday but only in bulk shipping. I switched to doing the labels order by order and the old prices were still showing up.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoInteresting. I saw the different rates with both bulk and single labels.
Above screenshots are single labels not bulk.
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoInteresting @booji_girl around what time and in what time zone were you doing that yesterday?
I was still seeing the "new" prices showing for single labels through around 4 PM Eastern yesterday and didn't check again until this morning, at which point it was back to the old prices. I wonder if you caught it when they were updating it?
booji_girl
·2 years agoIt was around 5 pm Hawaii Time (+2 hrs PST, +4 hrs CT, +5 hrs ET).
Also, since I'm in Hawaii + only sell to US buyers, all of my packages are zone 8 except the few a year that are shipped within Hawaii.
@wastingtime101 Just as @valueaddedresource said, I immediately assumed I had caught a weird, hopefully momentary glitch. Just 10 minutes ago the eBay shipping calculator seemed to be acted similar, but I'm hoping that's also brief.
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoAnd I just checked it again and we're back to the "changed" rates again. 🤦â€
I give up and I'm sticking the "educated guess" that this is an intentional change made to bring eBay rates in line with the changes Pirate Ship and others made back in November and that we'll see additional changes in ~2 weeks for the actual "new" USPS rates coming on January 21.
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay anything you'd care to add?
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoUpdate - today the Priority Rates are back to what they were before.
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay - will eBay be automatically refunding the difference for anyone who purchased labels at the higher rates over the weekend?
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoI suspect we'll be seeing more posts about this later this evening and tomorrow once today's rates are no longer shown.
If anyone actually ends up purchasing a label at the increased rate, it would be helpful if you can look under Payments and confirm how much you actually get charged.
In the past when eBay has messed up with eBay Standard Envelope prices being increased in error before a USPS update, they said it was a "display issue" that only showed the wrong (higher) prices when purchasing the label, but sellers were actually charged the correct (lower) price on the billing side.
Comparing the displayed rates to what actually gets charged for labels with a "ship on" date of January 8th or later may help to determine what's really going on here too, since we may not get a definitive answer from eBay on the weekend.
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@sunnydaze45 @wastingtime101 what ship on date are you using?
I just did a test and it looks like eBay *is* sneaking in a stealth increase for Priority Mail rates effective January 8th!
It's not just flat rate options either, I tested a few weight/size combinations and on all the ones I tried, it looks like Ground Advantage is staying the same, but Priority is going up for anything with a ship date on or after the 8th.
On the padded envelope, the retail rate stays the same at the current price of $10.40, it just shows the discount between retail and the eBay rate has been reduced because the eBay rate went up.
Between that and the fact that Ground Advantage hasn't been changed, I don't think this is just a case of eBay inadvertently pulling the trigger early on the USPS rate changes that are supposed to be going into effect January 21, but it's hard to say.
I haven't been able to check Media Mail or eBay Standard Envelope but if anyone is seeing differences in those too, please post examples here!
@devon@ebay what happened to "We continue to work with USPS on competitive rates, and when we do have rate changes we try to give our sellers at least two weeks' notice"?
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Got-an-e-mail-from-Pirate-Ship/m-p/34105706/highlight/true#M2308633
This is especially egregious given recent reports of eBay cold calling sellers to try to pressure them in to passing discounted shipping rates on to buyers.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-called-me-yesterday/m-p/34192728/highlight/true#M2331103
Any seller who is currently passing those discounted rates on to buyers for Priority mail is going to lose money when they go to print labels for their weekend orders to ship on Monday and find the price has gone up.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoThe published Commercial rate for the padded FRE is $8.80, so the increase from $8.30 to $8.54 for eBay pricing could be just a reduction in the special eBay discount, and not directly connected to the upcoming USPS rate changes.
On January 21, the published Commercial rate for the padded FRE will increase to $9.30. So we're currently getting a 50-cent discount on that envelope, and if $8.54 is the new eBay rate but implemented exactly 2 weeks prematurely, then the discount is (9.30 - 8.54) 76 cents.
https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/January%202024%20Price%20Change%20112223%20-%20Notice123.pdf
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@nobody*s_perfect - that's what I'm afraid of.
We saw Pirate Ship and many other service providers as well as Etsy, Amazon and other marketplaces change some of their USPS prices in November due to changes in their NSAs and/or USPS Connect Ecommerce program agreements even though there wasn't technically a publicly announced USPS rate increase at that time.
Back then, eBay said they were not increasing their rates along with everyone else "at that time" (the link I referenced above where Devon said they try to give two weeks' notice), but now I' m wondering if eBay isn't taking this opportunity to make similar adjustments before the new rates go into effect on January 21 and if we won't see those rates go up even more in two weeks?
fern*wood
·2 years agoSo ebay decided to lower their discount after all.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoAgreed. While the rates are still below commercial which is good, eBay did not notify sellers which is bad. Any type of financial increase should come with advance notice so sellers can make necessary adjustments, and eBay's recent attempts to shove sellers into offering carrier-specific discounts makes this worse.
Side note: just got an email from PirateShip saying "USPS is about to get cheaper" haha
It's a standard email saying which rates are going down and which are going up on Jan 21, but the email subject line was funny considering this eBay increase. eBay Priority rates are still lower than Pirate for Flat Rate packages. Pirate is still $8.80 for the padded flat rate until the Jan 21 price changes are implemented.
sapphire_studio
·2 years agoI just read that email too. Ground Advantage under a pound (old First Class) going up is most annoying 😞 I am sure others will also be annoyed about the Media Mail.
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@wastingtime101 ok I feel like a dummy...just realized the shipment I was using to test would have been a zone 8 so may not have been expected to see adjustments to Ground Advantage any way.
We now have another thread with people saying they are seeing a decrease in GA rates.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ground-Advantage-rates-just-decreased/m-p/34211404#M2336189
That would put these changes even more in line with the changes Pirate Ship and others made back in November, so I'm still leaning heavily toward this being eBay making similar adjustments now before the bigger changes on the 21st.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoI haven't used eBay for Ground Adv labels this year @valueaddedresource . eBay doesn't publish price charts and I did not make my own for 2023 (like I did in prior years) so I cannot compare Ground Adv rates I'm seeing today to rates I would have seen yesterday by reviewing old labels.
Since the Fall I've been guinea pigging a shipping label & inventory mgmt site owned by Amazon for most domestic USPS, eBay for a portion of USPS Priority, and Pirate for international and for UPS, with occasional Stamps.com when other services were down.
I can provide info I'm seeing today in case it helps.
7x7x6 box
2 lb weight
ship to zone 3
ship date Mon Jan 8th
eBay Rates:
Priority: $6.98
Ground Adv: $6.14
Pirate Rates:
Priority Cubic: $6.93
Ground Adv Cubic: $6.00
USPS Comm Rates:
Priority: $8.45
Ground Adv: $7.15
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@wastingtime101 now that Priority appears to be fixed, I've tested with 3 different zone 3 addresses using 2 lb, 7x7x6 box and eBay is showing Ground Advantage at $7.15.
So whatever they did over the weekend apparently increased most Priority rates while decreasing some Ground Advantage in closer zones (which is pretty much what the November update for others did) and now both GA and Priority on eBay have been reset back to what they were before.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoAnd Priority is back up to $7.20 for that package @valueaddedresource .
sunnydaze45
OP2 years agoTHANK YOU ~~ i THOUGHT it was just me reading it wrong...
valueaddedresource
·2 years agoYou're welcome @sunnydaze45 ! If you purchased a label to ship Monday that was showing the higher rate, can you check under your Payments tab and confirm for us if it was actually charged to you at that higher rate?
sunnydaze45
OP2 years agovalueaddedresource
·2 years agoThanks @sunnydaze45 at least that helps us narrow down that this is not just a "display issue".
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay @shippingteam@ebay can you let us know what is going on please?
fern*wood
·2 years agoHas anyone seen a reply from any of the reps that used to help on the boards? I haven't seen any since before Christmas.
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@fern*wood if you're talking about Devon, Kyle and Elizabeth, I'm sure they had some time off for the holidays, but their community profiles show they've been replying to threads in the last week.
So yeah, they're still around, but I have noticed in general in the last year or so it seems official eBay participation in this community has dwindled, with tags going unresponded to more often and more "drive by posting" by generic "team" IDs, like the threads on the new feedback experience where "seller_news_team" dropped some info and didn't stick around to answer questions.
We don't usually see much activity from the blues on the weekends, so I wasn't expecting an answer to these tags right away, but hopefully they'll see it first thing Monday.
sunnydaze45
OP2 years agoThanks everyone.... will check it with my next package...
css2001
·2 years agoNot yet, the USPS rate increase is scheduled to occur on 1/21/2024
wastingtime101
·2 years agoThe rate hasn't changed recently. Price changes are coming in a couple weeks.
Can you post a screenshot? Are you sure you had padded flat rate selected @sunnydaze45 ? I still see $8.30.
stephenmorgan
·2 years agoI am still seeing $8.30. Maybe check you listing and see if there is a handling fee for 24¢.