Whose Business is IT?

[prettywoman-2012]

Apparently, none of OURS (us - meaning, sellers on eBay). Time and time again, my listings have the handling time altered from the usual 1 day to 4 days, by invisible hands. I only discovered this when editing a listing for another reason, this morning. 

Similarly, the FREE shipping issue - I discovered it was added to a listing of mine, an older listing - not on this account - without my knowledge. How did I discover it? Because that item came up for being eligible to "Send an Offer" to potential buyers who have it on their watch list. When I opened that Send an Offer window, it showed the correct BIN price + Free Shipping. 

Same invisible hands at work, as I never offer FREE anything that I would then charge a buyer by artificially inflating the price to cover my shipping cost. 

This is against FTC regulations, although rampant on eBay. 

The regulations spell out that offering any goods or services as "FREE" which is not actually completely FREE, is a violation of the law. 

It is just that the entire eBay system is built around this deceptive practice, because eBay corralled sellers into (strong-arming would be a better expression, perhaps) doing this, if the sellers want their items get preferential display of their listings in Cassini the AI search engine. However, doing so as if this would not be a great deal, or nothing to fret about, does not make this practice right.

PW👀🙄🐿

[subapete]

Since Covid I removed all international shipping from my listings so not to get caught in the late package mess. But EVERY time I check my listings, many of them have Global Shipping option checked. I bulk edit almost every other day to remove it, yet it still pops up. VERY FRUSTRATING

[gwzcomps]

Last I knew you can opt out of GSP to solve that problem.

[mam98031]

The marketing ploy of Free Shipping wasn't started by Ebay.  Ebay was among the last to adopt the ability for sellers to offer this.  Many sellers were asking Ebay for this for a very long time before Ebay brought it to the site.

It was a marketing firm of Target that came up with and named this marketing tool.  Most other sites to include Amazon had adopted it long before Ebay did.  So if this is a legal thing, the FTC is going to have their hands full.  One would think however, after all these years, that they would say something to all these sites that practice this on a daily basis.

I don't know how your listing got free shipping on it, but I have heard of this happening to other sellers.

As to the handling time.  Ebay doesn't literally change that on your listings, but they will ignore it to determine your ETA on a package.  For example if a seller says they ship in 2 days, but consistently ships in 1 day.  When calculating the ETA on a purchase Ebay will go with 1 day.  However they do not allow defects for shipping late if you meet your stated handling time on the listing.

That coupled with their recent extension on delivery times due to the pandemic is likely what you might be experiencing.  It has been all over the threads asking Ebay to make these ETA more realistic to what is going on in the world.  Funny thing.  Ebay complied and a whole bunch of sellers got mad at Ebay for doing this.  So it is a problem for some and not for others.  

[femmefan1946]

Given shipping delays from the pandemic, I would regard the extended handling time a benefit not a bug.

Better to tell your customer that it will take 15 days to arrive and have it arrive in ten, than to tell him it will arrive in five days and have it arrive in seven.

I've noticed that relisted (GTC) items do often lose their Calculated Shipping and become Free Shipping.

It happened to me today actually, with a 681 gram hardcover book. The shipping will be slightly more than the price of the book. Fortunately my costs are still low enough to make the sale barely profitable.

"Free " shipping means that the cost of shipping is included in the asking price, and is not a line item.

If a retailer said shipping  of a $5 item was free, then added one cent specifically for shipping on the invoice, that may be illegal but if that penny were added into the selling price as $5.01, that's fine.

And buyers pretend they don't know they are paying for shipping as part of their payment.

Same goes for No SalesTax sales which are very popular. The retailer has included the tax in the asking price  and then remits the taxes on the items he sells without showing it on the invoice. This may or may not be part of a reduced price/clearance sale.

[needitlikea0inthehead]

Adding things to my listings , like the shipping, etc. happened to me as well.  I think what I did to correct and stop it was to go into my account settings and change things there.  I wish I could be more precise but it was a while back.  Anyway try that.

[ittybitnot]

Given shipping delays from the pandemic, I would regard the extended handling time a benefit not a bug.

A sellers "handling time" should not be charged arbitrarily by the venue.   An "expected delivery date" should reflect present circumstances with regard to carrier delays. 

[lightlily_arts]

I am curious about your post and would like to understand it better.   First,  eBay  for quite some years has strongly encouraged sellers to offer free shipping.    Are you saying that it is a violation of FTC regulations for sellers to combine their shipping costs with the item price so they can offer free shipping? 

 I do not offer free shipping on my listings, and since I started selling I have always kept it separate.  As a small seller I simply can't afford to pay for the buyer's shipping especially since many of my items are heavy collectibles. Mostly because I might accept an offer on my item price, but I can't, and won't negotiate shipping.

Recently I had a buyer contact me about combined shipping on a listing.  For some reason he  seemed to think that I should be able to ship him six of my items with a shipping weight of 2 pounds to a zone 8 location for $4-$5.  I found this rather surprising as this buyer was also a seller.  Since my item price was already 60% lower than any other seller I refused to negotiate my shipping expense.   Some people seem to have difficulty understanding  the difference between item weight and shipping weight.  Again people don't understand a volume doesn't equal weight.   As an example a  2 ounce jar of cream weighs 3 ounces because of the container.  When you place those jars in a box with packing materials  the shipping weight  becomes 4-5 ounces.

When you are selling low weight items you can ship First Class Mail.  However,  when the customer wants multiples of items that are over 8 ounces you can't ship First Class when the total shipping weight goes over a pound.  And they don't understand and question why they can't get a shipping discount.  It's tedious to have to explain that to them.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@prettywoman-2012 wrote:

The regulations spell out that offering any goods or services as "FREE" which is not actually completely FREE, is a violation of the law. 

🐿

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But the shipping IS free - buyers pay ZERO on their invoice for shipping. The price they see is the price they pay. There is no extra charge for shipping. That's what FREE SHIPPING means - no EXTRA charge for shipping. It doesn't mean shipping costs can't be paid for by the buyer.

In business, ALL COSTS are paid by the buyer. ALL of them. Item acquisition, profit, salaries, shipping costs, ink, paper, tape, insurance, rent, utilities - ALL of the costs.

When you go to a brick and mortar store and buy an item, do you pay a shipping cost? Of course not, BUT the transport costs are added into the price for that item.

If businesses can't recoup ALL of their costs, there will be no business.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

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If businesses can't recoup ALL of their costs, there will be no business.

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Edit time ran out:

That should read:

If businesses can't recoup ALL of their costs AND make a profit, there will be no business.

[mam98031]

@femmefan1946 

Ebay isn't changing seller's handling times.  They will ignore them and use their average shipping time when calculating ETAs.  But they are not actually changing the listing to reflect this, just the ETAs.  

[femmefan1946]

I refused to negotiate my shipping expense.

EBay specifically says that shipping is not  a part of Best Offer price negotiations.

As a small seller I simply can't afford to pay for the buyer's shipping

You don't.

The cost of shipping is included in the asking price with "free" shipping.

Which is cheaper? A $10 item with $5 shipping or a $15 item with Free Shipping?

I do use free shipping for most of my items, including an allowance for my shipping costs. And I use this for both here on dotCOM and for my home site of eBayCanada.

Never overseas obviously.

But when an item becomes too heavy for LetterPost, I move to Calculated Shipping instead of Flat Rate/Free Shipping, which for me means most of my Canada listings have Calculated Shipping and most of my dotCOM listings are Flat Rate/Free Shipping.

It's tedious to have to explain that to them.

The simplest way is "Thank you for your offer, my best price is $XX.xx plus shipping as stated." Or "Thank you for your offer, I cannot accept."

And don't accept a counter-counter offer. This ten tries is a stupid idea in my opinion.

They don't care about your problems. They have a bottom line and so do you.

[pjcdn2005]

@femmefan1946 

I only checked the first page of your listings but all of those items had free shipping to Canada and to the US. I'm not sure if that is on purpose so just giving you a head's up in case it isn't.

[mam98031]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

@femmefan1946 

I only checked the first page of your listings but all of those items had free shipping to Canada and to the US. I'm not sure if that is on purpose so just giving you a head's up in case it isn't.

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I think you misunderstood their post.  They said they use FS on most of their listings for both Canada and the US.

"I do use free shipping for most of my items, ..."

@pjcdn2005 

[pjcdn2005]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

@femmefan1946 

I only checked the first page of your listings but all of those items had free shipping to Canada and to the US. I'm not sure if that is on purpose so just giving you a head's up in case it isn't.

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I think you misunderstood their post.  They said they use FS on most of their listings for both Canada and the US.

"I do use free shipping for most of my items, ..."

@pjcdn2005 

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

@femmefan1946 

I only checked the first page of your listings but all of those items had free shipping to Canada and to the US. I'm not sure if that is on purpose so just giving you a head's up in case it isn't.

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I think you misunderstood their post.  They said they use FS on most of their listings for both Canada and the US.

"I do use free shipping for most of my items, ..."

@pjcdn2005 

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@mam98031 
Thank you. I didn’t see that post when I replied.  I was replying to her previous post....

“I've noticed that relisted (GTC) items do often lose their Calculated Shipping and become Free Shipping.It happened to me today actually, with a 681 gram hardcover book. The shipping will  be slightly more than the price of the book. Fortunately my costs are still low enough to make the sale barely profitable.“

Based on that post I was giving her a head up in case there was a problem.  I’m glad that there isn’t one.