USPS shipping label: Do you show postage paid or hide it?

[generaluser3]

Since we ship Priority Mail, we always "share" in the cost of shipping with the buyer because the cost is very high.   So the part that's not charged to the buyer is either added into the price of the item, or absorbed by us as an expense.

We do show the postage cost on the shipping label so the buyer can see the actual cost to ship their item, but now I'm wondering if that amount should be hidden.

Even though Ebay says that the DSRs don't matter, in my opinion that's only true for the moment that's said.  Who knows what the next moment will bring.  My DSRs are all 5.0 EXCEPT for Shipping and Handling Charges.  It's a 4.7.

Since I am an ultra-small seller, I know who dinged my Shipping & Handling Charges DSR.  The first was a newbie buyer, zero feedback, and I'm guessing she thought she paid the amount that was on the shipping label when she received her package.  The second was for an item that could have easily gone First-Class Mail, but I sent it Priority Mail with a shipping charge to the buyer that was a First-Class Mail amount.  Whether I shipped it FCM or PM, I would have charged the same amount.  So that was maddening.  The third was a very heavy item, and my shipping charge to the buyer was less than a third of the actual shipping amount.    I mean, he could see that he paid less than a third of the amount of postage we actually paid, so why ding the Shipping/Handling Charges DSR, especially since he could see the postage cost front and center before he purchased it?  Other than that, 5.0 across the board.  It's frustrating, to say the least.

So my question:  Do you show the postage amount on the Shipping Label, or do you "hide" it?

I always thought it best to be upfront with the buyer as to the actual cost, but now I'm wondering whether it causes more problems than not having it shown at all.

Thank you in advance for your wise and thoughtful comments!

[krys888]

Me too lol. And thank you.

[femmefan1946]

I ship from Canada, so my circumstances are different.

For one thing, Canada Post charges a 'fuel fee' and sales taxes on postage.

These costs do not appear on the label, so I may be charging the customer $6.13 which is exactly what Canada Post is charging me, but the label would only show the actual postage of $5.95.

For all sellers Shipping and Handling should include the cost of packaging, although some sellers prefer to put that into the asking price of the item.

To complicate matters, I ship most of my items with postage stamps purchased at a substantial discount. I may have $5.95 in stamps on a package for which I actually paid $4-$5.

@generaluser3 

Frankly the only customer who will bother to look at the actual postage on the shipment and compare it with the S&H charged is the one customer you do NOT want to know your actual postage cost. She's looking to pick a fight.

[krys888]

I agree with everything until the last paragraph. I was that customer, but I wasn’t looking to pick a fight. I was just ignorant and trying to keep track of my costs. When I saw a product price and a shipping price, my ignorant brain took that as literal. I’d never seen any explanation of what that actually means nor did I think there might be more to it. When I then began selling, I was coming into it as that ignorant buyer and suddenly felt ... my ignorance as a buyer and how badly I’d bought; meaning, had I understood it, I could’ve bought smarter. The only thing I thought to do was avoid free shipping buys because of my tax situation. And even after selling for two years on here it wasn’t until this thread that I truly understand! Our selling listing form has a handling line item. Again, my ignorance, I just ignored that because I’d not seen it on any items I’d purchased so figured no one used it effectively. I feel even more stupid, not looking to pick a fight, but just stupid for not understanding what “shipping” really meant. And I’m frankly embarrassed by it.

[twnpopcards]

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@krys888 wrote:
As a buyer, I will not buy again from sellers who hide the shipping cost. I don’t care how great the transaction is. When I first started buying on ebay, that was THE number one beef I had with ebay was the lack of transparency. I was trying to track my costs and couldn’t. Then when I became I seller and learned we’re paying commissions on shipping, I became even more suspicious because I know that as sellers we have to make up for those shipping commissions somewhere in the sale, which means we’re still getting it from the buyers. That’s when I realized that if ebay has the ability to reveal and hide the actual costs of shipping, then they have the ability to monitor real shipping costs and therefore no longer need to charge commissions on shipping. I was told back them that the reason they started charging commission on shipping was because sellers were skewing prices to avoid commissions on product. Well, a little digging proved that ebay can in fact monitor real costs through its own shipping labels system, which means, again, there is NO reason for them to charge commissions on shipping. When the buyer pays for shipping (not free shipping) then as a buyer, I want to see my shipping costs. As a buyer, I had no way to acuractly track my separate product and shipping costs. I think hiding the cost is deceptive.

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I charge a flat fee for shipping and it is not out a line at all with what i pay.   With the new shipping rates that went into effect in January i had no choice but to raise it by $.25 per package.  I rarely have a buyer inquire about why i charge what i do but if they do I explain in detail the breakdown.  I am not in the business to make money on shipping and i make sure I reiterate that to them.  Even though i am not making money and in fact lose money on coast to coast shipments I still have some buyers who take it out on me in the DSR for shipping price and Ebay has admitted that those DSR's can have an effect on your listings visibility.  So they are still important although we have no idea how much weight that carries in the algorithm. 

The biggest reason I hide the shipping cost is that many USPS workers to this day DO NOT understand that there is a lower price for printing your shipping labels online and when they see the amount paid, they either send it through with postage due or they return it to the Seller.  Its unfortunate that the USPS does not make its employees keep up to date on these types of issues but I have found many time even the Postmaster at a location runs his PO the way he wants to and do not honor the scheduled pickups, the fact that all items with a tracking number are supposed to be scanned and if they are not doing it they are opening themselves up for written notices and even termination.  

I had one local Postmaster that would not allow his mail carriers to pick up packages from their customers.  He said that the customers could come into the PO if they needed to mail their packages as he did not have the staffing to handle that.  I filed a complaint at USPS.com and the Carrier Supervisor came up with a solution which i accepted and that was forwarded to the district office as well as the main office where all the online complaints go.  About 2 days later my packages did not get picked up and I called to see why not and the Postmaster got on the phone and stated that he would not allow it.  When i informed him of the solution the carrier supervisor had come up with he said she does not have the authority to make that commitment so I could either bring them in myself or just hold them.  Needless to say i filed another complaint immediately and low and behold I received a call from the Postmaster asking or my address so they could pick up my packages and that they would also honor any scheduled shipments going forward.

My regular carrier thanked me for filing the complaint as he felt bad not doing what he was trained to do because the Postmaster did not want to follow policy.  Two weeks later a new Postmaster was suddenly in place and called to introduce herself and to let me know that if I had any issues going forward to contact her or the new carrier supervisor immediately and they would take care of it, including coming by and picking up packages that the carriers did not pick up as they were supposed to.  That postmaster is still there and if something happens to my pickup they always get it and take it to the hub so it gets scanned there that day also.  They have come out as late as 9 pm to pick my items up ( was 8 pm until another issue a couple of weeks ago) and we have a great working relationship, but there are more local POs out there that just do not follow the policies as that is additional work they do not want to deal with.

Sorry for getting a little off track, but that is a large reason that so many sellers hide the postage cost.  As a buyer your shipping cost is what you agreed to pay so you really do not need to know what the Seller paid to ship the item.  You agreed to that cost when you purchased the item and as long as the Seller ships the item at the level of service that was stated in the listing or higher, you have gotten what you agreed to pay for.  I am sorry but you have no duty to be informed of the amount the Seller paid to ship your item.  We may have to agree to disagree but that is how i feel about not showing the cost and the main reason for it.

[krys888]

I agree. Shipping is far more complicated than I realized, especially when considered with public perceptions and expectations. I’d taken the initial selling agreement literally; again, feeling ooooooo so stupid.

[noodlevette]

     I always had the postage display on the label for the customer - until I had a package returned to me because some postal worker thought I had not paid enough postage.    I  had.   My home post office gets it and did not do it to me- in fact my favorite gal at the window was the one that talked me into printing postage online. 

   After trying to straighten that mess out, paying postage twice, a late package... I just choose to not display.  

Buyers don't understand and don't care about the extra fee sellers get dinged on postage anyway, or the cost of the mailer or padding... paper, printer, scale, tape...  

I think everyone thinking of buying something on ebay should be required to SELL something here before earning buying privileges.    I didn't understand all the costs associated with selling here either- until I did.  

[redline_auto_llc]

Hide it. The slight discount I get on Priority Mail gets rolled into packaging supplies or things where I underestimated weight or dimensions for calculated shipping. Sometimes it's a couple bucks under what was paid, sometimes I pay twice what the buyer did, but I don't need the stress of people cussing me out over the fact that they paid a dollar more than the label cost.

[anthology-of-treasures]

1. Hide, since most buyers have do not understand how shipping has actually worked on eBay over the years. They blame sellers when the root cause of high shipping charges is eBay Management.

SEE DIAGRAM BELOW

2. The easiest way to compensate for eBay and PayPal's commissions on shipping is to charge buyers the retail label rate while you pay the discounted label rate. If you print your discounted label purchase price on the label the buyer will see that this does not match what he or she paid and think they were scammed. The buyer likely does not know that the actual cost of the shipping label is the discounted rate paid to USPS plus eBay and PayPal's fees.

The alternative is horrible. You charge the customer the retail rate and the money you loose on the label from eBay and PayPal fees must be added into the price of the item. Since you don't have a clue where the buyer lives you must increase the price of your item based on a eBay and PayPal commission that you would incur on the maximum possible shipping amount. Each time USPS raises its rates or changes it rules you must edit your inventory.

3. It uses less laser toner over time. Removing this text and auto cropping out other unneeded text and graphics will save money over time. I use a custom action in Adobe Acrobat Pro instantly auto crop a whole folder of labels so that unwanted text and graphics such as the "Cut on dotted line" are removed. Auto cropping also saves paper and now two labels per 8.5." x 11" page can be printed.

[18704d]

I haven't read all the prior responses here.

I only use "free" shipping,  so I never hide it.

And since buyers know they're getting free shipping, I'd imagine they'd have no need to read what I pay...

Lynn

[postingid2017]

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@fern*wood wrote:

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@krys888 wrote:

I don’t use ebay shipping system because I don’t trust them, period. And I think their whole shipping approach is a scam. Ebay never touches a package.

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This makes no sense to me and probably cost you and your buyers money.  You have sold on ebay and now complained about just about everything imaginable.    

How do you know a seller is going to hide the postage cost on the package before you buy? 

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That was my first thought too 😉

[krys888]

Thank you for this! That’s exactly what happened to me as buyer that caused me so much confusion! I was buying in only one category, often of the same exact items, but the shipping costs were all over the place! So, of course, I had the impression that some sellers were “padding” the shipping then hiding it on the label. I had NO clue about all the complications and add-ons and commissions at that time, because I was only buying at that time. It was when I started selling that product that I got a big rude awakening! But, in all naïveté, I thought, based on the seller agreement, that all the extras, if we wanted to charge for them, were to go in the handling line item. I was just stupid and therefore had a conclusion based on what I knew, which was wrong, because as a buyer, who had never sold online, I was going in quite gullible. (I don’t like getting put down for it, but hey, it is what it is lol.)

[krys888]

This (attached) was my reality until this thread. I thought the handling line was for the extras. I was following the ebay rules and drew my conclusions based on those rules. I was wrong to do so. I now understand, completely. And therefore changed my mind. No offense meant. I appreciate you all taking time to explain it to me or as an amazing music director told a board member who was angry, “educate me, don’t berate me, so I can understand.” I have 5 basic shipping sizes/weights, so I know what my shipping costs are. I was told by CS back then that I should put my packing costs into my product price, not my shipping price. I really wanted to understand and “do it right,” so I only had ebay policies and CS to go on as I didn’t know about the community at the time. I think maybe there does need to be more buyer education so that there is less misunderstandings and hurt feelings and misjudgments. But I think that’s ebay’s Job, more than the seller’s job. The buyers come here initially because its ebay; but they return because of the sellers.

[krys888]

At the time I started buying, I had no intention of selling. I had to buy a LOT of dolls for a hobby project. Once I had the “right” dolls, I thought, no big deal, I’ll sell the ones we’re not going to use in the project. I went in BLIND as a bat! And continue to get my you know what handed to me! I just saw that there are similar threads from buyers like me, well, the way I used to be, on the shipping discussion board. Its still a hobby and phasing out. (I sooo appreciate these discussions because maybe others gullible like me who read everyone’s responses, they can save a lot of aggravation.)

[krys888]

This from eBay’s current seller policy: 

[mam98031]

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@krys888 wrote:

This from eBay’s current seller policy: 

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Yes, that doesn't mean anything I said earlier is not true.  There are some classes that Ebay can negotiate with USPS and has.  Ebay has one of the best rates on the internet for FCP International.  It certainly is better than Amazon's rate.