eBay Calculated shipping is wrong.

[massiveswordandcards]

Has anyone experienced this or know what's going on? I'll provide as much detail and examples as I can while staying succinct.  Please let me know if you need more details.

eBay keeps undercharging my customers for shipping.  As in, the price for calculated shipping is far lower than the actual price of the label I have to buy.   Here is one of my active listings (https://www.ebay.com/itm/314551303337?shqty=1&isGTR=1#shId).  Check the estimated price for Domestic USPS First Class mail.  Use the zip code 07102.  The estimated price is only $1.67.  This is way below the commercial rates for First Class Packages, which start at $3.59.

It's actually pretty close to the average cost for First Class Flats; however, eBay doesn't offer a label for that, and there is no way to dictate the package type or even enter a package thickness within the acceptable dimensions of flats.  I believe eBay is erroneously pulling the flats price for my customers.  I've now had 2 orders where people purchased items using calculated shipping and only paid half of the price of the label I had to buy.  Ofcourse, it would be great to have more shipping options on ebay!  However, even if it was possible to buy a Flats label, I wouldn't want to - the whole point of offering First Class, for me, is as an upgrade from an envelope.  I mostly sell trading cards, so First Class represents an upgrade to add Tracking and rigid protections.

I have called and chatted with eBay reps for a total of over 20 hours now and they always hang up on me.  They absolutely refuse to help.  Sometimes they say a tech team member will take care of it, but nothing happens.  This has been a problem for a month now and I've had FOURTEEN ebay reps all waste hours of my life doing nothing.  I can concede there might be a problem on my end - some bizarre combination of options I've selected that results in this.  But after trying all sorts of troubleshooting and having all these eyes on my account, nothing has helped and no one has been able to identify what is wrong.  In fact, they've repeatedly told me that $1.67 is correct and I should be able to buy a label for this price.  No, you can't. 

[wastingtime101]

On the old listing form, sellers could select package type and some sellers would mistakenly choose large envelope (aka letter/flat) instead of package/thick envelope.

Large envelope/flat means the buyer is charged for an untracked First Class Flat.

On the new listing form there is no way to change package type since eBay removed it, but the field is still there on the back end. So if you 'sell similar' or 'relist' from a listing that had an incorrect package type, that will carry over behind the scenes on the new form.

The way to deal with any lingering 'flat' package types is to end the listing and create a new one from scratch. All brand new listings default to the correct package type on the back end. You can copy/paste description, title, etc.

On the active listings page in seller hub, click the shipping cost header in the gray menu bar. That will sort your listings based on shipping cost. You'll want to go to the listings with the lowest shipping costs to verify if they're correct or if the listings need to be re-done.

Edit to add: one seller reported that instead of ending listings they were able to bulk edit their listings to local pickup, publish changes. Then bulk edit again back to first class and publish changes and that somehow corrected package type on the back end. Worth a shot.

[ten_o_nine]

You set your shipping to 

US $1.10 United States Standard Shipping (eBay Standard Envelope for Trading Cards, Stamps, Postcards & Coins up to $20)

You need to change shipping method.

[slippinjimmy]

While eBay does not offer labels for First Class Letters or Flats you CAN offers those services on your listings and purchase the postage elsewhere (or use plain old stamps).

Your listing shows this:

Note that you are offering the Letter/Flat rate, if you offered the Package rate it would say First Class Package and charge accordingly.

eBay does not and has not ever offered shipping labels for non-tracked services but there is no restriction on using untracked Lettermail if you want to.

If you only want to use First Class Package then that is what you need to select when setting up your shipping on the listing instead of First Class Letter or Flat.

[wastingtime101]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

You set your shipping to 

US $1.10 United States Standard Shipping (eBay Standard Envelope for Trading Cards, Stamps, Postcards & Coins up to $20)

You need to change shipping method.

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They offer a choice of 3 shipping options:

ESE

First Class

Priority

The problem lies with the first class rates calculating for a flat, not for a package. 

[wastingtime101]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

If you only want to use First Class Package then that is what you need to select when setting up your shipping on the listing instead of First Class Letter or Flat.

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Seller cannot choose between Package and Flat. They are limited to choosing First Class.

The "package type" field is what dictates whether FC results in package or flat rates, but as mentioned in my first post above, eBay removed package type from the unified listing tool. Package is now the default but if a listing had large envelope (aka Flat) on an old listing created before the unified listing tool, that data will remain on the listing and also carry over to any "sell similar" or "relist." Same goes for any old listing templates that had the wrong package type.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The prices shown in the OP's listing are the eBay (online) rates for a 1-ounce piece with a 50-cent handling fee, including the price for a "standard" envelope, a flat, and a Priority package.

As you noted, there is a very unfortunate carryover when sellers use relist or sell similar with listings that were set up using the old version of the listing form, which allowed sellers to choose a "package type" of letter or flat (AKA Large envelope).  AFAIK, the only way to escape from this glitch is to start a listing from scratch using the new listing form.  IMNSHO, dropping the "letter" and "Flat" options from the listing form's shipping calculator was a big mistake, even if the change had not led to this particular glitch.

[slippinjimmy]

@wastingtime101 

Yes I see that now,  I never used Letter or Flat and I don't use the unified listing tool (3rd party lister only since 2001).

Was that some sort of eBay thing to prevent newbies from using a non-tracked service? Or maybe steer all sellers into using eBay labels (another thing I've never done)?

[wastingtime101]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

Was that some sort of eBay thing to prevent newbies from using a non-tracked service? Or maybe steer all sellers into using eBay labels (another thing I've never done)?

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No idea why they made the change, but if you're asking for my opinion I'd guess it had to do with the number of complaints CS got from sellers that said buyers were undercharged for postage. Too many sellers that don't know the difference between a package and a flat.

Instead of clarifying the package type to say that "large envelope" was for an untracked flat and making "package" the default then moving large envelope down to the bottom of the list, eBay instead removed the ability for sellers to set package type.

Any seller that wants to use an untracked flat now has to set up flat rate shipping since the listing form defaults to package for calculated shipping.

So if you're asking for my opinion/guess I'd say too many sellers uninformed about that area of shipping calling eBay to complain about buyers being undercharged postage, using up a lot of CS resources and courtesy credits and perhaps overseas reps filing unnecessary tech tickets.

But if you're asking for an official reason: eBay never commented on this forum when asked about it.

[wastingtime101]

Case in point @slippinjimmy - look at the OP here, said they spent 20 hours talking to 14 eBay CS reps and still didn't get an answer. Some of those reps filed tech tickets; that's even more CS resources investigating those tech tickets (if it ever got to that stage). How much $$ did eBay spend in resources for this one seller, and how many sellers per week contacted CS with the same problem?

eBay could have adjusted the package type field to make it more clear years ago. They never did. They finally eliminated the package type field - my guess is to eliminate the problem. But existing listings, existing listing templates, and new listings created with 'sell similar' and 'relist' from old listings still carry the old data. So the problem is less, but not gone.

There's the new problem created for sellers that want to use flat/untracked postage but can no longer set that up with calculated shipping, so they have to change all their listings and policies from calculated to flat rate which also means they have to make manual adjustments when USPS rates change. Then they have to set up flat rate combined shipping rules since the system can't automatically calculate based on combined weight the same way it used to.

[sprintracer-x49]

I just made my first sale and the actual shipping cost was almost double the calculated shipping.  It sucks. Never selling with eBay again. 

[slippinjimmy]

I'm just thankful I only use Flat Rate for everything and generic services as well (standard expedited).

In 24 years I've never had a buyer ask what I meant by "standard expedited". I do mention in my TOS that US orders will be delivered by USPS.

All things related to shipping have always been sub-par with eBay, this is just another in a long line of deficiencies. 

On a slightly related question, does anyone know who is actually running the EIS program and which International carriers they are using? I would consider using it for high value items (as long as they absorb all the risk permanently and not just during the roll-out) but I'd like to know who is actually providing the transport service. I've used a lot of different ones over the years and some I would not trust under any circumstances (I like happy buyers, even if eBay pays for the screw-ups it does nothing for my reputation as a reliable dealer).

[wastingtime101]

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@sprintracer-x49 wrote:

I just made my first sale and the actual shipping cost was almost double the calculated shipping.  It sucks. Never selling with eBay again. 

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That's quite a first sale @sprintracer-x49. I suggest starting a new thread on the shipping board here.

Include the following info and we can help you figure out what happened with shipping. The shipping calculator wouldn't result in a discrepancy like you're describing unless the listing was set up with wrong info or something changed when you purchased the label (different size, weight, service).

- Package dimensions and weight entered on the listing.

- Actual package dimensions and weight

- Service buyer selected (Priority or Parcel Select) and price they paid

- Service you chose when purchasing the label and price you paid

- Ship to/from zip codes

- Whether or not you manually sent an invoice to the buyer after the auction ended

P.S. I hope you got signature confirmation on that package as it's required for items $750+

[sprintracer-x49]

I'm not even upset about the shipping. It's the 30 day hold on my money. Only reason I sold what I did was because I am about to be homeless. Nowhere at anytime during registration or in the getting paid section did I see anything about a possible 30 day hold. As soon as my auction ended it showed up miraculously. Ebay deducted their fees immediately so they got paid. And even though I stated no returns, eBay is holding my money just in case the buyer wants a refund. Why do I have to be homeless because eBay wants to offer a 30 day money back guarantee, despite what my ad said? Let them cover it themselves. I can give eBay a lifetime guarantee, they will never make another dime off of anything I sell because I will sell it elsewhere, and I may not purchase anything through eBay again either. Of course I won't be able to make any purchases anyway, because I won't have an address to ship to other than "a van down by the river" due to the hold on my money causing me to be homeless. 

[wastingtime101]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

On a slightly related question, does anyone know who is actually running the EIS program and which International carriers they are using? [...] I've used a lot of different ones over the years and some I would not trust under any circumstances

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There's no one specific carrier. It varies based on country, item, size/weight, etc.