eBay Overcharging FedEx Shipping to customers AFTER sale

[magellan726]

Has anyone else had this happen? Am very concerned!

Example, I sold an item with FedEx Ground/HD as the default shipping method (others were offered).  When I click on the listing and enter the buyer's zip code, it shows $21.77 via FedEx which is right.  But, when the buyer paid, eBay charged them $32.78!!!  I'm shocked the buyer paid it without question or comment!

I double-checked my preferences and I am checked to pass on discounts to buyers so that's not the problem.  I did not send them an invoice or change anything at all in the listing and even if you go look at the listing now that it has ended, the calculator still shows $21.77 to their zip code.  I even went through the motions of printing a label (without following through) and it shows the $21.77 price to be correct.

I had the exact same thing happen with a buyer that did not pay immediately so I sent an invoice and noticed the same jacked-up charge.  Luckily in this case, I was able to adjust it back to normal. 

This is scary because buyers can easily think I am raising the shipping cost on them after the sale.  Plus, I get charged the added shipping fvf AND having to refund some of the excessive charges.  I'll be contacting eBay later but wanted to stop in and see if anyone has had this problem or know what's going on.

Thanks!

[*eponymous*]

The FedEx calculator is only an estimate. Set up your own FedEx account and link it with your eBay account to solve the issue and to get the eBay discounts.

Use SmartPost at your own peril.

[babclassics]

I had the same problem today.  The Fedex Quote given to the buyer is totally different and much higher than the amount Ebay shipping is charging me to print the label.  This has happened before and usually settles down after a day or two. My buyer was charged $42 and I was charge $24 (after the eBay discount which i pass on).  Even without my discount the buyer should have paid $29!  i will have to do a refund now to the buyer and try to explain why it is ebays fault and not mine, ha ha.  Please post back here what eBay support told you about the calculators.

I checked other similar items and it is still giving the massively inflated full retail shipping price to the buyers. Though the price it is giving does match Fedex retail calculator.  Normally the buyer shipping  is right on within a dollar so something is broken there eBay.

[babclassics]

Last night when my auctions ended 4 buyers got hit with a 30% higher shipping cost when they went to check out.  The Fedex shipping cost in their shopping carts was correct and gave my sellers discount.  As soon as the buyers clicked the check-out button the shipping increased to the full Fedex retail shipping cost which should be discounted 20 to 40%.  One of the sellers repeatadly called me out for being a scam artist and threatend me severely.  For the other 3 i was able to jump in and change the invoice to the correct amount before they noticed.  This is absolutely an eBay system problem.  It has nothing to do with international,  home delivery fee or anything else.  This problem is killing my Fedex shipped items that have calculated rates.  eBay just cant get it fixed and it happens on a regular bases at various times in 2017 and earlier.  All i can suggest is dont use Fedex calculated,  or pre-emptively contact your buyers and fix it before they get **bleep**.  For me i have already lost several potential buyers and had to cancel transactions!  eBay has not even ackknowleldged the problem as far as I know.

[berserkerplanet]

If you provide the following info for a package in question:

• Dimensions
• Weight
• Origin zipcode
• Destination zipcode
• Residential?
• any other addons (Insurance over $100,  Signature Conf, etc)
• Amount charged to buyer
• Actual Label cost

maybe a better view of what's happening will emerge.

[babclassics]

There is no doubt what is happening.  I pass my TRS shipping discounts to buyers.  eBay correctly shows the discount to the buyers in the listing.  When the buyer checks-out the are NOT given the discount and are being charged full retail cost.  Example from 55124 to 40228 size 23x22x22 weight 60 pounds.  Shipping calculator shows retail 66.02 shows my rate 33.14 for fedex home.  Listing shows shipping is 33.14 to buyer (49% discount for very large package).  When they check out they are charged 66.02.  This happens for ALL package sizes and zip code but does NOT happen all the time.  It has now happened to me 5 times in last 3 days.  At least 6 other fedex shipments worked correctly.  The only pattern i see is it seems to happen late at night and early morning more than in the middle of the day.   I am cringing at the buyers response when i offer to refund them $33 for overpayment for the example from today!

[babclassics]

Had a very long call with help desk today.  I took 60 minutes just to convince them there was an issue that the seller shipping discount is ramdomly not applied to Fedex items after going over several Fedex overcharges.  They dont have any answer an said they would be back to me withinb3 days.  One possible thought is that it could be corruption in the business policies... which I use for shipping.  But then we found one business policy that sometimes works and sometimes does not work.  It might be worth a try to create new poicies and transfer Fedex shipping items over to the new policy.   Will post back here if and when they call me back with a solution.  Just gave $33 partial shipping refund to latest victim.  Hopefully the wont request to cancel the order now.

[berserkerplanet]

Ran numbers 4 ways using the seller ship calc, via a mocked up eBay shipping label using one of my solds, using the 2017 FedEx Service Guide, and using my FedEx.com account.

• 60 pound weight is irrelevant for this package (Dim Weight rules)
• 23x22x22 dimensions = 11132 cu-in volume and do not trigger oversize
  or special handling surcharges - only a dimensional weight bump.
• The correct dimensional weight for this item is 11132/139 = 80.09 ---> 81 pounds
• Zip 55124 to Zip 40228 is a Zone 4 shipment.
• Destination zip code 40225 is urban and does not trigger any DAS.

FedEx 2017 Service Guide:    base rate for a zone 4 81 pound package is $37.17
Apply $3.45 Residential Surcharge and 4.5% Fuel surcharge, and we get $42.45

(no way to know what discount % to apply to this to come up with a final number)

FedEx.com: base rate of $37.17  ($35.85 with my discounts) and a $61.02 retail rate

eBay calculators: $30.57 base rate (and $28.21 with my discounts which is completely WRONG and too low due to eBay using incorrect 166 dim wt divisor in the calcs when quoting - $30.57 base rate is for a Z4 68# shipment which is the dim weight obtained by using wrong/old divisor)

(at this point totally unsure if the above is an issue with my account only since the number you quoted $33.14 is higher than my $28.21)

However, I believe your $33.14 number may also be wrong and too low, and you may be upcharged a few $ after delivery, but can't be certain as our discounts may not be the same (age of accounts, volume, phase of the moon, etc).

Actual discounted charge (based on MY FedEx.com results) should be approx $35-36, and actual retail rate for this pkg is approx $61 (which corresponds to what you quoted, what the ebay calcs show, and what FedEx says)

There may be 2 things going on here:

I think you are 100% correct that your buyers are being charged the retail rate, and it very well may be due to your use of business policies. I don't use business policies, have read about nothing linking business policies to ship calc issues like this, and I've only shipped 1 FedEx Ground shipment this year so it may be a recent glitch that I just haven't seen. May be your particular eBay account. (FedEx Smartpost shipments - which I have been doing - have all been correct about to the penny when quoted, charged to buyers, and billed on my eBay invoices)

The possible smaller issue is the Dimensional weight divisor bugaboo which so far I can only verify for my account and may result in eBay shipping label undercharges of 5%-10%

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/FedEx-Dimensional-Weight-Calculation-Error-in-eBay-Lab...

If you have a FedEx account with your eBay discounts linked to it I'd be curious to see what a rate estimation for this package shows there. Also be curious to see if you do get upcharged on your eBay invoice for this shipment later.

Please keep us posted on how this plays out and what you find.

[babclassics]

Thanks to Beserkerplanet for the great break down of the FedEx shipping over charge to buyer issue.   Your calculations were right on, the discrepancy you saw is because i forget to mention this exact item has a (quite high for me) $5 handling cost because i have to pay $5.00 for the extra heavy-duty shipping box to protect contents.  I usually charge 1.00 handling for shipping supplies even though it costs me quite a bit more.  But let’s not divert this thread to handling fees, i only mention it to confirm your figures.

So, your 61.02 FedEx retail rate is spot on and matches what I get, the buyer is being charged retail rate even though they are shown the discounted rate right up until check-out!  This is what makes the issue so ugly.  If they were just being purposely overcharged by me, that would be one (unethical thing).  But this is even worse as in “bait and switch” in their minds.  Buyers does price+shipping comparisons, picks an item based on best combination and then at check-out gets a jacked-up shipping price.  This makes them quite upset and I understand why they cry foul.

Also, your discounted rate of 28.21 matches mine as well within a 7 cents after you account for the handling costs. That is what the buyer “should” be charged at check-out and IS what they see before check-out.

The dimensional weight issue is new to me and I think you are correct that there will be an upcharge. If this is true then perhaps everybody facing that bug needs adjust their pricing

This problem does happen for Smart Post as well, even for 1 and 2 pound items.

In conclusion. 1) eBay never called me back as promised. 2) The problem did not happen since I last wrote 2 days ago but only 2 FedEx since then. 3) Will post back if there is a dim weight upcharge but won’t know for a month due to FedEx billing cycle. 4) Will post back if it happens more or eBay contacts me with an explanation / workaround.

[double2trouble]

Alow me to call **bleep** on anyone blaming this on sellers or settings. I just posted this in another thread, here it is in black and white. Buyer saw the 35.86 price on the item page. They went to check out, the price jumped to $69. The package is going FedEx Home Delivery from 91030 to 53105, it's 16x17x21 and is 33 pounds. The problem here is the shipping almost doubling at checkout. This has been going on for months. If it were my company I'd send the word down to fix it, or I'll find someone who can.

[double2trouble]

---

@babclassics wrote:

Thanks to Beserkerplanet for the great break down of the FedEx shipping over charge to buyer issue.   Your calculations were right on, the discrepancy you saw is because i forget to mention this exact item has a (quite high for me) $5 handling cost because i have to pay $5.00 for the extra heavy-duty shipping box to protect contents.  I usually charge 1.00 handling for shipping supplies even though it costs me quite a bit more.  But let’s not divert this thread to handling fees, i only mention it to confirm your figures.

So, your 61.02 FedEx retail rate is spot on and matches what I get, the buyer is being charged retail rate even though they are shown the discounted rate right up until check-out!  This is what makes the issue so ugly.  If they were just being purposely overcharged by me, that would be one (unethical thing).  But this is even worse as in “bait and switch” in their minds.  Buyers does price+shipping comparisons, picks an item based on best combination and then at check-out gets a jacked-up shipping price.  This makes them quite upset and I understand why they cry foul.

Also, your discounted rate of 28.21 matches mine as well within a 7 cents after you account for the handling costs. That is what the buyer “should” be charged at check-out and IS what they see before check-out.

The dimensional weight issue is new to me and I think you are correct that there will be an upcharge. If this is true then perhaps everybody facing that bug needs adjust their pricing

This problem does happen for Smart Post as well, even for 1 and 2 pound items.

In conclusion. 1) eBay never called me back as promised. 2) The problem did not happen since I last wrote 2 days ago but only 2 FedEx since then. 3) Will post back if there is a dim weight upcharge but won’t know for a month due to FedEx billing cycle. 4) Will post back if it happens more or eBay contacts me with an explanation / workaround.

---

And there is nothing, and I mean nothing that will lose a business customers faster than bait and switch.

[berserkerplanet]

>> 91030 to 53105   16x17x21   33 pounds   FedEx Home Delivery   $35.86   Buyer charged: $69

Yep, I get $35.77 with the full retail price being $69.00 from the calc.

It is pretty clear that this is an eBay problem. Calculators are showing seller and buyer (when seller has global settings configured to pass discounts to buyers) the discounted online price, but charging retail at checkout - at least for some sellers.

Are you using business policies as babclassics is? That could be a common factor.

As I said, I've had only 1 FedEx ground shipment this year back in Jan and it was fine. I don't use business policies. So either it's something that began after Jan 2017, or it has something to do with business policies and/or particular sellers.

Similar to the (ongoing?) UPS overcharge issue, except opposite - in that case the UPS labels actually cost the higher retail price, buyers are charged the discounted online rate, and sellers lose bigtime. (assuming my understanding and analysis of that problem a year or 2 ago is still/was correct)

As a side note: babclassics said same overcharge was happening with FedEx Smartpost also. I have absolutely NOT seen that on 9 Smartpost shipments I've performed since April. Maybe another reason to point a finger at business policies?

Or maybe the eBay bots just hate you and looovvvve me 🙂

[babclassics]

Here is an additional piece of related info i just noticed last night.  When buyers search on an item and then change the search results option to sort by price plus shipping... they are being shown the retail rate for shipping. Talk about a double whammy.   Fedex calculated items are being punished with a higher total cost when compared with the same item from other sellers!   It finally dawned on me why my identical items were not selling even tho they had a lower total price!!!

When you click directly on the item the discounted rate is shown, but the search results have full retail.  Then at random (main subject of this thread) the shipping goes back up at check out!  This may account for why some of my buyers have not noticed the discrepancy?  I refund the difference even when they dont notice.

I dont yet know if this ties in only with items with the main problem of shipping going up at check out?  Or does this new sub-plot  happen wigth all items?   If it is all, i am going to pull all my fedex calculated rates and go with flat rates tho I prefer not to.

[berserkerplanet]

Hmmm. Going to take a look and see what I see.

[comet.vintage]

i have been having this same problem since I started using FedEx through eBay several years ago.  Have you heard back from them or had any resolution?  It causes me to issue refunds several times a week.  Thanks for posting.