Combined Shipping not working. Buyers add items to cart, get overcharged at checkout

[joelchummel2010]

I am getting messaged by buyers asking why the shipping charges are so high in their shopping carts.

And I have a theory as to why, I need to know if anyone else has experienced this.

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My carrier of choice is exclusively USPS, and my two shipping policies are either USPS First Class Package, or USPS Priority Mail.   Since 99% of my items are less than 16 ounces, that means the Shipping Policy selected when creating new listings, is nearly always USPS First Class Package.   Also, since NONE of my buyers in the past two years have ever opted to pay Priority Mail rates when the First Class Package rate was available, I list only the one shipping service in these listings, First Class Package, and do not offer Priority Mail as a second choice  Rarely, a heavy item comes up for listing that already exceeds the First Class Package weight limit of 16 ounces, and then I will assign the Priority Mail policy to that listing.  The rare exeption, not the rule.

My shipping policies all have the "Apply my calculated shipping rule" box checked.   My Calculated Shipping Rule is "Combine all weights and then subtract an amount" and for each added item "Subract 3 ounces"  (Online chat agents and a phone agent have verified this several times.  How helpful to tell me what I already know!)

Recent Examples:   

1) Buyer buys 9 items through shopping cart, shipping is $77.32   Actual shipping was much less.  Refunded the buyer  $55.00.  In reviewing the order, no useful details to suggest where $77.32 came from.

2) Buyer adds 6 items to cart, shipping is $38.40, messages me, then abandons cart.  No idea of what was in his cart, no way to examine the numbers.

3) Buyer messages me, 2 items in cart, not applying combined shipping.  Resolved through Make Offer/Invoice Buyer to set correct shipping.  Didn't ask what the shipping cost was in the shopping cart though, lost that data.

4) Concrete Example with working numbers:  Buyer purchases two items, near identical in weight and size.  Shipping paid, $12.80.  Actual shipping (at eBay rates) $6.11.  Refunded $6.40.   Attempts to apply shipping policy settings and Calculated Shipping Rule fail to produce any number close to $12.80, with a number of possible weights checked, In-Store Rates vs. eBay Rates, etc., no match.   Acting on a hunch, I use eBay Shipping Calculator to find what the shipping would be if items were just shipped as separate packages with no pretense at combining into one package.   1st item, package weight 9 ounces, In-Store Rate $6.40.  2nd item, package weight 11 ounces, In-Store Rate, $6.40.   BINGO!  I found out how eBay's Shopping Cart shipping calculator had arrived at $12.80.

My theory is this.  I think that since the individual listings are all tagged to my USPS First Class Shipping Policy, eBay may default to using the First Class Package Rate Table to refer to in coming up with a combined shipping cost.  eBay attempts to add all the package weights together, but at some point that number exceeds 16 ounces - the First Class Package rate table would no longer applicable.  eBay is not human, it doesn't think "Well if it's under 16 ounces I can ship it all by First Class Package, but it it's over 16 ounces, I will have to ship it via Priority Mail, so let's look at the Priority Mail pricing instead."  A human gets that in the blink of an eye.  But, at that level, eBay may not necessarily know that my preferences are 1) Under 16 ounces=>First Class Package 2) Over 16 ounces=>Priority Mail when figuring out combined shipping.

I think it freezes up because the First Class Package Rate Table isn't valid above 16 ounces, so it sort of "runs home to mama". gives up on attempts to combine the shipping in the Shopping Cart, and just calculates the individual shippings costs, and adds those.   As per my example above, $6.40 plus $6.40 does equal $12.80.

What I need to know, has anyone else ever encountered problems with combined shipping costs being excessive when buyers go through checkout of their shipping carts?

Thanks to anyone who can provide some feedback/guidance on this issue, because the eBay online chat agents don't have a clue...

[richard1rst]

Well fr starters, in Priority Mail a 3 ounce deduction is pointless. The post office rounds everything off to the next highest pound. So a 2 pound package gets charged for 2 pounds. A 3 ounce reduction (now 1 pound 13 ounce) is STILL 2 pounds as far as the post office is concerned - so no deduction in shipping cost.

Likewise in First Class Mail there are brackets. 1-4 ounces cost the same, 5-8, 9-12 and 13-16. So, for example a 3 ounce deduction in a 16 ounce package is now 13 ounces and the same cost as a 16 ounce package.

Personally I NEVER use preset deductions.  There are just too many variables that make it virtually impossible to create a one size fits all program.

When I had calculated shipping I instructed my buyers to add everything to the cart then click "request total from seller". (Despite the complaints you see here that it doesn't work I have never had a problem with it so I can only conclude that those who say it doesn't work are simply doing it wrong).

Then I calculated the correct shipping and bill the buyer accordingly. Problem solved.

Everything I now offer is free domestic shipping but the above does apply to my international shipping which is still calculated,.

[joelchummel2010]

I actually came up with my own answer.  Since all of my items are First Class Package, and knowing the weight limit for that rate class is 16 ounces, the eBay shipping calculator in the Shopping Cart looks through your items and divies them up into 16 ounce lots - each lot gets full price postage rate applied. 

Not terribly bad for small items.  Look at five items weighing 5, 6, 5, 5, and 5 ounces.   eBay will take the first three items and count that as if it were a package by itself - 16 ounces***, hey that will cost you $5.95!  eBay will take the remaining two items as a completely separate package and at 10 ounces***, that will cost you $5.25.  Shopping cart totals out at $11.20.   [***factoring in my Combined Shipping Rule with regards to subtracting weight - 3 ounce for each additional item - the actual postage lookup weights are 16-3-3=10oz. on the first 'package, and 10-3 = 7oz.]

The problem I have with that is that it divies up the items in the cart before applying any weight reductions.  Applying my Calculated Shipping Rule by hand yields 5 + (6-3) + (5-3) + (5-3) + (5-3) = 14 ounces, and that means I can ship it in one box, and that is $9.85 via First Class Package

That doesn't seem so bad, does it?  Not a huge discrepancy after all.

But look at what happens with large items that do not combine at all into 16 ounce lots.  Five items  - 8, 10, 11, 13, and 14oz. each - the eBay Shopping Cart shipping calculator prices out the separate shipping cost of each item $5.25, $5.95, $5.95, $7.30, $9.85 - and the shopping cart total now shows at $34.30  That's it, that is eBay entire effort at 'combining shipping' in the shopping cart - the exact same as if you ship each item in it's own package.  

But doing it manually, I can add up the weights, and say, thats over 16 ounces, I know I can ship it as one Priority Mail package instead.  So I arrive at a weight total of 56 ounces, deduct the assumed box weight of 3 ounces off each weight, 56 - 5*3 = 41 ounces, add back in 10 ounces for a big Priority Mail box, postage lookup weight is 51 ounces, the actual shipping will be $14.95 via USPS Priority Mail

Therein lies the rub....

I suspect that the workaround to getting automated combined shipping to work right is to add the option to ship via USPS Priority to every one of my listings.  And see what happens at checkout.   Would eBay present the buyer with the option to choose between $34.50, and the much more sane $14.95 at checkout?

[joelchummel2010]

You've given me some insights, so I've been playing a bit with the Shipping Calculator.  Funny, I've never sat and run a range of rates through it like that - you are 100% right about the brackets.  One thing that shocked me though was for a 16 ounce item, the First Class Package rate and the Priority Mail rate were equal.  Maybe it was just a coincidence, for the particular zip code destination I was testing out.   But it makes me think why do I struggle to get a heavier item into a small enough box just to keep it under 16 ounces when for the same price I can go Priority Mail and use one of their larger FREE boxes???

As to weight reductions, in my case they can be absolutely significant because in many cases the product weight is actually less than the box weight

That part about Request Total from Seller I think has something to do with settings regarding requiring immediate payment or not.

[pjcdn2005]

Well something does seem to be funky with the discounts.  I put 3 of your items  in my cart and used a Montana zip code.   On each listing it showed that shipping first class was $5.55 and $10.40 for Priority.  In the cart, 2 of them showed that shipping would be 3.25 each for first class and the other would be $5.55.  Total for first class was 12.05.

If I choose Priority for each listing the shipping cost for each item showed as 3.63 for each item with a total of $10.89….less than first class.   

[joelchummel2010 · Accepted solution]

SOLVED!!!

I found the workaround for the Shopping Cart shipping total issue.

The problem was, First Class Package was the only shipping service offered in my listings, so when a buyer added items to their shopping cart, the only shipping option available for each package is that.  And since it knows the limit for any given package is 16 ounces, it divies up the items in the cart into separate 16 ounce lots, each one a First Class package.  Four small items might fit into one First Class Package for $6.95.  But four heavier items that cannot be combined with each other would be viewed as four separate First Class Packages, for $27.40, and that is a shame, because the Priority Mail rate on that might be only $11.75.

But because the eBay shipping calculator doesn't think in terms of shifting from First Class Package to Priority Mail for packages greater than 16 ounces.

The apparent workaround for that is to revise your shipping policies to offer more than one shipping service.   

By adding Priority Mail as a second service to my First Class Package shipping policy, the results immediately went from this (6 items in the Shopping Cart, shipping is $40.40):

to THIS on the Checkout Screen (where the default is still First Class for all 6 items and the shipping cost is still $40.40 - but NOW the Priority Mail option is now selectable for each item)

 

  and then once the buyer has selected Priority Mail for each item, this on the Checkout Page:

 

As you can see, this is contingent on the buyer being savvy enough to click the Priority Mail option for each item, but in the end, you can see that the shipping cost at checkout WAS reduced from a totally nonsensical $40.40 to a sane $14.70.

What gets me is why in the Seller's Help pages for Combined Shipping, vis-a-vis the various available shipping services, why this issue of transitioning from packages less than 16 ounces to packages over 16 ounces is seemingly not addressed, nor automated.

[joelchummel2010]

Thank you for your feedback on that - I too have been testing, looking at which radio button is clicked and what the showing $ amount is.  When you first hit the Checkout screen, all items will be First Class because that is my default shipping service, and all of the items have already been parsed out into individual lots with a 16 ounce cap.   So, if you see three items, one is $5.55 First Class, and two are $3.25 each for First Class, that tells me it has combined those two items into one 16 ounce lot that costs $6.50 and the first item you mention was the odd-man out, the postage calculated for that would be $5.55 by itself, and the cart total would be $12.05.

When you see the $10.40 Priority Mail associated with the $5.55  item, that's assuming you would select that item only to be shipped Priority Mail instead of First Class.  It you selected Priority Mail for that item and left the two other items as the were, your shipping total would change from $5.55 + $6.50 to $10.10 + $6.50

As you transition individual items from First Class to Priority, eBay recalculates the overall shipping.  As you mention, the pro-rated item price was $3.63 after you had selected ALL 3 items for Priority Mail, and the total dropped from $12.05 to $10.89.

That is not a huge discrepancy, but what I was trying to weed out were the really obscene overcharge situations, like the following examples.

1)  11 items, buyer paid $76 in shipping.  Actual shipping was less than $20

2)  6 items, shipping $38.40, buyer messaged me to complain but abandoned cart

3)  in my own test example, 6 heavier items, $40.40, reduced to $14.70 by checking Priority Mail on each item.

4) 2 items, buyer paid $12.80, actual shipping less than half that.

Thanks for your interest and your feedback.

I am thinking of reversing my one shipping policy which originally been First Class Package only, and to which I added Priority Mail as an added service - as a workaround for THIS problem - to actually making Priority Mail the default and First Class Package the backup.   Not sure about that though because that will actually present the higher shipping cost front-end to the listing on any page it appears on, and you know how it goes, higher shipping drives potential buyers to keep looking elsewhere....