FYI - at least as of now - I talked to a CS Rep today about how to set this up so we could keep PR as normal since we ship a lot of Hot Wheels / Matchbox there. The current process has the Seller exclude PR from the EIS with your Account Shipping Settings, you also have to uncheck the "Expand your reach...." button. I was told this would allow PR to stay out of EIS and still could ship as normal so we could still use USPS services. After implementing these changes all it did was completely block PR with "Does Not Ship to Puerto Rico" I put the USA zip code in the box and it did not matter - it was still blocked.
The only option I can see right now is to check the Add Other Shipping Services in the listings to give the Buyer an option to select EIS or the other options you have then entered as available. There are some issues with this option:
1 - This would allow any Buyer from outside the USA to select options other than EIS - For us, we are happy with the EIS service and would not want Buyers in other countries to select a service other than EIS. It would be even better if eBay could ever get combined shipping discounts working.
2 - There is no Ground Advantage option - since now PR would be classified as an International Shipment - we would have to select USPS First Class Package International as the most affordable; so maybe keeping in EIS would still be cheaper than this option even with the double shipping of the item from Seller to eBay to Buyer.
3 - The cost for the Buyer - Any of us Sellers that have been selling here long enough know you can't just have this large of a total price increase and the consequences not be felt with loss of sales. Even if eBay kept the costs to PR (and upcoming AK / HI) as low as possible, it is still an increase with effects.
I do understand the Sellers that have PR currently as a "blocked" ship to location, this will be a good thing with only an upside addition for any new sale to PR. The Sellers that just use UPS / FedEx would also see the same benefit. I would argue that there is a much greater number of Sellers that have a majority of light weight / low value items this will negatively affect. When you are selling items like this, an increase of even less than $1.00 to the total sale price is a big factor.
I'm not bashing the option, just think there needs to be a way Sellers can keep the status quo since it does work. We have been shipping to PR since 1998 without major issues - of course there are the occasional late deliveries and navigating some address issues / translations, but with Delivery Confirmation and the Shipping Center doing a better job applying correct information, it has only gotten easier to ship to PR the past couple of years. This to me is a step backwards for many, and even if eBay makes more $$$ moving packages themselves, I would debate they could lose more in lost sales FVFs because of higher shipping cost / total sale cost.
