Issue with postage rate tables

[hazykid]

Hi All.

I'm setting up shop. I've begun listing items and quickly realised that it would be easier if I bit the bullet and created my shipping rate tables now.

I'm selling into the US from outside the US. I have created a set of tables for Domestic and International rates.

However, when I create a listing, and try to use the tables, eBay tells me there is an error with the listing:

"It looks like there's a problem with this listing.

• Shipping Cost - You must enter a shipping cost."

I can't for the life of me work out why. Anyone more experienced in listing than me who could shed some light on this for me please? Would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Richard

[orangehound · Accepted solution]

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@hazykid wrote:

I can't for the life of me work out why. Anyone more experienced in listing than me who could shed some light on this for me please? Would be much appreciated.

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When creating a listing with a rate table, you still need to identify at least one service and put a value in it.

Why?  This "default service" (and price) will be selected any time one of your rate tables is incomplete.  Even if you believe you have fully defined all possibilities in your rate table, you may find three things can happen:

1. If a buyer is purchasing through the Global Shipping Program, then the rate table does not cover it and eBay will charge shipping according to this default shipping service.
2. In the past, eBay has also gone into the rate tables and defined new regions ... when they do this, eBay does not notify you, but your rate tables will now have gaps.  Should a buyer purchase from one of these newly defined regions, they will be charged shipping according to the default shipping service.
3. If eBay's software for rate tables has problems, then eBay will bypass the rate tables you've defined and select the default shipping service ... yes, this has happened in the past (about a year ago, the rate tables were down for about 2 to 4 weeks).

[pjcdn2005]

I've never used the shipping rate tables or even looked at them to see how they work but I do ship from outside of the US.  Note that regardless of where you are located, domestic shipping on .com is always shipping to the US.  So if you are using the listing form, you would specify that you are using either standard, economy or expedited shipping from outside of the US.  If you are shipping within your own country or any other country, you would use   one of the generic international choices.  I don't know if this will help you with the rate tables but I suspect they are similar regarding domestic and international shipping locations.

[hazykid]

Hi Orangehound. Thank you. That makes sense, and gives me confidence that my rate tables will be used when someone purchases my items despite having to add an 'extra' rate at the time of listing.

[hazykid]

 Hi  pjcdn2005,

Thank you. That particular quirk took me hours and hours to finally realise. It works the same in the shipping tables and was quite confusing for me at the time.

The thing is that this 'domestic' convention makes some of the terminology a bit awkward as you set up the listing and/or rate tables.