Shipping Calculation error by EBAY

[nejamepools]

I have a buyer that bought a quantity of 3 of the same items. Ebay calculated the weight correctly, but did not calculate the dimensions correctly. They based it on the size of one item, not 3. So the buyer did not pay enough shipping.

[wastingtime101]

It's not an error; it's bad programming. eBay does not offer a way to account for different package sizes on multi-item shipments.

This is going to create problems for anybody that charges carrier discounted rates instead of retail rates.

You can switch from carrier discounts to retail rates, or you can enter incorrect package dimensions 12x12x12 on the listing form to avoid buyers paying lower cubic rates. If you go with option 2 you'll have to be extra careful about entering correct package size when you buy your shipping labels.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Going forward- use 'flat' shipping, which is the amount that YOU want to charge, to ship 1 item, and then you can 'add' how much you want to charge for each 'additional' item. 

You can go on USPS website and 'figure' various costs, using size/weight for 1 item, 2 items, 3 items etc and then input that amount (I always use furthest zip code, either 10001 for NY or 90620 for Southern Cal.)

You do this by editing your listings

[nejamepools]

Definitely bad programming and you can't talk to anyone about it. So should I cancel the order because I'm not going to eat the difference in shipping. I reached out to the buyer, but have not heard back from them yet.

[wastingtime101]

Your options are to ship and pay the difference or cancel as "out of stock" and take an account defect, possibly neg feedback.

What's the $ difference in ship cost?

FYI, if you want to charge buyers retail rates to avoid a repeat of this issue, you can turn off carrier discounts on this page: https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf

Remember, you pay eBay fees on total amount buyer pays (item+ship+tax) so when you charge carrier discounted rates you are automatically losing money on shipping unless you increase your item prices or add a handling fee to cover those eBay fees.