Shipping cost

[momma7582]

my question is I’m I’m the seller of an item and my buyer did not pay enough shipping.  were only charged about half of what it cost so I have not purchased the label yet my post to sell the item list the height of the items -2 brass lamps- I didn’t see anywhere to enter the weight I learned the hard way to check package size and weight before shipping . Is there anyway for me to have them pay the rest of what it’s going to cost 

[roccotacodad54]

   No the buyer bought the item with the price you had quoted for shipping as part of the overall price.  You can't realistically expect to then after the fact charge them more than the price the buyer agreed to pay.

   I'm not a seller but if I'm not mistaken that would be against eBat policy as well.

   I guess you could cancell the order and take the hit but you will lose a perhaps repeat buyer as well as earn the hit to your account.

   It's not that the buyer didn't pay enough for shipping, it's that you didn't charge enough for shipping....................

[momma7582]

I don’t calculate shipping cost i sell my items as the buyer pays shipping so It depends on where they live etc I don’t calculate the shipping cost at I assume that is done by eBay 

[annadryl]

Bad assumption.

[participatrophy]

The calculation is done by eBay. Whether the output is accurate depends on whether the numbers you input were accurate. There are two fields where you enter the weight in pounds and ounces, and nearby are another three fields for you to enter length, width, & height.  Do you list from your computer or from your phone?

[momma7582]

I use my phone I don’t have a computer and haven’t been doing this long so I’m kind of learning as I go I guess I didn’t realize that when I make the post there is a place where I can edit in the actual shipping section before I post I have just always put my dimensions in the description or specification area and I don’t usually box things and prepare to actually ship until after they are sold  

[momma7582]

And thank you for your response I am learning as I go some people aren’t very kind 

[christworks]

@momma7582  First, congratulations on the sale. Second, you have a very good sell through rate, so congrats on that as well. I'd love to have a value above 60%. Or even above 40% 😒 You are listing things people want, so keep it up. 

Now the bad news. I'm afraid you have learned a painful lesson. I would not cancel the sale nor would I ask the buyer to pay more. You have two red bullseyes in the past 6 months and you don't want another right now.  Eat the cost of the extra shipping. I realize that cuts into your profit or you may even take a loss on the sale, depending on what you paid for the item. Don't worry about it. Look at the big picture. You are doing good. All of us have areas we need to improve on. 

When you are shipping, size matters more than weight most times. Until you have done this long enough that you can look at an item and know what size box it will go in and can tell by feeling the weight, I advise you to weigh each item as you list it. Add 1 pound if you think the item will fit into a small to medium size box. Add 2 pounds if you think it will go into a large box, and if it is something extra large, you likely want to add several more pounds to your weight total. When I list VCR combo units, I normally add an extra 4 pounds to my item weight because I know I'll be wrapping it up and it will go into a larger size box. 

I am sure you put measurements in a lot of the items you sell, so when you measure something, add about 6 inches to each dimension and that will give you a rough idea of what size box you will need.  It is better for you to slightly overestimate than to underestimate. If it is something breakable that you need to wrap or even double box, make sure to allow for that.

Some sellers do pre-box large items at the time they list just so they do not end up in a situation like you are in. If you have the space to do it, you may consider it. Space is certainly an issue for a lot of us, so that may not be feasible. 

Edit: @participatrophy  alluded to this below me, but if you do see that eBay has filled in values, I would not use those. Take your own weights and measurements. 

[participatrophy]

No worries, we were all there once. You'll get the hang of it. I'm not familiar with the phone interface at all so I can't tell you exactly where to look but it'll be in there somewhere. Looking at some of your other listings, I wouldn't be surprised if eBay has been pre-filling the size fields with their best guess at a suggested estimate. So you may not be looking for empty fields. If you see a cluster of 5 small-ish boxes that already have numbers in them, stop scrolling because that's probably where you enter the shipping specs. 

[candd205]

As others have said, eBay calculates the shipping, but you have to enter the correct size and weight of the item plus the box you plan to use. (I don't box my items up ahead of time, but I always make sure I have a correct size box on hand in case my items sells.)

I looked at some of your other items. I see at least 2 heavy things you are going to have the same problem with if they sell, the lamp and the collection of glass items. You really need to go in and edit each one of your listings, especially the heavy big ones to make sure the weight and dimension are accurate.

[momma7582]

Thank you so much  i did go ahead and print the label it was only about $7 and i still made a profit, but I was just curious. I learned my lesson on a bamboo birdcage that I sold and shipped and the box was big. I mean I had to put a big box and put a lot of packing around it because it was very fragile. It only weighed about 3 pounds so when I shipped it about a week or so afterwards, my account got hit for $113 for shipping cost that it said I underpaid and it wasthey charged me $1.50 for the size of the box being off but then they said it weighed at 37 pounds instead of the 3 pounds thankfully i was able to file a dispute with the post office and they gave me $112 back. Thank you so much for your insights  very helpful I’m gonna have to Check out what Christworks is, again thank you may God bless you and your family especially this holiday season. 

[momma7582]

Yes I plan to go through all of my listings and check those things I did get charged $113 on another item I sold the box was larger than anticipated as it was odd shaped and very fragile but it was very light so due to the size, the post office charged me $1.50 more than they actually charged my account $112 saying that the package weighed 37 pounds instead of 3 pounds the lady at the post office said that they did that because a box that size could hold 37 pounds even though it only weighed 3 pounds but I was able to put in a dispute at the post office and they did return the $112 the dollar 50 I wasn’t really worried about but yes, it’s very much learning process and I do appreciate the helpful response I’ve gotten on here

[fern*wood]

Based on the size of that birdcage,  I feel you were very lucky to not be charged the extra shipping.    Looking at your listings I agree that few appear to be charging enough shipping.  The weights and dimensions need to be corrected on most of them in the shipping section.  What you state in your description is important, but that doesn't help you with the shipping calculations that only rely on the shipping section being correct. 

[soh.maryl]

Learning as you go isn't a good plan for an eBay seller.  You can see here that that way of learning comes at a cost to you.

Feel free to regard me as unkind.  

[powell-collectibles]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Learning as you go isn't a good plan for an eBay seller.  You can see here that that way of learning comes at a cost to you.

Feel free to regard me as unkind.  

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It isn’t really unkind, just a bit unrealistic, IMO.  I’d think that the vast majority of even good to great sellers learned as we went.  

The problem for many is that they just aren’t cut out to be good sellers.  If you somehow think that eBay is magically going to know what your shipping details will be, reading everything you can about selling isn’t going to save you.  The barrier of entry to becoming a seller is understandably very low.  We are going to get folks that aren’t even cut out to send a package.

The misguided notion that one needs to read up on everything eBay has to start out is just silly.  It is a bit like telling me that I should read the hundreds of pages in an owner’s manual before I drive a car off the lot.