USPS shipping rates increased??

[sunnydaze45]

I don't remember seeing anything about the USPS shipping rates going up.  I went to print a label for a padded flat rate envelope and see it went from $8.30 to $8.54..  Was there any announcement about this??  Did I miss it??  TIA

[stephenmorgan]

I am still seeing $8.30.  Maybe check you listing and see if there is a handling fee for 24¢.

[wastingtime101]

The rate hasn't changed recently. Price changes are coming in a couple weeks.

Can you post a screenshot? Are you sure you had padded flat rate selected @sunnydaze45 ? I still see $8.30.

[css2001]

Not yet, the USPS rate increase is scheduled to occur on 1/21/2024

[sunnydaze45]

Thanks everyone.... will check it with my next package...

[valueaddedresource]

@sunnydaze45  @wastingtime101  what ship on date are you using?

I just did a test and it looks like eBay *is* sneaking in a stealth increase for Priority Mail rates effective January 8th!

It's not just flat rate options either, I tested a few weight/size combinations and on all the ones I tried, it looks like Ground Advantage is staying the same, but Priority is going up for anything with a ship date on or after the 8th.

On the padded envelope, the retail rate stays the same at the current price of $10.40, it just shows the discount between retail and the eBay rate has been reduced because the eBay rate went up.

Between that and the fact that Ground Advantage hasn't been changed, I don't think this is just a case of eBay inadvertently pulling the trigger early on the USPS rate changes that are supposed to be going into effect January 21, but it's hard to say.

I haven't been able to check Media Mail or eBay Standard Envelope but if anyone is seeing differences in those too, please post examples here!

devon@ebay  what happened to "We continue to work with USPS on competitive rates, and when we do have rate changes we try to give our sellers at least two weeks' notice"?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Got-an-e-mail-from-Pirate-Ship/m-p/34105706/highlight/true#M23... 

This is especially egregious given recent reports of eBay cold calling sellers to try to pressure them in to passing discounted shipping rates on to buyers. 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-called-me-yesterday/m-p/34192728/highlight/true#M2331103

Any seller who is currently passing those discounted rates on to buyers for Priority mail is going to lose money when they go to print labels for their weekend orders to ship on Monday and find the price has gone up.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The published Commercial rate for the padded FRE is $8.80, so the increase from $8.30 to $8.54 for eBay pricing could be just a reduction in the special eBay discount, and not directly connected to the upcoming USPS rate changes.

On January 21, the published Commercial rate for the padded FRE will increase to $9.30. So we're currently getting a 50-cent discount on that envelope, and if $8.54 is the new eBay rate but implemented exactly 2 weeks prematurely, then the discount is (9.30 - 8.54)  76 cents.  

https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/January%202024%20Price%20Change%20112223%20-%20Notice123.p...

[valueaddedresource]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

....so the increase from $8.30 to $8.54 for eBay pricing could be just a reduction in the special eBay discount, and not directly connected to the upcoming USPS rate changes.

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@nobody*s_perfect - that's what I'm afraid of.

We saw Pirate Ship and many other service providers as well as Etsy, Amazon and other marketplaces change some of their USPS prices in November due to changes in their NSAs and/or USPS Connect Ecommerce program agreements even though there wasn't technically a publicly announced USPS rate increase at that time.

Back then, eBay said they were not increasing their rates along with everyone else "at that time" (the link I referenced above where Devon said they try to give two weeks' notice), but now I' m wondering if eBay isn't taking this opportunity to make similar adjustments before the new rates go into effect on January 21 and if we won't see those rates go up even more in two weeks?

[fern*wood]

So ebay decided to lower their discount after all.

[wastingtime101]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

This is especially egregious given recent reports of eBay cold calling sellers to try to pressure them in to passing discounted shipping rates on to buyers. 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-called-me-yesterday/m-p/34192728/highlight/true#M2331103

Any seller who is currently passing those discounted rates on to buyers for Priority mail is going to lose money when they go to print labels for their weekend orders to ship on Monday and find the price has gone up.

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Agreed. While the rates are still below commercial which is good, eBay did not notify sellers which is bad. Any type of financial increase should come with advance notice so sellers can make necessary adjustments, and eBay's recent attempts to shove sellers into offering carrier-specific discounts makes this worse.

Side note: just got an email from PirateShip saying "USPS is about to get cheaper" haha

It's a standard email saying which rates are going down and which are going up on Jan 21, but the email subject line was funny considering this eBay increase. eBay Priority rates are still lower than Pirate for Flat Rate packages. Pirate is still $8.80 for the padded flat rate until the Jan 21 price changes are implemented.

[sapphire_studio]

I just read that email too. Ground Advantage under a pound (old First Class) going up is most annoying 😞 I am sure others will also be annoyed about the Media Mail.

[valueaddedresource]

I suspect we'll be seeing more posts about this later this evening and tomorrow once today's rates are no longer shown.

If anyone actually ends up purchasing a label at the increased rate, it would be helpful if you can look under Payments and confirm how much you actually get charged.

In the past when eBay has messed up with eBay Standard Envelope prices being increased in error before a USPS update, they said it was a "display issue" that only showed the wrong (higher) prices when purchasing the label, but sellers were actually charged the correct (lower) price on the billing side.

Comparing the displayed rates to what actually gets charged for labels with a "ship on" date of January 8th or later may help to determine what's really going on here too, since we may not get a definitive answer from eBay on the weekend.

[sunnydaze45]

THANK YOU ~~  i THOUGHT it was just me reading it wrong... 

[valueaddedresource]

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@sunnydaze45 wrote:

THANK YOU ~~  i THOUGHT it was just me reading it wrong... 

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You're welcome @sunnydaze45 ! If you purchased a label to ship Monday that was showing the higher rate, can you check under your Payments tab and confirm for us if it was actually charged to you at that higher rate?

[sunnydaze45]

or order no. 25-11003-97183

Tracking no.

USPS

Completed

-$8.54

-

-$8.54negative $8.54

YES!! they did charge me the $8.54...