I went to use the shipping rate tables once more hoping that maybe by now eBay would have figured out that the tables are pretty much useless, since everything that it offers is already available on the page that you make you listing with.
If they were smarter they would leave us use that page for domestic shipping zones! not the useless way they have it now, they aren't offering anything that's already available, Why even bother having it?
All I want to do is have 1 or 2 services but have the prices posted for zones, meaning if you live in my home town you will pay $X.xx, 1 state away will pay $XX.xx, and so on only they will be broken into 8 zones, (for those of us who have zone 7 and 8 deliveries) I realize there are some locations that will never encounter zone 7 or 8 if shipping within the lower 48 states. Places like Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Texas, Illinios (basically arount the center of the country has optimal positioning for cheapest shipping rates). They may not have a need to vary their shipping cost much but for us on the East or West coasts this is a huge difference in overal cost when I'm shippingto a zone 1 or a zone 8. But when i use Calculated shipping I have only 2 options, showing the store rates which are absolutely outrageously high and I will never make a sale, or show the ebay rates which don't include the hidden surcharges nor do they add on for my 15^ fee i will be paying on that amount buyers are paying.
So if I choose the ebay rates, I automatically will be loosing $4 on each order that does not have a bussiness address for Fed-Ex shipping Plus the extra 15% on my fees I pay, most shippjng costs are between $20-$45 on my items wich ends up an extra $3-$6 in fees+$3 surcharge= a loss of $6-$9 per sale. Often that's my profit margine, plus I'm paying for supplies and time as well but those are also lost.
If I select a flat rate I have no options to offer a selected price plan for any sales, meaning the zone 1 buyer pays the same as zone 8 so i have to price my shipping all at zone 8 costs! This is not a good way to make sales! Why can't I use those rate tables to make up my own estimated costs per zone? This way I might be able to make more sales to buyers who are closer to me and I will end up paying less fees as well. It just makes no sense to charge 1 shipping cost when my prices for shipping can vary from zone 1 ($15) to zone 8($50), plus if I were to give a refund of the difference, I will still be charged fees on the entire amount, so i'm forced to short change my buyers by 15% for no reason other than I will have to pey it if they don't. EBay does not refund my fees unless the order is fully refunded, no partial refunds are acknowledged.
Am I the only 1 who thinks that the rate tables are useless and they could be used in a much more useful way if only they were geared towards domestic shipping? I remember the 1st time I went to set them up thinking that they were going to solve this problem, that was 8 years ago, I just checked again and saw that there has been no change to the structure and I really can't even believe that nobody else has seen this as a big issue that needs to be addressed?!?
