Posts Tagged ‘Free shipping’

Dear eBay Queen:

What is the deal with people these days?  In the last three weeks I have had offers on my items that were simply unnecessary! One of those customers offers a super low offer, and I am like, ok I’ll take that, accept offer.  I send them an invoice, and I get the following message.

I love this item, but your shipping is ridiculously high.  I don’t understand why you can’t throw it in a bag and just send it for a couple of bucks. Why do sellers like you need to make money on the item and the shipping?

Why do buyers thing this way?  What can I do to make this situation better? This is an item with shape that would be ruined if crushed if I sent it this way. I thought maybe I should send them a copy of the USPS shipping rate chart, or maybe I could just cancel the sale.   What do you think I should do?

Yesterday I went to the post office and saw something unusual.  I paid for four First Class Parcels at the post office. I didn’t add Delivery Confirmation to any of them (I know, I should have, but I didn’t have time to make the labels). The system generated a small, bar-code sticker that says “tracking” on it. The clerk didn’t know exactly what these new stickers were for — some sort of “internal tracking system,” he thought. I reached for one of the packages still lying on the counter, saying I would write down the number and see if it was trackable. The clerk — a sweet guy who’s been there for years — actually swept it up out of my reach and said customers were not allowed to do that.  I emailed my customers asking them  to make a note of the numbers and email them to me so I can see if they are trackable in the usual way. Do you know anything about this?

Courtney

Dear Courtney:

I have also fell victim to the buyer that refuses to pay shipping.  One way to get around this is to offer free shipping.  I started doing offering free shipping 3 years ago, and have found buyers complain less about the cost of shipping.  In this particular situation I would email them back, and let them know what exact shipping is on the item.  Let them know you cannot ship this in a bag because you are pretty sure it will arrive broken.  I’m sorry you have to deal with this.

I have never heard of the post office doing that. I will do a little checking, with my post office friends and see if they can shed some light on this issue.

Dear eBay Queen:

I met you a few weeks ago and asked you a bunch of eBay questions. I forgot one.  This one has to do with shipping charges.  So, now that eBay is charging fees for shipping, are the fees based on the shipping stated in listing or the actually amount the buyer pays? I ask this because I just sent a combine shipping invoice to a buyer and I would like to know if I’m being charged for the shipping discount.

I’ve taken your advice and I am going to start listing all my items with free shipping starting August 12^th. I figure after that date I won’t need to worry about combine shipping discounts.

Thanks for looking into this for me, and for chatting with me a few weeks ago.

Ann C.

Dear Ann:

The fee is based on the shipping price you have listed and NOT the actual shipping. One of my GTC listings rolled over after 30 days and now there are two separate charges when the item sells. One line shows the FVF for the price of the item. The next line states shipping for that item and it’s FVF. For me, it’s 11%.

eBay has this really cool thing called a fee calculator.  You can enter all the information in for a sale and it will list the fees out for you.  You can check out the fee calculator here: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/Feecalculator.html   Let me know how your new venture in free shipping goes.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 110719930386 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page):  This week I’m on a Mission Trip in Joplin Missouri with 30 junior high and high school kids. Check out this Janis “Joplin” Black and White Photo SOLD $760.00 Check it out HERE

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? Email: questions@asktheebayqueen.com

Dear eBay Queen:

I just bought an item from a seller that was listed with Free Shipping. When I got the invoice, there was a $.70 charge added at the bottom. I thought that eBay or the seller were trying to charge me tax, so wrote him and asked him what the .70 was for. Here’s the answer he gave me:

“Hello, first of all, congratulations on winning this auction. As to the .70 charge, it is for the delivery confirmation tracking number that we purchase through the post office and that we provide you with to track your package while it is in transit. As sellers, eBay has made it clear in the past that we are NOT to include ANY pricing fees in the description area of the auction. All shipping charges are to be placed in the appropriate area of the auction (under shipping tab) and not in the actual description. To be in compliance with eBay’s policy, we have done just that and try to the best of our ability to give accurate description in all areas of the auction. Thank you for your patience and your understanding. Hope to do business with you again. Please refer us to others. Have a wonderful day.”

What is this guy talking about?  I don’t think this is eBay legal is it? I think charging for delivery confirmation is charging for a fee related to shipping. What do you think?  How should I handle this?

Elaine C.
Dear Elaine:

I did not find anything within the eBay shipping guidelines about charging for delivery confirmations. http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/shipping-delivery-options.html  It really isn’t “free shipping” if he is charging for part of the shipping, is it?

If this were my transaction, I would pay for the item, and wait to see what kind of label was on the package. If I received a green delivery confirmation label, he really paid .70 for it.  If I received the package with a white and black bar coded label he only paid .19 for it.  Either way, I would contact eBay and let them know what he was doing.  To do this go here: http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS

You could refuse to pay until the shipping is really free and possibly get in an email argument with him, but it most likely won’t get him to do the right thing.  In this particular situation following up with eBay is the best solution.

Dear eBay Queen:

An eBayer, with private, feedback won an auction of mine last night.  I don’t understand why anyone would have private feedback and most importantly why would eBay allow them too? The only reason I can think of is to hide the feedback they leave.

It took me quite a bit of time, but I did some back tracking and did a search of the buyer’s winning auctions from June to July.   He won 19 auctions.  Out of those 19 auctions the buyer left 3 positives, 4 neutrals and 3 negatives.

I went to “Buyers Requirements” trying to find a way to block bidders with private feedback, but there was nothing!  UGH! Is there any way to avoid doing business with this buyer? If I can’t get out of this transaction now, what about in the future?

Private Seller
Dear Private Seller:

I’m not sure why anyone would want to make their feedback private.  The only reason I could think of is if you didn’t want people to see what you buy; but anyone with a little bit of eBay knowledge knows that you can see what a person has bought by checking out the advance search.  According to eBay if you make your Feedback profile private, “your Feedback comments will be hidden, but members will still be able to see the number of positive, neutral, and negative Feedback ratings you’ve received and you won’t be able to sell items on eBay.”

I don’t think there is anything you can do right now with this buyer.  Just send the item quickly and safely and hope they like it. Is there something in the feedback they left that makes you think they are not going to be happy with your item?  If so you could address it now.  I wouldn’t say that you looked at their previous feedback when addressing this though.  If for some reason the buyer leaves you an unwarranted negative, I would contact eBay and let them know that this buyer is a serial negative feedback giver.  Hopefully they will review their account and take action.   You can also block the bidder by adding them to your “block buyer list”.  To do this, go here. http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?bidderblocklog .  Let me know how this turns out for you.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 130538888460 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page):  It’s Fair time!  Check out this rare 1915 California PPIE Fair Pinback Button SOLD $415.00  Check it out HERE

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? Email: questions@asktheebayqueen.com

Dear eBay Queen:

Thank you so much for responding to my question about PayPal and eBay at the beginning of March. I am seeing how the fees on eBay and PayPal work much clearer. 

I do have a couple more questions.  I was thinking about trying to sell things at Fixed Price or a Buy it Now option. You mentioned something about shipping fees.  How does that factor in to the sale?  What if the shipping isn’t free?   How can shipping be free anyway?   Can the shipping affect the PayPal fee, insertion fee, and final value fee?  Forgive me for being slow, but could you give me a breakdown that would include shipping that cost? You gave me a breakdown of an item that sold for $50, but I wasn’t for sure if that included free shipping or shipping cost.  Again, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

Amy

Dear Amy:

Thanks for letting me know my response helped you. Your question about PayPal and eBay fees is one that even long time sellers don’t easily understand.

Fixed price and Buy it Now are great ways to sell your items fast. eBay use to have pretty strict requirements for a seller to use the Fixed Price or Buy it Now option, but they have dropped those requirements.  You can find the requirements and charges for Fixed Price and Buy it Now here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fixed-price.html  . 

It is up to each individual seller to decide what to charge for shipping.  Some sellers offer free shipping, some charge exact shipping and others charge a handling fee with their shipping charges.  eBay has made it easy for shipping charges to be figured.  When you are writing up your listing in the “Sell Your Item Form” you’ll see you can check the box for free shipping, calculated shipping or flat rate shipping.

·         Free shipping is free to the buyer, but the seller is still responsible for the charges.  This means you will need to build the price of the shipping costs in your starting price.  I would suggest before you offer free shipping that you become a little more familiar with shipping and shipping charges. 

·         Flat rate shipping is offering the same rate no matter where it is being shipped. This can be a little tricky also since shipping charges vary all over the US and internationally.  The post office makes it easier to ship in the US with flat rate boxes.  The USPS Flat Rate Boxes range in price from $4.95 to $12.95. You can check out all the USPS Flat Rate Charges here: http://www.usps.com/prices/priority-mail-prices.htm

·         Calculated shipping is the way to go when it comes to new sellers.  All you will need to do is put your zip code in along with the weight of the package and eBay’s calculator does the rest.

When it comes to the fees, eBay has just released their spring update March 15.  Check it out here http://announcements.ebay.com/2011/03/2011-spring-seller-update/ In this update they have announced they are going to apply final value fees to the total amount of the sale.  That means FVF fees will also be applied to shipping costs.  Starting July 6^th, all eBay sellers will be charged 9% final value fee on the total amount of the sale including shipping. 

Here is my original break down:

Let’s say you sold a vintage cookie jar for $50.00 + shipping.  Here’s a breakdown of the fees:

You started the listing at $9.99:  Insertion fee would be:                                     .25 cents
Your item sold for $50.00:  final value fee would be 12% of the sale price:   $6.00
PayPal Fees:  2.9% + .30 cents                                                                          $1.75
                                                                                   TOTAL FEES:                $8.00

After July 6^th your fees on the same cookie jar (that sold for $50.00 + shipping) will be:

You start the listing at $9.99: Insertion fee would be:                                     .00 (free insertion)

Your item sold for $50.00 + 12.85 shipping final value fee would be 9%        $5.65

of the total price (including shipping)

PayPal Fees: 2.9% + .30 cents                                                                    $1.75

                                                                             TOTAL FEES                $7.40

Auctionbytes is an independent online trade magazine for online auctions.  They have a complete breakdown of fees and the new changes.  http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y11/m03/i15/s00 Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 320662470743 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page): Do you know someone that looks forward to St Patrick’s Day? They need one of these!  Brand New Guinness Countdown clock St Patrick’s Day. SOLD $395.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/brand-NEW-GUINNESS-Countdown-clock-St-Patricks-Day-/320662470743

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul. Do you have a question for the eBay Queen? E-mail: questions@asktheebayqueen.com