posted on October 6, 2006 11:02:16 PM new
OK, what gives with the new ebay shipping "enhancements?" I state flat rate shipping/handling, insurance included to Canada, Europe & S. America, Asia & Australia, in my item descriptions and in the Sellers Preferences section of the listing.
The Vendio information for International shipping does not match the ebay setup. For example, Global Priority Mail costs are listed first which would place that cost at the top of the costs for International shipping. This item should now be listed last in the seller preferences.
What gives? Will there be changes to the Vendio shipping forms? Can we turn off the ebay shipping "enhancements" so that they do not appear?
Can you at least give us a heads up regarding future ebay "enhancements" which require time to correct?
That is correct. The first international shipping option that you select on your listing form will appear first in the eBay listing in the international shipping section.
There is no way to turn off the changes that eBay has made to shipping that I am aware of, but you might want to check with them to make sure.
I understand your concern and why you would not like the Global Priority Mail to appear first in your listings. I would be happy to pass along your suggestion, but I cannot think of a way that this could be done so that it would work for everyone (some people might prefer to have the Global Priority Mail option appear first, if they had selected it first). How would you suggest that we do this? Please let us know so that I can pass along your suggestion.
posted on October 7, 2006 04:12:51 PM new
If I used Vendio calculated shipping options for International shipping, would the correct cost for each country be displayed, using the ebay criteria? (I don't know if this makes sense)
If you used international calculated shipping then the correct cost for each country would be displayed when your buyer selects that country in eBay's drop-down menu. I hope this answers your question. If it does not, please provide more detail (or a specific example).
posted on October 7, 2006 07:58:47 PM new
Nathan - Thanks for the help. I have spent the most of two days struggling with this situation.
The problem with flat rate shipping is Canada, as the cost to ship there is less than other International shipping. I have a flat rate shipping cost to the rest of the world, which will work with ebay. There is just no place for Canada, under the flat rate. And, the way ebay has set up the new shipping tables.
Now, I do see where it would be beneficial to shift to calculated rates now and when the new USPS rates are determined. The problem I have is with understanding combined shipping, and calculating the weight for combined items. I ship with a heavy board envelope (almost 2 oz.) and this distorts the weight. For example the weight of a package ready for shipping is 3 oz., yet a second item would weigh an additional 1 oz. How could this be combined?
Further, I ship with handling fees and insurance included.
I guess I will list in a revised order, and leave the shipping costs to Canada remain wrong. The problem I have is that Canada has also grown as a market for my goods.
I notice that Neglus has the same problem as does Beth at Vintage ads.
I just do not understand why ebay does not consider the consequences of its "enhancements" on the sellers.
posted on October 8, 2006 02:31:35 PM new
Holy Moley...I never noticed the enhancements. It says I will ship to fiji for $6.95 or $3.50...wonder which they will choose. Of course, no one from Fiji has ever bought anything.
Vendio has it right in the listings, but ebay has it wrong.
Two things I might do. Get rid of the $3.50 and offer a discount on the invoice to Canada. Or ship everywhere for $6.95.
posted on October 8, 2006 04:33:39 PM new
I called "Ask Griff" today (Sunday), so as to alert everyone, and asked if he could help. At Griff's request, I sent an email, detailing the problem. He promised that he would take our problem directly to Leigh Goldstein, at ebay, so that he is aware of the problem.
This problem impacts everyone who lists with a third party, and ship Internationally. I have spent two precious days researching this problem. Canada and Mexico rates are the reason for the problem. Their rates are less than the rest of the International communities.
Oh, I mentioned that I list through Vendio. Griff thought that the problem may lie with Vendio not updating to meet the new ebay requirements. I seriously doubt that. Further, I just can't figure how this can be corrected.
posted on October 9, 2006 05:22:09 AM new
I don't think it is Vendio either.
I went in and tried to revise an item and the best that can be done is to offer one flat rate for everywhere (my $6.95) and then specificy a separate rate for Canada (my $3.50).
Then if you are from any country other than Canada, you only see the $6.95. If you are from Canada you see the $6.95 and $3.50 option. However, I am not going to go in and revise 2000 items to reflect this.
posted on October 9, 2006 06:07:32 PM new
Once again, I need to ask what is going to happen with the problem of incorrect fixed rate shipping?
By my count there are five or six of us who have noticed that there is a problem. I am sure that there are more. My concern is my listings and the image that the problem presents.
Of even more particular concern is the absence of an announcement and some degree of communication in regards as to what is happening.
We really need to know what is going to happen. I have not listed any items over the weekend, and today, because of the uncertainty regarding any changes which must be made.
If Vendio is not going to help us with this problem, just say so.
posted on October 9, 2006 09:44:59 PM new
Koz - this has been an issue for quite awhile. Ebay has had the international shipping options available for several months but Vendio has not kept up with the changes - ditto to "handling time" and "return policy". I don't understand why they haven't updated our listing forms to match ebays. I know that I had serious problems with items morphing from "ships worldwide" to "local pickup only" when ebay changed shipping options before and I am really fearful about this one. I quit putting the lower rates to Canada on my listings when I noticed that the lower priced option showed on all foreign transactions in ebay checkout.
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Our apologies for the delay. Note that neglus is correct in that its been like this for some time now. eBay simply changed how these are displayed at the bottom of the listing pages.
They had been displaying the shipping options this way since late August. The only change was to the layout/design at the bottom of the page.
We have been evaluating different ways to address the changes since that time, but with the latest adjustments we may need to act sooner. We'll dig a bit further into this issue to see what we may be able to build support for, if available, or what changes may be done to assist in the situation.
When more information is available we will post back to this thread. Thank you for your patience.
posted on October 10, 2006 11:48:26 AM new
Christopher - Neglus and you are partially correct. Within my ebay.com store, I have links which will take a buyer to my store as listed on ebay UK, ebay Australia, and ebay Canada. I visited my listings at those sites multiple times a day. Since way before August.
Until this month (Oct.), there were no problems with the compatibility of ebay shipping and Vendio shipping. Correct fixed rate shipping as posted in Vendio appeared correctly in the ebay listing, and at the top of the listing.
The new enhancements brought the problem about. The shipping is now selected by country at ebay.com, and individually by the site accessed by the buyer. In other words, effective with the recent change this month, a buyer in Canada now sees the shipping for her country as chosen by ebay enhancements. Enhancements which are not compatible with the current Vendio system. This was not the case in August or before August, or even in September.
posted on October 13, 2006 11:55:51 AM new
I removed Canadian shipping and usually the Canadians won't pay until I send an invoice because they get billed at the higher rate.
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posted on October 13, 2006 10:53:02 PM new
Here is what I know about this situation. You can go in and change your shipping information. As Neglus has shown, there are three shipping areas on each listing.
Canada shipping information must be listed first. Other International shipping info, should be second and third. Maybe a patch can be devised.
I have been going to each of my store items and revising shipping. It is a lot of work,
Too bad that the Vendio reviser could not be set up to revise the ebay shipping. Could the reviser be reworked to include shipping? It sure would be easier than updating the Vendio system.
posted on October 20, 2006 09:02:05 AM new
Is there any progress on fixing this problem? Currently, I have to list the item, and then revise shipping for the item at ebay.
posted on October 23, 2006 06:16:37 PM new
Hello kozersky,
Although we would love to be able to instantaneously support all eBay features and upgrades as soon a they are implemented, it is not possible as a matter of resources. We prioritize requests based on resource availability, the size of the project, and the number of requests, among other factors. We are in the process of evaluating these changes and the impact for our customers. I unfortunately don't have an ETA for this particular issue but it is 'on the list' and we will implement support as soon as we are able.
We do have a patching tool that will apply the values in your Global Preferences to all of the items in your inventory (as well as active and pending listings). I don't think this will resolve the problem, however, as it seems the concern is with showing the correct international rate with each country (unless I've misunderstood something). Please let us know if you'd like us to run the patching tool in your account.
posted on October 23, 2006 10:18:59 PM new
Diana, thanks for the reply. I would need to know more about the patching tool, as I have updated much of the items at my ebay store. I still have more to do, however, I am coming close to having all updated. I would not want to turn them all back to the previous settings.
The tool would have to select and set the Canadian costs, and then the World Wide costs for each item. In that order. I doubt we are talking about the same fix.
Does this problem exist with both SMME, and SMIE? Or, is it only a SMME problem?
posted on October 24, 2006 11:22:09 AM new
sigh. I have been a member since 2001, and although that was only five years ago, I can remember when.
There are all kinds of great new inovative enhancements to Vendio, while the basic structure is becoming out of date. It is just not me. Many other sellers, much larger than my operation, have requested updates to the stores, to the privacy policy, to the return policy, and just recently to the shipping problem. Correct shipping fees are important to a seller. This is basic stuff. There really does appear to be a problem at your end.
Now, I know that customer service is just doing its job, and relaying information to us. Well, relay the message back, that a customer, who likes Vendio, and greatly wishes to remain, as a customer, is becoming concerned.
There will be new USPS rates and changes taking effect early next year (which is about 90 days from now). Will Vendio be ready for these changes?
Thanks for the opportunity to vent. No need for a reply. I am done posting here.
spelling corrections were required.
[ edited by kozersky on Oct 24, 2006 11:24 AM ]
posted on October 24, 2006 12:28:37 PM new
Hi Bill,
Unfortunately the patching tool that Diana mentioned doesn't help with our lack of full support for the most recent eBay shipping fields/options.
While we do list the proper shipping costs and carriers in the listing itself, and charge the correct costs in the Vendio checkout system - the way eBay has now chosen to display this information at the very bottom of the item description page contunues to be an issue and will continue to be an issue until we completely support their latest changes in this section.
Im sorry if I didn't answer your question when we spoke on the phone last week about the rate changes at USPS. The rates that are used for calculating USPS costs come directly from the USPS. This means any changes in the rates are automatically up to date in the calculations being done here as they are always pulled direct from USPS - so nothing there to actually require an upgrade or change on our side.
To clarify, nothing is broken right now. There is however some newer shipping optoins available to those posting their listings directly from the eBay website that Vendio simply does not offer support for at this time. While we are not working to correct anything thats broken per say, we are evaluating the changes needed to support these tools as previously mentioned and will of course post back to this or the most recent thread on the issue when more information becomes available.
If you or anyone else has any other specific questions related to this issue please let us know. (or of course if theres anything we missed.)
posted on October 24, 2006 12:49:35 PM new
Christopher - just want to go on record as noting that it is not "just" the shipping option but also the "return policy" and the "handling time". For NOW it's at the bottom of the page but it is not out of the realm of possiblity that in the future it will appear in search results for comparison and we Vendio customers will be disadvantaged because it will say something like "see item description" when other users will have costs laid out. Also I ran into HUGE problems where my older store items used older Vendio templates and morphed from "ships worldwide" to "local pickup only" when I revised them by moving into new store categories. Besides that, there were some of them I was not able to move at all and I wonder if they didn't even appear in ebay search (these items had some incompatability in the image URL shown in the preview in the upper left corner of the listing page).
So while it may appear that being a "little out of date" is not harmful, in the long run it may be very harmful - especially when some of the store items listed now age another 2 or 3 years.
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posted on October 24, 2006 12:57:12 PM new
Hello Neglus,
No worries, those are also on the project lists at this time. While I didn't touch on them specifically in this thread, as this relates to a different issue, those are also features that will require support from Vendio and will be addressed in the same manner.
posted on October 25, 2006 02:03:19 PM new
Ok, if not now, when? After the holidays? Before Easter? After next summer? When will Vendio update its out of date shipping form?
When is a projected date?
I am having difficulty with Vendio's claim to be a certified eaby provider, yet what is being offered, is out of date and not compatible with the current ebay shipping form. And, as Neglus mentions, may possibly be further out of date, in the near future.
As I previously mentioned, Vendio has provided great service and has a great customer service staff. However, there is a problem, which I fear will be around for awhile, at least until the buy-out or merger situation is settled.
Perhaps this thread is getting too long for this board. Maybe I should take it over to the ebay outlook baord.
(spelling mistake again)
[ edited by kozersky on Oct 25, 2006 02:04 PM ]
[ edited by kozersky on Oct 25, 2006 02:06 PM ]
