pelorus
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posted on January 24, 2002 12:02:13 PM new
Half.com has been reimbursing me $1.78 for shipping for paperbacks. Their ordering page says that shipping is $2.30 !!! Are they skimming off the shipping charges?? If so, it is certainly not stated in their help pages. This does not seem right to me. Or is there something I don't understand.
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RainyBear
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posted on January 24, 2002 12:06:42 PM new
Yes, they charge the customer more for shipping than they reimburse the seller. 'Tis true.
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stopwhining
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posted on January 24, 2002 12:27:34 PM new
amzn charges more ,they charge customer 3.49 and give seller 2.23 for shipping media mail.
the difference is for accepting credit card transaction.
if you process this yourself thru your merchant account or paypal,the fee may be higher.
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pelorus
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posted on January 24, 2002 12:53:58 PM new
Half should be ashamed. It clearly says on the order page (and I quote): "Standard shipping (USPS Media Mail) for this item is $2.30."
They give me $1.78. This is a blatant deception. They cannot say their .52 is for "shipping" by any definition of the term.
Meg is on my list now.
And don't get me started on the pitiful $4.35 they reimburse for Priority Mail. I always take a beating on that.
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computerboy
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posted on January 24, 2002 01:08:21 PM new
Read their terms and you'll find that the shipping policy is disclosed the the seller.
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stopwhining
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posted on January 24, 2002 01:39:14 PM new
it gets treacherous with intl shipping.
i sold a book which weighs 6 lbs on amzn,i get 8.95 shipping from amzn ,actual shipping is 26 dollars.
i did manage to get 10 dollars more from buyer,so my loss on shipping is 7 dollars/
amzn said we have to ask higher prices to make sure we can absorb extra costs of shipping,easy said than done
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bidsbids
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posted on January 24, 2002 02:08:32 PM new
If you do not agree with Half's s/h reimbersement policy then do not list with them.
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pelorus
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posted on January 24, 2002 02:23:03 PM new
First of all, computerboy, the difference between charged and reimbursed shipping cost is not mentioned anywhere on the Half site that I can find. They discuss every financial transaction except that.
Second, bidsbids, I don't have to agree with every rule on a site to use it. I'm sure you don't agree with everything ebay does.
The point I am trying to make is that Half tells the buyers that shipping costs one amount and reimburses the seller a smaller amount.
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KarenMx
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posted on January 24, 2002 03:15:36 PM new
If you can't find it, you're not looking very hard.
From the "Start Selling" page: http://www.half.com/help/sell.cfm
Move to the bottom and you'll see:
More information for sellers:
How to protect your seller rating.
We respect your privacy and security.
We provide a shipping allowance to cover shipping costs.
On the above referenced page, "shipping allowance" is a clickable link leading to the shipping "help" page, which explains Half's shipping reimbursement policy:
http://www.half.com/help/index.cfm?helpsection=shipping_p
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bidsbids
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posted on January 24, 2002 03:21:24 PM new
Why complain? If you don't like Half or eBay or whatever then don't use it if it is oppressive to you. Didn't someone say there was the credit card processing costs factored in there somewhere? I like ebay and Half and use them, if I didn't like them I certainly would not complain and use them. It's their ball and you play by their rules or you don't play.
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RainyBear
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posted on January 24, 2002 03:33:48 PM new
The only thing I worry about regarding the difference in shipping cost paid by the buyer and reimbursed to the seller is the thought that a buyer might look at the amount of postage on a package and say, "Hey, I paid $2.30 for shipping and it only cost $1.78!" and leave a lower rating because of that. I know some buyers on eBay are pretty picky about that, but I'm less familiar with half.com buyers.
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stopwhining
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posted on January 24, 2002 03:50:30 PM new
i dont think anyone would complain paying 2.30 and postage said 1.78.
but media mail can be very slow .
if sellers keep listing books at one penny on amzn and 75 cents on half.how do you expect either venue to cover their cost?/
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pelorus
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posted on January 24, 2002 08:24:05 PM new
KarenMX: I am quite aware of where to find Half's shipping reimbursement amounts. Now, show me where they say ANYTHING about the extra shipping money they get from buyers. It's their dirty little secret.
bidsbids: Why do you object to people complaining on a message board? Boards are full of complaints. BTW, probably in the 926 AW posts you have made since June 2001 you complained about something.
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tomwiii
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posted on January 24, 2002 08:33:08 PM new
He ONLY complains about Carnaby! 
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KarenMx
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posted on January 24, 2002 08:57:30 PM new
>I am quite aware of where to find Half's shipping reimbursement amounts. Now,
>show me where they say ANYTHING about the extra shipping money they get from
>buyers. It's their dirty little secret.
It's not a secret. They charge $2.30 shipping. They only reimburse the seller $1.78. They don't make any grandiose statements about giving 52-cents on each transaction to charity or anything, so it seems obvious to me that they keep it.
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stopwhining
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posted on January 24, 2002 09:41:02 PM new
venue provider has bills to pay just like us.
what do you think of amzn maretplace-15 % commission,99 cents transaction fee and difference in shipping rate.
but i must say,amzn has real customer support staff,they have toll free number and a a to z customer protection program.
half.com i believe has a program like that too,that costs money.
the way i look at it - if a venue can help me make money,i dont mind them getting rewarded,and amzn has been able to find me good buyers who are willing to pay.
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pelorus
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posted on January 25, 2002 05:49:55 AM new
OK, I give up. People here go ballistic about ebay's .25 percent FVF increase (2 cents on a $10.00 item), but don't seem to care about Half's undocumented 50 cents on every sale. I don't get it. Must need my medication adjusted.
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enchanted
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posted on January 25, 2002 06:10:47 AM new
Hi pelorus. It's just that it's been that way ever since Half.com opened several years ago, at least since I started listing there in March 2000. I think most sellers are used to it by now.
BTW Amazon Marketplace does the exact same thing, actually they keep a larger dollar amount of the total on each transaction I think.
If I'm not mistaken Yahoo Warehouse does the same thing also. It's one way they recover part of their costs since they don't control how much you list the book for. If you list the book for 75 cents they make much less than if you list the book for $7.50. Since the seller decides on the item price, not the Internet listing venue, they've decided they need to make a minimum amount per sale to provide the site for the seller and process each transaction. The minimum comes out of the shipping and handling charge. My personal belief is that this comes out of longstanding practice (decades long) in the catalog business where shipping and handling charges are apportioned according to some formula after the fact between the company and the drop shipper.
I didn't read anyone trying to claim this is a great deal for the buyer, it's just the facts of the way the shipping/handling charge is apportioned to balance out the fact that different items are listed for widely varying prices there.
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stopwhining
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posted on January 25, 2002 06:58:03 AM new
WELL SAID,individual sellers do not realise how costly it is to maintain a venue in cyberspace/
many of their staff have stock options to compensate for low wage.
the only gripe i have is that shipping credit often is barely enough to ship a good book by media mail,and on top of that,there is packing material to protect the book thru its journey.
i am often surprised people do not complain when you charge 3-5 dollars more to ship a gift item,but complain when you charge 1.00 more in postage when it comes to a good book.
a book has more to offer the buyer than say a resin casted teddy bear!!!!!
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aliceroad
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posted on January 25, 2002 07:06:10 AM new
you can very simply go to the Half.com sight and find the amount they remiburse. You can go to the seller's sight and find how much they charge. they are very up front about taking 15 % of the sale before they do anything. It has all been very clear to me since the beginning. If the buyer thinks the postage is so much less than they paid, why do they keep buying? It is a matter of convenience, and the complaints go to half.com. It is an expensive way for sellers, but very convenient and fast.
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enchanted
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posted on January 25, 2002 07:07:17 AM new
stopwhining, LOL at the teddy bear comparison 
I agree with you about the level of shipping reimbursement not being sufficient to cover all the mailing costs. Because of that, I only offer to ship items media mail on Half.com and still seem to sell a fair amount of books. I got hit one too many times with excessive priority mail charges on a heavy book and ended up taking that option off my account on Half. It really hasn't hurt my sales on Half.
I think the shipping cost problem is going to increase for booksellers if the priority mail rates go up as planned in June. Maybe I missed a discussion about that here, but it seems to be there's going to be a huge impact on book sellers.
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bidsbids
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posted on January 25, 2002 09:06:53 AM new
I do constantly praise Carnaby's management and tech support. I bemoan the fact that Carnaby is such a great site but has almost zero traffic.
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pelorus
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posted on January 25, 2002 11:47:18 AM new
Hello enchanted,
I am going to follow your lead and take Priority Mail off my shipping options. I had it there for college students ordering textbooks, since they always need them in a hurry. The semester is well under way so that situation is over for a while.
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MAH645
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posted on January 27, 2002 07:45:17 AM new
If I sell a DVD,it gets shipped First Class and I don't care if they like it or not.Why would you want to have your DVDs throwed in with a bunch of heavy books? Why they want stuff like that shipped Media Mail is beyond me.
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bidsbids
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posted on January 27, 2002 07:50:05 AM new
One other nice aspect of Half or the new Yahoo Warehouse is that the sellers do not have to do a lot of hand holding with new or impatient buyers. Those constant where's my item letters get old very fast.
[ edited by bidsbids on Jan 27, 2002 07:50 AM ]
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stopwhining
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posted on January 27, 2002 08:15:05 AM new
on amzn marketplace,they never mention usps priority mail,they just say expedited shipping,it is relative,expedited shipping as opposed to media mail shipping-it is up to the seller to decide if it is feasible usps priority or usps first class for something like 4.39 .
often the difference is just 1-3 days between usps priority and first class mail.
but there is no law which said the venue provider has to pass on 100% of the shipping fee to the seller.
somewhere they have to make enough to pay their bills,as prices of books vary from one penny (amzn) or 75 cents (half) to a few hundred dollars,the sure way to get some of the money to pay bills is thru the shipping route.
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bidsbids
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posted on January 27, 2002 08:19:39 AM new
On Half and Yahoo Warehouse many sellers use phrases like will send via First Class Mail when you select Media Mail or something to that effect when listing CD's or small paperbacks. That gives them a definite edge over items without that phrase but are about the same price. Is that practice legal? I admit I do it all the time now after seeing a LOT of others using that sales technique.
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enchanted
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posted on January 27, 2002 11:10:30 AM new
I think the practice is legal IMHO. Media mail is the minimum shipping service the seller has to provide. The seller is free to provide a better or quicker mailing service utilizing the same shipping reimbursement amount credited by the site to the seller.
Some Amazon sellers ship UPS. Some routinely ship priority mail. I just try to send it the quickest way I can afford within the budget of the shipping reimbursement. For certain expensive books, I often upgrade to priority mail at my expense.
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bidsbids
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posted on January 27, 2002 12:49:50 PM new
I realise that upgrading the shipping is probably legal and is indeed good for the venues as a whole. It's the stating it in the item description that I'm wondering about. When I first saw that practice I told myself that those sellers were clever and shrewd to mention it in the item description and would have to get an advantage over sellers that didn't use that technique. There may be a rule somewhere about placing those shipping upgrade phrases in the item description.
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stopwhining
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posted on January 27, 2002 02:05:00 PM new
with some expensive books,seller will need to take out insurance as well as shipping by priority mail.
the one who have brick and mortar bookstores do use UPS as they cant afford to spare an employee to stand in line.
employees are paid to work,not to stand in line at the post office.
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