posted on February 24, 2004 08:45:40 PM
This subject is about to drive me mad!!! I put fixed price shipping in my auctions for awhile using the middle zone as a fair price, as I am in Washington State.
Had some folks comment that it was to high.
After bit, got tired of hearing it, and also thought I would test the waters, and have inserted a shipping calculator and specify Priority Mail, unless there is a preference.
I also thought it might be interesting to see if bids increased or decreased with this method.
Well so far, bids aren't any better, maybe even a little less, and although so far, no complaints of cost of shipping......they just can't get it right!
I state at least in 3 places in auction, I ship by Priority, unless requested otherwise before bidding!
I choose Priority because of the convience of printing postage online, of course free boxes, although not critical, and being mostly fragil items, have had very good luck with no breakage so far.
I have set up my preferences in Vendio for calculated shipping on Priority.
Well so far....everyone has not asked to ship other that Priority, and has gone ahead and paid for Parcel Post!
So I can email and request more money, or find a box, drive to the post office, wait in line, etc., and ship Parcel Post and pay for delivery confirmation like I get free online, or just ship Priority and eat the extra cost.
I love this business, but sometimes it just drives me crazy!
Would like some suggestions as to the methods that you have found to be best for you.
My items usually range in weight from 2-5 lbs. I did for a time send up to 3 lbs. Priority, and over that via UPS, but got complaints of that cost too.
I charge no handling fee at this time, but know I should, and probably will at some point.
Sorry for the long question, but maybe there are others that have had same problems, so what do you think?
posted on February 24, 2004 08:58:32 PM
I would go back to my original format and put fixed price for shipping to somewhere like Chicago in the auction description. So what if they email and claim the shipping is too high? You don't need bids from people like that anyway. Some people would complain about free shipping if you offered it. If you offer quality merchandise, most bidders won't mind paying a reasonable shipping price. One thing though, when you go beyond the 3 pound mark, priority mail usually is quite higher than other methods. I use FedEx Ground and never have problems with breakage and it saves my customers quite a bit on shipping.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on February 24, 2004 09:15:39 PM
Washington to Bangor, Maine. 04401. Flat rate. Parcel Post, It might be easy for YOU but save the customer a few bucks. They seem to be telling YOU they are in NO hurry. Why force them? Can the FREE box stuff get out and hit the dumpsters. Obviously the FREE of those boxes is not really FREE at all. Parcel post Delivery confirmation OR the insurance. Nothing wothwhile is FREE, there's Always a price.
1.Buyers, NEED to !. BEFORE Bidding. Thank you.
2.NPB's (buyers?) have No rights,, Posting. NEED to be BLOCKED by e bay.(But they are NOT!!!!) Upon final filing of NPB.
3.Naru's . Good riddance after 3,,,, DIFFERENT Sellers file NPB's. Negs do 0 to NARU. filing for PARTIAL fees DOES.
4.Current buyers Geographical location i.e. STATE or ZIP or CITY need be known. California cool Shades.
5.E bay need to ENHANCE F/B System. A ing period. Like 20 days of HOOPS on NPB's. Many give up. Works! 4 e bay. They keep K's of $'s. [] trade makes even MORE $..
posted on February 24, 2004 09:21:15 PM
I agree with sparkz on all points.
We do fixed rates always and it has worked well. We offer a 75% discount for additional items.
If we were in your current situation, if we could help it, we would not choose to have the Parcel Post rates show up in the rate calculator.
I am not sure what you can pick and choose on your postage calculator, but if possible, I would try to restrict the rates quoted to the service I was wanting to utilize.
posted on February 24, 2004 11:08:36 PM
First of all I want to thank you for input, very helpful.
I do like the fixed pricing, and think that I will probably go back to that. I do have some books that I want to put up probably as media rate, and calculated shipping is set up now in preferences, and makes more work for me reseting my Vendio preferences back and forth.
I have given some thought to FedEx Ground. Can you tell me some more? I have looked over their site, and some of it I am not sure of, such as what type account to set up, etc. Is this service preferable over UPS Ground? Not that it matters too much, but just out of curiosity, does FedEx provide boxes in about 12x12x12 range? Could be useful.
If I set Vendio to send auto notices, how would that work for the people to choose let's say Priority, Parcel Post, or FedEx when they go to enter their address and shipping preferences. Or can they do that?
posted on February 24, 2004 11:56:05 PM
Can you tell me some more about FedEx Ground. Is this service preferable over UPS Ground?
If you have a daily pick-up the rates are probably about the same. We personally would prefer UPS for a daily pickup provider.
If you are going to drop your boxes off at the customer counter, you will probably pay about $1.50 per box more to UPS.
They supposedly made this rate hike to deter non-daily pickup customers from handing their packages to the UPS driver everyday when they arrived to deliver, and avoiding the weekly pickup fee.
I could not tell you for sure, but UPS and Fed-Ex do not typically give away ground service boxes. Having said that, (I was a UPS driver for many years) unless they have changed in the last few years, I know UPS does give certain ground boxes away, but customers have to know what to ask for. The box types are very limited, and most customer service reps have no idea they exist.
Two day, and next day boxes are generally available from UPS and Fed-EX.
>>If I set Vendio to send auto notices, how would that work for the people to choose let's say Priority, Parcel Post, or FedEx when they go to enter their address and shipping preferences. Or can they do that?
You can give choices on different price levels for different fixed price services through Vendio Checkout.
What we do, centrally situated in the US, was make a single fixed price shipping charge and took away all of the choices.
The shipping charge is set. We let them know we will ship First Class, Priority, or Fed-Ex Ground.
After the sale, we will choose the best carrier for our money, depending on weight, distance, insurance....
We would make Media Mail one of our choices, only if noted in the auction, that was the service they would get.
We note that if they make us use a particular carrier, such as shipping to a PO box, they pay actual shipping plus $1.50 handling IF that amount is more than the standard shipping rate we set for the auction.
We very rarely get complaints on our shipping costs.
We very seldom have people make us use a particular service. We say $8.00 Shippers Choice. They pay $8.00 and wait for their item to arrive. No Choices.
If they provide a PO BOX, and it is a heavy item and will cost more than we charged, we write them and ask them to pay more ($1.50 plus actual) or give a different shipping address that Fed-Ex can go to.
As I mentioned earlier, Vendio checkout is set to give our customers a 75% discount on S/H for additional items purchased. It has worked out really well.
It is hard to be wrong. It is easy to be different.
posted on February 25, 2004 07:42:22 PM
I signed up with FedEx, and have been looking over there site. Looks pretty good so far, and will probably give them a try. A couple of questions though...Can I print postage on regular paper, with my Lexmard printer just as I do with both USPS & UPS? Also can the postage code be taped on the packages as I have been doing with clear tape on the outer edges, or do I need special pouches to put bar code in? Also, if their is an error in printing, such as jamed paper, or such, is there a problem getting credit, or the like, when printing goes wrong? Any other things that I should be prepared for before my first try with them? Appreciate your help....sorry for what may seem like dumb questions, but thought best place to learn was right here on this board. Also, I heard that to use FedEx to print the postage, I need the buyers phone #, is that true?
posted on February 25, 2004 07:49:47 PM
When we do not have the buyers phone number we put our own telephone number.
If they have trouble delivering, they may call the number and ask delivery questions. They did that once with us, and we contacted the buyer. Then called Fed-ex back with the answer after a day or two.
For a bad label, or errant shipment information, you can go to the tracking tab, and check mark the errant shipments and hit cancel. That should keep you from being charged.
posted on February 26, 2004 04:02:14 AM
Go get you some waybill pouches, so much easier/cheaper than tape. either call 1800gofedex and order some or online ordering under ship manager powership will show all the supplies.
It would be the thermal label pouch.
When you get to where you print the label, I've always just stayed on that page and if something went wrong I would print another label. You are not charged. FedEx never charges for a shipment until they actually have the package in their hands and scan it.
I either have my husband drop off the packages at FedEx or I drop them off at my closest FedEx Ship Center Pak Mail/Post Net, those kind of places. They know me so well there now that I just go in, put them where they go. (mine is right inside the front door)
always hit the rate quote before you commit yourself to printing the label! if you have a rural address it can be higher $$ than the post office.
I also use my own phone number if I don't have one.
after you print the label on the following page you can print shipment record. I always just save mine as a web page to a fedex folder on my desktop rather than waste paper. name the page/file as whatever you shipped.
after 2 years of printing on plain paper I got a laser printer and LOVE it. FedEx gives you free laser labels.
posted on February 26, 2004 06:35:10 AM
there is a weekly pick up fee for fed exp ground,i believe it is 8 dollars per week.as for fed exp air,it is 4 dollars per package.
you also want to find out about extra cost when it comes to delivering to rural area,apt complex where the driver has to meander and find that specific apt.
they call it extra fuel cost,and you wont know until you see the bill.
USPS is still the best for ebay sellers,you cant have the cake and eat it too,first class mail can be just as fast as priority,you just have to come up with your own box.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
!. BEFORE Bidding. Thank you.
. NEED to be BLOCKED by e bay.(But they are NOT!!!!) Upon final filing of NPB.
. Good riddance after 3,,,, DIFFERENT Sellers file NPB's. Negs do 0 to NARU. filing for PARTIAL fees DOES.
California cool Shades.
A