posted on August 8, 2005 11:14:24 AM
In trying to determine generic shipping rates for items going to Alaska, would you choose a ZIP code for a city such as Fairbanks or would you use a ZIP code for one of the more remote areas?
I have had customers in Alaska request that items be shipped by the Post Office because UPS won't drive to their remote location.
Having never been to Alaska, I don't quite understand it's shipping needs. Same for Hawaii. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free.
posted on August 8, 2005 12:20:41 PM
I personally don't quote shipping to Alaska or Hawaii in my auctions (i.e., I quote to the lower 48). UPS Ground is available to both Alaska and Hawaii (!), but I think most people go USPS Priority to both locations.
posted on August 8, 2005 12:29:05 PM
The easiest & best way to determine USPS charges is to go online to USPS. com, check he zip code & geve the weight. It will give you the charges. If they pay with PayPal, you can create a shipping label & it will give you the amount due, You don't to print the label, just cancel it.
Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
[ edited by sanmar on Aug 8, 2005 12:30 PM ]
posted on August 8, 2005 12:38:29 PM
Perhaps I should have clarified what I'm trying to do.
In another thread, it was suggested that I quote shipping rates in my item listing based on time zone, as opposed to offering a single flat rate for just the Continental USA.
In doing this, UPS shipping zones do not apply. I do not have any actual zip codes to work with because I don't have a customer yet.
I'm trying to pick zip codes within each time zone that are representative of the average shipping rate to that time zone. For Alaska, I'm not sure what to do because so much of Alaska is remote.
posted on August 8, 2005 01:27:18 PM
That clarifies it, but I'm not so sure that the time zone thing, while alluring at first, stands up for long. Everyone knows their time zone, but everyone also knows their zip code.
The below is not intended to be as pedantic as it sounds: If you really want to differentiate shipping amounts by zone, use calculated shipping. If you want a flat rate, use that. If you want something in between, say that shipping will be between $x and $y depending on your proximity to Ixnay, Wherever. If you want to make yourself insane, quote by time zone, first digit of zip code, or perhaps "What time does Monday Night Football start on your local TV station?" In my case, the later the show starts in your town, the cheaper the shipping.
Claude
[ edited by cashinyourcloset on Aug 8, 2005 01:28 PM ]
posted on August 8, 2005 01:32:42 PM
Claude, my preference is to use calculated shipping but it doesn't seem to work properly. The rates that appear are way off, especially if the shipping boxes are oversized. That's why I abandoned that method.
I do like your idea though ... maybe I'll state the ship rate range for the Continental USA and the actual for Alaska and Hawaii, that way it's not too insane for me to maintain and will give customers a fairly decent idea as to what it will cost.
posted on August 8, 2005 02:41:12 PM
Ok...sorry...I was thinking USPS not UPS. If it's not on the road system you most likely can not send something ups ground. Although the majority of the population in Alaska is on the road system most of the towns are not on the road system.
I actually rarely use UPS Ground. It costs and takes about as long as USPS parcel post. I have only used it a couple of times as the USPS is more convienent.
UPS ground like USPS parcel post mail would come up via barge from Seattle and then trucked. USPS parcel post to outlying communities would come up by barge to Anchorage and then flown to it's final destination.
posted on August 8, 2005 02:50:28 PM
ewora, is there any advantage to Priority Mail over Parcel Post, or vice versa? Do packages sent Priority Mail really get to you faster, or do they arrive in about the same timeframe as Priority Mail?
posted on August 8, 2005 09:01:15 PMEverything I mail out to the lower 48 is zone 8 unless it's going to Seattle then it's zone 7.
It shouldn't make a difference which Alaska zip code you use...it's still zone 8.
That maybe true where you are, but not true for most of the country. Zones are not a good judge for shipping.
The real issue here is how items can be shipped via the shipping companies. With UPS, you cannot ship ground to Hawaii because of obvious reasons, so it has to go 2nd day or next day air. This also holds true to Alaska because they cannot ship ground through Canada unless they pay dutie fees. So all parcels via UPS are also 2nd day or next day air.
However the USPS consider both states as standard USA destinations and the rates to both are set as such. Priority is best to both Hawaii and Alaska. Generally costs a trivial amount more than parcel post, but worth every penny extra for delivery time, and the rate of damaged or lost packages is much lower. Priority packages almost always are delivered within 3 days and often in two. Parcel Post packages rarely get delivered with a week and often take up to 3 weeks.
posted on August 9, 2005 12:03:13 AM
I offer both usps prioity and parcel to my buyers. The priority usually costs a couple of dollars more but will arrive in 3-4 days. Both parcel post and media mail are less expensive but will take about 3 weeks to reach their destinations in the lower 48. About half of my buyers opt for the slower and cheaper method.
I've never had anything mailed up here to me via UPS ground but I have certainly sent things down to the lower 48 via UPS ground. It takes about as long as the USPS parcel post.
UPS Ground IS available to Hawaii, though they obviously don't truck it all the way.
FWIW, a 1 pound package from NJ to HI costs $15.48 via "Ground". USPS Priority is obviously less expensive. I didn't check on a heavy package, but that probably follows the general rule that heavy items are less expensive via UPS, while lighter items are less expensive via USPS.
posted on August 9, 2005 04:11:37 AM
My customers in Hawaii ONLY want priority and they love the $7.70 fixed price boxes. I just sent a 17 lb. package to a buyer for $7.70 which would have cost $24 priority. For FedEx, and I get excellent rates, that package would have been $41 something (Honolulu). Parcel or media can take up to six weeks.
In my experience, the shipping calculator has never been other than accurate for me. You obviously have to allow for oversize which is also an option when you pick your shipper and details. In fact, I never get questions on shipping. Unless for some reason it's an overseas one and I couldn't mix flat rate to US and calculated to overseas.
As a buyer, I don't like fixed rate shipping, and I don't like to guess, write emails, or be surprised. If you're spending time figuring out the various zones etc (which can certainly be biting you on the behind when you end up with a zip with a UPS $3.50 surcharge), you might as well go in an revise those auctions that need it. Certainly the flat rate boxes come in handy too when possible.
I thought every listing/auction service offered calculated shipping. So vendio doesn't?
posted on August 9, 2005 04:48:38 PM
"In my experience, the shipping calculator has never been other than accurate for me. You obviously have to allow for oversize which is also an option when you pick your shipper and details. In fact, I never get questions on shipping. Unless for some reason it's an overseas one and I couldn't mix flat rate to US and calculated to overseas. "
How do you "allow" for oversize packages? When I selected that option, the rates that were calculated were nowhere near enough. I upped the weight of the package (normally about 10 pounds) to 30 (Oversize 1), and the rates were too much. There must be something I'm doing wrong, but I sure can't figure out what it is!
posted on August 9, 2005 04:52:21 PM
birgittaw -- I just looked at one of your old auctions to see your shipping calculator. I see that you are using the eBay shipping calculator and not the Vendio shipping calculator. How did you do that? Is there a way to set up your listing in Vendio to do that? Would you mind explaining how you set it up?
posted on August 9, 2005 05:03:37 PM
Ah -- sorry about that. Haven't used Vendio since it was Auction Watch many moons ago. That may be why the shipping calculator works for me (although I've used both Turbolister and SOLD! lately -- the latter of which is a non-eBay site). I actually use the UPS rates from eBay, then ship FedEx, and generally come out ahead about $2 to $3 on each shipment.
Perhaps on those odd ones, you may want to revise your auctions to use the "official" eBay one. I don't really understand WHY the Vendio calculator does not work for you, it should simply be taking the info straight from whatever eBay has -- I doubt it has its own proprietary calculator.
Give an example of the rate that is "too much" if you would.
posted on August 9, 2005 05:17:42 PM
"you may want to revise your auctions to use the "official" eBay one."
If I could figure out how to do that, I would! I've tried to revise my listing to include the eBay calculator, but I can't find any settings for that and their help isn't helping me. Any suggestions?
"Give an example of the rate that is "too much" if you would. "
I will do that as soon as I can get eBay's shipping calculator set up. LOL! I think I was using Vendio's shipping calculator ... I don't know ... I'm getting quite confused.
posted on August 9, 2005 05:41:32 PM
When you go in to revise your auction, you should be able to change/edit "shipping and payment". Click calculated shipping, give dimensions, and that SHOULD tell you what poundage you need. Not much help here, since I can't see what you're seeing in Vendio.
posted on August 9, 2005 05:45:45 PM
Well, I just got off the live chat with eBay. The calculated option is not available to me ... Vendio turned it off somehow.
If I understand all this correctly, if you launch a listing from Vendio with calculated shippping, you're going to get Vendio's calculated shipping, not eBay's. If you launch it without calculated shipping, you can't add eBay's later. Or something like that. At least, that's how it seems.
Vendio is looking less and less like the ideal solution for me. I really would like the calculated shipping to work for me!
posted on August 9, 2005 06:05:22 PM
That makes no sense. Frankly, I've never received ANY help on live help, unless it's something really basic. Sometimes, it's impossible to get your point across, and then the answers are just so much boiler plate. How about one of the other Vendio forums?
Your solution may well be something different. Feel free to email me through one of my listings, and let me know what you are looking for, what you sell, how much you sell, do you use item specifics (as in ISBN info), do you love the gallery options, the book keeping and invoicing, getting listings ready at your own pace and scheduling them, don't know how to do your own web hosting of pics, love the thumbnails etc?
posted on August 9, 2005 06:12:31 PM
Well, she actually even logged in is me and tried to update the listing for me.
There are too many things about Vendio that I love to list here. LOL!
If I could just figure out how to set up a listing in Vendio that will launch and use eBay's calculator instead of Vendio's, I think I'll be ok. If not ... I don't know. eBay is just where I dump my overstock and discontinued items, it's not my main business. I want the listings and the aftermath to be as automated as possible because I really don't have time to answer tons of emails from people. If the listing can answer a question (like, how much it costs to ship to a particular zip code), I'd prefer that it did.
Anyway, I'm pooped and I'm going to eat dinner and take a nap and address this later. If it's possible to launch a listing from Vendio using the eBay shipping calculator, please let me know and I'll give it a try with a fresh listing.
In my case, the later the show starts in your town, the cheaper the shipping.
I really would like the calculated shipping to work for me!