General > General Technical Chat
Why is some ebay shipping so high?
<< < (4/9) > >>
rrinker:
 In the US, I typically pick USPS Priority got my things, I generally am not shipping heavy equipment. I also chose this option if available when buying things - it's USUALLY the cheapest option, especially in trade off of cost vs time. The same 3 day from UPS or FedEx is often twice as much.

 I will almost never pick UPS any more. I just refinanced my mortgage and had a significant sum coming back. The escrow company sent the check UPS express. Some 6 days later, I was wondering how long it was going to take to get my money (I was not aware they sent it out 2 day express, 6 days previously). We happened to order pizza delivery that night, and when I opened the door to get the pizza, I noticed a UPS envelope on the porch. Yup, there it was, a bit soggy, while the porch kept it from being directly rained on, the damp certainly was in the cardboard of the express packet. UPS just casually tossed it on the porch and took off. We do not normally use the front door for anything - we always come in via the garage. Had we not ordered in that night, it could have been there another week. Luckily as a flat envelope it wasn't visible from the street, not that it would be easy for someone else to cash a check made out to me.
james_s:

--- Quote from: PTR_1275 on January 12, 2020, 11:22:27 am ---They might put in a weight of 50kg to deliberately make ebay out the price of postage up. For some reason a lot of American sellers refuse to deal with international sales and this is their way of making it “worth their while”

--- End quote ---

It's because international shipping is a big pain in the ass, and it's very expensive so it cuts significantly into any profit, none of that is our fault.

For domestic shipping you can purchase the postage online and schedule a pickup, print a label and set the parcel out on the porch near the scheduled time, it is picked up and you're done.

International postage means take time off work to drive to the post office while they're open, wait in line anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to get to the one counter out of six that is actually open, find the correct customs forms and take time to fill those out, listing the contents in detail and answering questions from the rude clerk who usually barely speaks English, then hope the item survives its ordeal and makes it to the buyer intact, and hope the buyer is not a scammer. Ultimately it means taking at least an hour out of the day that could be spent working or doing other things vs just a few minutes for domestic shipping.

Then there is the cost issue, shipping international from the USA has become exorbitantly expensive, even a small box sent next door to Canada is at least double what it costs to ship within the US and it goes up from there when sending elsewhere. The longer journey means bulkier and heavier packaging which is more expensive still. Because ebay is crooked and charges fees on not only the final bid price but the postage price too, and then greedy paypal charges their own fees, and additional fees on international transactions means that selling to foreign customers can easily result in a negative profit while selling the same price item locally can be worthwhile.

This all conspires to create a situation where offering international sales is simply not worth it. I have sold things a few times where after all the fees I actually lost money on the transaction and it would have been cheaper to simply throw the thing away. Between the risk of that and the far greater hassle of international shipping it's just not worth dealing with. I would gladly sell to anyone anywhere on a level playing field but with ebay I am strictly domestic only unless the seller can arrange for a forwarding service so that I'm only paying fees on domestic shipping and someone else is doing all the tedious customs paperwork. Don't blame the sellers, blame the system that stacks the deck heavily against us.
james_s:

--- Quote from: jeremy on February 19, 2020, 10:34:33 am ---Perhaps someone from the US can chime in, but it seems to me that everyone in the US is used to FedEx/UPS and near overnight delivery, and so those are the services they offer to their predominantly US customer based. Obviously “as fast as possible” shipping is going to be more expensive over an international route. Those shipping companies also don’t really seem to care (in my opinion) about the Australian market. But even that isn’t the whole story, because I often order things from China via UPS and FedEx and the price isn’t too bad (it’s more than I want to pay, but can’t argue with the speed). Only when it comes from the US.

--- End quote ---

USPS used to offer an economical surface option for international shipping, it was slow but reasonably priced and I used to send a lot of stuff overseas. At some point about a decade ago this was dropped completely and the only international options became their premium (expensive) priority mail services. International postage for parcels doubled or tripled almost overnight. There is nothing we peons can do, the postage costs what it costs and other international options cost even more. We can choose how severely we are going to get gouged but the only way to not get gouged is to not ship international.
james_s:

--- Quote from: rrinker on February 19, 2020, 04:48:40 pm ---I will almost never pick UPS any more. I just refinanced my mortgage and had a significant sum coming back. The escrow company sent the check UPS express. Some 6 days later, I was wondering how long it was going to take to get my money (I was not aware they sent it out 2 day express, 6 days previously). We happened to order pizza delivery that night, and when I opened the door to get the pizza, I noticed a UPS envelope on the porch. Yup, there it was, a bit soggy, while the porch kept it from being directly rained on, the damp certainly was in the cardboard of the express packet. UPS just casually tossed it on the porch and took off. We do not normally use the front door for anything - we always come in via the garage. Had we not ordered in that night, it could have been there another week. Luckily as a flat envelope it wasn't visible from the street, not that it would be easy for someone else to cash a check made out to me.

--- End quote ---


I've had similar experiences with almost every service.

The one and only time I had mail stolen, the postman delivered a package of priority boxes I ordered and leaned them up against my front door which makes them about as visible from the street as is possible to do. Then he "helpfully" left the rest of my mail on the doormat where it was all stolen from, despite the fact that I have a secure locking mailbox on the street for precisely this reason.   :palm:

Shortly before Christmas FedEx delivered a box containing gifts I had ordered, I was at work downtown but saw on my security camera that they had set the package right on the edge of my porch, again in plain view from the street, right in the middle of the one patch that was already damp and just minutes before a torrential downpour was forecast. There was a nice dry corner just a few feet away. Even if I had left work right then and caught a bus home it would have taken me over an hour to get there. |O  Thankfully I was eventually able to reach my mom and she drove over and retrieved the already soaked box, took it home and set it by the heat vent to dry out. If it sat there any longer it would have been completely destroyed. 

Multiple times I had UPS deliver packages to my house number on the next street over, I would call them and they would insist it was delivered and cite the driver signing off as "proof" and ask me to look around my house for other spots it might have been left.  :wtf:  This finally improved after I called to complain multiple times and told them the neighbor had just dropped by with my expensive package *yet again* and they said they would flag my address.

DHL delivered a computer to my next door neighbor. I was home and eagerly watching the delivery progress and then got a notification that it had been delivered, checked the porch to make sure it wasn't one of those silent ninja deliveries Amazon is known for but nope, not there. Finally called them and they sent a picture of the delivered package which I just happened to recognize as my neighbor's porch. I went over there and they weren't home so I just grabbed my package.

This all strikes me as extreme incompetence but what can you do? I can't think of a carrier that has not made one of these bone-headed errors.
rrinker:
 I've been pretty lucky with all but UPS. At my old house, I was often working from home. The UPS truck would pull up, I'd hear the doorbell ring, run downstairs, and the truck was already pulling away. OK for signature not required things, but man, they don't even leave enough time even if I was standing right behind the door when they rang.
 My neighborhood so far has not had much issue with porch pirates. Which is good because most deliveries are left at my lower entry, readily visible from the street unless one of the cars is in the driveway, which totally blocks the view of anything sitting in front of that door.
 I thought Amazon's delivery was going to be a nightmare the very first time (in my area - not that long ago, just before the Christmas holidays did they start delivering in my area). Tracking said my package was delivered. I came home - didn't see it by the downstairs door. Checked the front porch - nope, not there either. Logged in to Amazon - still says delivered. The picture hadn't been uploaded yet. Strange. Check again an hour later, now the picture was there and I realized where they had put it. Actually a good place, except as stated, we never use the front door. My front stairs go up in two flights to the porch(see also, why we don't use the front door...), and the first flight up from the driveway is completely hidden from the street and sidewalk, you have to walk all the way up and look. That's where they left it - so well hidden I didn't even see it when I stood by the door packages usually get left at and looked around.
 When I was actively selling things on eBay - I never had an item shipped and not received by the buyer.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod