Another vent ... shipping prices (mine)

[mugsisme]

So I charge $3.75 to ship a first class package. It costs me $3.63 with insurance (which is mentioned in the auction). I get an ebay fee of $0.34 for the money I make off insurance. I pay for the envelope, the tissue paper, the bubble wrap, and the card stock. Oh yeah, and the plastic baggies. Not taking any of that into account, I start off -$0.22. When you start adding in the supplies, they are getting a great deal. Yet I am getting slammed on my ratings for my shipping rates. I had one guy give me a 1 star. This was the dude who paid $6.75 for a box full of silver jewelry. Each piece (there were over 50) was in its own baggie. I had to insure it. It cost me $8.50 to ship and then the $0.65 Ebay charged me for my profit on shipping. What is wrong with people? Should I charge $1.50 and just toss it in an envelope and they can hope they get it in one piece?

Ok. Rant over. I hope the ones who are not happy are not returning customers. I don't want to deal with them. I wish there was a way we could see each and every person's rating of us, rather than just a total. How are we supposed to fix any problems if people hide their opinions?

 

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[flinthunter]

I'm not sure I understand your whole thread, but my question to you is why would you insure a package that was purchased for $6.75?

 

[Beachkid23]

Ya, drop the insurance. You will save yourself a ton of $. In the last couple years I have only insured items over $180 or more. And you have to over $250. Have had 0 problems. And I'll mainly insure something if it's breakable. Other then that, don't worry about the insurance. think about it in the last year how many packages have you had not arrive to peoples houses? Or to their destination? Probably none maybe one? You can cut $3.50 off your shipping rates that you charge other people and there's nothing to worry about because your package just going to make it. I usually don't even insure gold jewelry unless it's $180 or more. Unless it's going to An apartment.

Trust me I ship 100 to 150 things every month. And I hardly ensure anything. And have had no problems. If the person said something breaks have them send you a picture and prove it. Most people will never hear from them again. And if it did break refund him. It's not worth the extra money are putting into it for every single item. On the expensive stuff fine on the little stuff I would say if it's under $100 don't even bother. And remember you get $100 on priority mail anyway!

 

[treasurekidd]

was the dude who paid $6.75 for a box full of silver jewelry.

I'm taking that to mean that the $6.75 was the shipping charge, not the value of the order itself?

As for the complaint, well, the fact is that most buyers only see the actual cost of the shipping vs what they paid for shipping charges. They don't consider that ebay tacks on fees to the shipping charges, not do they consider the cost of packaging. It sucks, but there's not much we sellers can do about it - you can't fix stupid.

 

[jerseyben]

You could take a "total price approach" and factor in the final price you receive including shipping as the "sell price". Then factor in the price you paid for the item plus all your expenses to get your "buy price".

IMO, $3.75 is reasonable on a box of jewelry. For small packages, for example one that you would ship a coin in, I would not expect to pay over $3.50.

You need to determine what is a reasonable price to pay for shipping on various sized packages and make that the max you charge for each of those packages. What it actually costs you: Some will be more, some less. It should all even out in the end.

 

[diggummup]

The $6.75 was the shipping price not the selling price.

I would ask... How do you know you are getting hit with low DSR's for shipping prices specifically? As far as I am aware, the only time you can see when someone is leaving low ratings for shipping prices is when you are the one doing it as a buyer-

Rate this transaction Positive Neutral Negative I'll leave Feedback later

Tell us more Tell us more about your feedback 80 characters left Rate details about this purchase How accurate was the item description? How satisfied were you with the seller's communication? How quickly did the seller ship the item? How reasonable were the shipping and handling charges?

It does not show defects specifically for shipping prices on the DSR chart, shipping time yes but:

Item ID

Transaction ID

Transaction Date

Open Cases Item Not Received

Returns Item Description

Open Cases Item Description

Neutral/Negative Feedback

Cancelled Transaction

Ratings 1,2,3 Item Description

Rating of 1 Shipping Time

 

[trdhrdr007]

I use "free shipping" on most of my items & build it into the price. If people don't "pay" for shipping eBay doesn't let them rate me on it. I agree with everyone else on the insurance. That's just for big ticket items. I think it's BS that we can't see who left the low star ratings. There is no way to fix something if you don't know what it is.

 

[mugsisme]

When you look at my numbers, it is very obvious. Item as described, 239 ( ouch), communication, 257. Shipping time, 258. Shipping price, 244.

It seems people don't think I describe the items well, but my feedback says otherwise. Unless they are complaining when I'm too lazy to describe the item, and just say, look at the pictures for size.
Inmemoryofyossi is my user name. You can see for yourselves.

I also had feedback disappear yesterday. When I asked, turns out one of my good customers was suspended, and all their feedback was erased!

 

[mugsisme]

I also don't sell stuff for under ten bucks. Not worth my time or effort. The shipping mentioned about was for a lot of sterling silver jewelry, 51 pieces. It sold for $180, I think.
My only fear with the P.O. is that unless you take insurance, they don't have to deliver the package. I've had too many bad experiences, although yeah, 99% of my packages made it to where they were going with no problems.

 

[diggummup]

When you look at my numbers, it is very obvious. Item as described, 239 ( ouch), communication, 257. Shipping time, 258. Shipping price, 244.

It seems people don't think I describe the items well, but my feedback says otherwise. Unless they are complaining when I'm too lazy to describe the item, and just say, look at the pictures for size.
Inmemoryofyossi is my user name. You can see for yourselves.

I also had feedback disappear yesterday. When I asked, turns out one of my good customers was suspended, and all their feedback was erased!

I forgot about looking at my feedback page to see the detailed DSR's. Mine numbers are all the same (104) except for "Item as described" which is 100. I also didn't know that a suspended sellers fb gets removed. I've seen feedback before that had "no longer a registered user" after it before though.

I have a little disclaimer in my ads that I use. It's worded so that it is not against policy it states-

"We strive for 5-Star satisfaction with every transaction. Please let us know if we can do anything more to make your buying experience better!"

 

[bdsawyer]

EBay (ship cover) and the usps make tons of money on people buying insurance. Signature confirmation is the way to go, pretty cheap and protects you in the eyes of EBay and PayPal

 

[diggummup]

EBay (ship cover) and the usps make tons of money on people buying insurance. Signature confirmation is the way to go, pretty cheap and protects you in the eyes of EBay and PayPal

That's great as long as the item doesn't get broken in transit. Insurance has saved me twice in the last 4 months because of mishandling, be it from the buyer (claiming it was delivered that way) or the postal worker. At any rate I got paid and the buyer got refunded both times.

 

[bdsawyer]

I agree dig, I use insurance for breakable items, but for non breakable items i feel it is pretty worthless, I use to waste a lot of money myself. Shipcover doesn't protect certain items so make sure you read the fine print.

 

[trdhrdr007]

I also don't sell stuff for under ten bucks. Not worth my time or effort. The shipping mentioned about was for a lot of sterling silver jewelry, 51 pieces. It sold for $180, I think.
My only fear with the P.O. is that unless you take insurance, they don't have to deliver the package. I've had too many bad experiences, although yeah, 99% of my packages made it to where they were going with no problems.

I use the eBay system to print postage. In addition to the discounted rate I also get free tracking. I know the government & all their entities are pretty screwed up but I seriously doubt purchasing insurance has anything to do with whether or not USPS delivers a package.