eBay forcing sellers to specify shipping or use calculator

Kristina Klausen announced today that starting immediately eBay will require new sellers to specify S+H costs and then in the 'coming months' will require this from all sellers.  I totally get this from the buyer's perspective.

There are so many problems with this from a seller's perspective it's not even funny.

• The eBay Shipping Calculator is a closed system with no access for third parties.  There are no APIs.
• The eBay shipping calculator is USPS/UPS only.  Many top sellers prefer Fedex or DHL as their shipping carrier.
• Thus sellers that use third parties (yes, like ChannelAdvisor) or don't ship exclusively with USPS/UPS are forced to implement flat-rate shipping.
• For larger items (let's say a golf club), flat-rate shipping is MORE EXPENSIVE for most buyers because the seller has to look at their best case and worst case zone scenarios and price the flat-rate accordingly.

Thus eBay is implementing a policy that is going to reduce buyer flexibility AND seller flexibility while effectively causing higher shipping costs.

Wait, who wins in this?

Comments

[ryan]

we believe we will find more hot stocks, stock pick winners and penny stock winners than ever before and more than anyone else on the Internet. http://www.speculatingStocks.com/

[Terri]

I have written and called many times about the handling fee which I use on my auction. If I sell ONE item, the handling fee appears correctly, but if I sell MORE than one item, the handling fee is only applied to the first item. If I sell 12 of my items I only receive ONE handling fee and I HAVE TO BEAR THE HANDLING FEE FOR THE OTHER 11. How is this fair to a seller? I cannot remain a viable seller on eBay with this ruling.
I have been given to understand that this problem supposedly is being worked on by the technical department but I assume this is a "canned" response. I can’t be the only person who has complained about this.
Thanks.

[BWD]

I'm wondering how long it will be before a class action lawsuit arises because of the fact that e-bay has now chosen to force peoples use of their shipping calculator which is all too often inaccurate. If a seller ends up regularly paying more to ship an item than their calculator quotes then who's responsible for that?

[Henrietta]

This what happens when well meaning individuals with no retail or mail order experience are in the drivers seat. Decisions are made and implemented which have unfortunate consequences. Don't worry Scott, its just "noise", sellers will get over it.

It wouldn't be quite so bad if the shipping calculator actually worked, but due to the teetering band-aided patchwork pyramid that is eBays platform quite a lot of things don't work very well.

This latest edict from above will not affect me at all. Because the shipping calculator has always been unreliable & inaccurate on very lightweight shipments I have been specifying shipping cost for years; shipping cost is something I like to see as a buyer so I provide it to my customers.

Yup, looks a bit different when the 'improvements' adversely affect your business or your customers doesn't it Scott? I am surprised your coffee drinking buddy didn't ask your advice on this one too.

[Henrietta]

This what happens when well meaning individuals with no retail or mail order experience are in the drivers seat. Decisions are made and implemented which have unfortunate consequences. Don't worry Scott, its just "noise", sellers will get over it.

It wouldn't be quite so bad if the shipping calculator actually worked, but due to the teetering band-aided patchwork pyramid that is eBays platform quite a lot of things don't work very well.

This latest edict from above will not affect me at all. Because the shipping calculator has always been unreliable & inaccurate on very lightweight shipments I have been specifying shipping cost for years; shipping cost is something I like to see as a buyer so I provide it to my customers.

Yup, looks a bit different when the 'improvements' adversely affect your business or your customers doesn't it Scott? I am surprised your coffee drinking buddy didn't ask your advice on this one too.

[Henrietta]

This what happens when well meaning individuals with no retail or mail order experience are in the drivers seat. Decisions are made and implemented which have unfortunate consequences. Don't worry Scott, its just "noise", sellers will get over it.

It wouldn't be quite so bad if the shipping calculator actually worked, but due to the teetering band-aided patchwork pyramid that is eBays platform quite a lot of things don't work very well.

This latest edict from above will not affect me at all. Because the shipping calculator has always been unreliable & inaccurate on very lightweight shipments I have been specifying shipping cost for years; shipping cost is something I like to see as a buyer so I provide it to my customers.

Yup, looks a bit different when the 'improvements' adversely affect your business or your customers doesn't it Scott? I am surprised your coffee drinking buddy didn't ask your advice on this one too.

[Mohit]

Thanks for this post

[Kenny Tarmac]

Scot
Very sad indeed. I still say they are after that free shipping model so they get their cut of the shipping cost too. Gotta keep getting more and more money money money and make the stock holders happy.
We would not have had these issues (most likely) had they stayed private. They are just a victim of the vicious circle known as the stock market.

[Kenny Tarmac]

Scot
What about sellers who have discounts off the advertised price that UPS/FedEX shows? Some sellers want to use them discounts and pass them on to their customers. How can you do that with a calculator that shows their MSRPs for say?
I still say they want everyone to go to a free shipping model and factor the cost into item so that they get their fee from the cost of the shipping too.
Money money money!!!! You know eBay would not be this way had they stayed public. They are a victim of the vicious circle known as the stock market.

[Larry Vorpagel]

I believe you can still use the shipping calculator or specify a shipping cost however Ebay has not updated the UPS calculator to comply with the new UPS shipping calculations that went into effect about a year ago now. Anyway Ebay has got allot of guts saying they are only a venue. I was forced out of the contracting business in Florida because of regulations and now Ebay is piling on regs on top of regs. I'm about tired of socialism. When will people wake up?

[tj]

Actually Very little that eBay has announced over the past 3 months makes any sense…except that it basically everything boils down to a bigger cut of fees via eBay or Paypal

[Fruity]

We're supposed to ship for free. That's the goal, they're just phasing it so people don't riot, and they're also starting to do those little messages that your S*H is too expensive compared to others. So what's a seller to do? Oh yeah, go register yet another ID, price it how you want and then ship it the cheapest, then dump the ID. And dont forget to list a couple dozen listings of whatever product you are offering with a complimentary 40 pound cast iron ball & chain to raise the average S&H per category up so the rest of us don't have to be disadvantaged cuz the magazine ad sellers decided to list their paper ads in the toys & clothing category. Insert periods somewhere above. lol