Shipping discounts automatically applied to listings for some

[Steven S]

my daughter received this notification from ebay

Hi Stephanie,
We’re reaching out to let you know that, starting May 15, your listings that display calculated shipping will default to showing eBay Labels discounted shipping rates. The new default rates will apply to all of your active and future listings that offer calculated shipping; listings with free or flat rate shipping won’t be affected.
We’re making this change to help your listings attract more buyers by offering a lower shipping cost. To get the discounted rate that will be displayed on your listings, make sure to purchase your shipping labels through eBay Labels.
If you want to opt out of this change, just let us know here by May 13 and we won’t make any changes to your current shipping rates. You can also switch back to showing standard rates at any time after May 15 through your shipping discount settings.
Please note that this change will only apply to sellers receiving this email.
Thanks for being a part of the eBav

I did not, perhaps its for non store owners

[Timo]

I received this today for my one account that does not have a store.

In order to opt-out, I had to enter some personal information. First I had checked my shipping preferences and they were correct for what I want. It seems like if you do not opt-out, eBay is going to change your shipping preferences setting around May 15.

[Jay]

Hopefully this is just for people without stores. Glad they can opt out.

I worry eBay is trying to force sellers to lower shipping costs.

[So Cal Joe]

I received the same message. I have a store, but my sales are few and far between.

As soon as the change is done by Ebay on May 15, I’ll just go into settings and change it back. The Email states it can be done and even supplies a link.

[So Cal Joe]

I just this minute went online and did what Timo said.  Hopefully that’s it.

[ChristineR]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm2fOc6oCy4&t=1273s  The Pure Hustle guys have a podcast on this.  Not sure they touched on the fact that it only applies to certain sellers (without a store).  In theory, it will affect us if we are competing against those sellers and they don’t opt out.

As a buyer, I would be interested in seeing the actual shipping cost before buying in the cases where the shipping seems too high on an item I really want.  Sometimes I message them to add Fed Ex please, etc.

I’m wondering what the motivation on Ebay’s part was for the change?  Maybe new and smaller sellers aren’t great at estimating and end up looking high?  Experienced sellers would notice and have an uproar because they want the cushion?  Or they just are trying to attract buyers and counter Mercari’s move, etc.

[Jay]

I assume its the MBA’s at eBay trying to always squeeze more and more sales/money out of the system.

Instead of letting sellers keep the discount, maybe eBay will decide to force the discount to go to the buyer. This makes items cheaper and might drive more sales. But again, its a decision eBay would be making and not letting the seller decide. We’ll see.

 

[ChristineR]

@Jay.  Yes and the timing is suspiciously right after the Mercari change.  Ebay is already all in on squeezing the sellers so perhaps they are countering by trying to lower costs for buyers.

[So Cal Joe]

It reminds me of the “Free Shipping” push from a few years back. At the end of the day, the shipping money has to come from somewhere.

Then again if the smaller sellers aren’t paying attention and the change is made. It’s good for Ebay’s sales revenue..

[Antique Frog]

Royal Mail (UK) were apparently losing millions of pounds through the use of fake stamps. So they introduced stamps with QR codes, and machines that scanned the stamps and flagged up any that were ‘fakes’. (It’s alleged that) four Chinese firms stepped up to the mark and supplied the UK market with their own heavily discounted stamps, which are sold by corner shops. The Post Office (a separate entity to the Royal Mail) get their stamps from the official suppliers, whoever they are, so in theory you shouldn’t be able to be lumbered with fake stamps from their shops.

Whatever the RM use to scan the stamps produces some false positives- i.e. “It’s a fake” when it’s a genuine stamp.

The intended recipient of a letter with the fake or “fake” stamp receives a demand for 5 GBP which they have to pay before they even get a look at the envelope. The only way to get a refund of the fiver is to send Royal Mail the receipt for the stamp. Which is okay if you’ve bought the stamp from the Post Office (and people have bought genuine fake stamps from their PO). Otherwise, no.

The government’s complained to the Chinese government about it, saying “You control everything in China, therefore you’re doing this”. Meanwhile the fake stamps are apparently getting better.

 

[Author]

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