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Malinda, Do you have any input on the FedEx SmartPost pricing discussion? That is another big one I am still hoping to get resolution on. Makes no sense that the pricing in the calculator is currently higher than the much faster Home Delivery Service. You can read the thread on the Shipping topic of the Forum.
Sharyn, this is the recently updated Help Pages. It is not an outdated link. It is the current, live info available to buyers.
Jay, this is not in conjunction with the future changes in the Spring Seller Update. This page is Live. Any buyer can reach it by clicking the Help & Contact at the top…Return an item for Refund is on the top right.
The wording is very clear to me. What I don’t understand is why they make these changes without notifying us sellers.Ughhhh….so did you see today that eBay changed their Returns Process so that ORIGINAL shipping must be reimbursed for returned items…even for buyer’s remorse…as long as you accept returns? I have 30 day returns but have always had the buyer pay original and return shipping for remorse issues.
Here’s the link. Click the + sign next to “You changed your mind about an item”:https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/returns-refunds/returning-item?id=4041
I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that many sellers handed off their SmartPost packages to USPS right from the start…despite the note in red displayed that these packages must be dropped off at a FedEx location. I didn’t do this at first, because it seemed like USPS would be doing all the transit…but I called FedEx, my local Post Office, and spoke to my regular carrier and they all said I could just give it to the USPS carrier. Did FedEx even touch it? No wonder USPS wants more $ for this service.
Thank you for pressing them for answers on this issue. I cannot seem to get answers…eBay is not differentiating this issue from the other resolved issue of customers being charged one price while labels were much higher. FedEx Reps do not seem to have access to SmartPost pricing and have advised me to talk to the account Rep at eBay…yeah, I’ll call him right up with the direct phone number I have for him. LOL. I can’t seem to get anywhere with my inquiries. I feel that I’ve lost the entire Western part of the country as a customer base because of this sharp price increase…my items are not generally small. My only solace is that my competitors in the West are also now outpriced for shipping to my side of the country. So maybe it will even out?
When I called FedEx about this, they could not confirm SmartPost pricing for me. The Rep I spoke with said that Smartpost pricing is variable and is contracted between an individual business and FedEx. Meaning Ebay may have one set of pricing and a company down the street may have another. I have no idea if this is true, but if it is whatever eBay employee negotiated the pricing should be fired.
Thank you T-Satt. Keep us posted. I got nowhere with my inquiries to both eBay and to FedEx.
Numbers for the week of 2/4/18:
Total Items in Store: 137
Items Sold: 15
Cost of Items Sold: $55
Total Sales: $562 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $109 (Fiesta Ware)
Average Price Sold: $37.46
Returns: 0A solid week for me.
I really enjoyed this weeks podcast. I agree that money seems to not be a “polite conversation” topic. But I am one of those people who finds it one of THE most interesting things to talk about. I’m lucky because my Dad is someone who I can talk numbers with…investing, goals, taxes, retirement. He was definitely a hobby investor when we were kids growing up. Back then you couldn’t Google ticker symbols and get nice little graphs. He would track individual stocks and make his own. He’s not a lecturing type, but he taught by simple example (always paid for cars in cash) had a few key bits of financial wisdom he repeated to us as kids. His most famous “There are 2 kinds of people in this world, people who pay interest and people who collect it”.
MrsKensington – The reckless abandon with which people are racking up college debt amazes and worries me. I am trying to teach my kids (oldest a Junior in High School) something different than the going mentality on this…but it is obvious I’m going against the grain. There is literally no long term number crunching going on. No questioning of whether the amount of $ invested in the education actually makes sense for the increased income potential, or even whether there are viable jobs in the places you’d want to live in once the degree is earned. Frustrating.
T-Satt – Regarding the FedEx SmartPost increase, I contacted eBay for Business holding out on the feeble hope that this is a pricing error. Gave them a hypothetical package of 4# 15x15x15 going cross country (a price change from around $13 last year, to currently $38 with the eBay discount). The Rep I spoke to confirmed this pricing IS correct. 🙁 Ryanne – would you be willing to check and see what you come up with in this scenario? You’ve said you haven’t noticed a substantial increase. Is the calculator on your account really not giving you such inflated pricing?I am so glad to hear that. I thought I was loosing the market on the west coast completely for my bigger items…it can’t handle that huge of a price increase.
T-Satt – Just so I understand you correctly, is eBay acknowledging that the prices are incorrect? That the price I see in the calculator is not the price it would be if I drove it down to FedEx (assuming all the same discounts of printing at home) and that it is grossly overinflated? Or are those the prices that FedEx actually changed to when they had the recent DIM increase?
Side-Side note: My issue with FedEx Smartpost is not the initial discrepancy that occurred between what the customer paid and what my cost is. It is that packages that used to cost $12 are costing 4X that amount! Just for example, a 4# 15x15x15 box (not really that large or heavy) from OH to CA in the Shipping calculator is showing as $18.14 Parcel Select. FedEx Smartpost price $48.31 ($38.27 with the eBay discount)!!! Ryanne are you saying you are not seeing this crazy price increase?
