Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I belive, and others will chime in if I am wrong, but the use of the Vacation mode, will over ride your other setings [even extended handling times] and still apply your regular business policies as a default. And using Vacation mode with out hiding your store items will result in Sales that show the default shipping times instead of the extended times.
Use of the Vacation mode also means your items will be re-indxed and you will loose any watchers, your ranking and your visit-hits count will re-set. But I am unsure of this because it has been so long since we have used the Vacation Mode. After joining the SL group years ago and reading all about the benefits of extended handling times vs. Vacation Mode I believe most SL members use ONLY the extended times for the most part.I would suggest you hit the Ebay forums and refresh what the down side is of using the Vacation mode. I think that with it turned on and you dont honor the original ship times you may still be subject to some penalties / defect ratings.
But as I said, am now not certain, but worth checking it out and you may not be able to undo it anyway. Just talking out loud.
Yep.. what Jay says and to add. We use Larger red Fragile stickers on about 90% of our packages. we put one on each side, so 6 per Box..BUT they are our own roll labels we buy from a label mfg. If you use the official Fragile sticker available from your post office or ordered online, those official USPS Fragile Labels are part of the chargeable service Jay mentions and it will charge the fee.
Also our local carrier lady says no one pays much attention to those stickers even there own. She says every thing is so automated, conveyerized and moves at such speed no one hardly sees them except for the final delivery person. Most packages are piled in the canvas laundry style carts, dozens high and many times those bins are tipped up and dumped like wheel barrows into large sorting hoppers. But we still use our nice, big red ones, even if only to make our buyer feel like we are doing something special to try to protect thier purchase.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Just as Jay says. If you use business policies, just go there and edit each of your shipping profiles. We only use 4 or so. Open each of those and scroll down and you will see “Handling Time”. Just click on the number of days you will be gone and save the edit.
That’s all there is to it. If you sell a lot give yourself a day or two buffer to get everything done when you get back. When we go away for our 10 day trips to Florida, we use 15 day handling time. When we reach the 6-7 day time left on our trip, we re-edit the business policies and change it to 10 days and leave it at that. As you state, just have a cut and paste blurb ready and when something sells just shoot an email or text to the buyer reminding them, in case they didnt see it, about your extended handling time.
Only had 2 or 3 buyers request a cancellation due to not being able to wait for our return.
Same technique most SL members use and it has been documented numerous times here on the old Blog and new Forum.
Good luck…
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Just went to check out our business policies as you suggested and we can’t access any of the business policies at all. get an Ooops can’t acess right now message.
So tried your method Adv.E of going to them by way of Preferences under Account Settings and see the old view that I don’t use much any longer because Bznz. Policies is where we make most changes. Well discovered under “returns” that the first 5 or 6 reasons were now checked and the ones we had before are unchecked.May I ask which settings are you checking as reasons to accept the return and which ones not? I do remember long time ago this was discussed but things seem to be new ground rules now and think it is time to decide on a refreshed look at under what conditions a return is acceptable to us. BTW.. these may have changed due to the new returns policy we were playing around with but maybe we should have a change of heart.
You are correct. Staples is cheaper than Uline and Home Depot. Only thing about HD is that if you need a special size box ASAP, then a quick trip up and back, buy only the one you need and you can keep going.
We have had a Gold Staples Rewards card for many years and we get points for every purchase which makes the purchases even lower still.
Currently, the Ebay store has 4 box sizes. Interesting though is if you lo0ok at the Categories Side Bar they show that they have 10 items listed in the “Box” category. Wonder if they just have a glitch about showing everything they have actually listed.
Also on another note, I have complained before that by the time I use Ebay tape and boxes our packages look like a Jack in the Box going out. Just so unprofessional looking. Colors going every which way. Use Ebay tape on a USPS Priority box and it looks like someone threw up a box of water colors on it. Lastly, we are selling more items now on other platforms and we prefer the clean, look of the plain boxes and the use of clear tape. The box looks more professional. If I want an Ebay logo on it, then I guess we could use an Ebay stick on round decal, sparingly.
Just our opinion.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Think about this for a minute. FedEx may not be using DIM Weight but they are only half of the equation. They give the packages to USPS for the final dleivery [last leg] and I am pretty sure that the USPS uses DIM weight and just recently went up on those rates.
Makes me wonder if FedEx office employees even knows that USPS is involved. I wonder if any FedEx employyee acn even distribe the program and how it works from the drop off until final delivery. FedEx may not be charging us them selves, but if USPS is for the final leg and also increased those costs in Jan. of 2018 then as I said ealier those are getting passed along. Maybe on the only guys who really know are the CFO’s of WordlWide FedEx. Maybe only an upper level finacial officer knows what they have to pay USPS to do the last part of thier job for them and if those charges have increased in last two months.
I think I am smelling the FedEx pulling the plug on the SmartPost program if the USPS is hitting them with such higher charges that FedEx can’t be competitve within it’s own tiers. The quick answer, drop the SmartPost program and just start doing the final leg delivery themselves.
Again, who knows.
Interesting: So, we have had both a UPS and FedEx account for years. I just went to our account with FedEx, signed in and input the following.
16x16x8 size box, 2 LB. weight and used your zip as the ship from 80020 and used 58793 as the ship to. Clicked on using “my own packaging” and clicked on get rate quote and it came up offering 4 different FedEx levels, all were Express service except the last one, which was 2 day FedEx and SmartPost wasn’t one of them. Our cost with our discount showed $16.36 to ship your pkg. from your zip to your cust. with end of 2nd day delivery. AND it did show that DIM Weight was used to calculate these rate costs.
Don’t know what this tells us, but maybe different sellers get different rates and discounts based on some kind of variables, who knows.
Granted Ebay may not be reporting the FedEx rates correctly, but why are the rates different now anyway. But maybe there is two things taking place concurrently. Ebay not reporting correctly AND the FedEx rates are higher due to increased costs to them from the USPS.
Then here is the question of the year. ask FedEx how much has the USPS raised the rates on what the USPS is charging FedEx and how much they are marking those new, higher charges up and to what degree the new, higher charges the USPS is charging FedEx impact the new rates that FedEx is charging.
Sooner or later there has to be a “head of the river”. Where has the rate increases come from? Seems like going to Ebay is like blaming the messenger. Providing that Ebay is not at fault by way of an error, glitch or being the cause of the increase. Then next up the food chain would be FedEx, but since they are sub-contracting out the “final leg” of their SmartPost program coupled with the fact that USPS has recently done a rate increase, I would be digging into USPS. What have they charged FedEx in the past vs. what are they charging them now? If there is a change, then how much of an increase in their services, and of course FedEx is not only going to pass those increases on to us but common business practices to mark those increases up.
Just seems to me we haven’t gotten to the head of the river yet. A Stanley and Livingston scenario :-)!
T-Satt you sure about this. Our CPA said that if we go out buying [usually two or three times a week] and take enough time to have to eat lunch or dinner, that yes only 50% of that meal is deductible but only for a “client’s portion, not for us. he said the IRS assumes that you have to eat so your meal whether you bring a sandwich to work, go out or whatever is on us. Only if we take a “client” such as another dealer, a shop owner, etc., etc. would their portion of the meal be deductible, not our half. And on our receipt, we need to list who was at the meeting-meal, nature of the business and then only 50% of the meal could be used as a business deduction.
If what you say is actually correct, then 50% of what we eat each weekend is deductible? We usually eat 4 to 6 meals out per week depending on how many sources we are hitting that week.
mike at MDC in Atl.
yep, heard you mention before. We even gave some serious thought to using file cabinets, but so much of our inventory is odd shaped, over sized home decor that drawers are mainly just to small for a lot of stuff. Others, they are to large for very small pieces and we would have to use hanging file folder inserts to separate a hundred little items, so we just use small show boxes within our numbered bin system.
we thought the filing cabinets idea was so cool but just could not figure out to use them with any great efficiency with our type of inventory.
Onward and upwards.
Suggest you do as mentioned above. tell the buyer to arrange for his own shipping and give him a few suggestions. There are several listed here on the forum that many members sue and include in there listings of extremely large or heavy items. if you handle the shipping then you will own it from cardle to grave. Let them make the calls to the shipper or movers, handle the bill of lading and even they will skid it up or crate it if necessary.
Yes, illegal to lie on the custom forms. as Jay said, it was a done deal as soon as she bought it. Just ship it to Erlanger and forget about it. How to properly buy, how to shop, how to be a good buyer is her responsibility and she needs to educate yourself on what she needs to do.
If she doesn’t like it, she can cancel. but that is between her and her Ebay Buyer Account. it sold, she p[aid, you are on the GSP program, now just ship it and move on.Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
T-Satt as I posted in another place, don’t think Ebay or FedEx has too much they can do about it. I think it is the USPS finally charging FedEx more for the last leg delivery. USPS upping the rates my chaning the DIM wieght system and just increasing what they are charging FedEx do do the last 50% of the work for them. Seems like USPS would just as soon for you to use them and forget about FedEx since the USPS is doing a big part of the work anyway. Also since USPS is the last one to handle the delivery, then they seem to not want to be held responsible for any screw ups on the front end by FedEx. Especially with these new Ebay guarateed delivery or you get your purchase for free programs. Who pays for a failed delivery when two carriers are partned together on the delivery.
Hhhmmmm.
mike in Atl.
