eBay to Begin Enforcement Against Excessive Shipping & Handling

[DMRick]

Finally!!

He makes it clear, that is is still ok for those who charge for their shipping and handling. This is not meant to be an argument for those who feel that handling should not be charged. eBay is OK with that. But for those who have clear fee avoidance..your time has finally come!!


The following is an excerpt from an
eBay Live! message from Bill Cobb,
President of eBay North America -
you can read the entire message here:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200606140907252.html

"Excessive Shipping
As many of you who listen to my monthly audio Town Hall know, I have personally
committed to making sure the problem of some sellers charging excessive shipping
costs gets addressed. You've told us and we agree -- excessive shipping has
become a serious issue that needs a solution. It sets up unfair competition
through fee avoidance and search manipulation, and, most importantly, it is
eroding buyer trust in the eBay marketplace. In fact, we completed research that
found this is the number one reason that buyers leave eBay.
That said, this is an open marketplace, and we've been very reluctant about
telling our sellers what they can charge for shipping and handling. Our sellers
sell everything from pianos to t-shirts.

Over the last few months, the best talent in the company has been looking at
solutions to this issue. We'll continue to look at site changes and other
solutions, but I'm pleased to announce that one major change we are instituting
- starting Monday, June 19th - is new aggressive enforcement against Excessive
Shipping & Handling.

Now, before sellers become unnecessarily concerned, let me make it clear - this
policy is geared for those egregious cases that are clearly taking advantage of
the system and our buyers. You all know the listings that I mean - the .01 BIN
listings with $25.00 shipping & handling for an item that weighs less than a
pound to ship.

We're going to clean up the site and stop this type of listing -- which does a
disservice to the whole Community. We are going to proactively search for the
worst offenders -- those whose business model is predicated on a low Buy It Now
cost offset by outrageous shipping charges. Last night I gave these sellers a
clear message: stop this practice, or you're no longer welcome on eBay.

Now please understand -- if you're charging simply to cover your actual
shipping, packaging and overhead costs, you have no reason to be concerned. If
you'll be charging for custom crating, or other services, just say so in your
listings."

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I for one am glad they are doing it. I try to stay away from bidding on anything like that.. I am in the stage of trying to figure out how to calculate shipping so I can start selling some of my teens out grown/do not want anymore clothing. I am so confused. If anyone can give me a "fair" amount hint, I would appreciate it. I am thinking in terms of what I am willing to pay. I know I will go up to $6. for Shirts & $8 for jeans. Is that fair to charge?

 

[Free4Life11]

Very good! One of the reasons I stopped buying on eBay was the outrageous shipping.

What I think is fair is to figure out how much it would cost to send something Priority Mail, based on the weight (don't forget about the flat rate boxes), and add on $1-$3 handling/supplies.

 

[DMRick]

Once you pack and weigh something..that should give you an idea of what to charge for shipping. On eBay you can just put in how you want to ship, and add your handling (I add .50) and then each person can use a calculator to see what their shipping is.

I for one am glad they are doing it. I try to stay away from bidding on anything like that.. I am in the stage of trying to figure out how to calculate shipping so I can start selling some of my teens out grown/do not want anymore clothing. I am so confused. If anyone can give me a "fair" amount hint, I would appreciate it. I am thinking in terms of what I am willing to pay. I know I will go up to $6. for Shirts & $8 for jeans. Is that fair to charge?

 

[JeffM]

I sell mostly Magic cards...every now and then a Baseball card. My shipping is easy. $1.00 for the first card and $0.30 for each after the first, if paid for together. This pays for my Ebay fees, Paypal fees and actual Shipping...like Priority or First class stamps. In this genre that is pretty much the norm. Some do $1.25 some do $.75 each. It all depends.

The way I sell other things that are not cards I do a search for the item and see what others are charging for that item. If most are charging $20.00 for a Laptop then Pretty much it will cost around $20.00 to send a laptop. Atleast that is what I do.

 

[Kramer]

I personally like the .01 BIN auctions. I don't have to wait a week for the auction to end to get something I want and I know exactly how much its going to cost me. So if they want to charge me .01 for the item and $7.99 for shipping I really don't care because I can make a decision if the item is worth $8 to me. If its not I move on to another item. If it is then I like the ease of ending the auction with BIN and paying right away, Most of the time the item arrives in a few days. For instance... I needed a new stylus for my PDA... I bought it for .01 and paid 6.99 shipping. I don't care how much it really costs to ship it because I am still getting a bargain. If I were to buy the stylus thru Dell I would have to buy 3 of them and pay $16.99 plus shipping.


For the most part I don't know that its going to cut down on overcharging for shipping that much. Some of the power sellers will just end up not doing so many .01 BIN auctions. You are still going to have mom & pop sellers that will run regular auctions and still try to charge $10 for something that costs $5 to ship. I doubt that ebay will be able to do much to control those people.

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

I am so glad they are doing this!!! I will not bid on items where the seller is obviously inflating the shipping charges. I've learned to always, always really take a look at the shipping charges before I ever bid.

I know the eBay fees can get high as I'm a seller. But it's part of doing business. I sell on eBay and for most of my items I don't charge shipping as I don't ship an actual item. Yet, I see others who sell the same kind of service I do and they add "shipping and handling" just so they can avoid the fees.

I've been waiting for eBay to crack down on this!

 

[ntburns22]

I personally like the .01 BIN auctions. I don't have to wait a week for the auction to end to get something I want and I know exactly how much its going to cost me. So if they want to charge me .01 for the item and $7.99 for shipping I really don't care because I can make a decision if the item is worth $8 to me. If its not I move on to another item. If it is then I like the ease of ending the auction with BIN and paying right away, Most of the time the item arrives in a few days. For instance... I needed a new stylus for my PDA... I bought it for .01 and paid 6.99 shipping. I don't care how much it really costs to ship it because I am still getting a bargain. If I were to buy the stylus thru Dell I would have to buy 3 of them and pay $16.99 plus shipping.


.

I like them too. I just bought 50 glow necklaces for .99 and 19.95 s/h. I still think I got a great deal.

 

[DMRick]

I always look at my overall cost when bidding, so the shipping doesn't really matter as a bidder. As a seller, when someone is doing a search, and they see my item for $9.99 and the other person's for $1.99, and they just don't check the shipping (a lot of times the shipping is in the description, so it doesn't show on the search), I see it as a big disadvantage. Especially since my total price is often much less. Should people be checking that? Yes, but often we just assume the other person is honest..and once we bid and are hit with an outragous shipping charge..it's too late. We have a contract with the bid. The thing is we did agree with the eBay rules when we signed up, and one of them was to not take part in fee avoidance, and it's obvious to most of us, that is what this is. When you get something that cost under $1 to ship with no packing material, it's clearly fee avoidance, and the rest of us pay, when eBay says they aren't making enough and raise their prices, once again. So I don't blame eBay for wanting to stop it. I understand the fees to eBay are outrageous (or at least mine are), but we all should have gone in this with our eyes wide open as to what the fees are.

I am so glad they are doing this!!! I will not bid on items where the seller is obviously inflating the shipping charges. I've learned to always, always really take a look at the shipping charges before I ever bid.

 

[tacomaranch]

Being both a seller and buyer I am pleased to see a fair price for shipping being enforced. Why should a pin cost me a penny but to ship in over $4.00. It's a pin!

I sell pediasure on ebay but the liquid is heavy and cost a lot to ship. To help the customer, I send it in a flat rate box and only add $1.00 for ebay fees, paypal fees, etc and that doesn't even cover my cost to sell.

I would like to see ebay and paypal drop some of the excessive charges that they apply!

JMO, April at Tacoma Ranch

 

[disneysteve]

I always look at my overall cost when bidding, so the shipping doesn't really matter as a bidder.

I disagree. On a venue like ebay, trust is very important. I find it hard to trust a seller who is intentionally skirting the rules to avoid fees by selling an item for $.01 and charging $10 shipping, even if the total cost is still reasonable. Given the choice, I'd much rather buy that same item from the seller charging $9 and $1 shipping. Total cost is the same, but I feel one of those sellers is showing better business practices than the other. JMHO - your opinion may differ.

That said, I don't always live by that opinion. I recently bought a gift certificate and paid $3.99 shipping, knowing full well that it would only cost $.39 to mail. But the total cost was still less than everyone else was selling identical items for. I did e-mail the seller and ask if he would lower the shipping and he responded quickly and politely that he would not, but I felt satisfied with his feedback and bid anyway. Had another seller had the same item for same total price and lower shipping, though, I would have bought from them instead.

 

[luv2nascar]

Let's face it no one is forcing you to buy from an auction where you think the shipping it to high? Ebay only cares because they are losing money. They don't care about the buyer just their fees. I calls it like I sees it.

 

[sk!mom]

I disagree. On a venue like ebay, trust is very important. I find it hard to trust a seller who is intentionally skirting the rules to avoid fees by selling an item for $.01 and charging $10 shipping, even if the total cost is still reasonable. Given the choice, I'd much rather buy that same item from the seller charging $9 and $1 shipping. Total cost is the same, but I feel one of those sellers is showing better business practices than the other. JMHO - your opinion may differ.

It is a trust issue for me as well. I avoid auctions with excessive shipping charges because it feels dishonest to me.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

luv2nascar hit it right in the head!!!!!!!

(First: I only sold once on Ebay - it was short term thing and a long time ago - I am now just a buyer).....I have always added the shipping to the total and considered it part of the cost...if I want to pay that cost I do ....I have no problem as long as it is stated up front and I can make an informed choice.

Ebay has every right to make sure their fees are paid....I see that as the only motivator here

does anyone else think this is going to be a pain to police?...and they are only going to be able to deal with the worst cases? They aren't going to be able to argue this case by case....with each seller explaining each and every questionable shipping and handling charge????

 

[DMRick]

That said, I don't always live by that opinion. I recently bought a gift certificate and paid $3.99 shipping, knowing full well that it would only cost $.39 to mail. But the total cost was still less than everyone else was selling identical items for..

I think that is pretty much what I just said..so I'm not understanding your answer. If I had two people to choose from, I'll pick the person not trying to cheat eBay of their listing fees. However, I still go for what is the less expensive price. If eBay finally puts their foot down on it..the price will be right, and the trust issue will be moot in this instance.

I'm not really sure what you are saying..that I'm wrong, that you wouldn't trust your seller..but for you it's ok..as long as you get the item cheaper?

Sorry Steve..you either don't trust them, or you do. If it's all about price..well, then it's all about price...not trust.

 

[DMRick]

luv2nascar hit it right in the head!!!!!!!

(First: I only sold once on Ebay - it was short term thing and a long time ago - I am now just a buyer).....I have always added the shipping to the total and considered it part of the cost...if I want to pay that cost I do ....I have no problem as long as it is stated up front and I can make an informed choice.

As I mentioned..it's really only good for the sellers..puts them on a level playing field..and of course those who don't always check out the shipping. They assume the seller would ship for s/h fees only. And most of all, it's good for eBay. They'll make more money. I can only hope that will mean no raise in fees LOL.
It did get the most applause of anything they announced, so I guess a lot of people will be happy with the changes.

How to enforce it? Not a clue. I guess something in the software..and of course those who are into reporting.

 

[rparmfamily]

I'm glad to hear this. I turn in people for fee avoidance when they grossly overcharge on shipping and do a super cheap BIN.

 

[disneysteve]

I think that is pretty much what I just said..so I'm not understanding your answer.

I know my post was confusing. I don't I have a clear cut answer. Let me give 2 examples.


Example #1:
Seller A charging $1 for item and $9 shipping: Total cost=$10
Seller B charging $9 for item and $1 shipping: Total cost=$10
I would choose to buy from Seller B as Seller A seems to be less honest in his pricing.

Example #2:
Seller A charging $1 for item and $9 shipping: Total cost=$10
Seller B charging $14 for item and $1 shipping: Total cost=$15
I would choose to buy from Seller A. Even though I think they are being a bit dishonest in their pricing, I'm not willing to pay an extra $5 to deal with the other guy.

Yes, that's kind of a fuzzy moral stance, but I'd be lying if I said I'd pay 50% more just on principal. Does that make better sense now?

 

[CajunDixie]

I personally like the .01 BIN auctions. I don't have to wait a week for the auction to end to get something I want and I know exactly how much its going to cost me. So if they want to charge me .01 for the item and $7.99 for shipping I really don't care because I can make a decision if the item is worth $8 to me. If its not I move on to another item. If it is then I like the ease of ending the auction with BIN and paying right away, Most of the time the item arrives in a few days.

The same seller could have listed the BIN as $7 and charged $1 for shipping and you'd still know the total cost. The seller would have not avoided the Ebay Fees and therefore, would be considered (IMO) a more honest seller.

Let's face it no one is forcing you to buy from an auction where you think the shipping it to high? Ebay only cares because they are losing money. They don't care about the buyer just their fees. I calls it like I sees it.

I guess I see a totally different side to it. Ebay should care if they are losing money because sellers are avoiding fees by charging excessive shipping and a mere 1 cent for an item. They are a business with many employees. Those employees are just like everyone else they want to earn a living and receive salary increases. It also hurts sellers who are honest and pay their fees. When people are in a hurry they most likely just look for the lowest price and forget to check and add in shipping charges. This hurts the honest sellers amount of sales. Also fees can increase because of the dishonest sellers avoiding paying their fees.

 

[disneysteve]

Ebay should care if they are losing money because sellers are avoiding fees by charging excessive shipping and a mere 1 cent for an item. They are a business with many employees. Those employees are just like everyone else they want to earn a living and receive salary increases. It also hurts sellers who are honest and pay their fees. When people are in a hurry they most likely just look for the lowest price and forget to check and add in shipping charges. This hurts the honest sellers amount of sales. Also fees can increase because of the dishonest sellers avoiding paying their fees.

ITA