Questions on shipping costs and the 'eBay International Shipping Program'

[2486buffyslay]

If a seller has say 5 items, all small lightweight items and they're all of more or less the same size & weight, but each has a different shipping cost i.e. item 1 is $16.99, item 2 is $17.99, item 3 is $18.99, item 4 is $19.99 and item 5 is $20.99, my questions are:

1) How can each item have a different shipping cost when they're all the same size & weight?

2) If I bought all 5 individually that would be $94.95 in shipping cost! So as the buyer I'd want all 5 shipped together to save shipping cost, what then would the shipping cost be? Would it be the lower of the amounts i.e $16.99, the higher of the amounts i.e. $20.99 or some other amount?

3) If the seller only ships to the eIS Hub how do I do a 'Request total from seller' as this option appears unavailable, i.e. is 'blanked out', with the eIS Program.

4) Is it free for the seller to ship to the eIS Hub or does it depend on their location or state? So for some it could be free and for others not?

5) If I have all 5 items loaded into my Cart can the seller see all items in the Cart? If yes is it possible to request the seller manually send me an eBay invoice, where presumably the shipping cost can be 'combined' on it to get around the 'Request total from seller' option not being available?

6) Is it possible for a seller to manually send me an eBay invoice without having any items in my Cart or buying any items? e.g. in situations where the original total paid was either incorrect or charged to the wrong account and I want a 'corrected' invoice to pay on or the original invoice 'resent' so it can be charged to the right account? The original charge then being refunded.

7) How do seller's arrive at an item's shippng cost? Are they most likely entering an item's dimensions & weight into say a USPS shipping calculator? If so how can you have a situation where items of the same or similar size & weight have different shipping cost?

Is it possible, or it appears to me, eBay may not have thought through certain aspects of their International Shipping Program where a buyer may wish to combine 'multiple' items to save shipping cost. It seems eBay's International Shipping Program is geared toward buyer's purchasing only a 'single' item from a seller. Would this be a fair assessment?

[repentatleisure1952]

I'll offer some one size fits all observations.

It is not free for the seller to ship to the EIS Hub.

You could ask the seller if they would create one. listing with the multiple items you are interested in buying.

I don't know why the EIS shipping costs vary.

Yes, your assessment is a fair one. eBay (just as they did with the GSP) would have thought this out... they are a business & want to make money.

There is nothing to stop you from asking your questions on the eBay.com Community Boards. You may receive answers from a US seller's perspective.

I'm sure others will be along with more answers.

[*sons_n_daughters*]

You can't combine postage with sellers that use global shipping. All you can do is as suggested, ask the seller to create a single listing with all the items you want. The only other thing you can do is ask the seller if they could change their shipping to USPS, BEFORE you commit to buy. Some might say yes, a lot will say no, because if they change out, they lose a lot of their seller protection.

A seller may not even know they are opted in to the GSP, so could be surprised when there is a query from an international buyer. 

The seller doesn't set the postage cost, GSP sets it. The seller needs to input the weight and dimensions to get a more reasonable shipping cost. It appears they may have done that, otherwise the shipping could show as $200. The variation in costs could be because they put this item in at 100g, the next item in at 120g, the next 180g etc. While to you they may seem exactly the same weight, there could be slight variations.

[2486buffyslay]

I didn't think of asking the seller if it's possible to create one listing with the multiple items. Great if the seller can and is willing to? The seller says it's free for them to ship to the eIS Hub because they live in California so maybe the eIS Hub is located there too?

[sugar249]

And we as sellers can't see what you have in your cart (question 5), I often get this query,  and it is not till you purchase or do a request total (not possible in this case),  do we see what you are buying.

[repentatleisure1952]

My apologies... I should have said it is free for the seller to ship to the hub... because the buyer pays the shipping cost.

The main Hub is located in Glendale Heights, Illinois.

There is conflicting information on a California Hub.

[2486buffyslay]

Well it's not the 'Pitney Bowes Global Shipping Program' (GSP). From what I've read eBay have now phased out the GSP and replaced it with their own international shipping program (eIS) or they're in the process of doing it.  However they may be some shared features, but yes it appears the GSP is no more. A good thing too as Pitney Bowes charged 5% extra on top of the already expensive shipping as their 'handling fee'. At least eBay don't appear to be doing this.

What happened in my case as I wanted 2 CDs from the seller. At this point I had no awareness of the eIS. I put the two items in my Cart and went to click on the 'Request total from seller' and found this was blanked out so naturally I messaged the seller and was told "Sorry, this is not possible with eBay's International Shipping". Anyway I wound up having to buy the 2 items seperately which meant I was charged 2 lots of shipping! By the way the shipping on CD #1 is $16.56 and for CD #2 it's $17.78, despite the 2 CDs being the same size & weight! To complicate matters the order was charged twice and further to the wrong account! So not only do I somehow need to get the charge off the wrong account, but the charge is wrong anyway!

I need to know what the actual shipping total would've been had the 2 CDs been bought together - would it be $16.56, $17.78 or right in the middle at $17.17? I'm assuming these shipping charges are set by eBay and not the seller? But it doesn't explain why one CD would cost more to ship when its exactly the same size and weight as the other? Can anyone figure this out?

Now the CDs have shipped or should've, but that's another complicating matter! The order was cancelled by the seller, but the charge has still gone on! So I had to re-order them! Hence why I've been charged twice, or rather I've been charged the wrong amount twice and to the wrong account twice! In order to correct this mess I do need to know the correct shipping charge if they were shipped together in order to work out the correct total I should've been charged! Once I have this I'm hoping the seller can manually generate an eBay invoice with this correct total and I'll ensure it goes to the correct account this time. Then I can hopefully have the other charges removed/refunded?

Now the other items I'm wanting to order from the seller are 5 8x10 photos so you can see they really are all the same size & weight, yet there's a different postage cost on each! So even if the postage can be combined it'll be wrong anyway! Who should I be asking as to why a different postage cost on each - the seller or eBay? The seller will probably say "I don't set the prices, talk to eBay" and ebay will probably say "you need to ask the seller".

[2486buffyslay]

So if I wanted a seller to create a special listing just for me with the multiple items I want then I'm going to have to describe each item to the seller since you say sellers can't see what's in a buyer's Cart. That's not a problem as each item has it's own unique description so I could just do a 'copy & paste' and send the list to the seller and say here's the items I want. Please can you create a listing for me with all these items on so when I make the purchase it's treated as if I'm purchasing just 1 item.

Of course there's a complication with this seller.

[2486buffyslay]

Yes the seller has said it's free for 'them' to ship as It's the 'buyer' who's naturally paying the shipping cost! I'm wondering though, how is the seller shipping the items to the eIS Hub? I bought the 2 items 'within a minute of each other'. So while I 'had to' purchase them seperately does that mean the seller has also sent them to the eIS Hub seperately?

[repentatleisure1952]

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@2486buffyslay wrote:

Yes the seller has said it's free for 'them' to ship as It's the 'buyer' who's naturally paying the shipping cost! I'm wondering though, how is the seller shipping the items to the eIS Hub? I bought the 2 items 'within a minute of each other'. So while I 'had to' purchase them seperately does that mean the seller has also sent them to the eIS Hub seperately?

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Only the seller can answer those questions.