How to use Postage rate table?

[trailer-board-paradise]

I would like to streamline the purchasing process for my larger items which I can only send by courier. Currently buyers need to wait for an invoice from me before they can pay.

For many destinations I know the cost to send the item so have filled in the Postage Rate Table with the relevant cost. Ebay instructions advise that I need to tick the Postage rate table option when I list an item for sale. However this option only comes up when the Flat Rate rule is selected in the selling tempalte which I find odd.

I tried it anyway but then I get an error message advising "You must enter a postage cost" in the selling template and I'm only allowed to enter one cost of course. It's all so odd and doesn't make sense.

So how can the Postage Rate Table be used?

[digital*ghost]

I have played around a little with rate tables, but never gone so far as to try to use them in a listing, so unfortunately can't say one way or another what works, etc, but I did find this in eBay's info, hopefully it will help: 

You can set a number of different rate tables but you’ll only be able to apply one set of rates at a time to your listings. You'll need to set up your rate table manually through My eBay> Site Preferences> Postage Preferences (including sellers listing via API).

Once a rate table has been set up, you'll need to follow the below steps for each new listing you want to apply a rate table to:

1. Tick the checkbox for Apply rate tables
2. Select a Flat Rate Postage and then choose one or more postage services
3. Depending which rate table type you have set up:

• Item – Nothing more needed. The rate table will apply the correct amount per item sold
• Weight – Enter the weight into the weight field, remembering to use the cubic weight if that’s what your carrier uses. Check with your carrier for details on calculating weight accurately.
• Surcharge – Enter the base flat rate postage amount. A surcharge will be added based on the postcode of the buyer and the surcharges you have set in your rate table.

[deanosaurus_chenz]

We have the same issue. I've spent a lot of time trying to work it out and a lot of time dealing with eBay support about it, to no avail. Here's what I've discovered.

To use postage rate tables, you're forced to enter a value for the flat rate (as well as ticking the rate tables checkbox). I guess it's supposed to just overwrite the flat rate with the calculated rate whenever it displays the rate to each customer. That seems like an absurd way to do it, but I guess we should expect that from eBay. So after setting up the rate tables I entered a value of $1 for the flat rate and then ticked the box to use the rate tables. From the customer's point of view, this works fine on item pages. The rate which the customer sees is the correct rate (calculated from the tables). However, it does not work the same way in search results or on store pages. In those cases, the flat rate (in my case, $1) is displayed instead. Obviously this causes confusion for the customer, because the flat rate is almost certainly not going to match the calculated rate and hence the price of postage appears to fluctuate during the customer's shopping experience. 

eBay support are adamant that this is not a bug. They were only able to offer a couple of impractical suggestions such as setting the flat rate to the maximum possible postage cost (ie: the highest value in our rate table), which I think is ridiculous and obviously doesn't address the issue at all. Anyway, I don't think you're doing anything wrong. Basically, my opinion is that eBay's implementation of the postage rate tables is incomplete and hence the feature is essentially unusable at this time (unless you want to mislead customers). The eBay support team say they've passed on my opinion to the developers as "feedback for future enhancement", which I assume means absolutely nothing (at least in the short to medium term).

[englishrosegardens]

I suppose the reason they want you to put the highest possible rate in is so they collect more fees. 

[eskyal]

Here is how I managed the problem of the search postage showing the flat rate charge using eabay postage rates table..

The Brisbane Metro area is my local area and hence it is the area where my courier delivery charges are cheapest and less variable (flater). I set the flat rate to $25 which is the average delivery charge for my items in the Brisbane metro area.

I then deleted the minimum charge and  the Kg rate for the  Bribane metro area only so that all delivery charges to that area would default to the flat rate.

I then added a subtitle

Brisbane $25 Delivery -See item details for other areas

The search results show $25.00 delivery for all buyers but the subtitle advises them its for Brisbane only - I have not had any complaints yet and it does not seem to have effected sales, but its earley days yet as I have only had it running for a month.

Hope this assists

Good Luck

Alan

[kmobarek2020]

<rant>

I agree with you entirely.  It is totally unusable.  However, there are a number of large stores (edisons being one) who get preferential treatment.  They seem to have some other implementation not available to us.  It lets them set up calculated costs correctly and also allows them to select excluded regions within Australia for both calculated and their free postage listing.  When I qeried this, ebay's standard response is that they are a big seller and have been given access to features that they are beta testing on behalf of ebay.  Another feature they have is List Price strike through then a real price.  This is not the same as Promotions.  The issue with ebay's rubbish response is that the particular store in question has had these features for years.  So it cannot be a beta program.  Another thing is that they have their phone number on every listing and their email address on the contact us page.  If that isn't preferential treatment then I don't know what is

</rant>

[lyndal1838]

What a pity you did not check the date of this thread.   It is nearly 3 years old now.

How can you compare your store with 20 odd listings with an Anchor store with thousands of listings?

Anchor stores have always been allowed to have their contact details available.  If you were paying hundreds of dollars a month in fees you would get preferential treatment too.

[deanosaurus_chenz]

Hi Lyndal, can I ask what you're basing your comments on? Our biggest store is an anchor store which pays *way* more than hundreds of dollars a month in fees... does this actually entitle us to advertise our phone number on our listings? My team has spent hours trying to remove all traces of it. As far as I'm aware, we have to play by the same rules as everyone else. How can we get our hands on some of this preferential treatment? 😉 

[imastawka]

Until recently - last year sometime - anchor stores were allowed to put details in listings.

Ebay put out an announcement that this was now to stop.  Unfortunately I can't find the memo to give a link.

But as far as I know, only stores that have a B & M store can put in addresses and phone numbers now.

[deanosaurus_chenz]

Oh ok, thanks. Yes, we had our details listed until recently. But we do have B&M stores, so I'd love to see any documentation that says we can still list our phone number and/or address...