ebay postage calculator not working .

[caj1704]

 I have a light weight but large volume item up for auction. As Australia Post calculates by whichever is the larger, so it is going to be quite expensive to post. My concern is that the ebay calculated postage may not be correct and that will be a problem when the item is sold. I have already contacted the first bidder to advise them of postage cost, but it is not practicable to contact everyone. In my listing I entered the correct weight and size and when I use the Australia Post Website it calculates correctly. How can I get around this. When I look at my listing and try to enter a postcode it tells me it cannot calculate postage.

[curraone]

sorry, I'm a bit confused - please explain.

In my listing I entered the correct weight and size and when I use the Australia Post Website it calculates correctly.

so what's the problem?   

no, wait, I see it is a problem, if I put my postcode it will not calculate .... hmmmm

[curraone]

well I don't know why it won't calculate - but as you already have two bids I would be reluctant to end the listing to fix it.

I think what I would do is add another postscript to the bottom of the description, giving some examples of postage

Examples of postage would be to postcode 3000 = $15;  7000 = $28 , etc

to give your bidders some idea of what to expect.    I would also take the opportunity to give dimensions and packed weight of the item in the box, so bidders can work it out for themselves. 

[jensmanchester-australia]

When you put in the dimensions of the box has it taken it over the size that Australia Post will accept as this will stop the calculator from calculating the postage charge.

[caj1704]

Thanks for reply, but no, it is not over size for australia post

[phorum_junkie*]

It won't calculate for me either. Do you realise you have COD selected as a payment method?

[curraone]

see this other thread - seems a reasonable explanation:

Re: Why am I getting message "Posting cost can't be calculated. Please enter a valid postcode&q

1978marmalade on 4 sept 2014

in reply to sigmatraders

I know this is an old post but I still see this problem today.  I see the problem when the postage option is 'Calculated: cost varies by buyer location' and the dimensions are greater than 50cm x 50cm x 20cm, that is to say, when the volume is greater than 50000 cm3 (0.05 m3).  Items up to 250000 cm3 (0.25 m3) are under Australia Post limits for domestic parcels but it seems to break the eBay Australia Post postage calculation when you put in numbers that result in a volume greater than 50000 cm3 (0.05 m3).  The 'sell an item' page does not complain, however, when the item is listed eBay indicates "Posting cost can't be calculated. Please enter a valid postcode".  If search results are listed by 'Price + Postage: lowest first' then an item with this error will be listed last.  There are many many examples of this error on eBay.

[mayger_and_mayger]

That does seem to be an explanation.

Two ways to "fix"

1) Leave the listing and add some indicative prices (to  major cities plus a few "country" areas) to the description.

2) Cancel the listing and relist with small dimensions 5cm * 5cm * 5cm but a weight equivalent to the cubic weight of your big item. 

[graynet]

It seems possible that this may be the same problem that I came across a little while ago.

About a year ago, Aust Post changed their rules about what size was acceptable for parcels.

Up till then, there was a limit of (I think) 140cm on what I think they called the "girth" (ie the largest total outside dimension around the parcel). That would mean that a parcel of size 25 x 35 x 40 cm would not be accepted because the "girth" would be 35 + 40 + 35 + 40 = 150 cm.

eBay set the rules in their postage calculator to implement this.

Aust Post rules have now changed, and the only restrictions that they impose are (from their booklet):

"The greatest linear dimension must not exceed 105 cm.
The maximum cubic dimension must not exceed 0.25 m3"

Unfortunately, eBay, at least at the time I was having the problem, hadn't adjusted their system to take account of that.

I was able to solve it, and still allow a proper cubic weight calculation by just adjusting the dimensions slightly to fit into the old restrictions but keeping the volume about the same (and not exceeding the new Aust Post rules, of course). In the case above, changing it from 25 x 35 x 40 to 30 x 30 x 40 solved the problem.

Of course, the real solution is for eBay to bring their system in line with Aust Post's new rules. They may have already done this - I haven't checked recently. However, the OP's experience indicates this may not be the case.

[peters6086]

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@mayger_and_mayger wrote:

That does seem to be an explanation.

Two ways to "fix"

1) Leave the listing and add some indicative prices (to  major cities plus a few "country" areas) to the description.

2) Cancel the listing and relist with small dimensions 5cm * 5cm * 5cm but a weight equivalent to the cubic weight of your big item. 

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Several months later and the problem is still there. Thanks very much for explaining what the problem is. I've spent hours trying to get eBay support to believe there's a problem. Two chat sessions and a phone session, and they all just claim it's working fine for them.

My item is too big to tweak measurements to get under the 1.4m girth, and the cubic weight is too high to just enter a fake small size and the true cubic weight. The Auspost calculator is fine with these dimensions.