topic Re: How to use Postage rate table? in Selling

How to use Postage rate table?

trailer-board-paradise — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 09:11:00 GMT

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?

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

digital*ghost — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 10:05:38 GMT

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:

Tick the checkbox for Apply rate tables
Select a Flat Rate Postage and then choose one or more postage services
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.

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

deanosaurus_chenz — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 02:09:30 GMT

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).

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

englishrosegardens — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 07:23:01 GMT

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

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

eskyal — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 00:40:06 GMT

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

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

kmobarek2020 — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 13:03:21 GMT

<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>

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

lyndal1838 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 01:09:01 GMT

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.

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

deanosaurus_chenz — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 05:51:51 GMT

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? 😉

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

imastawka — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:15:23 GMT

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.

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

deanosaurus_chenz — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 20:14:37 GMT

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...

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

imastawka — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 21:50:07 GMT

Sorry, but if I can't find the link to say you can't, then I'm sure as apples not gunna find

the link that says you can.

I was just going on the premise that the large stores eg Myer, Good Guys Office Works etc can do it, then that sets a precedent?

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

digital*ghost — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 01:24:01 GMT

@deanosaurus_chenzwrote:
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...

Until recently, the actual rules were:

Anyone can have an email address in a listing; if it was a link it need to open an email client

Any account registered as a business account can have a phone number in a listing (store level was irrelevant).

eBay changed the rules, though, and now no one is able to display or exchange contact information, unless a sale has taken place.

Well, no one except stores that are able to negotiate independent contracts with eBay (as in, they would effectively have a different user agreement), like Myer, Good Guys etc I'd say these sellers are treated differently because they're not someone who opened a standard account on ebay and just started selling, eBay would have courted them, negotiated special rates and offers, and provided features they can access that aren't available to standard membership accounts (like logos in search results and other functional or cosmetic 'bonuses'). I dare say part of the reason that they allow contact details is because it's no secret the sellers have established stores and can be contacted outside of eBay, so denying contact information would be pretty futile. I'm not saying it's fair or anything like that, as they have many advantages over everyone else that ultimately hurts the site (IMO).

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

deanosaurus_chenz — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 01:53:27 GMT

Ok, cool. That was my understanding of it, too. Thanks for the response, digital*ghost!

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

organising-with-kath — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 05:30:17 GMT

Hi deanosaurus_chenz

If the table is unusable, how do you let different customers from different areas know the price applicable to them?

I have spent the last two days trying to work all this out till I saw your response,(thought I was doing something wrong)

Any ideas as to how I can add calculated shipping to my listed items?

Thanks heaps

Re: How to use Postage rate table?

imastawka — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 06:13:46 GMT

You're replying to someone who posted 5 years ago. Things change.

You should have started your own thread to ask the question

In the meantime, I'd be taking down or fixing the 'free postage' you have listed for those very large items.