Astronomical postage costs are killing sales

[kustomizer99]

It now costs over $12 to send a tiny package if the item enclosed is more than 2 cm wide with packing. So the buyers are just walking away. There's no longer any point in listing individual items, rather everything needs to be listed in bulk to make postage seem 'reasonable' to prospective buyers.

Rather than just trying to gouge us for as much as they think they can get away with, this time Austpost have really pushed the market beyond what it can bear.

[chezzy]

I am not putting too much faith in the scanning/tracking because I myself have experienced its unreliability - eg tracking info not updated (such as one item I sent in early March and STILL showing as in transit even though buyer has long received it). And as others have said - tracking info showing item has been delivered but buyer has not received item? Given the hassles, risks and frustrations re tracking I am inclined to just pop things in a street box and keep fingers crossed. It has worked so far.

[lane-ends]

C & S imports addresses from checkout, so no error in transcribing by hand, or errors in reading handwriting, it also double checks that postcodes and suburbs align. Surprising how many addressing errors it picks up. Tracking number auto loads into Ebay, so you dont have to go back with your pile of posting stickers and copy them in.

For me C & S has substantially reduced the number of parcels disappearing for no apparent reason.

The small extra risk of using street boxes compared to PO lodging is worth it for modest priced items.

I think the extra costs of SOD and additional insurance will wipe out much of the benefit of combined post discounts for those who rely on it.

[chezzy]

No risk of handwriting 'errors' when I copy and paste address straight from paypal/ebay info into my Dymo labelwriter software and the little gadget spits out a thermal label very quickly (a method I have found far quicker than using a normal printer)

For me it is about simplifying the process - for lower value/replaceable items I won't be mucking around online with C&S or standing in queques to get them scanned. Higher value items will be 'insured' accordingly and lodged over the counter perhaps once a week. And I will just have to word descriptions accordingly.