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Shipping $ problems with mixed purchases

 
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nccm



Posts: 10

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:37 am    Post subject: Shipping $ problems with mixed purchases Reply with quote

I am new here and I just updated the matrix and it works fine for the one item that needs it. I chose to use USPS calculated pricing for the rest of my products because most of them are under 13 oz individually. Here is the problem: If a customer wants to purchase more than just one item, ecrater wants to calculate each item at the full shipping value, i.e. to buy 1 paper fan, the postage is $1.93 which is fine, this is what Ebay was charging; however, if the customer wants to buy 20 fans, ecrater wants to charge $38.60 which is ridiculous. I can see I will never be able to sell any of the paper fans in bulk. I have learned that 3 paper fans can still go at the rate of $1.93 on Ebay. No one is going to pay such high prices for such lightweight items. Now on the listing, can you put in actual ounces in the weight column? Could ecrater establish a matrix for pounds (which they already have) and one for ounces? Hope someone knows the answers to these problems I am encountering. Thanks.
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SammysSupplies



Posts: 1631

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can use the matrix however you want. Almost all of my items are light, so I use the matrix as number of items sold. $1.93 for the first couple of items, then it goes up from there.
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nccm



Posts: 10

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:30 am    Post subject: Using the matrix how I want to use it Reply with quote

Thanks for answering, however, I have one item that is close to a pound and so if a customer wants to buy several, the matrix is fine for this one product and it appears to be calculating correctly.

Is there a way to set up the matrix for both ounces and pounds? If so, how would I do this?
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SheilaDeesPostcards
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Posts: 4614

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:44 am    Post subject: Re: Shipping $ problems with mixed purchases Reply with quote

nccm wrote:
I just updated the matrix and it works fine for the one item that needs it. I chose to use USPS calculated pricing for the rest of my products
When you choose the USPS calculated shipping, it is a storewide selection and will be used for every item. If your items are under 13 oz., make sure you have selected USPS First Class or USPS First Class Parcel in addition to Priority Mail.

nccm wrote:
Here is the problem: If a customer wants to purchase more than just one item, ecrater wants to calculate each item at the full shipping value, i.e. to buy 1 paper fan, the postage is $1.93 which is fine, this is what Ebay was charging; however, if the customer wants to buy 20 fans, ecrater wants to charge $38.60 which is ridiculous.
This sound like you are trying to use the "fixed per item" shipping which will total the shipping for each item ordered OR you have entered your weight incorrectly. If you are using the USPS calculated shipping, you must enter the actual packaged weight of item as a decimal value. There is a chart in the FAQs forum section under shipping that converts weights to their decimal value. For example, it the item weighs 8 ozs. you must enter the weight as 0.5 with the leading 0 before the decimal.

If you want to use just the shipping matrix for your whole store instead of the USPS calculated shipping, then you can use an artificial weight and base your shipping on the number of items sold.

Just remember, the choice you make for shipping is a storewide policy.
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nccm



Posts: 10

PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 7:51 am    Post subject: Thanks Sheila Reply with quote

I just looked at the FAQS and I couldn't find anything on shipping under selling or buying or general. Is there another FAQS section? I also am using fixed shipping for my products. Should I be using all as weight dependable? I did not know you could put decimals in and so each of my products I entered 1#. If you do use decimals and the matrix is set up for pounds...will it convert the price? I also have in the selection 1st class mail large env. & standard post, priority mail, and 1st class mail pkg. I did select weight dependable for the 1 product that is close to a 1#. So is it not good to select USPS calculated? The reason I chose this is because a lot of my products range from 2-9 oz. I am confused as to why the system wants to charge for each item rather than calculating the entire weight of the order. If you have that chart you can email it to me at nccm.org@gmail.com I would so appreciate it. Thanks again for any help with this situation.

Also, I just added priority mail to my choices and for some reason it over-rides any other option. I went in and pretended to make an order and in the dropdown for shipping it only shows priority mail choice of $5.60. This is really difficult to get this thing to work right.
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cosmicray



Posts: 7286

PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 10:08 am    Post subject: Re: Thanks Sheila Reply with quote

nccm wrote:
If you do use decimals and the matrix is set up for pounds...will it convert the price?

The total weight of the items in the order is rounded up to pick which matrix column to use. Make sure that you use packed weights.

For example ...

a total weight of 0.75 (or 0.5 or 0.1 or 0.99 or 1.00) will round up to the 1 column.

a total weight of 1.01 (or 1.3 or 1.6 or 1.9 or 2.00) will round up to the 2 column

a total weight of 2.01 (or 2.1 or 2.5 or 3.01 or 3.4 or 3.99) will round up to the 4 column

Does this help ?
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nccm



Posts: 10

PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 6:41 pm    Post subject: Yes, thanks Reply with quote

That does help. I just spent about 2 hours changing my listings to decimals. Although it seems that if a customer buys 2.01# goods, but will have to be charged for 4# is a bit high. Perhaps ecrater needs to revamp their matrix.
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SheilaDeesPostcards
moderator


Posts: 4614

PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:19 pm    Post subject: Re: Thanks Sheila Reply with quote

nccm wrote:
I just looked at the FAQS and I couldn't find anything on shipping under selling or buying or general. Is there another FAQS section?
Look at the main Forum Index for the FAQs section, eCRATER.com Forum Index -> FAQs and Solutions -> Solutions to Common Questions - SHIPPING MATRIX & MORE. Here's a link: http://community.ecrater.com/viewtopic.php?t=2461. Scroll down and close to the bottom of the first page is a chart that converts ozs. to decimals.

nccm wrote:
I also am using fixed shipping for my products. Should I be using all as weight dependable? ...

Also, I just added priority mail to my choices and for some reason it over-rides any other option. I went in and pretended to make an order and in the dropdown for shipping it only shows priority mail choice of $5.60. This is really difficult to get this thing to work right.
When you have the USPS calculated shipping active, it is the checkout's first choice for ALL items in your store. If the USPS site is really busy and the checkout's call times out, then, and only then, will the checkout system look at the shipping matrix and/or the fixed price shipping. These two systems are only used as a backup for the USPS calculated shipping. IF you do not want to use the USPS calculated shipping, you must go to Accounts-> Options in your admin and remove the check mark from the box beside "Enable USPS Calculated Shipping Instead".

When you enter the item's weight, you should enter the packaged weight and it should be entered as a decimal. For example, if the item's packaged weight is 7 ozs. then you would enter 0.4375. Since you had originally entered the weight as 1, your customer would not be offered First Class because it is only available for up to 13 ozs. When your customer orders several items, the checkout will total all the weights and return the shipping amount based on the total weight. (I would strongly suggest you remove USPS First-Class Mail Large Envelope unless every item in your store can use this method. Otherwise, a customer could purchase several items that would need a large box, but they will select Large Envelope because it's cheaper.)
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cosmicray



Posts: 7286

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 6:39 am    Post subject: Re: Yes, thanks Reply with quote

nccm wrote:
That does help. I just spent about 2 hours changing my listings to decimals. Although it seems that if a customer buys 2.01# goods, but will have to be charged for 4# is a bit high. Perhaps ecrater needs to revamp their matrix.

If the system charges a shipping cost, that happens to be more than you think is fair, you can always do a partial refund (after the payment is received). Opinions vary widely about this.
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nccm



Posts: 10

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 7:15 am    Post subject: Thanks SheilaDees Reply with quote

Thanks for the link. Most of my items, especially the fans can go in a 6x9 envelope and if there are clothing buys, then I can usually ship in a 12x15 vinyl envelope. This is why I include the large envelope selection. I want to save my customers as much postage as I can. However, if I find that I end up paying for some of the postage, then I either increase my price to cover the difference or I find some other way to make it work.

I have also done refunds on Ebay for postage, because the customer apparently didn't know how to purchase multiple items and went through the payment gate twice thus paying two postages which could be included in the same shipment. So, I issued the refund on the second postage price which I thought was only fair. I would want the same consideration if I made such a mistake. If sellers remain honest, then it keeps the market a fair and nice place to visit. If you choose to be dishonest, then eventually people figure it out and do not come back to your store.

Thanks again.
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thecheapskirt



Posts: 2123

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Keep in mind that if you are using the large envelope shipping option, USPS requires that your package be no more than ¾ of an inch thick. For your children's scarves I would think you'd have to use first class package instead.
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SheilaDeesPostcards
moderator


Posts: 4614

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:44 am    Post subject: Re: Thanks SheilaDees Reply with quote

nccm wrote:
...Most of my items, especially the fans can go in a 6x9 envelope and if there are clothing buys, then I can usually ship in a 12x15 vinyl envelope. This is why I include the large envelope selection. I want to save my customers as much postage as I can. However, if I find that I end up paying for some of the postage, then I either increase my price to cover the difference or I find some other way to make it work.
You can not increase your price after the fact, that is against eCRATER rules.

You are still offering "USPS First-Class Mail Large Envelope". In order to use this method of shipping, your envelope MUST be less than 3/4" AND have an even thickness. The envelope also must be flexible in both directions. Check out this link to the domestic Mail Manual, http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/101.htm#1039555and scroll down to section 2.3 and check the examples. This standard will be applied when you use the First-Class Mail Large Envelope postage amount. Also, USPS tracking is not available for this class of mail, you would need to step up to USPS First-Class Parcel. Your fans will not met the requirements to be shipped via Large Envelope and your customers will usually pick the cheaper method.

If your post office allows you to send the package via Large Envelope and it doesn't met the requirements, your customer may well face a postage due. Sometimes the post office will not bother with 1st Class parcel and the postage due will be for priority mail. You will then have an angry customer who thinks you are trying to cheat the post office.

I don't know any other way to say this, other than what I've already said. EVERY postage method you select WILL be offered to every buyer when the weight matches that shipping category. This is NOT eBAY and you can't have some shipping methods for some items and other shipping methods for other items. You must determine the shipping methods for your store.
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MoonwishesStore
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Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
because the customer apparently didn't know how to purchase multiple items and went through the payment gate twice thus paying two postages which could be included in the same shipment. So, I issued the refund on the second postage price which I thought was only fair. I would want the same consideration if I made such a mistake. If sellers remain honest, then it keeps the market a fair and nice place to visit. If you choose to be dishonest, then eventually people figure it out and do not come back to your store.


Whether a seller keeps both shipping amounts or not has NOTHING to do with honesty. It does however have to do with numbers and dollars and cents. If my customers buy everything on one invoice and one payment, I have the matrix set up so that whether they buy 2 items or 40 my postage works out for them and me. However, if they buy 2 items separately or 40 items separately and pays for each one, means I have to get my calculator out as refunding the whole amount of shipping collected doesn't work. For each payment you receive here you pay a PP or Stripe fee, and depending on how PP or Stripe is working that day, you can also lose a 30 cent fee when you refund. With two or more items you have to figure out how much the postage and handling costs really are, how much has been paid in fees or will be charged against you, etc. and then see how much you would have left over to refund the customer. If less than a dollar not worth the time and trouble. Sounds confusing and it can be especially if it is a foreign transaction.

Long ago in my early selling if a customer paid for items separately, I would go through hoops trying to higher out what "I owed" them. So I would send them a refund and never hear back from them--never ever a thank you of any sort. Then I realized that I didn't owe them a thing! The are perfectly capable of reading the listing and the terms of the sale including how much the S&H will be. When the order the item or items, they agree to pay this amount so it is as I've said, nothing to do with honesty on the sellers part. Do you think LL Bean, Amazon, etc. agonize over how much S&H they charge someone? Are they sending refunds back to the customers? Of course not. Whether I refund 'excess' shipping or not has nothing to do with my honesty as a seller or any seller's honesty. If you want to do that, go for it but don't try to justify what you do as being honest and calling sellers that don't choose your route dishonest.
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tigercreekgifts



Posts: 6293

PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It took me a while to figure out the matrix when I first set it up. A few years ago I had these weight shake mixes that came in huge canisters. One would fit in a medium priority flat rate box, back then when it was still only $10 something. If people bought 2 canisters the weight would double charging buyers around $21 something which was way too high because if they ordered 2, both of them could fit in a large priority box together.

I ended up having to make a pick two option where they could pick flavors & get them shipped for just $13 because 97% of buyers who bought them, bought two. I just readjusted the weight of that 2pack up to the next matrix bracket & told buyers to choose the pick 2 lot if they wanted 2 or else they'd be charged double shipping.
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