International order confusion.

GasMoneyGames · Posts: 2

Hello,
I just received my First international order. The individual paid with Stripe. However it seems they were only charged for the item and not the shipping. I thought my Ecrater account was set up correctly. The rate calculator shows that I charge for shipping outside of the US. I even placed a mock order myself using the sellers address and it shows a shipping fee. Pretty confused over where I may have gone wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

Do you have a back up shipping in place in case the shipping calculator times out? I only use the matrix. But I know that is one of the reasons that an order will end up with no shipping showing.

SheilaDeesPostcards · moderator Posts: 4620

When you use the USPS calculated shipping you must set up a backup system for those times when the USPS system times out. The eCrater checkout system will do a call to the USPS system to get the shipping. If their system is busy and it takes too long for an answer, then the system is going to fall back on your backup. The checkout will check first to see if a shipping price is given on the item page. If that's blank, then the system will check the weight matrix. If your weight matrix shows $0.00 shipping, that's the amount that will be charged.

You might want to remove the international countries from your shipping zones until you determine the amount you want to charge for your backup shipping.

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

The sad thing here is that if the customer had checked they would have seen the shipping charge and the fact that they paid and hasn't said anything like 'why didn't I get charged for shipping?' is a commentary on the ethics of people today. Rare I know, for someone to say, 'hey I owe you money!' any more. I guess the story of Abe Lincoln walking 20 miles uphill in the snow to pay back a penny and then walking 20 miles uphill home, with leaky shoes (or whatever the real story was), apparently isn't being mentioned anymore (or a similar story internationally) in school rooms in this case. Oh course since most kids these days would sooner throw a penny on the ground than walk a long distance to pay it back, probably would think it stupid to do so.

I remember when my MIL got a $300 baby bracelet from Amazon accidently as she had never ordered from them before and trying to figure out how to send it back, since we were using my computer, I got a letter at the end saying they would credit $300 to my account!!! So I had to tell them NO, spent almost an hour on the phone about it, and CSR always seem surprised when you want to give money/product back! Why should that be so shocking? Just makes me sad, sad, sad, sad.

GasMoneyGames · Posts: 2

That appears to be it. I had everything set up but not the backup. What a bummer. Would you suggest I still honor the order since technically it was my mistake? Or should I contact the buyer and explain the situation.

SammysSupplies · Posts: 1631

I know it was just a fluke, but here is what you agreed to when opening up a store here: Shipping must be set-up in the store to all locations that are selected in the shipping zones. It is not allowed to request shipping or additional costs after an order has been placed. The buyer should have the full cost upon checkout.

If you didn't read them, here is a link: http://www.ecrater.com/terms.php

MoonwishesStore · moderator Posts: 17389

MaggietheCatsMeows · Posts: 2853

It depends on the cost of the item vs. the cost of shipping. You can always cancel the sale and refund the money paid. You can always claim it got broken etc. If it doesn't lose you too much money, I'd send it and learn from the experience.