Seller Says Etsy Shipping Calculator Is Inaccurate

by: Snapped

Yes, it would seem they have adopted (as like in so many other things) one of eBay’s long standing glitches to riches tools.  

To avoid it, one must either do their own calculations to refine a cost before invoicing.  That brings some of its own challenges of course.  DIY usually does.

Another alternative is to charge a flat cost.  Also modifiable before invoicing, or not.

Let us not forget the “free” option.  As in - they hope that you will never see, it’s free for thee, but not for me.  

And all of them will still charge a fee.

by: etectra

"Yes, it would seem they have adopted (as like in so many other things) one of eBay’s long standing glitches to riches tools."

But with eBay its not simply ignorance - its a long pattern of intentional deceit designed to rip off their customers going as least as far back as 2010.

eBay charged FVF on shipping when they could easily compared the cost of online labels to what was charged to the customer and then only charge FVF on any overage. I've been telling them that before it went into effect in 2010.

eBay abused a 1969 Universal Postal Union agreement that resulted in massive loses on international mail for USPS, which USPS made up for by raising domestic rates. USPS lost billion during Obama's 8 years in office whereas they had always made money on international mail. eBay thus forced Americans, regardless of wether they even used eBay or not, to subsidize eBay and its CCP partners.

eBay prevented decimals in their listing form for package dimensions. This caused Cubic rates to be overcharged to the next highest tier, packages to be denied the Cubic rate discount altogether and packages to be charged dimensional rates when they should not have been.

While eBay's own shipping calculator tool allowed decimal points, their listing form did not, Instead they told sellers to round up dimensions in violations of USPS regulations. Cubic rates are calculated base don rounding the dimensions down to the nearest quarter inch and dimensional rates are determined by rounding to the nearest inch.

While PirateShip and other third party label providers provided Cubic rates, eBay refused to add these rates. After they added this it did not work right since you could not enter decimal points for the dimensions.

eBay's own shipping calculator tool did not calculate Cubic rate correctly as it failed to round down the dimensions to the next 1/4" when computing the cubic volume of the package.

Part of eBay's official use and abuse policy.

by: etectra

@OP

I do not sell on Etsy. I sold a few things maybe 15-18 years ago, but closed my account as they lack any listing software and charge a insertion fee per item. The time time I checked they also wanted a one time $15 fee to signup for an account. So basically I have to work much harder to present items to a much smaller audience while paying more money.

Does Etsy have a setting similar to eBay whereas you can charge customers either the retail rate or the discount rate? Is this set wrong or as Etsy messed with it?

Has Etsy jumped the gun and already instituted some of USPS's July changes?

Is Etsy properly calculating Cubic rates? If they are not rounding down to the next lowest 1/4" for Cubic rate this can force packages into the next highest tier to disqualify the packages from Cubic rates.

Is Etsy rounding correctly for dimensional rate? A 12.4" x 12.4" x 12.4" package is larger than one cubic foot, but because USPS currently rounds down to the nearest inch its considered 12" x 12" x 12" and not subject to dimensional rates.

You should go over to PirateShip and use their rate calculator to see what