Just sold an item and now has to ship via UPS which I don't have as an option on any listings.

[luv4orphans]

I just sold an item this morning and buyer chose UPS as shipping option. I have never had that option on any of my listings because of brokerage fees that we can incur & peeved off customers. 

Ebay enrolled me so I put US back on for shipping to. This was my first sale to the US since the tariffs kicked in and then the postal strike. When buyer paid the UPS & Fedex option popped up and buyer chose UPS as it was the cheapest.  EIS never popped up as an option. I called ebay to see what was up and was told that this item did not meet the customs requirements so the other 2 popped up. Its an alpaca cardigan, a finished product. Not an alpaca animal or just wool?

Can anyone let me know why those 2 popped up at all then if not included in my shipping policies. That's the answer I got from ebay. Because EIS not allowed the other 2 showed up? That doesn't make much sense. A glitch of some kind?

I am not sure either why I can't ship a wool cardigan to the US. What's up with that? I tried to look under the tariff codes and didn't find specifics for cardigan, only wool by the weight and ya a lot of restrictions on that or hard to figure out all those codes. Goes by weight, blah blah.

[luv4orphans]

That was then >BEFORE August 29th...This is NOW and the Trump Tariffs have to be dealt with as per Trump Law, and shipping to the USA is now a whole different game to play...

I get that.  They don't make much sense. Its a customs restriction I was told. A wool sweater is now restricted? Gees I was just going to list a 100% wool coat.

[luv4orphans]

It was probably a "one time gliche" that won't reoccur as long as you exclude the USA in your biz policy and not the EIS list of enabled countries which is in your seller account.  You did what you could to satisfy your customer. I'd move on. 

I have a hard time understanding all this but will go into my business policies and hopefully I can figure this out. 

I am not sure ebay will be there for a seller if a buyer refuses to accept an item because of tariffs. I've read that if an item gets refused then the seller will be responsible for the tariffs, a return option whether they want item back or not, so return charges if applicable + initial shipping + tariffs they paid on our behalf when they arrived at Customs. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong here. I can't see UPS running parcels across the border and not protecting themselves. And then the famous brokerage fees they charge. Doubt ebay will cover any of that.   

In the meantime EIS might be a "band-aid".  It's evident it has category rejection issues, location side effects and other things wrong yet to be worked out.  It  doesn't create sales for me yet but it soes give me renewed US exposure. and it gives me an item by item illustration of the importscharges albeit both Zonos and EIS seem glichy if you sell a variety of unlike items.

Okay that would explain that one as it doesn't make any sense. I've sold wool stuff here and there through the years and never had a problem. It also adds to the cost of shipping for buyers in that we ship to the hub and then they need to ship to the buyer, an extra cost. The cost of buying from the US when they rolled the GSP and then EIS program went through the roof. I pretty well quit buying after that unless I really wanted something and the same thing will happen here using that program. I get that much. 

[luv4orphans]

That looks like shaved beaver to me, not mink. Mink usually has some straight lines going up & down through it. Maybe I'm just not seeing them because of color.  I've sold a few through the years on ebay. That's when we didn't have the problem of where it was made.  Most likely made in Canada. What do we put when we don't know where some of these older items come from. 

Depending on where they were stored through the years they can last a long time. If not stored properly the pelts dry out and then they tear up in some spots. 

Maybe a canadian might buy it. Or overseas big purchasers of fur coats. But then you still have the where it was made problem. 

[luv4orphans]

I've sold quite a few fur coats on ebay but it has died down through the years. A lot of overseas buyers for those at one time. Won't pick them up anymore as they can take a while to get rid of.  People still make crafts out of those though. Seen a fur store near me where they would make large fur blankets out of these old coats. Beautiful to see. 

[luv4orphans]

Yes they did. She paid $20.84 for shipping which is what someone on here told me they were getting for tracked parcel. I think because of the restrictions it jumped to other options for shipping is what I'm getting from here. Not sure why there's restrictions on something like this but as someone said glitches with EIS is the only thing that makes sense at this point. 

[jtg204]

I suspect my explaination before *might* still apply here.

If you go to buy a label, what does it indicate on the right side column for "Selected: " under the buyer's username?  Also just on Order details page it has "Buyer selected shipping service" section.

My theory is it jumped EIS, that is explained.  It then showed Tracked Packet USA.  Tracked Packet USA is still a method that can be offered by sellers in shipping policies, however due to requireing a declaration ID from Zonos for pre-paid duties, ebay has disabled purchasing Tracked Packet USA labels.  So the buyer selected Tracked Packet USA, were charged for Tracked Packet USA, but you can't buy Tracked Packet and ebay only provides you with UPS/Fedex as the next options. 

[marnotom!]

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@jtg204 wrote:My theory is it jumped EIS, that is explained.  It then showed Tracked Packet USA.  Tracked Packet USA is still a method that can be offered by sellers in shipping policies, however due to requireing a declaration ID from Zonos for pre-paid duties, ebay has disabled purchasing Tracked Packet USA labels.  So the buyer selected Tracked Packet USA, were charged for Tracked Packet USA, but you can't buy Tracked Packet and ebay only provides you with UPS/Fedex as the next options. 

I think your theory or hypothesis is correct, @jtg204.  I'd just clarify that Tracked Packet USA labels can still be purchased, just not from eBay, and the purchaser has to prepare themselves to go through all the rigamarole associated with preparing the item through Zonus.

And the discount on the label may not be what the seller is accustomed to from eBay if they purchase it elsewhere, of course.

[luv4orphans]

So how do I fix this so that it goes to the Hub. Ebay enrolled me 2-3 weeks ago and I was under the assumption that items going to the US or overseas would ship that way from now on. Is there something I need to do that I miss maybe. 

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

So how do I fix this so that it goes to the Hub. Ebay enrolled me 2-3 weeks ago and I was under the assumption that items going to the US or overseas would ship that way from now on. Is there something I need to do that I miss maybe. 

---

Looking at your completed listing page again and doing some experimenting, it appears that eIS has been applied to the listing.  It shows up as a shipping alternative to Australia, France, Germany, and probably other EU countries.  It doesn't show up on a few other countries I've checked and for those countries either your Canada Post option comes up or nothing comes up at all.

I'm going to guess that since eBay is still in the early stages of implementing eIS and Sincro is still getting the hub fully set up, there are going to be some gaps in how it prepares items for customs.  Perhaps, given the complexity of the clothing category, they're not ready to deal with classifying and working out US tariff charges for some clothing types.

My only suggestion is to cancel the sale ("problem with address" is a legit reason) and try relisting the sweater, perhaps as a private listing.  I've seen a couple of reports where relisting an item where eIS wasn't first applied seems to get it to "stick" the second time around.  Be aware, though, that even if eIS does show up in the relist, the Tracked Packet USA option may still also appear unless you get rid of it prior to relisting.

And, of course, eIS's shipping quote is going to be quite a bit more than your Tracked Packet USA option as you're already charging C$20 to get it to the hub.  That might be a turn-off for your prospective buyer.

[luv4orphans]

After I responded to you yesterday I removed the shipping options for the different countries and left them blank. Not sure if that's where the problem is. Even though I was enrolled with EIS buyers at the other end are still seeing that option so choosing that. 

We did agree to cancel the sale and buyer purchased it again and the same thing happen again. That was before I removed the tracked parcel option from my policy. Ebay bumped it to UPS again and at this point I will just ship using them for this specific item.  

I am not sure where you are seeing $20 to the hub. That would be the price the buyer pays to get item directly to them since my settings were not right. 

I realize the shipping will be more when shipping to US & Intl now because of the  middle guy so to speak. We went through that here when they came out with the GSP, then the EIS program in the US. 

So what are you suggesting we should do.  I still need to enter my dimensions & weight no? Should I go with free shipping to the hub & work part of shipping cost directly into the item?

Thanks for your help. You seem more knowledgeable than the rep I talked to on the phone. If you can answer the above I would appreciate it. 

[intimewithmusic]

@luv4orphans @sapphyres-designer-jewellery 

Interesting. I wouldn't have the heart to watch someone chop it up into a quilt.  Thanks for your insight.  My twenties something daughter came over yesterday and I offered it but no taker there. I do remember 70s movies where the bikinis were made out of fur. Maybe I can sell it at the beach...  :>}

Thank you!

[intimewithmusic]

Thanks. I'll hand it in front of some strong lights and take a closer look!. 

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

We did agree to cancel the sale and buyer purchased it again and the same thing happen again. That was before I removed the tracked parcel option from my policy. Ebay bumped it to UPS again and at this point I will just ship using them for this specific item.  

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If you're not comfortable with purchasing a Canada Post label from another site and taking a crash course in registering and using Zonos, I guess that's the best solution if you and your buyer are okay with your using UPS and the rigamarole the buyer will be subjected to receive the sweater.  Remember that if your buyer gets cold feet and declines to repay the tariffs and processing fees due to UPS upon receipt, you're going to have to make some decisions to make and probably a fair bit of money to pay if you want the sweater back.

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@luv4orphans wrote:

I am not sure where you are seeing $20 to the hub. That would be the price the buyer pays to get item directly to them since my settings were not right. 

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The price to get the item to the hub would be the shipping price to Canada, postal code L5J 1K7.

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@luv4orphans wrote:

So what are you suggesting we should do.  I still need to enter my dimensions & weight no? Should I go with free shipping to the hub & work part of shipping cost directly into the item?

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I'm a bit confused by your thinking here.  You're not shipping anything to the hub if you're shipping directly to the United States by UPS.

I'd need to get a better idea of what the difference between the UPS shipping rate and the Canada Post Tracked Packet rate you had in your listing is before saying more, but my inclination is that if UPS is more expensive, I'd be prepared to eat that cost.

[marnotom!]

Remember that while you’re claiming the cardigan is made in Canada, there’s no clue as to where the wool originated from, and that’s important, too.

I’m starting to get a better sense of why eIS didn’t want to touch this one for forwarding to the US.

[luv4orphans]

I'm a bit confused by your thinking here.  You're not shipping anything to the hub if you're shipping directly to the United States by UPS.

The reason I didn't ship this one to the hub is most likely due to an error on my part when I set up after being enrolled with EIS. Shipping via UPS was about the same as Canada Post for this item but I realize a lot more risky. Buyer is aware of tariffs and she has agreed to pay them. I don't like it as I have no idea what they're going to be and neither does she.   

Going forward is why I was asking. I have now removed Tracked & Expedited Parcel off all my shipping policies. From now on I only have to ship to the Hub? Not for canadian buyers though. I do have a price set in there for canadians buyers. Is that what international buyers will be charged also.  OR should I just put a flat rate, lets say $5-10 and eat the rest if I have to. Does the Canadian quoted price play a role in international. To me it shouldn't but I could be wrong.  

That's where I'm confused. I agree with you. Not going to get much sales when it costs that much for shipping.  

I appreciate your trying to help me here. It takes me a bit to grasp things like this. I find it complicated. Once I know I'm good. 

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

The reason I didn't ship this one to the hub is most likely due to an error on my part when I set up after being enrolled with EIS. Shipping via UPS was about the same as Canada Post for this item but I realize a lot more risky. Buyer is aware of tariffs and she has agreed to pay them. I don't like it as I have no idea what they're going to be and neither does she.  

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Some of your items have eIS shipping to the United States, some of them don't.  My sense of why the cardigan didn't have eIS applied to it is that it's just too complicated (if not impossible) to verify the origin of a handmade garment as well as the origin of the materials, and information on both is necessary for Trump Tariffs purposes. If an expert like you isn't 100% sure where the sweater was made and isn't 100% sure that alpaca wool was used for the sweater, a jack of all trades eIS or UPS employee certainly isn't going to know.

What concerns me about this sale is because the origins of the sweater and the wool are unknown or unprovable, UPS is going to have to calculate the maximum tariffs possible on the item because it's better to err on Trump's side than against it.

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@luv4orphans wrote:

Going forward is why I was asking. I have now removed Tracked & Expedited Parcel off all my shipping policies. From now on I only have to ship to the Hub? Not for canadian buyers though. I do have a price set in there for canadians buyers. Is that what international buyers will be charged also.  OR should I just put a flat rate, lets say $5-10 and eat the rest if I have to. Does the Canadian quoted price play a role in international. To me it shouldn't but I could be wrong.  

---

An item handled by eIS goes through two basic stages.  The first stage is from the seller to the hub in Mississauga.  This is treated like a sale to a Canadian buyer and seller receives payment from the buyer for that stage.  The second stage is from the hub to the buyer.  eIS charges the buyer for that, but the seller doesn't receive the buyer's payment for that.  It's added to the seller's shipping charge and that total is the shipping charge the buyer sees on the listing page. 

According to some responses made today by Devon on the eIS Q&A thread, there's a possibility in the future of a special rate that will be exclusive to shipments to the hub.  I'm not sure if it will only come up if the seller uses calculated shipping, though. 

Also keep in mind that depending on where the item is going and the item's value, the buyer may also see a separate charge for "import fees."  Those show up on your listings where eIS is a "go" for the US.

Clear as mud, right?

By the way, when I was looking at the shipping rates and options for the cardigan earlier today when you still had Canada Post rates enabled, it looked to me as though the charge for eIS shipping to EU countries was pretty close to the Tracked Packet rate you had up.  In fact, eIS was actually cheaper for shipping to the Netherlands.

[luv4orphans]

Some of your items have eIS shipping to the United States, some of them don't.  My sense of why the cardigan didn't have eIS applied to it is that it's just too complicated (if not impossible) to verify the origin of a handmade garment as well as the origin of the materials, and information on both is necessary for Trump Tariffs purposes. If an expert like you isn't 100% sure where the sweater was made and isn't 100% sure that alpaca wool was used for the sweater, a jack of all trades eIS or UPS employee certainly isn't going to know.

I changed my policies before you answered on this thread. I had Tracked Parcel or Expedited whatever applied to that item for Intl & US still as an option and I removed those thinking that might be where the problem was. The buyer wasn't seeing EIS, only Tracked so clicked on that and when I purchased the label it bumped me to UPS. 

Ya it doesn't help when something has no tag.  Or its vintage and its a guessing game where it came from. 

Clear as mud is right. Sometimes cheaper to ship with those flat rate boxes within Canada depending on the distance than to use calculated. That's why I put a flat rate of $20.00 on some items. Shipping to the hub will probably be cheaper for me as I'm in the Ottawa area. When I get buyers from far out west or northern parts, that flat rate is cheaper for them.  But if the canadian price plays a role in the shipping part to intl & US, now what?

I will go through my policies again and make sure I didn't miss removing those options on some policies.  I don't think so. You would have had to look under that specific sold item I imagine to see that. Something was wrong in my settings. Hopefully I have understood and fix that part now so this doesn't happen again.

Just need to deal with the high cost of shipping now and decide how to go about that. I realize nothing will sell at this price. Even with the actual shipping costs plus a couple dollars handling fee for supplies that's where I get dinged the most.   

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

Sometimes cheaper to ship with those flat rate boxes within Canada depending on the distance than to use calculated. That's why I put a flat rate of $20.00 on some items. Shipping to the hub will probably be cheaper for me as I'm in the Ottawa area. When I get buyers from far out west or northern parts, that flat rate is cheaper for them.  But if the canadian price plays a role in the shipping part to intl & US, now what?

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I guess it comes down to how important those sales to buyers outside of Canada are to you.  What eIS charges to get the item from the hub to its destination isn't a bargain, but from what I've seen so far, the charges are competitive with Canada Post's non-commercial rates.  It's when you add your charge for shipping to Mississauga where things sometimes get ridiculous, but even then, it appears that in your case, eIS's total shipping charge is comparable to what your Canada Post charges were for the cardigan.  Do you generally get many buyers from the EU?

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@luv4orphans wrote:

I will go through my policies again and make sure I didn't miss removing those options on some policies.  I don't think so. You would have had to look under that specific sold item I imagine to see that. Something was wrong in my settings. Hopefully I have understood and fix that part now so this doesn't happen again.

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I don't think there was anything wrong with your settings or business policies except for where it came to the US.  If you'd had a buyer from outside of North America for the cardigan, they would have had a choice between your Canada Post option or eIS (unless they were from a country not served by eIS), if that's what you wanted to offer, of course.

With your present settings, it looks as though everything's going strictly by eIS right now, and if the item is blocked from shipping to the US by eIS, the country won't show up on the listing's dropdown menu of shipping locations and should a buyer in the US find it, it will have the message Does not ship to the United States in the shipping section.

[luv4orphans]

I don't think there was anything wrong with your settings or business policies except for where it came to the US.  If you'd had a buyer from outside of North America for the cardigan, they would have had a choice between your Canada Post option or eIS (unless they were from a country not served by eIS), if that's what you wanted to offer, of course.

Sorry I've been under the weather and just getting back to this conversation. 

I'm still confused here. On buyer's first attempt to purchase the cardigan they saw the tracked parcel option so clicked on that. When I go to purchase the label on ebay the only option I had was UPS. So we cancelled and she repurchase the item and the same thing happened. I then purchased the UPS label and just dropped it off at the nearest depot. Not something I want to do on a regular basis because they are not nearby and also not comfortable not knowing what the tariffs & brokerage fees once it reaches the buyer and them refusing the parcel.  Even if they are aware could be in for some nasty surprise.  

With your present settings, it looks as though everything's going strictly by eIS right now, and if the item is blocked from shipping to the US by eIS, the country won't show up on the listing's dropdown menu of shipping locations and should a buyer in the US find it, it will have the message Does not ship to the United States in the shipping section.

That's the part I don't get. I removed the US when tariffs were first announced in late August. Once I got enrolled in EIS I put the US back on to ship to but didn't remove the tracked parcel option & expedited whichever one applies to that listing. When I got that specific sale it bumped me to UPS to purchase the label. 

I just tried the different countries on a couple of items and the US seems to be an option. But ya I definitely want to go through EIS for shipping to the US so there's no surprise at the other end.

Am I missing something here. If I put tracked parcel back into those policies, I will most likely get the UPS option again and not EIS. 

I get some international sales here and there and never really had a problem but would feel more comfortable with EIS taking over that part. One bag went to Italy 3-4 months ago and sat in their Customs for 2 months. And the bag was made in Italy. Buyer never complained, maybe they're use to that but that sucks. 

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

That's the part I don't get. I removed the US when tariffs were first announced in late August. Once I got enrolled in EIS I put the US back on to ship to but didn't remove the tracked parcel option & expedited whichever one applies to that listing. When I got that specific sale it bumped me to UPS to purchase the label. 

I just tried the different countries on a couple of items and the US seems to be an option. But ya I definitely want to go through EIS for shipping to the US so there's no surprise at the other end.

Am I missing something here. If I put tracked parcel back into those policies, I will most likely get the UPS option again and not EIS. 

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What I think you may be missing is that even with eIS, shipping to the US isn't going to be easy, and it might be a little weird.  The only reason the buyer of the cardigan was able to find your listing was because you had a shipping method (Tracked Packet USA) to the US for it.  eIS didn't show for this item at all probably because even the workers at the hub would have had problems preparing it for shipping to the US.

By the looks of things, some of your items just won't be available to the US at all with eIS.  That's just how the ball bounces.  Since you don't want to ship to the US by any other means, your game plan will probably have to be to have eIS activated and either:

• have alternative shipping methods to eIS for all other countries you ship to except the US, OR
• don't have any alternatives to eIS for other countries and prepare yourself for the occasional complaint about your shipping price or occasional request to ship by a different means.

Keep in mind that Canadian eIS has a rather limited list of countries that it ships to right now, so you may even get requests from buyers from other countries to ship to their country.  Hey, you might even get US-registered buyers using the address of a relative in Canada to have their items shipped to, and the relative will have to deal with the headache of dealing with the electronic export paperwork.