Tired of USPS losing my packages!!

[nickh04]

About 40% of my international orders are lost by USPS. I can ship within the US with no problems, just the occasional lost package. I use paypals shipnow service to print my international labels because I find it to be the cheapest. I copy paste the order details from eBay and transfer them over to PayPal ShipNow. Am I doing something wrong? Is there another way to do this?

There's a reason I do not print my international labels directly from eBay, I just cant remember right now. Also is there anyway to print international labels with a label printer instead of the inkjets? Getting tired of cutting out my labels with scissors. Thanks for the help.

[jeffweico]

I stopped selling internationally, except for a few buyers who have been my customers for a long time. Too many headaches, and as you pointed out, lost packages.

I don't believe that most international packages can be printed with a label printer (well, Canada can be) but you might want to ask others, because I am not an expert in that area.

[yankee]

ALL international labels can be printed on a thermal printer. I love international sales. I rarely have an issue when you exclude Russian Federation, Belarus, Indonesia, China, Italy(although I will ship high dollar items to Italy Express) and a few others that are escaping my mind at the moment

[yankee]

Ebay/paypal shipping of international and fedex is on an inkjet only. I forgot about that.
Stamps, endicia Etc... would be thermal.

[solefoodbk]

Never had a problem with 40% loss rate?

I use to only sell domestic and once I started shipping international my sales increased pretty good. They aren't majority of my sales, only like 10-15% but everything helps!

I don't ship usually above 5 pounds internationally so I don't know if that matters. Just because it doesn't show delivered means it was lost, some tracking never shows actually delivered regardless if it was.

Jeff you should already know Shipstation works with international shipping labels, I mean you work for them and all.

[GhostOfAmazon]

Originally Posted by nickh04

About 40% of my international orders are lost by USPS. I can ship within the US with no problems, just the occasional lost package. I use paypals shipnow service to print my international labels because I find it to be the cheapest. I copy paste the order details from eBay and transfer them over to PayPal ShipNow. Am I doing something wrong? Is there another way to do this?

There's a reason I do not print my international labels directly from eBay, I just cant remember right now. Also is there anyway to print international labels with a label printer instead of the inkjets? Getting tired of cutting out my labels with scissors. Thanks for the help.

2 things:

1st: I promise you 40% of your international shipments aren't being "lost". They are being STOLEN by your customers. Either 1. They decide after 2 weeks they're tired of waiting and file a case. You don't have tracking so you lose. OR 2. They get the item, but again, no tracking, so free item.


2nd: ONLY ship items via USPS Priority Mail International, and CHARGE FOR IT. Don't forget to add 9% or whatever eBay is charging for fees to your price, since eBay charges final value fees on shipping as well.

Ship this way and your issues will disappear.

[rsot]

40% declaration of theft is high - proof?

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by GhostOfAmazon

2 things:

1st: I promise you 40% of your international shipments aren't being "lost". They are being STOLEN by your customers. Either 1. They decide after 2 weeks they're tired of waiting and file a case. You don't have tracking so you lose. OR 2. They get the item, but again, no tracking, so free item.


2nd: ONLY ship items via USPS Priority Mail International, and CHARGE FOR IT. Don't forget to add 9% or whatever eBay is charging for fees to your price, since eBay charges final value fees on shipping as well.

Ship this way and your issues will disappear.

I don't mean this in any condescending way but why bother even shipping if you charge that much?

USPS priority is EXPENSIVE and adding 9%? That's a lot for shipping but I guess whatever works works.

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

I stopped selling internationally, except for a few buyers who have been my customers for a long time. Too many headaches, and as you pointed out, lost packages.

Same I stopped 3 or 4 years ago. I use to like selling internationally but it got to a point were I was having to many people claiming they weren't receiving the items and when eBay transitioned over to their DSRs and those metrics I figured it wasn't worth it anymore. Plus the cost of shipping items has practically doubled so it was a double whammy when people said they didn't receive the item. It got to a point it was more hassle than it was worth and the increase in sales was beginning to barely cover the losses from the problem transactions.

[GhostOfAmazon]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

I don't mean this in any condescending way but why bother even shipping if you charge that much?

USPS priority is EXPENSIVE and adding 9%? That's a lot for shipping but I guess whatever works works.

Is this a serious question?

I OFFER International shipping on some of my items. Buyers can check the price of shipping and elect to either purchase the item or not. Why do I offer to ship internationally? Because a small percentage (less than 2%) of my customers are International buyers. Their money goes into my checking account just like money from my local US customers. In short, I offer it because it makes me profit.

Are you trying to troll right now? I can't comprehend how you wouldn't understand profit. Do you take a loss on your international shipments? Are you running a non-profit or something?

[xxrange]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

I stopped selling internationally, except for a few buyers who have been my customers for a long time. Too many headaches, and as you pointed out, lost packages.

I don't believe that most international packages can be printed with a label printer (well, Canada can be) but you might want to ask others, because I am not an expert in that area.

I ship internationally and use a zebra label printer to print the labels out. I never had a international issue yet.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by GhostOfAmazon

2nd: ONLY ship items via USPS Priority Mail International, and CHARGE FOR IT. Don't forget to add 9% or whatever eBay is charging for fees to your price, since eBay charges final value fees on shipping as well.

Ebay does not charge Final Value Fees on international shipping FYI.

I charge a premium for international shipping. USPS Priority Mail for a hot selling item it AU costs me $55-65 I charge a flat $90.00

If I loose 1 out of 500 packages I by far and away covered that loss with the padded shipping of every order.

[james13v]

I love international. I sometimes have an issue.

40%? You might want to look into that, because even while I complain about USPS. they are Not even REMOTELY that bad.

I use first class mail for all my packages, in a small bubble mailer. I MIGHT be at 5% at the HIGHEST in losses.

I don't have to pay FVF on international shipping costs AND I make an extra $5-13 per item on shipping fees.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by xxrange

I ship internationally and use a zebra label printer to print the labels out. I never had a international issue yet.

A lot depends on what is being shipped and which countries too...

[yankee]

Originally Posted by rsot

A lot depends on what is being shipped and which countries too...

That is right.
Ship to countries with bad postal services and items get lost/returned and confiscated.

Ship items not liked by Customs such as small electronics or name brand shoes and a problem i much more likely to occur.

Ship to countries with corrupt Customs such as Russia Federation and any country they are occupying or have recently have taken control of in forms of cash flow such as Belarus and Ukraine and problems are going to be 40%+

First Class international is awesome BUT counties such as UK have a slow tax/VAT procedure on these and claims are going to be higher than say Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the likes.

[acreech41311]

I stopped all international ebay shipping after 5 DNR claims on 5 items in a row, I suppose 1 maybe even 2 of them could have been lost but I think the bulk of it was people taking advantage of the fact that the tracking more of less ceased once it left the US so there was never a proof of delivery.

I sell on some facebook pages and I will ship to Canada to users on there occasionally if they are regular buyers on there from other US sellers.

[GhostOfAmazon]

Originally Posted by yankee

Ebay does not charge Final Value Fees on international shipping FYI.

I charge a premium for international shipping. USPS Priority Mail for a hot selling item it AU costs me $55-65 I charge a flat $90.00

Learn something new everyday. Thanks.

Also, thanks for confirming the profit on International shipments...I make extra cash on mine too. Though not 33%....

I see it as a "convenience charge" since dealing with the extra forms is a slight PITA.

[newjerseymax]

Since I started using the Global Shipping Program from eb I have not had one lost package to deal with and I take payments from every location.

When I was responsible for my own international labels packages got "lost" all the time even with tracking. Often once they left the states it went missing.

[james13v]

Originally Posted by newjerseymax

Since I started using the Global Shipping Program from eb I have not had one lost package to deal with and I take payments from every location.

When I was responsible for my own international labels packages got "lost" all the time even with tracking. Often once they left the states it went missing.

I've made MUCH more money by not using GSP. More people will buy from me, because I'm not ebay, charging outrageous fees. I don't charge them import taxes up front. Sure, I might lose one here or there, but the extra I get to charge for shipping AND the extra customers I get, far outweigh ANY benefit GSP might have for me.

Tho I guess it depends on the products you sell.

[epimetheus039]

Originally Posted by yankee

Ebay does not charge Final Value Fees on international shipping FYI.

I charge a premium for international shipping. USPS Priority Mail for a hot selling item it AU costs me $55-65 I charge a flat $90.00

If I loose 1 out of 500 packages I by far and away covered that loss with the padded shipping of every order.

Of course they do charge it on shipping. Imagine a case where all items would be listed for $1 each and shipping price would be adjusted accordingly for the cost of the item just to escape the final fees eg. item that costs $200 would be $1 + $199 shipping.

Just do a calculation on your final fee to see that they do charge it

[yotano211]

I only ship to Canada and Japan, sometimes to the UK but only on about 5-7% of my items.

Everything sells in Canada and the shipping time is only about 1.5 weeks anywhere in Canada with 1st class international. I get lots of SSD sales from Japan and the Japanese are so honest. So I ship to Japan without any issues. I get more issues with shipping within the US vs Japan.

I make a extra few bucks on the shipping rates, my overseas sales are also around the 10% range.

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by yotano211

I only ship to Canada and Japan, sometimes to the UK but only on about 5-7% of my items.

Everything sells in Canada and the shipping time is only about 1.5 weeks anywhere in Canada with 1st class international. I get lots of SSD sales from Japan and the Japanese are so honest. So I ship to Japan without any issues. I get more issues with shipping within the US vs Japan.

I make a extra few bucks on the shipping rates, my overseas sales are also around the 10% range.

Japan I have had very few issues. The Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark I have had zero issues with. Its a small marketplace population wise but I have sent things there 1st class mail international for items that are are $50-60 without tracking and what not and never had an issue. I just wish it was easier to select countries you will and wont ship to on eBay.