Didn't charge enough for shipping

[Former_Member]

I've had very few international sales so I was surprised to see that this morning I sold a book to a lovely lady in Denmark. I packaged it all up and went to the post office to find that the cheapest way to mail it was going to be $8 more than what she paid for shipping. I sent her a messaged her giving her the option to pay the additional $8 or canceling the order all together.
Has this ever happened to you? If yes, then how did you handle it?

[lizkingdesigns]

You really need to just suck it up and eat the cost. Once it's purchased you are suppose to honor it. Asking to pay more after the fact is against TOU. You should use the USPS inter nation calculator to work on International shipping costs. They are always higher then you think

[Former_Member]

If I sucked up the $8 (which I'm not going to do) I would actually not be making a single penny on the book...I'd be negative.
I don't use the USPS calculator because it has never ever been right for me. I also don't have the time to look up the price for every single item I have possibly be sent to every single country in the world

[Former_Member]

You should get a postal scale.
That way, you will know how much any given item weighs, and price the shipping accordingly. USA or International, it is all based on weight and size of package...

[AuntBsAttic]

Perhaps you should discontinue offering International Shipping - though you can state in your description they can contact you for a shipping quote - and THEN you look up & calculate shipping.

You can not cancel a sale simply because you miscalculated the postage. You agreed to ship for a specified amount paid by the buyer - and you need to do so.

[Former_Member]

Thanks Laurie, good idea!

[Former_Member]

International shipping doubled in price earlier this year. A small first class package that used to cost me less than $3 to send is now almost $7. So a scale would be a great idea, and then just play around and see how much your products weigh so you can get an idea of what to charge.

[Former_Member]

I just sent something to Canada that was a couple of dollars higher than I had estimated when setting up my shipping profile. I just picked up the difference in cost myself; I understand that it's a little different issue when the additional postage is greater than the value of the item itself. I still might just send it at my expense, unless I really just couldn't afford to take the loss, and then try to refine my shipping profile based on several representative package sizes and weights. Say, one for your pendants, one for books, etc., and apply them accordingly. At least you will be closer, and you can refund the difference if you find you are ever significantly over the actual postage. If you aren't comfortable with listing very high postage charges (and who is), you could build an allowance for part of it into the cost of your items.

[SageNThymeDesigns]

I hadn't updated my international shipping prices appropriately and just had two international orders (australia and new zealand) and underpriced by more than a few dollars. I just sent them on their way and promised myself to update my international shipping rates.

I've stopped offering international shipping on a few of my larger items. You don't need to look up every country to set your shipping rates, just figure out the heaviest item and the farthest/most expensive country and that's your international rate.
Canada is still much more reasonable, so I often see people who have:
domestic
Canada
Everywhere else
for their shipping rates

[thepurplehedgehog]

I would ALWAYS just eat the cost. Whether I went into the negative or not, that is not the buyer's fault. As a buyer (and I'm just being honest here) I wouldn't return to your shop.

I also have a vintage shop. I have three shipping prices 1 to USA (my home), 1 to Canada, and 1 to all other international locations. I usually use Australia or Japan to calculate my "all other international locations" price. At the beginning I calculated out how much a package would cost to send to all three locations for all weights up to 3 pounds. I put the item on my scale, add a few ounces for packaging, and pick my shipping preset accordingly. Time saver and having international shipping already worked into your listings gets you lots more international buyers than them having to contact you about shipping every time they want an item. It's frustrating and time consuming for you, and bothersome for them. Why not cut out the middle man and make it so if they want it - they can buy it right away and you don't miss out on a sale because you were at work and couldn't respond and they found a similar item that did offer shipping to their location?

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone! I have updated my shipping profiles. With the exception of 2 things, I only sell pendants and necklaces so I wasn't prepared to ship a 64 page paperback book.

[Former_Member]

Oh, my! I would NEVER had contacted the customer in this situation. I would have paid it and learned a lesson and moved on...
I suppose you will learn from this but I feel this is not very good customer service (not blaming you, you are doing the best you can and probably will learn from this, but I do believe you have made a mistake).

[Former_Member]

I actually just had this same thing happen to me today with THREE international orders. AGH! So I ate probably $10+ in shipping.

[Former_Member]

I would have never contacted the buyer and asked for the difference. I agree that that's bad customer service, and that buyer will probably not be a return buyer and might even give you a negative feedback... all that can end up costing you more than $8.
I sell jewelry too and an item rarely weights more than 2-3oz. All domestic packages cost the same up to 3oz and all international packages (for a certain country) cost the same up to 2oz. If you don't have a scale, take only your heaviest items to the post office (together with the packaging material you usually use) and weight them. For international shipping I set a price for Canada and one for Everywhere Else (and I use Australia as a base for my calculations as it tends to be the most expensive).
I know it will sound harsh, but I believe if you are not willing to do the work to calculate international shipping costs or if you are not willing to eat up the cost of your mistake, than you are not ready to sell internationally.
Good luck!

[MythOfTheWild]

I strongly disagree with Elizabeth. Customers have to pay the cost of shipping. $8 is steep, and if I had to pay extra for it I'd be pretty upset, but if I wanted the item enough, I'd pay it. Sometimes shipping costs can make or break a sale.

Personally, however, if I was already at the post office, and could afford it, I'd eat the cost this once and adjust my shipping costs appropriately. But at the same time $8 is such a steep amount to increase by, regardless of who has to pay it.

You're better off contacting the customer and apologising, offering them the opportunity to cancel the order or pay the shipping. Perhaps give them a discount off of any future purchase to make up for it - they may return, even with steep shipping.
Or you could cut a deal, because it's an $8 increase, if you feel that bad you could always pay half and half.

[ScarlettsCozyCottage]

I would pay the $8 dollars and have lesson learned. It happened to me with Intl. shipping being over by $7 but I shipped the item (to Australia) and I immediately changed my shipping rate on that item.

[Former_Member]

Easiest shipping calculator ever.

http://brittanysbest.com/2013/01/usps-shipping-calculator-for-2013/

[LittleAcornToronto]

Yes, this has happened to me too when I had my Bath & Body shop here on Etsy. I sucked it up and paid for it out of my pocket, but then I quickly did my research about how much it costs to ship various sizes/weights to various countries, so that it wouldn't happen again!

[Former_Member]

I would of eaten the cost. I would of been very annoyed if I bought the book and was told to pay more because the seller made a mistake. In fact I would cancel the order and never buy from that person again and I would let everyone know about it too.

[Former_Member]

The lesson learned is worth more than $8. This is the way I look at every mistake I've made - lesson learned.

Once, to save time I copied a 4-pack listing & attempted to adapt it to a 12-pack listing - changing all the 4's to 12's ... except I forgot to change the price! So I sold 12 for the price of 4... lesson learned!

Those are the lessons that stick - the ones that cost $$$

[Former_Member]

I just did this yesterday, but it was domestic and I just underestimated how much the package would weigh. (I desperately need a scale) For my international, I do what a previous poster said and estimate high for the country furthest away and then write in my policies that I refund S&H anything over 1.50.

[heathercashart]

As others have said, you need to eat the cost. You must follow Etsy's TOUs if you are going to sell here. Whether you go into the negative or not, it's your mistake and you really need to own up to it and pay it.

I've done it more than a few times, but I learn from it. I'm now weighing stuff before I ship it out, and I also have a much better idea of what stuff costs to ship now that I've made the mistake a few times!

Also, money isn't the only thing that matters in business! Your reputation matters, your customer's happiness matters. By asking your customer to pay more after they have completed the order, you are damaging your reputation and possibly your customer's happiness. Not to mention you are violating Etsy's TOUs.

If you suck it up and eat the cost, you have a potential repeat-customer and potential word-of-mouth sales. Those are so important in business.

Oh yeah and, as Dana said, this is a really good idea: "estimate high for the country furthest away and then write in my policies that I refund S&H anything over 1.50."

[rusticcraftdesign]

I couldn't imagine contacting the customer to pay more because i made an error----even if i was losing money i would still honor it.

Unless we are talking very high amounts of dollars...like crazy money. =)

[TheSalvagedEdge]

Do your research first or pay the consequence like a responsible business owner. If you can't handle the amount of work you should be doing to make your business run smoothly, then maybe you need to hire help or rethink being in business.

[Former_Member]

Okay everyone, I get the point. Please stop making me sound like a terrible person. I am a full time college student and also work so I have very little time to list stuff and yes $8 is a lot in my world. Like I said before, I sell only necklaces so this little book was just something of my own that I decided to sell and assumed shipping wouldn't be much more than normal