Etsy charging customers shipping fee per item added to cart.

[TheBeeStop]

I got an order today for multiple items and the customer was charged the shipping fee per item purchased. This inspired me to go and look at all of my other recent purchases of multiple items and ALL of the orders where a customer purchased multiple pieces they are being charged shipping per item, I've refunded everyone the excess shipping cost. I looked at my completed orders and none of my past orders have this issue. Just the recent ones. I have not changed anything aside from my processing time, as I periodically update my processing time depending on how many sales I'm receiving.  But I've always done this for years,  so I dont imagine that has caused this. I have gone over all of my shipping settings and see no where to prevent them from charing customers seperate shipping per item. Aside from calculated shipping, the only other fee  I charge is an additional $0.50 per package to cover the cost of the box and packing materials used. My items only weight 1 ounce or less and all of my listings have the correct item weight. Why is this happening? I imagine this has been hurting my sales and it also explains why recently I've been getting alot of single item orders. Typically people order about 2 items. 

I've called etsy support their only solution for me is to set a flat rate shipping fee. They were not able to help fix the issue.  I don't want to charge a flat shipping fee I want my shipping calculated by distance and weight as it was prior to whatever glitch is going on.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Or if I'm overlooking something can someone please help me fix this ? 

[NanaLetha]

What do you have set for ships with another item?

[TheBeeStop]

Hello! Thank you for replying, I don't see an option for "ships with other item" anywhere. Where do I go to find this?

I have my listings set up for calculated shipping. I haven't changed my shipping Profiles in years (aside from making tweaks to my processing time periodically" so I'm not sure if they changed something? 

[NanaLetha]

Sorry, I use flat rate shipping so when a buyer purchases more than one they are never charged double. The actual shipping always comes within 10-15 cents of what they paid.

[TheBeeStop]

Oh okay, that makes sense. For flat rate shipping they give the option for cost to ship with another item. But it seems like for calculated shipping they are now charging the entire shipping cost PER item ... 

[TheBeeStop]

Just wanted to add an update to this. In the shipping settings there is an option for me to input the box I use for my packages (which is a small 4x3x3 inch box). I use this box for all of my orders (and sometimes I may use a small padded envelope if a customer only orders 1 all seed bead anklet or only an extender chain) 

Anyways I've deleted my box from etsys system and simply selected for etsy to decide the box. (I went ahead and went thru the process of pretending to buy from my shop on incognito mode to see how much it will charge me for shipping and it appears as if it is no longer charging the entire shipping cost per item added to the cart.) 

I haven't received another order, but when I do receive a new actual order from a customer purchasing multiple items I will be able to update my post with a possible solution .

My best guess is that etsy must have done something with their shipping settings recently that may have some how caused my box to be considered too small to fit multiple items from my shop. This makes zero sense but it's the only conclusion I can come up with because I've literally had these same shipping settings and have used this same box for 7 years (the amount of time I've been selling on etsy) . 

[TheBeeStop · Accepted solution]

Wanted to add a final update for anyone who may experience this in the future (or experiencing this now) .

While going thru one of my listings I noticed that etsy has added a "item size when packed option" and plugged in the box dimensions that I use to ship my packages as the dimensions to all of my actual items. This is what caused the system to believe only one of my jewelry items were able to fit in my box and thus charge separate shipping per each item a customer added to their cart. 

Prior to them updating the listing form there was no section for "item size when packed" they only had a "item weight" section. When they added the "size when packed" option it seems as if they took it upon themselves automatically fill in this section for all of my listings with my shipping box dimensions.  

So this is why deleting my preferred package seemed to solve the problem. It allowed etsy to automatically choose a bigger box when customers ordered multiple things. 

I feel the support person I spoke with should have been able to help with this.  Anyways for future people, this is the solution 

[MonPetitBijouLLC]

It happened on my last 2 orders. I'm speaking to support now and he has escalated the issue. He also mentioned that there have not been any other reports of this happening. I let him know that in fact it has been. I stated that sellers are talking about this very problem in the community forums. He basically ignored that statement. I called him out on it and said that the escalation team will address the problem. We'll see what happens.

[DjennecollectionShop]

Yes, I’m going through the same thing.  I have called Etsy for help with this numerous times over the last 5 years.  I know I’m losing business because buyers are appalled at the shipping charges even though I do refund shipping overages.  I need help!

[JustMeToo]

@TheBeeStop   This is one of the reasons that I use my own shipping profiles and stay away from most things that etsy offers, other than listing space.  I can put a lower price in the "with another item" box and it always works perfectly.  If someone buys many items, and the shipping goes too high, I refund most of the overage (minus the 6.5%).  The things I sell work well with my own shipping profiles, happily.

[AWeeBitOfLove]

Thank you SO much for this post and your updates! This was happening to my shop, too. The “weight when packaged” and “size when packaged” are mandatory fill-ins now, but removing my “preferred packaging” from my shipping profiles worked!

Thank you! Thank you!

[PrimFun]

@AWeeBitOfLove   Weight is the item packed and boxed.  Size is item only.  Not packaged.  That is for calculated shipping. 

If you have fixed shipping the filling in of weight and dimensions is not required.  Only need to add the fixed shipping profile.

If you want to add only the cost then you click on Select profile and drop down the box to add prices manually.

[AWeeBitOfLove]

It actually says size when packaged now

[AWeeBitOfLove]

Which idk how we get around because if, for example, you use a 9x6x2 bubble mailer, like I do, Etsy is thinking every item will require that 9x6x2 envelope and thus charging shipping 4 times for 4 items, rather than realizing 4 items can fit in the 1 envelope

[vintageNCtreasures]

You have to put the item size to where 4 will fit in that size mailer.

The calculator can only go by what info you've entered.

If it's charging 4 times for 4 items it's probably because the item size is too big for the calculator to fit 4 of them in that 9x6x2 mailer.

What are you putting for the item size?

If you're putting the mailer size for the item size then that doesn't work.

If you can get 4 in that size mailer you could put 8x5x.5 for the item size OR make the mailer size 9x6x5 and put the item size 8x5x1.