eBay's Flawed Listing Form & Shipping Calculator Tool - Fractional Package Dimensions

GarageSale
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I did some quick testing using:

eBay’s Shipping Calculator Tool
eBay’s Listing Form in Draft Mode
PirateShip’s Calculator
USPS’s Notice 123 Price List

Package Size = 12.4" x 12.4" x 12.4"
Package Weight = 5 Pounds
Random Shipment From: 50401 to 90001 (Zone 7)

PirateShip & USPS Price List:
Ground Advantage Retail $19.60
Priority Mail Retail $29.20

PirateShip shows the original retail price on their calculator, which you can cross reference to the Price List.

eBay Calculator:
Ground Advantage Commercial $12.73
Priority Mail Commercial $22.37

The calculator allows decimal values of up to two digits.

PirateShip:
Ground Advantage Commercial $12.73
Priority Mail Commercial $22.37

eBay Listing Form:

eBay’s listing form does not allow decimal point to be entered. eBay’s guidelines state that package dimensions should be rounded up to the nearest inch. That is wrong as PirateShip clearly states that package dimensions are rounded up or down to the nearest inch. PirateShip calculates its rates based on properly rounding the package dimensions. USPS would consider the 12.4" x 12.4" x 12.4" package as 12" x 12" x 12" for computing rates.

eBay Listing Form Guidelines:
Package Size = 13" x 13" x 13"
Package Weight = 5 Pounds

This package is over a cubic foot and so Dimensional Rate rules apply.

13"x 13 x 13 = 2197 / 166 = 13.23 | 14 Pounds Dimensional Rate

Ground Advantage Commercial $21.11 [12.73]
Priority Mail Commercial $43.22 [$22.37]

Ground Advantage Retail $39.80 [$19.60]
Priority Mail Retail $64.55 [$29.20]

The figures in the brackets are correct values from above to demonstrate how much eBay would be overcharging customers based upon the seller’s shipping preferences to show retail or commercial rates.

So if I were to have my eBay preferences set to show retail rate it would be showing customers a Priority Mail Retail of $64.55 instead of $29.20, which coincidentally earns eBay a lot more FVF on shipping.

Priority Mail Cubic rates dimensions are suppose to rounded down to the nearest quarter inch.

eBay’s Shipping Tool Calculator does accept decimal values, but its not rounding down the dimensions to compute the rates correctly. Packages are being assigned to the next highest and more expensive pricing tier. In some cases the package may not qualify for Cubic pricing.

Since eBay’s Listing Form does not allow decimal values its data can’t be used to calculate correct Cubic rates and its data may disqualify packages from a Cubic rate.

I have not sold on eBay in 1 1/2 years, and I don’t consider myself to be a “rocket scientist”, but something is clearly wrong when a company armed with billions of dollars and thousands of employees can’t catch these simple errors to begin with, let alone refuse to fix them.

This also demonstrates why GS should not be rounding up dimensions!

“Something is rotten in the state of eBay!”
Shakespeare

2 Likes
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I believe we are doing the right thing here. The official eBay API documentation states for the package dimensions fields:

Depth|Length|Width of the package, in whole number of inches, needed to ship the item.

So, eBay does ignore any decimals values in those fields, at least in their API.

If a GarageSale user would put in a value of 7.4, and eBay disregards the .4 part and calculates a too low shipping charge using a value of 7.0, our users would have to pay the difference in case some other shipping software/service takes those .4 inch into account.

We considering putting a warning into the shipping panel or the pre-flight window in case users are putting in decimal values into the dimension fields.

2 Likes
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I agree that the new GS approach makes the most common sense. If a user was so inclined to offer a decimal that ebay will ignore or round up, that user could simply round the package size down to the next lower full number and the problem is solved.

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As the original post shows, that is the correct thing to do. Rounding down is what the USPS does for decimal points below .5.

Do doing proper rounding is what GS should do, since that is what the USPS rate system expects. Rounding up, even if the decimal is .1 or .4 will cost the customer and/or seller more and is not the rate at which the USPS charges, as the OP showed.

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I know I keep posting this screen shot but can anyone explain why ebay’s website says to round up a 13.2oz to 14oz? The argument should be with Ebay first not GS

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Because we are not talking about weights here. We are talking dimensional issues with GS and eBay. Weights are done correctly.

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Ok, Duh on me, so I understand you now. I always round up to the nearest inch when inputting sizes as well. Ebay is asking for rounded up size and dimensions and then gives weight as an example. Ebay is adding confusion here. I would assume ebay wants everything rounded up by their wording and example. It still looks to me like ebay is the problem here.

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eBay is violating postal regulations with their listing form.

Now why would eBay being doing that? Because doing so causes customers to be overcharged for shipping and earns them more FVF on shipping.

In some instances packages will be disqualified from Cubic rates as the falsely computed volumes will exceed 0.5 for Priority Mail or 1.0 for Ground Advantage.

USPS determines if packages are eligible for dimensional rates by rounding down the package dimensions UP or DOWN to the nearest inch. If they are eligible these rounded dimensions are used to determine the rate.

eBay’s own shipping calculator accepts decimal values and it follows postal regulations as the rates match PirateShip which specifically states on their site that they follow USPS’s rounding rules.

On the other hand Priority Mail Cubic rates are rounded down to the nearest 1/4" of a inch. eBay’s shipping calculator tool does accept dimensional values but its not rounding down the dimensions. Packages are showing rates for the next highest Cubic tier or are being disqualified from the Cubic rates.

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PirateShip specifically states on their site that they round UP or DOWN according to USPS rules.

eBay’s own shipping calculator tool also follows these USPS rounding guidelines in regards to dimensional rates as its rates match PirateShip rates.

eBay’s shipping calculator does not follow USPS guidelines for Priority Cubic, whose dimensions are rounded DOWN to the nearest quarter inch. The calculator is not rounding down the dimensions.

eBay’s listing form does not allow decimal values so it will:

  1. Display inflated dimensional rates and cubic rates.

  2. Qualify a package for possibly higher dimensional rates when it should be disqualified under USPS rules.

  3. Disqualify a package from possibly lower cubic rates when it should qualify.

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This is not how eBay’s own shipping calculator tool works.

eBay’s shipping calculator allows decimal values and round the package dimensions UP or DOWN to the nearest inch. It matches PirateShip for dimensional rates and PirateShip specifically says it follows USPS rules.

On the other hand eBay’s shipping calculator does not round Priority Cubic dimensions down to the nearest quarter inch.

Two main problems with your plan.

  1. Its going to waste a huge amount of time as now sellers will have to reverse engineer package dimensions to assure that they will display the correct rate based upon various rules and their shipping preferences.

  2. If the seller forgets to edit their package details when they go to print their label their package is going to be flagged by USPS’s automated system that compares the data encoded into the label to the package’s actual size and weight.

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What specifically is USPS’s rounding rules? .5 goes up or down? USPS site doesn’t mention fractions of an inch or pound

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Normal math rounding rules apply to USPS dimensional calculations - so .5 rounds up. .4 and less round down.

For weight, that is not the case - anything above an even oz/lb, goes up to the next number.

For GS and eBay, they are rounding both things up always. Only weight should be rounded up always. Dimensional mmeasurements should follow normal math and round down for .4 or less, up for .5 or more.

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Not to over-extend a thread past its lifetime, but also 99% of the rule’s application is up to the person with the tape measure in the Post Office. Either they measure or they don’t, and if they measure they can do more or less what they want, rounding-wise.

I once watched a desk person, who I had shipped with dozens of times before, use a tape measure with his fingers very definitely inside the tape to measure “girth”. And in the end, it’s totally up to them.

(This is similar to the way the rules for Media Rate shipping are applied: the USPS site very clearly says “film strips” and “sheet music” are valid Media Mail, as are magazines with no advertising but it’s a fight sometimes.)

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https://about.usps.com/notices/not121/not121_tech.htm

Comic books are always not considered MM, and all magazines are always not considered MM. Yes, even if said comics and magazines lack advertising. Blank media is also not considered MM [eg: CD-R or DVD-R or blank audio tapes, VHS tapes, etc]. Educational software yes, video games no [educational video games? grey zone] High School Yearbook? No. Coloring book? No.

See 3.0: DMM 473 Media Mail Rates and Eligibility for Discount Parcels

There is a great chart explaining all this from the USPS:

https://liteblue.usps.gov/news/link/2013/04apr/Media-Mail-Guidelines.htm

As a Book and Media seller, I am very versed in the ways of Media Mail. :slight_smile:

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Also also…I had one shipment that I failed to measure, be charged to my Endicia account weeks after the item was delivered. The local post office of mine did not measure it. It was during the sort process at a distribution hub that mine was scanned as they do have the technology to measure boxes during the automation process.

USPS does not charge just the difference in postage, btw. [eg: if you paid $14 and it should have been $20, they do not charge you $6]. There is a very, very hefty fee for failing to accurately provide measurements to the shipment on top of the normal dimensional charges. In my case I was charged nearly $50 for what was an approximately $10 dimensional mistake.

So it is very important to always provide accurate dimensions using the USPS rules. eBay and GS currently do the math in ways that can cost the shipper to pay more when they don’t need to. :frowning:

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How about adding a new preferences called “Dimension rounding rules for calculated shipping”

  • Always round up (if any decimal digit is present, round up to the next greater integer value)
  • Round up or down (round down if decimal is below .5, round up other wise)

Would this work for you?

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That would work. The always rounding up option will be something nobody should use though, but as long as the round up and down option is there, that works for me.

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Here is a reply from eBay customer service, which is a mixture of half truths, truths and utter nonsense.

This is from the same dude that has effectively stated that I do not know what I am talking about and its all my fault.

In this recent message he starts to admit to some of eBay’s wrongdoing, but clearly does not get the issues involved as his statements are often nonsense.

Calling eBay customer service gets you the same clueless employees.

eBay customer service repeatedly stated that was not able to enter decimal points in the listing form as my account is currently suspended for nonpayment, but it would be cleared up once I paid off the account. Of course that is complete lie as eBay’s own developer program guidelines states to round up decimal values for package dimensions and only to subject whole number values to eBay when uploading listings.

eBay management and customer service are nothing more than compulsive liars.

This is a intentional act by eBay to defraud it users by overcharging for shipping.

Any company with any moral values would have a public announcement informing its users of the issue and have it fixed within days. This is a company with billions of dollars and thousands of employees but they can’t fix a issue that a 12 year hacker could.

I can’t financial support such a morally corrupt company.

It sounds like you’re experiencing some frustrations with eBay’s listing and shipping processes. Here are a few points to consider:

Decimal Values in Listing Form: eBay’s listing form does not support decimal values for package dimensions, which can lead to rounding issues1.

Inflated Rates: Due to the lack of decimal support, eBay may show higher shipping rates. This happens because the dimensions are rounded up, potentially pushing the package into a higher rate category.

Dimensional Rates: eBay might charge higher dimensional rates even if the package doesn’t qualify under postal rounding rules. USPS rounds up to the nearest ounce or pound, which can affect the shipping cost.

Cubic Rates: eBay recently started supporting USPS Cubic rates, which are based on the size of the package rather than the weight. However, if dimensions are not entered accurately, packages that qualify for Cubic rates might be disqualified.

For more information regarding shipping charges, please click on below link to see:

https://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/ship-smart/ebay-shipping-partners/avoid-extra-postage-costs.html

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/choosing-a-carrier-and-service/usps-and-ebay-labels

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