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

jfs · December 17, 2024, 8:44pm

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

ilja · December 19, 2024, 1:21pm

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.

rlmartin · December 19, 2024, 3:16pm

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.

vjl · December 19, 2024, 4:38pm

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.

rlmartin · December 20, 2024, 3:20am

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

vjl · December 20, 2024, 7:34pm

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

rlmartin · December 20, 2024, 8:44pm

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.

jfs · December 21, 2024, 3:33pm

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.

jfs · December 21, 2024, 3:44pm

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:

Display inflated dimensional rates and cubic rates.
Qualify a package for possibly higher dimensional rates when it should be disqualified under USPS rules.
Disqualify a package from possibly lower cubic rates when it should qualify.

jfs · December 21, 2024, 3:58pm

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.

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.
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.

rlmartin · December 21, 2024, 4:04pm

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