Good News for Marketplace Orders via Amazon

[jw]

They are taking a charge when you ship stance for marketplace orders. This is great as well because it allows you to receive an email from Amazon when it ships as well as displays the tracking information in your account for you to check at anytime. I always wondered why Amazon didnt allow sellers to enter this info to begin with.

Heres the FAQs

Charge When Ship Overview

Charge When Ship FAQ
Charge When Ship is an easy way to process orders and keep buyers informed about shipments, providing the best customer experience possible. Here's how it works:

1. When you ship an order, you confirm the shipment and provide shipping information.
2. We display the shipping information in the buyer's Amazon account, and we also send the buyer an e-mail notification with all of the shipping information.
3. As long as you confirm that the order was properly shipped, you will be paid in accordance with the Marketplace Participation Agreement. We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Marketplace Payments account. Of course, just as now, there may be circumstances where payment may later need to be refunded, for example when the buyer does not receive the order, or it is not as described.

Benefits of Charge When Ship

• Buyers contact sellers less often if they know when and how an order was shipped. They especially appreciate tracking information. We provide the shipping details to the buyer once you ship the order and confirm the shipment through Manage Orders or a feed.
• Informed buyers are happier buyers; happier buyers leave better feedback ratings.
• If you are unable to ship an order, you can cancel it instead of confirming shipment; we won't charge the buyer and you won't have to issue a refund.
• You can easily tell which orders you have not yet confirmed as shipped, and we'll also send you an e-mail reminder if an order remains unshipped past the promised ship date.

Check out our short Charge When Ship video and 14-minute recorded webinar.
If you have not yet signed up for Charge When Ship, you'll see a yellow sign-up notice on the Manage Orders page in your Seller Account. To get started, click the "Sign up now" link in that notice.

[jw]

Also, now for Buyers using Marketplace sellers, You will not be charged until it ships unlike before when it was immediate

[wormraper]

very very nice

[jw]

Originally Posted by wormraper

very very nice

I was thinking that as well until Xmas time when I am swamped then Ill be cussing. I like it as it will save the nonesense emails because alot of people have spam guards and my emails get lots there

[Sussudio]

i really like this; amazon's recent updates to their site have been pretty cool and seem to really be geared toward helping their customers out (trade in games/movies, rate packaging etc). however, i'm curious: couldn't a seller hypothetically say that an order has been shipped an hour or so after the sale (even if it hasn't) in order to receive the money faster? it's not like every order now requires delivery confirmation or any sort of numerical confirmation, right?

i guess if the buyer receives the item and the date on the postage stamp doesn't match up they can file a complaint or something?

[jw]

yea I tried, I can say its shipped with no tracking as well. Doesnt benedit anyone really as I can print USPS labels at anytime however they wont show status until the post office receives them. Also this isnt mandatory yet so some sellers will use it others wont, depends

[MrTwoArms]

Resurrecting an old thread, because I couldn't find another appropriate place for this.

On 4/29, shipping for marketplace orders will increase by $1.

Standard - from $2.98 to $3.99
Expedited - from $5.19 to $6.19

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by MrTwoArms

Resurrecting an old thread, because I couldn't find another appropriate place for this.

On 4/29, shipping for marketplace orders will increase by $1.

Standard - from $2.98 to $3.99
Expedited - from $5.19 to $6.19

sheeesh, wonderful

[MoulinBlu]

I wonder why. USPS just went up on their rates, but only by about 5 cent on 1st class packages. Ebay's still restricting sellers to 3.00 as a max charge for movies, even though movie lots and some larger sets can't be packaged and shipped for that, even at online shipping discounts, much less at the actual post office where it costs around 30% more - as much as 100% more if you buy delivery confirmation (free online, 90 cent at the post office), not factoring gas and time lost.

I wonder if this means amazon's going to start taking a cut of the shipping too, or a bigger one than they already charge for facilitating shipping through stamps.com, or if it's just in response to sellers who still haven't figured out it's much cheaper to generate their own labels through amazon. Or it could be yet another ploy to discourage competition from marketplace vendors, if amazon's own shipping remains unchanged. If so, nothing will likely change, it'll just force marketplace sellers to lower their prices more to remain competitive.

[meremortal]

I went Amazon-exclusive and cut out FeeBay about six years ago. Glad Prime's still pretty much as-is, though those who buy from 3rd party sellers are going to lose out a bit. An extra dollar per movie/book can really add up over the course of the year.

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by meremortal

I went Amazon-exclusive and cut out FeeBay about six years ago. Glad Prime's still pretty much as-is, though those who buy from 3rd party sellers are going to lose out a bit. An extra dollar per movie/book can really add up over the course of the year.

Smart, sounds like you got out at the right time. If you thought feebay was bad then, you should see it now: Six years ago, the site still mostly worked (now their techical boards are filled with site problems that ebay won't even try to fix), had a semblance of technical support that could do something other than make appologies and false promises to pass the issue to someone who would actually do something about it, didn't coerce sellers into misrespresenting items for the sake of the sell, didn't make false assurances to sellers and buyers regarding protection, didn't forbid insured shipping, and didn't hire idiots, who can't read, to police the site.

There are actually much better options than ebay or amazon out there for selling. Unfortunately, nobodies ever heard of them, so they don't get anywhere near the same amount of traffic. And most people, who've never had a problem buying or selling on ebay, still believe ebay's lies, regarding how protected they are.

[MrTwoArms]

Originally Posted by MoulinBlu

Smart, sounds like you got out at the right time. If you thought feebay was bad then, you should see it now: Six years ago, the site still mostly worked (now their techical boards are filled with site problems that ebay won't even try to fix), had a semblance of technical support that could do something other than make appologies and false promises to pass the issue to someone who would actually do something about it, didn't coerce sellers into misrespresenting items for the sake of the sell, didn't make false assurances to sellers and buyers regarding protection, didn't forbid insured shipping, and didn't hire idiots, who can't read, to police the site.

There are actually much better options than ebay or amazon out there for selling. Unfortunately, nobodies ever heard of them, so they don't get anywhere near the same amount of traffic. And most people, who've never had a problem buying or selling on ebay, still believe ebay's lies, regarding how protected they are.

What's the story there?

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by MrTwoArms

What's the story there?

It's a LOT more involved than this - all the ways that ebay is now discouraging thorough and honest item descriptions. They even sent out emails once telling sellers to only say what the item is, not what it is not: if some part is not included, according to ebay, you shouldn't mention it at all, rather than saying it's not included - same goes for half.com listings where sellers can't even provide a picture.

But I was specifically referring to how ebay requires sellers to use the upc code when listing media now, even when their item specifications are frequently inaccurate and they won't do anything about it when you correct them, other than a lame "We're sorry, but we use such and such, an outside source for this info, the accuracy of which is beyond our control. Is there anything else I can help you with today?" Their info frequently has the disc-count wrong, or says something comes with a digital copy, even though it was produced back in 1998, before digital copies even existed; says it's a combo when it's not, wrong coverart, etc. I don't know if they still are, but for the longest time ebay only included cataloging for the combo pack of new Warner Bros BD releases. Anyone selling the movie-only edition had to list it under the combo pack, knock down the condition (and price) to "acceptable", even though it's actually like-new, just to try to make sure the buyer reads what it is they're getting and still risk some idiot buying it, whose "engish not to godd".

And when listing by the upc, many aspects of the item specifics can't be removed, meaning the buyer thinks the seller inserted those details themselves, when the seller has absolutely no control over them. Then they bury the actual sellers description - the most important part of the listing when it comes to used items - under a page and a half of reviews and other non-sense, making vital seller info difficult for the buyer to even find, especially the ones shopping through their phones, who only see, or at least only look at, the price and condition category.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg, really. I could go on, but, as I understand it, we're not supposed to flame companies here, and I don't think I could manage saying more without doing just that.

[MrTwoArms]

That's messed up. That must have resulted in a lot of angry customers and negative feedback for the sellers, even though it's not the seller's fault.

[noirjunkie]

I don't know. I sell on both amazon and half.com, and both have their issues. Recently, Amazon has started putting a lot of items behind a "restricted item" wall. If you're not a "fulfillment by amazon" seller (which comes with its own long list of problems) or an uberseller, they won't allow you to list your item. I think that they're doing this to keep the prices of items artificially inflated so that can collect a bigger piece of the pie. I've tried to list several recent releases and been turned away by the restricted item tag each time. I have 100% positive feedback, but because I haven't sold tens or hundreds of thousands of items, they won't let me list it. When I contacted them about it, I basically just got the runaround. Amazon also gouges their marketplace sellers on the commission they take from a sale.

Meanwhile, half.com has had a lot of issues with mislabeling items with the wrong title (or no title at all). When I contacted them about one bestselling book I had listed that had the title of "Unknown Title" on their site, they said it would take a minimum of three months (!) to fix. However, their commission fees are a lot lower, so that helps offset some of the headaches.

What other sites to people use to sell on? Any suggestions for a better seller experience? I'd sell elsewhere, but those (along with this site) have really been the only sites I've used.

[MoulinBlu]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

I don't know. I sell on both amazon and half.com, and both have their issues. Recently, Amazon has started putting a lot of items behind a "restricted item" wall. If you're not a "fulfillment by amazon" seller (which comes with its own long list of problems) or an uberseller, they won't allow you to list your item. I think that they're doing this to keep the prices of items artificially inflated so that can collect a bigger piece of the pie. I've tried to list several recent releases and been turned away by the restricted item tag each time. I have 100% positive feedback, but because I haven't sold tens or hundreds of thousands of items, they won't let me list it. When I contacted them about it, I basically just got the runaround. Amazon also gouges their marketplace sellers on the commission they take from a sale.

Meanwhile, half.com has had a lot of issues with mislabeling items with the wrong title (or no title at all). When I contacted them about one bestselling book I had listed that had the title of "Unknown Title" on their site, they said it would take a minimum of three months (!) to fix. However, their commission fees are a lot lower, so that helps offset some of the headaches.

What other sites to people use to sell on? Any suggestions for a better seller experience? I'd sell elsewhere, but those (along with this site) have really been the only sites I've used.

I've only run into the restricted selling thing on amazon for brand new listings, which most of my stuff is used anyway, unless someone gives me a copy of something I already bought for myself. Half.com fees are much lower, but half.com also gets a sizeable chunk of the shipping, and in general you've got to compete against lower prices and MUCH lower traffic, among countless site bugs, not to mention half.com's reputation has really taken a dive in recent years on the various consumer feedback boards around the net.

Ebay has even more bugs (far more), but also has far, FAR better traffic than half.com. I rarely sell anything on half.com anymore, unless I significantly undercut the items value. In comparison, this year so far, I've sold about 200.00 worth of movies and games on amazon, around 700.00 on ebay (mostly movies and slipcovers), and only 10.00 on half.com (a single movie), but I price my items at a value that's near the top of what it can be sold for in it's condition, and bank on my feedback encouraging someone to pay more from me than less from someone else.

That said, I'm looking for a new place to sell myself. Amazon is too limited on what you can sell, and eBay has become too unreliable and completely innept or delinquent at addressing the multitude of serious site defects they have. Unfortunately, while the fees are much lower, none of the other places I've found seem to have caught on yet, so their traffic is probably even lower than half.com.