Flat Postage Rules - Business Account

[tinpelican]

Hi!

I've set up a flat postage rule and applied it to all of my postage policies, assuming that, as per the highlighted text in the screenshot, buyers pay the highest postage fee, and each additional item is sent with free postage:

However, if I do a test purchase and place items in my basket which use different postal rates, it only seems to combine items which fall within the same rate. e.g. Large Letter or Letter. Based on the above, I would expect to pay one charge (the highest), and for each subsequent item to be free postage. Am I doing something wrong or am I misunderstanding how the flat postage rules work?

Here's an example of four items in my basket, two at Large Letter rate and two at Letter rate. I would expect to pay £1.80 flat rate for all four items, but instead am being charged £1.80 + £1.15:

Thanks 😊

[technthread · Accepted solution]

I asked this weeks ago on the weekly chat. Never got a follow up reply. 

Ask them again now, you’ve got until 3pm.

[technthread]

See post 17:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Chat-with-the-eBay-Community/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Tea...

[tinpelican]

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@technthread wrote:

I asked this weeks ago on the weekly chat. Never got a follow up reply. 

Ask them again now, you’ve got until 3pm.

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Oh! I thought it was just me being a bit dim 🤣 Thanks @technthread , I'll head over there now.

[technthread]

No worries. I was disappointed to get no follow up. My guess is it isn’t possible unfortunately but definitely worth checking again. 

[tinpelican]

I've just posted in the Community Chat. If I get a (meaningful) response, I'll share it here 👍

[tinpelican]

Well, I got a response, but it wasn't in any way meaningful, or helpful!

[technthread]

I was considering going back to one domestic postage policy to work round it but it meant the international shipping rate would be wildly wrong for some items. 

I think one solution would be to add a comment in the description and let buyers know you could manually adjust postage if they don’t automatically recalculate at checkout but the more I thought about it the more I think we’d get buyers getting confused and it being more hassle than it’s worth. 

[rainbowtrax]

@tinpelican when you say you've applied it to all your postage policies, I take it you mean that you're using Business Policies? I think that's where the problem occurs. If your buyer buys items which are in different postage policies then it applies each policy once if you see what I mean so they end up with the charge for both item sizes.

If you don't use Business Policies then that flat postage rule in your screenshot does work as it should - one of the reasons why I decided against using Business Policies. They do seem to over complicate things. I have the same additional items postage free flat postage rule as you and have it applied to items of different sizes and postage prices and, without using Business Policies, it always only charges the highest P&P rate once and everything else is free.

TLDR: I don't think flat postage rules are fully compatible with Business Policies.

[tinpelican]

Hi @rainbowtrax

Ah, that's interesting to read, and does make sense. I am using Business Policies and can see how the two may be in conflict. I'll take a look in the morning.

Thank you 😊