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Jul 2016

Hi, I’m quite surprised at how violent this thread turned out to be. As I see it, the new update is not an insult but a step forward to a clear pricing in which the client is in control and knows from the beginning what to expect from each Hub. For certain countries like Spain (my own), this system is very useful since our national service Correos, priced by the gram, is shamefully unreliable and big international companies like UPS, FedEX and DHL are too expensive. My choice here is a small company that offers semi flat rates depending on the overall size of the package and urgency of the client, so I can make good use of this method. I’m tired of offering my clients all the options everytime, when they could have known from the beginning.

Peace out,

Lucía

Hi,

For me as well, pretty much all my orders ship at €5 locally. Size doesn’t matter and weight is from 0 to 2KG. So optimal for me to show the customers how much i will charge for shipping. It would be nice though, to include that the size and weight of the print could increase the nominal shipping rate.

Otherwise nice feature, 3DHubs!

Christophe

Hi Pete,

Indeed the biggest challenges seem to be in the US. We’re adding States to the regions right now, so at least you’ll be able to set a estimated price per state so a bit more granular than just on country level.

You can also use the description field to manage the customer expectation, I think that will be very useful in preventing disappointed customers, we’ll make sure to show it to customers in the checkout.

At the same time we’re looking at estimating weight for prints, but that might take some time as we have hundreds of materials in the DB and we would have to estimate packaging materials somehow as well. At the same time predicting parcel size based on print dimensions is going to be tricky and fairly inaccurate as well. If you have time tomorrow it would be great if you can join the call with Jatmn so we can discuss these challenges, I’ll send you the invite so I can hear your ideas.

Brian

What shipping service are you using? I don’t get how you can have a $6 part with shipping ranging from $1-12. I use first class mail for 90% of my orders and postage is less than $3 to almost anywhere in the country for items less than $20.

You must be printing parts that fit in an envelop and are under 13 oz.

I usually ship priority mail.

But all this is a mote point as you yourself said that your shipping could be as high as $20.00.

Brian, if I were you I would not bother with putting in states or regions, etc.

It does not solve the issues.

Perhaps a warning to the customer that the shipping quote is that, only a estimated quote and the hub may lower or raise the shipping quote based on actual shipping costs.

I sincerely believe this would be the only solution at this time.

Peter

How big can this $6 part be :slight_smile: The only order I have ever shipped with $20 shipping was going to Canada where 1oz costs $10. My highest shipping cost in the US after more than a hundred shipped orders was $12 for priority mail and that was a $600 order that used an entire spool of filament. I charge $3 for most orders and fanatically track everything and am generally a few cents in the black on shipping costs (postage, padded envelope and thermal label) overall.

One of the big benefits of selling 3D printed parts is that they are light and you can offer low priced shipping to overcome the objections US consumers have to paying for shipping. You are also the manufacturer and can self insure pretty easily. Buy more sizes of padded envelopes, most parts go in the 6x9, but I have two larger sizes for other stuff that does not fit in the smaller one. At 25-35 cents each in low quantities they really cut down your shipping costs compared to boxes unless you are shipping truly massive volumes (You have a 40% or greater UPS discount).

You probably need to look at lower price postage options like first class for $6 prints, you are wasting a lot of money using priority mail for inexpensive items to maybe get it to the customer a single day faster. I can ship you an 8oz part from Seattle to Miami for $3.40, I can’t think of a part under $30 I couldn’t ship in a padded envelope first class.

Hey Perry,

Thanks for explaining your process and details of US shipping systems, in response we’ve just released another update to the shipping feature. Which allows you to continue to use the old ‘per order’ pricing in combination with the new options. So we’re no longer requiring you to set Flat Rate shipping.

Let me know what you think of the latest version.

Brian

Yes, this looks perfect. Thanks for listening!!! Now I don’t have to ask the customer every time if they need overnight shipping, and I can charge the customer the exact price, without overcharging the customer or losing margin.

Thanks so much!!!

@Luuk For some reason, I can’t fill in the form. It doesn’t recognise the country

Hey, what country are you trying to list? Some countries we unfortunately cannot ship to/do business with.

Just Belgium,

Its weird, cause i would expect when i enter “B” the posibilities show up.

Hey, i’ve set up a test shipping option that listed Belgium for you. Can you check if it shows for you?

Hey, and what about any other country? Can you list those? Perhaps you could try using a different browser? I use Google Chrome. I also see the shipping I listed on your account. See attachment.

@Luuk

Actually, I can’t see your entry, Also I cannot list other countries and nether in a different browser. Tested chrome,firefox and internet explorer. Weird. I do not have special settings of anything I am aware of that can cause any troubles

Let’s take the discussion offline. I’ll email you.

I have the exact same problem with ‘France’ or ‘Europe’. I also tried to fill in with North-america and does not get listing either. The form does not allow me to save anything. Please Help!

Note: I tried with Chrome and Firefox and deactivated all adaware plugins.

8 days later

I set up my shipping with the “per order” option, and I stopped showing shipping as an option. I switched it back to the legacy option, and I still don’t show as offering shipping.

I just switched it back to legacy. Perhaps there was a propagation delay for the setting. Thank you for checking for me.

Previously I had set up the new style shipping as soon as we were notified. This morning it still wasn’t showing that I offered shipping.

Hi Shaun,

We’ve seen this happen some times when the back-end call to save the options gets interrupted, it talks to the old part of our website so it takes a bit longer.

Glad to see you managed to figure it out, I just checked and you showed up for shipping.

Brian

Hello everyone,

i think the new delivery options are great!

After my first few deliveries, i figured out a standard pricing system anyway, in order to quickly tell the customer what the total cost will be.

This way my customer will get this information right away in the order process.

In the end it always has to be some kind of estimate. If you aim to low, you wont make profit. If you aim too high the customer will feel tricked.

This way the customer knows up front what to expect. I think it makes things easier and especially faster. In this business time is Money.

best regards

Anreas

8 days later

Just from experience, Canada post wanted 9$ for a particular part and box to be shipped to the US but it was just before the potential strike so my usual postal lady advised I go elsewhere. I ended up shopping UPS who wanted 96$ for next day shipping, 87$ for two day and 68$ for three day. The cheapest I got was 32$ for seven day. Mind you this was a 200g part in a 12CMx12CMx12CM box. Shipping rates are all over the place anymore. A flat rate in my opinion is an awful idea.