Confusing the customers - nationwide shipping doesn't include rural

Yes, nationwide means Nationwide, not well almost nationwide except... this and that and the other, as if they are not actually in our fine nation. 

Nationwide: extending or reaching throughout a whole country or nation.

Perhaps Nationwide should be renamed Most of mainland NZ, see exclusions for details.

I talked to Trade Me about this very thing this morning - they told me that rural customers should be aware that they are rural and therefore not select the nationwide option - doh! I am getting sick of sending emails to explain that nationwide excludes rural.

This was happening long before the new shipping templates were brought in. I got so frustrated with the system and decided to go with one flat rate - so buyers only have ONE option to select. Problem solved. No more rural dodgers.

Katie, This wouldn't suit my low cost items.  Purchase may only be $3 - $6 so there's a big difference between non rural and rural and if I charged them all an average they'd all have to pay around $7 for postage.  Buyers wouldn't pay that for a small package as it would be grossly overcharging them.

Hi Ruth, I use Pass the Parcel and there's not a massive difference in price between urban and rural. PTP rural fee is $1.90. But for a casual seller, when every rural buyer selects urban on purpose, it quickly adds up and I couldn't let it slide anymore. One week I had about 8 people do it, and that's when I had enough, and I was able to balance it all out by just putting all shipping up by a mere $1. My urban buyers are therefore not grossly overcharged at all. Lastly, purchase price has no reflection on shipping price. I have things listed for $5, but because of the size, shipping might be $8 or $10 for courier. Buyers already acknowledge shipping is often more expensive than the actual item is.. it doesn't put them off purchasing. If they want the item, they will buy it..

Thanks Katie, I'll look into changing to PTP if TM aren't willing to just add non rural wording to the shipping options.  Shipping costs are bad enough without TM taking 10% on top and I have to pay GST on the extra bit I add on to cover the TM commission.  It's very wrong that TM take 10% as no one should really profit from a shipping charge.

For example today i sold and item and the lady picked up option nationwide , however when I book the courier instead of $4.86 for a small parcel becomes nearly $12 dollars! The lady was confused as  the address is not rural ,I'm glad she was nice and agreed to pay for the extra postage , I tried to pick the cheapest postage and it went down to  $9.80 is a big difference between that and nationwide $4.86  anyone experiencing this ??

Thanks 

It's happening quite a bit and when I told Trade Me they said that anyone who is rural should know to pick the rural shipping option - however, that isn't how it reads. It slows down the whole shipping process, with having to email, wait for the extra shipping to be paid - some of my parcels have been waiting nearly two weeks for the rural fees to be paid. It's a real slip up on Trade Me's part.

Thank you for the reply my customer picked up nationwide and she reply to me  **don't know why it comes up as rural**  she is done more than a thousand trades and has 100 % positive feedback so of course for her was a let down I tried to get the cheapest postage NZ post was cheapest than Aramex on this sale .. 

Check the Address for a specified courier:

https://www.nzcouriers.co.nz/address_checker.html

https://www.courierpost.co.nz/tools/address-checker/

https://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/address-postcode-finder

Different couriers have different categories.

Eric , Trade me give the suggestions for postage when you are listing  I give an example just know someone bought an item and  picked  $4.16 is the smallest charge as nationwide which is ok the items is very small, when you do the booking is not an option for $4.16  comes up as $5.50  as the cheapest postage and I have already the settings done for postage so customers know how much they are paying, is annoying to tell  customers to pay the difference on postage  I hope I explained myself good.

Thanks 

Gina, the $4.16 will be fior Aramex, and the $5.50 is for NZ Post. If you are not getting the Aramex option come up when booking, there is most likely an error in the buyers address that needs to be corrected. I usually have to correct 20-30% of addresses from buyers before I can book a courier.

Hi Gary, that is super helpful , next time I see if I can do a bit of change and address this parcel was going to Wanaka and it just show NZ post going there , could it be that too ? the Aramex won't get to some places .

I agree that 'nationwide' should be better clarified. You can not 'courier' an across island very small item for the prices discussed above. Even NZ Post Courier is about $19.62 cross island. Not $5.50. But also -

TM refers to Shipping. Customers can expect that to mean courier, not post, nor tracked parcel bags.Its open to interpretation, argument, compensation. The descriptions needs to change IMHO.

- Nationwide Non-Rural Tracked Parcel Post

- Nationwide Rural Tracked Parcel Post

- North Island Courier

- South Island Courier

Kevin

You can courier across Islands, for next day delivery, a very small item for a bit more than $5.50 but a whole lot less than $19.62, if you use pre-paid track packs.

Thank you for that Eric. I have checked with NZ Post. It costs an additional $2 courier upgrade Urban delivery, Nation wide non signature to adapt a $4.50 standard parcel track pack to courier (i.e. $6.50) so long as under 3 Kg and non signature urban. This is a good option. 

The track packs are subject to increase shortly. Rural upgrade however currently costs an additional $4.80 (so $4.50 + $2 + $4.80)

CourierPost , who do direct pickups (and I was referring to before checking above), in the same scenario charge $19.62 if you booked via home pickup. 

Online there is no definition available other than 'Shipping.' it does not state tracked parcel or courier.

I would like to know why rural delivery isn't cheaper than urban? My understanding is in town the courier has to make a stop at your house specifically to drop off the parcel? Rural, the mailman who is already stopping at our letterbox just adds the parcel to the other items they are already dropping off. How can that cost more than the urban delivery?

Basically, because NZ Post has the monopoly with rural deliveries and so they can do as they like. 

Less deliveries per km = less deliveries per hour = higher cost

Pretty simple really.

And some deliveries e.g. NZ Couriers do not use the mailman.

Hello Eric, exactly my point. Rural delivery of parcels = 0 extra km as they are already stopped at my gate. My understanding is that is not the case in town? The courier makes a trip to your house specifically to deliver your package? Please correct me if I'm wrong on that one. Time, no extra driving time, see above. Sorting time, not sure about that one but I can't see why it would be significantly different?

Yep, just raised a ticket with them about this, cause as a buyer, you are always going to pick the cheapest 'nationwide' if it's not explained in the listing
Maybe TM are hoping to force couriers to drop RD pricing, but I don't see that working!

Even NZ POST charge 4.50 and they charge the receiver as well. I think letters are still free of the surcharge. I offered free shipping on a cheap item to avoid the 10% Trademe fee and of course the buyer is rural, $11 for a tiny item.

Alex, you may want to look at Pass the Parcel for rural items as they only charge $7.80 same island and $8.10 inter island for rural delivery of an A4 size bag when you use your own bags. They have integration with Trademe too, so makes it easy.

They don't collect from some smaller towns though.