Silk Road forums

Support => Customer support => Topic started by: Burning Babylon on July 08, 2013, 10:06 am

Title: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: Burning Babylon on July 08, 2013, 10:06 am
This could have been posted as a feature request, but it's already technically possible to do this its just possibly not allowed. With that I'm referring to the following section in the Seller's Guide: http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/wiki/index.php?title=Seller%27s_Guide#Postage

Quote
NOTICE: If you use the shipping options for anything other than their intended purpose, your account may be terminated.

I suppose this was put in place to prevent some kind of scamming where the customer wouldn't notice if there was a 100-400$ fee on a very cheap item which makes sense, but how broad is this definition?

For example I could see the Shipping Option as very useful for Digital Listings of various kinds, especially Forgeries. Let's say you have a Forgery Listing with three different services, namely Passport, Driving License and Utility. Right now you would either have to include all three in the same listing or post three separate listings for people only wanting specific Forgeries. With Shipping Options one could create variations to look for example like this:

1: Complete Package
2: Passport: Yes
3: Driving License: Yes
4: Utility: Yes

The Shipping Options would be priced accordingly to how much work would be involved for each step. Another example would be a Digital Download where one can pick between multiple download locations which each are priced differently. So where is the line in the sand on the use of Shipping Options? :)
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: ChemCat on July 08, 2013, 11:08 am
I think it just means ... don't abuse it  LOL

Peace,
  ChemCat

       O0
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on July 08, 2013, 11:54 am
I've personally never come across an issue where shipping options have been abused, not to say it doesn't happen though, just never seen a post where this has been raised.

If someone did create a shipping option that was a blatant abuse then it would be investigated and dealt with on a case by case basis I would say so I'm not really sure it is possible to say where the line in the sand would be drawn.

Maybe an admin would care to comment?
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: Libertas on July 08, 2013, 02:39 pm
Shipping options are to be used for just that: shipping options. We do not charge commission on shipping as the vendor is not making money on packaging materials etc., so if vendors use the shipping options for any reason other than to cover the cost of packaging materials and postage (e.g. to get around paying commission) they will be stripped of their vending privileges without warning.

Libertas
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: Burning Babylon on July 08, 2013, 04:39 pm
Quote
Shipping options are to be used for just that: shipping options. We do not charge commission on shipping as the vendor is not making money on packaging materials etc., so if vendors use the shipping options for any reason other than to cover the cost of packaging materials and postage (e.g. to get around paying commission) they will be stripped of their vending privileges without warning.

Libertas

This basically means what I gave as an example wouldn't work, didn't actually know there wasn't any commission on shipping.  :o
I suppose it might be too hard to implement a two tier system where one could choose to let Silk Road take a commission on the shipping so one could use it for various other uses as well. Thanks for the answer anyway. :)
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: brianbertz on September 08, 2013, 06:35 am
so lets say a vendor is charging 120 dollars or so for shipping on an item that would only cost 20 bucks to ship that is against the rules. if thats the case ive seen a few vendors charging way more for shipping then they are spending on actually shipping the items.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on September 08, 2013, 06:46 am
so lets say a vendor is charging 120 dollars or so for shipping on an item that would only cost 20 bucks to ship that is against the rules. if thats the case ive seen a few vendors charging way more for shipping then they are spending on actually shipping the items.

Depends, some vendors charge a premium for specialized shipping methods, the abuse only really takes place when the vendor is using the shipping to offset the price of the goods themselves to avoid paying SR fees. If the value of the goods sold is not reduced and offset with the shipping fee then there is no issue as far as I can tell.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: cirrus on September 08, 2013, 02:04 pm
I think the main point to line "NOTICE: If you use the shipping options for anything other than their intended purpose, your account may be terminated. " is to say exactly that using shipping fees for anything other than shipping fees will result in your account being terminated. It's to avoid things like the old (and sometimes current) ebay scams of pricing the item for free, or for $1, and then charging hundreds for shipping.  You, in theory, avoid selling anything prohibited, since "you're only selling a box with the free item in it" and still making your money on "the shipping fees".

It's to avoid the deceitful use of feature.  If you legitimately need to charge extra because it costs you extra to have in imported/transported etc, then be prepared to justify the higher rates if asked.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: brianbertz on September 08, 2013, 06:44 pm
i can guarantee that some vendors dont spend all of the money they charge for shipping on actually shipping the item. i paid 50 dollars for shipping for an hp of some outdoor and i know it didnt cost more than 15 bucks. stealth for the most part was non existent other than vaccum sealing which is a must.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on September 08, 2013, 09:24 pm
i can guarantee that some vendors dont spend all of the money they charge for shipping on actually shipping the item. i paid 50 dollars for shipping for an hp of some outdoor and i know it didnt cost more than 15 bucks. stealth for the most part was non existent other than vaccum sealing which is a must.

Did you go aback to the vendor and ask them what the go was?
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: brianbertz on September 09, 2013, 03:55 pm
i asked one of the vendors and he said he charges so much because he purchased a 5k dollar commercial sealer which i guess is good but idk why you would spend that on a sealer when you arent doing a real lot of big orders if they really did use a commercial sealer. also i think that after 20 orders or so shipping should go back down or whenever they were to pay the piece of equipment off. ive decided to just go through another vendor.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on September 09, 2013, 08:52 pm
i asked one of the vendors and he said he charges so much because he purchased a 5k dollar commercial sealer which i guess is good but idk why you would spend that on a sealer when you arent doing a real lot of big orders if they really did use a commercial sealer. also i think that after 20 orders or so shipping should go back down or whenever they were to pay the piece of equipment off. ive decided to just go through another vendor.

The vendor should really be up front about that then on their vendor page allowing buyers to make an informed choice as to whether they want to pay extra to have their order packed using those methods.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: Libertas on September 09, 2013, 10:08 pm
i asked one of the vendors and he said he charges so much because he purchased a 5k dollar commercial sealer which i guess is good but idk why you would spend that on a sealer when you arent doing a real lot of big orders if they really did use a commercial sealer. also i think that after 20 orders or so shipping should go back down or whenever they were to pay the piece of equipment off. ive decided to just go through another vendor.

Can you PM me the name of that vendor please?

Libertas
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: BrainHacker on September 11, 2013, 05:14 pm
It would be really nice to have something similar to shipping options like maybe "Product variations" and SR could still charge a commission on them. That way you could let the buyer select things like strain or brand or whatever else. Guess I should write this up as a feature request.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: brianbertz on September 11, 2013, 05:33 pm
It would be really nice to have something similar to shipping options like maybe "Product variations" and SR could still charge a commission on them. That way you could let the buyer select things like strain or brand or whatever else. Guess I should write this up as a feature request.

i like that idea.
Title: Re: Clarification on Shipping Options
Post by: Sir William Wonka on September 14, 2013, 08:51 pm
Oh SRs boys in blue.  Just check sections for heroin and other opioids.  20$ priority for a vac seal and an envelope?