$30/Month Extra to use your own carrier accounts

I'd say shop around. I got the same news and for them to blame the increase on inflation is just ridiculous.

It’s absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been with them 10 years. I’m on hold now to voice my frustration to the support team. The whole point of ShipStation has always been I can integrate my stores and my carriers all in one place for easier management. I can understand a price increase… but $30 just to use my own shipping account, it feels like paying for money for no reason and frustrates me to no end just on principal alone.

I strongly suggest contacting your attorney and your carrier account manager. This appears to be in direct violation of section 5 of the FTC anti-competitive practices. Users are being forced to leverage ShipStations included services for which they receive commission and royalty from or are required to pay additional fees for services that were included at no additional charge for years.

I also strongly suggest emailing the antitrust@ftc.gov in regard to this recent change. Shipstation has yet to fully publish the updated terms of service for the new pricing. 

For services such as hazmat or dangerous goods that REQUIRE direct accounts with a carrier further point to this being an anti-competitive practice as there are no other options but to pay the fee. 

I believe If you start to use their carriers, you will slowly loose your carrier volume discounts and when they will raise again, you will try to switch to your carriers and price will be regular shipping cost for you. We have Canada Post level 7 discounts based on 3000 packages shipment per year, and our rates like 25% even cheaper than we ShipStation has to offer. We have to switch to another service.

Hello @Opzit and @APZ, 

We welcome all feedback and want you to know that everything being said is being discussed and shared internally. That being said, the ShipStation Community is not the place to find information or recommendations about other shipping logistics platforms. Please refrain from using this forum to source information about other platforms. Further posts with this content may be removed and may be subject to community guidelines. 

If you are interested in being contacted directly by a member of our team, please dm with your preferred contact number or email and I will make sure this happens promptly. 

-Erin: Your Friendly ShipStation Community Manager. 

My business is in the same boat, we have contracts with DHL and UPS for hazardous goods. Been with Shipstation for 5 years and are now looking elsewhere. 

Longtime Shipstation customer here. Our business also requires using our own FedEx account for legal and hazardous goods shipping. We are obligated to be the shipper of record, and cannot rely only on built in carriers. We do utilize some of Shipstations services like USPS and GlobalPost.

We find this fee arbitrary and excessive! Outrageous on many levels. I hope something is done to correct this disastrous new fee structure. I could imagine a small reasonable fee to add our 3rd party accounts, but this is a massive increase. We will be actively searching for a new platform to use.

We also wrote the FTC using the form letter, adding our own details too. We can hope for something to come of it.

We've just been charged this "New Charge" for the first time. Our spend has gone from £20 to £60, this is absolutely outrageous. Anyone know of any alternatives in the UK?

Hi Erin,

It's not challenging, it's forcing customers to use a product. It extremely anti-competitive - I've spent 5 years studying competition laws, and I do think ShipStation will have difficulty defending this in the eyes of the law.

I did message support, but was told there's nothing you can do. My fee has gone up 300% - it appalling and there is no genuine justification you can offer apart from profiteering. 

From Canada:

$30, $40 or $60: You will be charged this additional fee for using your own carriers as per your subscription level.

We are fine using their carriers but our account rates are better for Canada Post and Canpr compared to ShipStation rates. This is very disappointing. Either remove these charges or work with carrier for better rates.

Is anyone from Canada suggest alternative shipping software solution which has the same features (tagging, automation) like ShipStation? 

I will leave......big rip off