$90 "flat fee" per month to add a carrier that ShipStation doesn't provide? - Not Fair!!

[sajeed]

Hello Friends -

Logged in this morning to SS and saw this pop-up like many others. 

We have to use FedEx sometimes because SS doesn't offer any discounts for FedEx like they do for USPS, UPS, GlobalPost & DHL Express. 

I respectfully disagree if SS wants to charge $95 per month for something they don't even offer. How is that fair? 

We're on the Enterprise Plan for $159 per month. SS is wanting to bump this from $159 per month to $229 per month. That's an increase of $60 per month, and on top of that they're wanting to charge $95 per month "Flat Fee" for adding an extra carrier that they're not even offering. So all of sudden my monthly cost of using SS is rising from $159 to  $324.99

That's not acceptable and not fair!! I am sure I am not the only one feeling this way. How about you?

[service10]

@sajeed, 

We agree. This is anti-competitive practice and we suggest you join in along with numerous other users in sending a letter to the FTC hotline. Here is a boilerplate template @shipping54 drafted earlier today. 

Their email is: antitrust@ftc.gov

Dear Federal Trade Commission,

I am writing to bring your attention to what appears to be a significant antitrust issue concerning Auctane, a shipping and logistics conglomerate.

Over the past year, Auctane has acquired numerous shipping companies, including but not limited to ShipStation, Stamps.com , Endicia, Shipengine, and Global Post (https://auctane.com/products/ ). These acquisitions, in themselves, may not pose a concern. However, the manner in which Auctane has manipulated its new market power is a cause for worry.

Auctane recently announced rate hikes of 100% across these platforms, a move that may cause substantial financial strain on the numerous businesses and consumers that rely on their services. More worryingly, they have also instituted a monthly fee for users to access outside carriers such as FedEx and DHL. This blatant discouragement of competition seems designed to force customers into using Auctane's own pre-negotiated rates with USPS and UPS.

The significant market consolidation and pricing practices Auctane has demonstrated are deeply concerning. Not only does this appear to lessen competition in the shipping and logistics industry, but it also seems to unfairly disadvantage tens of thousands of companies that depend on these services for their businesses. It is my belief that these actions amount to anti-competitive practices and are deserving of an antitrust investigation.

A healthy competitive market is crucial for both businesses and consumers. It fosters innovation, drives down prices, and ensures quality service delivery. Auctane's actions appear to be detrimental to these principles.

I urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Auctane's actions and intervene as necessary to protect consumers, businesses, and the overall health of the shipping and logistics industry.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I am available to provide any additional information that may assist in your investigation.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME, TITLE, and CONTACT INFO - Always include a physical address too]

[chips]

Not for sure what good it will do, but I sent an email to the FTC.  I figured I would do it before we officially pull the plug on the Auctane monopoly and close our 8-year-old ShipStation account.

[greenerpastures]

Nice letter! My copy is going via postal mail; find the FTC's address here: <https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/report-antitrust-violation>

This explains why ShippingEasy is planning a carrier-account penalty next month; they were acquired by Auctane too. Fortunately, there are some shipping/fulfillment systems that remain independent.

[emily1]

Which systems do you recommend? I can't wait to leave Shipstation!

[Opzit]

We've been  ShipStation users since 2016. I'm sensitive to price increases, inflation, cost of doing business, etc. but for us to go from $69.99/mo to $99.99+$40 (for carrier integration) is absurd. That's DOUBLE - if we could double our revenue we'd be delighted.

We've been testing a new platform called Veeqo (https://www.veeqo.com/pricing) which is now owned by Amazon but it's also completely FREE and so far it has all the same functionality we are currently using in ShipStation. It connects our marketplaces, has carrier discounts, has multiple ship-from locations, allows our carrier accounts (no charge) and even does some pretty amazing reporting and inventory tracking. So far, the only thing I don't see is returns management (but we don't use this). ALSO the printer/scale integration is (in my opinion) much better than ShipStation -- we are considering moving to Veeqo for our shipping platform. It's kind of sad, that after so many years but this increase has pushed us to explore other options, and so far it looks like Veeqo will be the way to go for us. 

If anyone else has a chance to take a look at it, I'd like your comments. 

Chris/Opzit LLC

[sajeed]

So many users/business owners are outraged with this. For business owners, it's so difficult because employee's want raise, landlord's want to increase rent, sales are slow because customer's have reduced their spending, cost of fuel is already impacting shipping costs, not to mention other taxes and fees. This is the last thing you want to hear "Hi, this is ShipStation, your monthly cost is going to double, especially if you use outside carrier like FedEx, or if you wish to use options that are only offered with a post paid account; which, by the way is not offered by ShipStation, we will charge you anyways for a monthly flat fee".  

Wonder if there's an online petition that we all can sign to show ShipStation or Auctane that how many customers respectfully disagree with their move on doubling the monthly cost of using ShipStation. 

[DoilyBoutique]

I won't go to Amazon for something that may be available elsewhere.  They get enough of my money.

[admin179]

My business has to use our own DHL and UPS accounts to send hazardous goods sometimes because Shipstation's carrier contracts don't allow hazmat. We've been with Shipstation for 5 years and will now be looking elsewhere. Plus their support is awful.

[info594]

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.

[ShippingPyrate]

Thanks for the link - I'm glad I got the email notification because it looks like it has been deleted.

[admin179]

Yes it appears ShipStation doesn’t want anyone to know that EasyShip is a much better alternative

[Opzit]

Be careful recommending other platforms/solutions here on this open discussion forum as the moderators have already threatened censorship (post deletion) for doing that! 🙂 They certainly don't want us talking about ways to save money or do things more efficiently if it means avoiding their insane price increase. 😉 Hehehe.

[admin179]

Thanks for the heads up, I definitely won’t mention again that I’m switching to Easyship after 7 years with ShipStation haha 

[wenjie_zhou]

Will definitely to look for alternative of shipstation after 5 yrs, now they are finding everything possible to charge the customers. We are getting some good result from others already.

[Manager-Erin]

Hello Chips, 

Thank you so much for reaching out. I would strongly recommend reaching out and contact our support team to discuss this charge. If you are unable to get into your account you can reach out to us using support@shipstation.com to get connected with this team. 

-Erin: Your Friendly ShipStation Community Manager 

[emily1]

Called, emailed, chatted... just had to upgrade AGAIN because we now hit a new limit that Shipstation added. Meanwhile the bugs I reported 3 years ago still haven't been fixed. How can software as a service (where the software only declines in usefulness) expect to charge double?! A monopoly- that's how! 

[chips]

Even after canceling our account, Shipstation is persistent at wanting to charge your card.  I can't even log back in to my account! We were doing good stopping it at first, but then they were able to get a charge to go through, even though we canceled in plenty of time and have not used it since last month.

Good riddance Shipstation.

[DoilyBoutique]

Feel like a late bloomer, just realzing the WTF is going on.  I don't have TIME to set something up elsewhere, but I think I have to make time.

DARN IT!