Extra $20 month to add Fedex to my list of carrier accounts

[shipping]

I got this message this morning on Shipstation.  

I'm a little confused by this. Why is shipstation now charging an extra $20 a month just because I added Fedex to my carrier account? I rarely use Fedex but I would like to have that option, it's not worth $20 more a month.

[T13dot]

Also, who cares about the badges for being a first time commenter or anything else, stop putting your time into useless stuff and you wouldnt have to charge extra!

[HappyEndings]

We only use Canada Post and if we use Ship Stations pricing it's almost 80% more expensive for some locations.  We just moved over from Shippo, and it was a tough decision (at the time) as they had been much cheaper than SS 😞  

[POFUSER]

Finally got an answer from support saying that fee is different based on different subscription tiers.

• Starter: $5
• Bronze: $20
• Silver: $30
• Gold: $40
• Platinum: $60
• Enterprise: $95

[sales244]

Before anyone switches - check out the shipping rates charged by other carriers and available features.  I know additional fees sting and I'm not happy about it, but some of them (Pirateship) aren't integrated as smoothly with all platforms and some of them don't offer API access which may or may not be important depending on what you're doing.  Also I just compared a 7x7x7 5 lb package going to zone 2 on Shippo and it was $8.31 vs $7.13 on ShipStation.  I don't know if SS charges less per label because of our tier (Gold) vs lower tiers but there is a pretty significant cost difference per label.

Not saying don't switch if it makes sense, but don't do it just because you're angry and make sure you check out all available options.  Good luck to all

[Nope1]

I'll just use FedEx's native shipping tools.  Has nothing to do with anger, it's business. 

I need to be the shipper of record...not Shipstation.  

[sales244]

not directed at you or anybody in particular.  Just saying that all angles need to be examined before a decision is made.  I was surprised to see how much more Shippo charges for USPS.  Pirateship is the same as SS but their platform isn't good for high volume shippers.  most others are owned by Stamps.com so I'm sure they aren't going to be much different from SS and their customers are probably complaining as well.

[info290]

I agree shipstation is a good platform one of the better ones, but I feel like its more the principle of the $20 charge for us to not use a service seems backwards. The money I save by not using their rates makes up for it in a couple of shipments its more the principle and reason for the charge that isn't sitting right with most. 

[RTMartin]

This is ridiculous. I hope a ton of people leave this platform. Yeah, the rates are good for what they provide, but why are you charging us $20 more for something you DON'T provide??? Give me a break.

[SLP]

I just had a long, worthless chat with Shipstation support. I can understand them wanting us to use the built-in integrations, but they do not offer FedEx so if we want to continue to ship some packages with FedEx our fees will increase 67% with just a few days warning. I don't know how they expect anyone to find this acceptable.

[brendan1]

Yeah, that's what gets me too. We're not getting any new features/functionality.

We're being upcharged (67% in your case, 50% in our case) for a feature that we've had access to and have been using since we signed up with ShipStation years ago.

[mj_bitsbits]

Ours is raised $40... What are we actually getting for that? Our negotiated rates with FedEx and UPS are beating SS's, why should we be penalized for that? 

[brendan1]

What are you getting for that extra $40? Nothing that you haven't had all along.

[mj_bitsbits]

I haven't had time to research other options, what's out there that can handle 1200-2000 orders per month from multiple marketplaces?

[POFUSER]

SS is forcing all the users to use their carrier services and charging extra to use our own carrier accounts. I think what they will do next is increase their own carrier rates which is already a black box with no transparency on transportation charges and other fees. Might as well leave this platform now before they sneakily raise the fees again. 

[beckybee]

ok let's list all the competitors to start exploring - here's a few. What programs out there have address validation like Shipstation - most of them state they do until you test their system. One is EasyShipping - if you place an address into their system knowing there should be an apt. number yet you don't use it. EasyShipping still approves the address. So what programs have a great address validation down to unit/suite etc.
Ordercup
EasyShipping
ShipRush
PirateShip
Shippo
StarShipIt
ShipWorks (owned by Shipstation)
AfterShip
DesktopShipper

[brendan1]

There is a holding company, Auctane, that owns a few of these shipping system:

• ShipStation
• ShippingEasy
• ShipWorks
• ShipEngine
• shipsi

The above are all owned by Auctane - https://auctane.com/products/ - so keep that in mind when switching. I spoke with a ShippingEasy rep the other day and it sounds like the bring your own carrier fees will be implemented in ShippingEasy next month as well.

[RTMartin]

Extremely useful information, THANK YOU.

[ctobin]

wow, they own both Endicia AND stamps! Auctane has quite a hold on the shipping software market. thanks for the heads up about ShippingEasy's fees!

[chips]

We had already looked in to ShipRush back in January when Shipstation had the price increase.  We almost went that way because they not only had all the right marketplaces, but they had Walmart too.  We just got our account set up there and will most likely be moving that direction. Not only is the price more competitive at ShipRush, but they are not trying to charge you additional money to use your own carrier.  The best part...they are NOT owned by the Auctane (Stamps.com) monopoly.

[Opzit]

https://www.veeqo.com/pricing

[chips]

"Veeqo is Amazon's free shipping software..."

Thanks, it is nice knowing other alternatives. I'm just not so sure if I'm really interested in going from one monopoly to another.  I don't mind paying for the service, I just don't agree with what Shipstation is doing here.

The interesting part is, we all know Shipstation makes money off each shipment too.

[Opzit]

Agreed, as does Veeqo.. the difference is they aren't dipping into your profits. 

[Manager-Erin]

Hello Everyone, 

We know that changes like this do come with impact to all of your businesses.If you would like 

I am more than happy to collect contact information to get anyone who is interested directly connected with a member of our team.

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. 

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. 

[Opzit]

Oh good, you noticed how upset your users are. 

Unfortunately rather than addressing the problem or offering a reasonable price increase, you guys chose to threaten Censorship of our comments and discussion:  "Further posts with this content may be removed". Owell. It's OK it just shows how much you "don't care" which..to be honest neither do I as I'm 80% switched to a new platform and will stop paying you shortly. 

Great way to end a relationship guys. 

[POFUSER]

I had a meeting with veeqo earlier today. There are a lot of good features but the whole system is designed to be used with their carrier accounts so using your own UPS/FedEx account is okay at best (no third party billing, no rate comparison, etc). Not quite mature enough yet IMO but I will be keeping my eyes on their development. Should be a good one if you do a lot of business on Amazon. 

[zharris]

This is terrible. Seriously. Raising rates is one thing... restricting your service to force people onto your shipping account is another. I hope it hurts enough for you guys to change. Good luck.

[pleasure]

We're definitely disappointed on this substantial rate increase, especially with such short notice... we wouldn't mind exclusively using UPS from Shipstation (for the most part) although we'd miss FedEx's One Rate pricing... however, UPS from Shipstation doesn't seem to support COD. We're now evaluating other shipping services that don't place a surcharge on connecting accounts; going to avoid any owned by Auctane.

[Manager-Erin]

Hello Community Members, 
 

First off, we want to thank you all for being a part of our community and trusting us with this feedback. 

We know that changes like this do come with impact to all of your businesses. This change was made with the intention of adding value but driving down costs for all of our merchants by being able to offer the best pre-negotiated rates that might normally not be available for all users. 

We still do understand that you may want to use your own carrier rates alongside the ShipStation feature set. By introducing this monthly fee, we can cover rising infrastructure costs, invest in faster feature development, and continue to offer you great support while we actively seek out the best deals for our entire customer base. 

Our focus is on maintaining the quality you expect and introducing new features that will help you increase operational efficiency, saving both time and money.

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. 

-Erin: Your Friendly ShipStation Community Manager. 

[zharris]

Your pre-negotiated rates are much more expensive than most of our rates. You do realize that, right? If you have read the comments you'd see that. So telling us that you're just doing it in our best interest is really something. But hey... you all are allowed to charge whatever you want and we are allowed to take our business elsewhere. So best of luck to you all.  

[ctobin]

There is no "value added" by this change for many of us.

[pleasure]

@Manager-Erin,

We appreciate your follow up and I understand you're simply on the frontlines dealing with everyone's frustration by a decision made by upper management. With that said, I do recognize that the negotiated UPS rates you've all achieved do add value and may be considered less by a significant portion of the lower-volume customer base you all might have and/or those that tend to mostly ship to residential given that you all have negotiated the exclusion of residential/surcharge fees.

However, with that said, there are some service options via UPS that you all don't offer such as COD or third-party billing. If UPS from Shipstation was apples-to-apples in services with our own UPS accounts, then it'll be less of an issue. Additionally, Shipstation doesn't offer negotiated rates with FedEx and I feel that charging additional for those that wish to utilize their Fedex rates is a bit unfair.

Given the short notice on implementing this effectively significant price increase, it doesn't really give a lot of time for dialogue to occur and for our feedback to be considered with the possibility of reconsideration or for tweaking/adding services to Shipstation's carrier services to occur. This all adds a significant amount of stress and frustration for many shippers that ultimately the decision might end up being just to transition instead of waiting in hopes that our feedback might develop some change prior to fee implementation.

[chips]

"By introducing this monthly fee, we can cover rising infrastructure costs, invest in..." buying up another competitor to expand your monopoly. Sorry, I'm taking my money somewhere else and then hope at some point your monopoly is stopped.  There simply is ZERO justification for this price increase.

[Opzit]

I think ShipStation will realize the error of their ways once they lose enough subscribers to competition. We've been a SS user since 2016...moving to Veeqo now. We've been a Gold subscriber at 69.99$ a month for almost 8 years. They might think about that when enough of us are gone. Especially since other platforms have some robust features and can be a DIRECT replacement (and I mean direct replacement for us specifically) at no monthly cost. 

[shipping54]

Thanks for sharing this reply, Erin.

A 100% cost increase (once you add in the FedEx fee) is a bit much. Seems like more of a cash grab by the new private equity owners.

Since all of this is being passed up the line, I'd remind the new owners that it isn't 2021 anymore. Ecommerce companies across the board are hurting from a variety of market pressures (changes in post-pandemic buying behavior, privacy apocalypse in advertising, rising interest rates, and the continued supply chain nightmare). 

I doubt they'll care much of course. That's how private equity works... but I wouldn't be surprised if FedEx cared a whole lot about this.

Anyway, thanks for all you do. This has to be a difficult time. We've been with Shipstation since 2014 and it's the first time we felt like we weren't wanted as a customer anymore. Kinda sad since we are an Enterprise-level  account.

[greenerpastures]

Shipstation seems tone-deaf on this issue, but that's just a head fake. They knew this was coming. Any business that hikes prices suffers some loss in market share. The more egregious the hike, the bigger the dropoff. In cases like this, where the company has maximized the hostility and the alienation factor, they must be expecting a significant spike in cancelled accounts.

Think that through for a second. They knew they'd burn a bunch of customers, and did the price hike anyway. The only possible conclusion is that Auctane no longer wants your business. If they wanted to keep your business, they wouldn't double your costs. Apparently they want to focus on shops that are either too small to have carrier accounts, or too entrenched to change providers. 

That leaves out everyone who is reading this thread. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternative providers -- with, to my surprise, MUCH LOWER MONTHLY FEES, not to mention the lack of carrier-account penalties.

For the record, I wouldn't have complained about the price hike to the basic monthly rate. It's the carrier penalty that's galling. It not only cost Shipstation (and all Auctane properties) my business, it earned an FTC complaint -- printed, signed, and mailed already.

So there's no point feeling hurt about any of it. Just cancel your Shipstation account and move on. They've demonstrated that they don't want your business any more. There are other providers, mentioned throughout the Shipstation forums. Definitely avoid the other Auctane properties (e.g. ShippingEasy) though.

[Johnny2000]

Agreed. It's clear with this pricing strategy that Auctane is focusing on entry level shippers and giving up on their mid-market customers that have enough shipping volume to have their own carrier rates. Lots of other software available that does want the mid-market. 

[kelsie]

Also peeved at this new few to use our own negotiated account rates, especially after recently hiking the subscription fee with very few improvements to the platform that are barely noticeable to me as a user. Annoyed that to see what adjustments have been made by the carrier when purchased through Shipstations UPS account has to be found on Stamps. It's a nightmare and so not user-friendly. Challenging those adjustments was even more of a PITA. 

I'll be moving back to PirateShip. I like that you can easily find and challenge carrier adjustments on their reports portal and labels that aren't used with USPS are automatically submitted for a refund. While I know I cannot use our UPS/Fedex accounts here, the USPS rates are much better here than with Shipstation as a majority of our orders are shipped with USPS.

[beckybee]

I have messed with most of the competitors since this announcement and have solved our issue. Will be able to use shipstation for only orders shipped where their rates (shipstation) are lower. Found another platform that will not cost us anything to ship using our UPS account (we get much better rates on heavier items). Both platforms have the exact same discounts with UPS.

Both platforms work well with our webstore and when an order is shipped by either shipping platform it updates on both.

The only thing now keeping us with shipstation is their address validation which is the best that we can find so far. Many other shipping platforms do not verify down to unit/suite number - they will tell you they do until you test out their platforms. Address correction fees are not cheap so better to use both platforms and they work well together.

No need to pay extra fees when there are solutions out there.

 

[kelsie]

What platform will you be using? 

[joebunting]

We too today have had an increase notice - shocked at the price increase for our plan. We're going from the 49/month to 65/month base rate (I could accept that as the cost of everything is increasing), but the real killer for us is the non-carrier shipment fee of 0.13/Shipment - all our shipments are deemed non-carrier shipments, all-in-all i've calulcated that the cost of running shipstation for our business will be increasing by a minimum of 270% against what we're currently paying. This is a ludicrous increase and I think we'll have no option but to look at alternatives.