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.

[brendan1]

ShipStation is really blowing it. We got the same email, but ours is going up $30/mo. ShipStation is obviously not listening to customers (or does not care what small customers think). The forced upgrade/migration to the V3 has been brutal on our order processing times and we continue to have issues that they haven't addressed.

Here's the email we received:

Dear Valued ShipStation Merchant,

By default, ShipStation offers discounted rates for USPS, UPS, GlobalPost, and DHL Express without any carrier setup required. Customers that take advantage of the ShipStation rates avoid any additional fees.

You’re welcome to continue to access your carrier accounts that we support, but beginning in thirty days, you will be charged a monthly service fee of $30.00 to do so.

Looks like we're going to be moving to Shippo or EasyShip. ShipStation really seems to be chasing small customers away.

[scott8]

Thanks for posting. Some of the craziest software bs I've seen in a while.

Also my notice was $30

[ctobin]

ShipStation seems to want us to abandon our previous accounts with carriers so we can do everything through them. If I need to file a claim, I want to do it through my account with USPS/FedEx, not with ShipStation as a middleman. I am frustrated by this change and will be looking at alternatives. 

[brendan1]

Yeah, I think this is going to piss a lot of people off. 

Check out Shippo and EasyShip.

[socialnetwork]

We're also going to be looking for alternatives.

We really don't agree with being bullied into using a particular shipping service.  If we want to use their partnered services we would, but our FedEx discounts are much better than Shipstations supposed 84% discount.  

So instead of getting our monthly fee for years to come, they'll get nothing once we find a suitable alternative.

[brendan1]

100% agree.

ShipStations continuously makes bad decisions in terms of what their customers want.

Check out Shippo, EasyShip or PirateShip.

[info290]

thanks for these going to look into each one as this is a scam. 

[Opzit]

We are testing Veeqo now. Free and includes their carrier discounts + the use of our own carrier accounts all at no charge. Plus it connects to all of our current marketplaces and has some pretty awesome reporting and inventory tools. The printer and scale integration is far superior also. https://www.veeqo.com/pricing

[Sliceworx]

They are really shooting themselves in the foot here. Already registered for Pirateship today.

Was bronze tier paying 29.99 for Etsy shipments and this additional 20$ means we are at 600$ in fees annually just to use our own UPS account that has better rates for Surepost than the inhouse UPS account.Also the Shipstation account gives no refunds on 3DAY AIR shipments that are sent by GROUND while our own account does. Adios Shipstation. You were good when you helped the small biz guy ! Greed has got the better of you. 

[chips]

Pirateship looks interesting, but it doesn't look like they post tracking numbers to Amazon.  Am I seeing that correctly?

[Johnny2000]

This is our big issue as well - beyond the extra $360 per year. It's difficult enough to file a claim and get it accepted & paid by a carrier. Having a middle man will make it near impossible. This is how it used to be when we had to use Amazon shipping. It was a nightmare of lost packages and no refunds. Carriers wouldn't even talk to us since it wasn't our shipping account being used.

[Opzit]

Take a look at Veeqo. We are considering moving to that platform after this price increase. 

[Manager-Erin]

Hello @shipping, @brendan1, @ctobin, @Sliceworx, @socialnetwork, and @Johnny2000, 

First off, thank you all for being a part of our community and for taking the time to share with us. 

We appreciate your feedback and understand that pricing changes can be challenging. Our #1 goal is to continue improving the ShipStation application to help your business ship more efficiently. All feedback is being shared directly with all involved teams as it is provided to us. 

That being said, If you would like to speak with a member of our team directly, please DM me email address or phone number. We will make sure a team member is in contact as soon as possible. 

-Erin: Your Friendly ShipStation Community Manager 

[scott8]

Spoke to support about it yesterday and was pointless gaslighting.  "The fee is not to force you to ship with our accounts, but rather we want to invest more into expanding external carriers" cool story

[info290]

Doesn't improve anything, if the shipstation discount was better than our negotiated rates it would be acceptable but its not. Not only that but claims are easier to deal with then going through shipstation. If I find an alternative i'll leave, even if its less convenient as I feel like I'm being took advantage of, not because shipstation product isn't decent, it is. 

[info290]

Doesn't improve anything, if your discount was better than our negotiated rates it would be acceptable but its not. Not only that but claims are easier to deal with then going through SS. If I find an alternative i'll leave, even if its less convenient as I feel like I'm being took advantage of, not because shipstation product isn't decent, it is. 

[esimon]

I would like to speak to the team. If this is a done deal and no turning back, then nevermind - you just lost me as a customer.

[esimon]

Always greed that takes em down...

[Opzit]

Agree and us too.. we've found a really cool alternative platform already (Veeqo).. it's owned by Amazon (which I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing) but it's super robust and will easily replace ShipStation for us. 

[brendan1]

Hi Erin - most conversations seem to fall on deaf ears, unfortunately. 

Really terrible that these price increases are being put into effect for a feature that has always been part of the system. And with just 1 month notice? Bad business practice. Additionally, it's a 50% price increase on our tier. 

[safeskiesparts]

I would like to talk to someone directly about the $20 service fee.  This nearly doubles my subscription cost and is ridiculous.  Sara 513-217-2443, safeskiesparts@gmail.com

[Johnny2000]

Appreciate the responses, but how is this price increase improving anything with the software? This has been a core feature that's been implemented and used by customers for years.

Are new features being added to carrier integrations?

Are carriers charging ShipStation for the integration now?

Looking for the root cause on why things are changing so we can decide if its something ShipStation centric or are other platforms going to be impacted by some kind of fee change as well.  

[Ms_Sarcastic]

Shipstation lost a 💩 ton of revenue when Amazon twisted their arm into allowing Amazon sellers to buy postage from Amazon instead of SS. I think most people know that when you buy postage from SS directly it is at a marked up cost, and Shipstation profits the difference. They are no longer raking in that profit from the largest e-commerce site in the USA, and that's why SS then attempted to pivot and say they'll charge Amazon sellers .20c per label when buying postage directly from Amazon. But too bad for SS, because that is also not allowed by SS (else Amazon threatened to cut off SS's API access). So the only other trick that SS had up their sleeve was charging everyone extra if you use any outside carrier accounts at all. This is the only way they can stay within Amazon's TOS that bars any 3rd party services from charging extra specifically to Amazon sellers.

I'm willing to bet if Amazon cut off their API access to SS that SS likely would go under, so they had to do something. Charging everyone extra is the only way they can make up for the lost revenue.

[CreationMusic]

First off. I've been with Shipstation for 10 years and never considered an alternative until yesterday.

2nd. No matter how you spin it, what you're actually doing is doubling everyone's monthly cost across the board if they use their own carrier rates. I'm a silver plan. Base of $45/mo + $15/mo and $30 carrier fee ($45) is $90. MY friend's gold plan was $69. Add $30/mo and $40 ($70) is $139. Anyone who uses THEIR rates will pay double. I've never seen such a dramatic price increase in my years of being in business, but more importantly, an increase for such a badly communicated reason. I called support yesterday and filed a ticket over this. my estimated 3 minute wait was 23 minutes btw... Gotta love all those "improvements"... Anyway, I told them outright, I wouldn't have batted a price increase for "rising costs" of $20 on my $45 plan... Frankly, I kinda expected it with all the stuff with the economy right now... But DOUBLE.... to use my OWN rates? What does it actually cost ShipStation to use my account to justify a price increase? A simple integration? Come on... That's literally what you started as... a place to integrate everything. So there's no perceived reason other than greed and anyone with a brain can see it. It's a BAD look.

3rd. I'm pretty sure this directly violates the updated FTC Section 5 anti-competitive practices. I've contact my UPS rep and suggest everyone on here organize for a group suit. This is an un reasonable hardship to small businesses and an unfair business practice for such a dramatic increase for a service we already had.  I'm currently on hold again to make note of Section 5 to the support team... and yet again, my 5 minute hold is going on 41 minutes and still waiting... But yea... "Improvements"... Sure...

4. I like having my own carrier to use versus yours. I have my own rep who takes care of me. I can file my own claims and deal with UPS instead of having to go through you, not to mention that my rep made me 2 account numbers to use that cater specifically to the types of packages we use. They are much more dialed in that your rates.

Bottom line... You guys really screwed this one. I wouldn't have and still don't care about the money... It's the Principle in how you did this. Your reasoning and messaging are so off that this policy only accomplishes making people feel like they're getting screwed for no other reason than you think you can. This is the kinda stuff that drives me nuts in business... 

[steven10]

Pirateship has no monthly fees and lower UPS ground rates.
- ups ground 39x16x8 13lb was $38 using pirate ship. $54 using ship station
- Ups gound 40x22x10 21lb package ups ground was $42 vs shipstation $66

[RTMartin]

But no integration whatsoever for FedEx?

[steven10]

I can live without fedex

[RTMartin]

Unfortunately we can't 😞 still stuck paying a lot!

[sales244]

My upcharge letter is $40/month.  Looks like it's based on subscription tier or volume or some combination thereof.  Wonderful...

[scott8]

Wow. Plus they just raised base subscriptions just a few months ago.  Why don't they try trimming down their team instead of up charging customers?  I mean platforms like pirate ship have zero monthly subscription. I don't see why shipstation should need to charge so much, unless they are over leveraged. Which they probably are from the early days of their aggressive campaigning 

[sales244]

I think it might be because I had 3 additional carrier accounts added.  I just deleted one and contacted support to ask why mine was $40.  The letter doesn't make it clear as to how the fee is calculated.

[scott8]

Scam any way you look at it imo

[Opzit]

Same here. From $69.99 Gold Subscription to $99.99+$40.00 that's DOUBLE the price. I hate to say it... but I think we're dumping ShipStation after 7 years. A modest increase would be OK, but not double. That's just absurd. 

[Nope1]

We just cancelled our subscription.  Too many other options at this point and it's clear they are trying to get rid of 3rd party account access. 

[info290]

Who did you switch too ? 

[Opzit]

We're switching to Veeqo. https://www.veeqo.com/pricing

[RTMartin]

It is worth mentioning if you're using Woocommerce, it is in Beta and not available til maybe Q4 to just become a tester. BUMMER.

[scott8]

Nice. Hope they feel the repercussions of this.

[T13dot]

If shipstation decides to keep this we are looking else where, we only have one that we really use that is "outside" of their carriers and it is Canada Post which is one that they support but because it is our account they still want us to pay the fee, its cheaper with our account why would we use theirs!!!