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.

[HappyEndings]

Ship Station's carrier rates are not competitive, which is disappointing. As a result, I have no choice but to rely on my own Canada Post rates. However, I'm dismayed to find out that they have requested an additional $30 monthly fee. This practice appears to be a form of price gouging, and it is completely unacceptable.

[siriannic]

Me as well.  In Canada.  I'm using Shopify and just set up my Canada Post account through the interface - I think orders may take a few extra seconds to process, but for sure worth it.  

I would have accepted a $10 increase, but not a $30 one on top of that for using my own Canada Post account.

Also, I just tried to cancel my subscription and they offered 2 free months.  Which (if everyone is offered the same thing) will provide some time to find an alternative.

[rmowles]

Our increase was $60 to use our own courier - on top of a 60% increase in the monthly fee.    That was on one account.  Going to check the others we have.

[RW_Admin]

I think price changes are fine and costs are inevitably going to increase. But I think they could have done it a little more professionally. On a gold tier, the cost is not going up by any normal typical percentage, its $69-$99, while decreasing shipping limits from 3,000 to 2,000, and adding a $40 fee. As others have stated? What are customers getting out of it? In the end, the overall monthly costs to ship our products, it's not a big deal. It just stings as there is only 1 month notice with a significant change in price. So it's more about the principal. I don't think that's good business practice on how to treat your customers. How about some fair warning, and a slower ramp up to you're desired price maybe?

[SLP]

I mostly agree, except in the case of FedEx shipping. Shipstation does not have integrated FedEx shipping so our only option is to use our FedEx account. We cannot comply with their requirement (OK, it's merely a very strong suggestion) to use only integrated carriers even if we wanted to. I think FedEx should be excluded from the extra fee until Shipstation offers it as an integrated service.

After evaluating some of the competition, I'll likely stick with ShipStation, but they have lost any goodwill they might have had with me due to the incompetent way they rolled out the change. Much like eBay in the past with their "We're increasing your fees to save you money!" BS. An explanation of what the extra fees will be used for would have been helpful. As it is now, I just assume it's all going to the executives bonuses.

[pleasure]

It looks like this went into effect for new accounts on May 17, 2023 and on top of the monthly fee, there's also a $0.08/label fee as well: https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408953242395

Seems Shipstation is committed to this new pricing policy and our feedback will likely not change much, if anything at all.

[beckybee]

Are you stating that there is also a $0.08/label fee even if we use Shipstation UPS rates? 

[POFUSER]

It was the straw that broke the camel's back for us. We've given a lot of business for years to ShipStation but not anymore. There are a lot of other platforms, including shopping carts like Shopify with built-in buy shipping label feature, that offer a similarly discounted shipping rate. We've been wanting to move away from ShipStation since forced transition to buggy V3 and this additional fee is the tipping point. You know it is time when they stopped listening to their customers.

[sellersavings]

They just raised our carrier fee $60 a month and the subscription went from $99 to $149 - that is almost DOUBLE combined!!! And all we did was use THIER carrier partners listed for the last 10 years - on their platform! I am thinking of contacting the FTC. They apparently want a monopoly and are doing a bait and switch on us. I just read (above here in this thread) that Auctane owns MOST of the shipping platforms. How is that NOT a monopoly???? Another customer on a different thread mentioned they are price gouging and I agree 100%. There is ZERO services being added for this EXTREME cost increase! 

They keep changing the platform for the WORSE with glitch filled, hard to navigate fields and difficult to read text dashboards and yet keep charging more!!! I hope Fedex, UPS and other carriers sue them for doing this monopoly / punishing people and forcing them to pay double for the same access they should have been grandfathered in to!  Plus that email was vague and we all have NO IDEA who shipstation's actual carriers are because their partners page lists them all!!!!! 

[shipping54]

We received the same notice. We've been with ShipStation since 2014 and today we are on the Enterprise tier. Our bill will be going from $159 to $229 for platform access and then another $95 for FedEx. I've already sent this information along to our FedEx reps as it is clearly an anti-competitive move. I wouldn't be surprised if it also violated the terms of the API agreement with FedEx.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but a 100% increase in price for zero actual value is pretty sad.

[jardon1]

Mine was $40 but i only use USPS, And delete my amazon buy shipping since i think that's was only one in your carrier accounts. i'd already have switched providers if there was something better for my business, but since i love pay $3.65 for a $9 item i sell on ebay I'm sorta stuck in making pennies on the dollar. 

[Opzit]

[brendan1]

... and not to beat a dead horse, but does everyone else remember getting a similar email in January when ShipStation decided to increase the cost of each plan? Our Silver plan went from $49.99 to $59.99 - a 20% increase. Now that we're at $60 per month, we're being hit with a 50% increase. So from January to June, we're going from $49.99 to $89.99, and as so many others have said, there is no added functionality. Nothing more than what I had when I signed up a decade ago.

If you're curious about your January rate increase, search your email for "Notice: Changes to Your ShipStation Subscription Fee". You'll likely see something similar to the screenshot below.

[ShippingPyrate]

This is appalling. Our 3-person small business will have to pay a $40 per month increase - which is a 230% increase. A 230% price increase is unheard of - they may be settting a new record. I've posted reviews about this as many places as I could - I realize it probably won't do anything but it made me feel better. I was hoping ShipperHQ could use ShipStation Carriers but they can't. We are looking elsewhere - I hope this greed backfires and they lose money over it instead of scamming more money from customers.

[CreationMusic]

Well SHIP! You've got to be SHIPPING me with this! This is complete and utter Horse SHIP! I just can't believe the SHIP you guys are trying to pull! You guys are taking a massive SHIP on our small business! 

[chips]

Well, I guess it's like their old lame saying went, they "Get Ship Done"...including the fact that they will probably chase off a decent batch of their customers.  But hey, who gives a ship.

[PimentoCheese]

now that this conversation is being censored I suggest we all discuss here: https://www.reddit.com/r/shipstation/

OP would you kindly edit your post to link to this?

[CreationMusic]

Censored? I heard the management saying do’mt talk about other platforms, but have they actually censored the discussion?

[Opzit]

Threatening to delete posts... yes that's censorship. 

[jardon1]

other platforms would be an option, but i run a lot of stores on ebay still and walmart amazon etc.. I only use their carrier USPS, so this doesn't affect me after deleting amazon buy shipping. That being said. if Veeq fixes it so that i can ship from my warehouses around the country and still have returns only to one address i would switch. Why should i pay $4.13 from Florida to California when the warehouse in California ships to the customer in California? I only have 1 return warehouse. And veeq does not allow you like shipstation does to have all your returns in one place.  Like it might ship from Hollywood,ca but on the label its return address is in texas. Because that's where our returns department is. Others don't accept incoming mail. And i am not about to pay $4.13 when i could pay $3.65 

[Manager-Erin]

Hello everyone,  

We want to be very clear that it is not our intent to make anyone feel censored, however, there are going to be times where management will have to make moderation decisions in the interest of our community space.

At this point no action beyond posting our warning message has been taken. We do not take removing content lightly as this team prides itself on being a champion for your voice internally. If your content is ever removed from the community, please know that we will always reach out to you directly as well.

As always, if anyone is interested in being contacted by ShipStation in regards to this pricing change, you can DM me your contact information and I will have a member of our team reach out.

If you would like to review any of our documentation in regards to community expectations, I have added these resources here.

Community Guidelines
Code of Conduct
Terms of Service
Legal Disclaimer

[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]

Where can I find this form letter?

[info594]

https://community.shipstation.com/t5/Carrier-Integrations/90-quot-flat-fee-quot-per-month-to-add-a-c...

[info594]

https://community.shipstation.com/t5/Carrier-Integrations/90-quot-flat-fee-quot-per-month-to-add-a-c...

[okraandmolly]

mine's going up 50!! And i don't even ship with fedex, i just utilize it because ShipStation shows Fed Ex shipping times and refuses to show UPS shipping times, therefore i look at FedEx to plan my UPS shipments.  So i'm paying 50$ to cover a gap in ShipStation's abilities.

[renniegc]

The fee is now 49.99 a month, there no excuse to having the need to rip off your customers!!!
The Primary carriers in the US is UPSP, FedEx and UPS why force your customers to pay an additional 49.99 a month I have to wave the BS flag on this and obliviously they did not learn their lesson considering the age of this post and the fact that it has raised more than double the amount since this tread started.
I am going to find new shipping software