Dynamic Pricing Notice from PirateShip

[wadeorcas]

This from PirateShip

Ahoy Wade!

We’ve always emailed you ahead of time about rate changes… but carriers are starting to change rates multiple times per week. We know you don’t want to hear from us that much, so we’re gonna stop

Moving forward, use our Rates Calculator to see the current prices for all the options for your shipment.

Why the change?

Pirate Ship was the first shipping software to pass through commercial shipping rates with no markup or fees, and we’ve always provided deep dives on how rate changes would affect your shipping costs.

But back in the good ol’ days rates only changed once per year. Nowadays all the carriers are starting to use dynamic pricing, where rates are set by an algorithm instead of a rate sheet. That means rates are changing more frequently than ever… sometimes even multiple times per week

With rate changes happening so often now, we don’t want to spam your email since you’ll always see the most current rates in our Rates Calculator anyways.

We’ll still update you with major announcements

Fear not! We’ll still let you know when carriers announce service changes, temporary peak season increases, holiday shipping deadlines, or anything else worth keeping your spyglass on

And, most importantly—we’ll always pass through the deepest discounts available!

Use our Rate Calculator for the most up-to-date pricing

Going forward, use our Rates Calculator to see all the options for your shipment. It will always show you the most up-to-date pricing, and you’ll see exactly how much you’ll save Pirates never pay retail!

Thanks for shippin’ with us, matey! If there’s anything we can do to help, just give us a shout—we’re always here for ya!

ARRrrr,
The salty-but-sweet crew @ Pirate Ship

[Lost_My_Marbles]

@wadeorcas

but carriers are starting to change rates multiple times per week.

Has anyone experienced this? … and was it UPS?

USPS has increased the number of times per year that it has released new rates but those are always published. (USPS has been January, July and October)

Edit add …

[VitRhea]

@wadeorcas

We’ve always emailed you ahead of time about rate changes… but carriers are starting to change rates multiple times per week. We know you don’t want to hear from us that much, so we’re gonna stop

Yeeeah that’s ridiculous. They should at least have an opt-in for the emails.

[Pepper_Thine_Angus]

Strange I have not been getting those weekly emails

[papy]

I appreciate this heads up ftom Pirate Ship, especially by calling out the chaos that are current shipping charges.

I had an ebay estimate recently for USPS (my preferred carrier) that was “between $5.xx and $83.xx” for continental US. It’s impossible to build shipping costs into item prices (to offer “free delivery”) when the estimate is “it depends” and the dependencies change more capriciously that 7th grade cliques.

@Lost_My_Marbles

Has anyone experienced this? … and was it UPS?

In the above situation, UPS’s estimate was much more narrow and has been consistent enough thus far that I have readjusted pricing to again offer free delivery.

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Current shipping estimates:

[lake]

USPS is changing rates which are not the base Zone/Rate table rates without notice.

This includes the most detested rural surcharge and which zips it applies to.

Small sellers who use other than calculated rates are finding life difficult.

I use a fixed rate for most of my items targeted at breakeven each month on all my sales, I am now losing a little, but the lowball shipping has made some items which have been listed a long time sell. My loss is less than my minimum sale discount which is 10% of the listed price so I am not motivated to do anything to remedy the problem, YET.