PayPal Free Shipping Override

This is one of those things that
is hard until it is easy. Once
it's easy, it is very easy.

It seems that PayPal allows you
to provide free shipping, or any
shipping rate you might choose,
on a per item basis. The problem
is getting this to actually work.

The coding part is fairly easy
if you know HTML. You just tell
PayPal, via hidden form fields,
that an order of one or more items
will be free. Here's the web page
that gives you the code to add to
your HTML on a per item basis:

Overriding Profile-Based
Shipping and Sales Tax

Here's another web page that tells
you how to override shipping on
a per-item basis:

Making PayPal Work With Your Website

Here are the steps I took:

1. Log into PayPal
2. Look for the Merchant Services
   tab at the top of the page. It is dark
   blue
3. Click on Mechant Services
4. There are several headings in black
   type
5. Find the black type heading that
   says Shipping & Tax
6. Look for Shipping calculator
   under Shipping & Tax
7. Identify a shipping method for
   which you would like to enable
   free shipping on a per-item basis
8. Find the checkmark box on the
   left side of the shipping method
9. Checkmark the box for the shipping
   method that you wish to override
   on a per-item basis
10. Find the edit button on
    the lower right side of the shipping
    method
11. Look for the black-type heading
    that says Currency and Shipping
    Region:
12. Under the Currency and Shipping
    Region: heading look for the words
    Use the shipping fee in the
    transaction instead of my
    calculator's settings
13. Note the radio button to the
    right of the above words
14. Click the radio button from
    No to Yes
15. Find Save Changes
    at the very bottom of the
    shipping method dialog
16. Click Save Changes
17. Repeat the above steps for
    all shipping methods for which
    you want to enable a free shipping
    override on a per-item basis

Note that I've written the above
directions for free shipping. Of
course, free shipping is shipping
with zero dollars and zero cents.

You can set the shipping to anything
you wish on a per-item basis.

You can use the override to go in
the other direction too. You can
also make the shipping more expensive
than usual rather than less expensive
or free.

This would make sense if you sell an
item that is very expensive to ship.
For example, you may not want to
offer free shipping on your
weight-lifting equipment.

Ed Abbott

PayPal Reputation Broken

Just got finished writing a
post on how to find your PayPal
reputation. Here's the post:

Using Paypal Efficiently

I had wondered why my PayPal
reputation has been stuck since
forever. Seems like it has been
in the same place for years,
in spite of the fact that I
regularly sell and ship items.

Here's my answer:

PayPal Reputation

OK. Looks like the reputation
counter (for sellers, at least)
has been broken for a year or
two.

The counter never seems to move
forward. It is like an odometer
on a car that gets stuck at a
certain milage.

So now I know. Now I won't worry
about it.

Here's a bulletin board with even more
information:

PayPal Seller Reputation

Ed Abbott

Using PayPal Efficiently

Here's a blog devoted to
those who would like to
use PayPal a little more
efficiently.

Today, I wanted to find out
what my seller reputation is.
I'm a PayPal seller.

Seems that this is not as easy
or intuitive as it might be.

Here's a post I found helpful:

How to see PayPal Reputation

The post that give the following
URL is the one that helped me:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/community-participation

In case you cannot see this link,
It is this page here:

Reputation Numbers


Once you get to this page, you click
on the following link found at the
bottom of the above page:

View your Buyer
and Seller Reputation Numbers

Let's see if I can simplify the
above somewhat. Here are the steps
that work for me. I follow the following
steps to go to see my PayPal reputations
numbers:

1. Type Control-T to open up
   a new tab on your browser.
2. After doing the above step,
   you will have two tabs, one for
   this blog, and one for PayPal.
3. In the PayPal tab, log into
   PayPal
4. Click on the tab for this
   blog. You now see this blog
   in front of you.
5. Click on the PayPal reputation
   link, which is repeated just below
   this list.

View your Buyer
and Seller Reputation Numbers

The key thing that will make this
work is that you are already logged
into PayPal. If you are not logged
in, you are not going to see your
reputation.

If the above confuses you, simplify
it in your mind to two steps:

1. Log into PayPal
2. Visit this blog and
   click on the link that
   allows you to see your
   reputation

Hope this helps.


Ed Abbott