Pirate Ship stopped emailing customers about routine carrier rate changes, telling them on October 20 that carriers have started changing prices several times a week as they move to algorithm-set dynamic pricing, according to Liz Morton at Value Added Resource. Pirate Ship will still flag major service changes, holiday surcharges, and shipping deadlines, but otherwise customers have to check its rate calculator. The same week, eBay gave sellers under three days’ warning that USPS Ground Advantage prices on eBay Labels change again October 25, a week after its geographic pricing overhaul, and didn’t say by how much. eBay told sellers to use calculated shipping, which passes the changes to buyers but leaves anyone shipping free or at a flat rate covering whatever labels cost.
