Bonanza Sellers Hit With Unexpected Shipping Fees, Unannounced Change To Shipping Policy Help Page
UPDATE 1-30-24
Sellers say they are now receiving emails from Bonanza claiming this whole mess was just "a bug" and that impacted sellers will receive "credits" to their accounts rather than actual refunds to their credit cards.
Personally, if I received that email, I'd be making a call to my credit card company and a report to the FTC for good measure.
UPDATE 1-29-24
As Bonanza founder sues current owner for failure to make payments & shipping fee shenanigans ensue - should sellers be concerned?
Liz Morton
UPDATE 1-29-24
Bonanza General Manager, Sarah Tranum, has provided the following statement to clarify that a recent validation check found some sellers had opted out of the Bonanza shipping program even though they do not use an integrated third-party shipping service, those sellers were removed from the exemption and notified via email that they are no longer exempt.
Bonanza Shipping was launched to save our sellers both time and money. We are able to offer the lowest possible rates for FedEx, UPS and USPS to our sellers no matter the size of their business. Now, small businesses can access the same rates as much larger ecommerce businesses thanks to our community-wide rates.
Sellers shipping from outside of the US or sellers using third-party shipping services connected to our API are exempt from using Bonanza Shipping.
When we first launched Bonanza Shipping, we provided sellers using third-party shipping services connected to our API with the ability to opt out of the program in their account settings. Recently, when we ran a validation check, we found that only 1,045 sellers who do not use an integrated third-party shipping service had also opted-out. These sellers were all sent an email to notify them that they are no longer exempt.
We have also made it easier for sellers who do qualify by automatically exempting them with no action needed on their part. All sellers who were previously exempt remain exempt. Our policy has not changed. Sellers with questions should contact our award-winning support team at support@bonanza.com for assistance.
Bonanza has also now posted a statement in their community, while deleting the previous community posts from sellers about this issue - clearly signaling they did not learn anything from the debacle that ensued when they censored comments about the shipping policy announcement back in November.
Bonanza Shipping was launched to save our sellers both time and money. We are able to offer the lowest possible rates for FedEx, UPS and USPS to our sellers no matter the size of their business. Now, small businesses can access the same rates as much larger ecommerce businesses thanks to our community-wide rates.
Sellers who utilize an approved third-party shipping service that is integrated with Bonanza’s API are exempt from the $2 shipping assessment. We have also made it easier for sellers who do qualify by automatically exempting them with no action needed on their part.
Sellers who had previously opted out of Bonanza Shipping in their seller account settings, but do not use a third-party service’s Bonanza integration, are not exempted and are responsible for the assessment fees.
Sellers who use the following services and have added Bonanza in the third-party account settings are exempt from the $2 shipping [URL removed]
Shipworks, SellerCloud, ShipStation, Selro, SkuGrid, GoFlowApp, Littleboss Information, ShipRush, Order Desk, SmartShyp, CedCommerce, ShippingEasy, JumboLister, Endurance Commerce, eComdash, PODTurbo, BaseLinker, Wholesale2, SellerChamp, MegaDropTool, XPS Ship, A1Post, CanUShipLearn more about how to connect your existing account to Bonanza’s
It appears they may also be deleting or avoiding some user comments on that post as well.
Brandon your missing the whole point. What about surprise charges you ran Friday after you unexempted sellers without warning? When are those improper charges getting refunded? You have a lot of sellers pissed at you guys right and putting their stores on vacation mode. You can’t do sneak attacks.
Your evading the question Brandon. When are the sellers that you improperly charged Friday going to see their refunds. Your getting hammered bad PR and this situation isn’t going away until you clean up this mess you made.
you keep deleting my question – WHERE DOES ONE INPUT THE 3RD PARTY OPTION IN THE PAYPAL PROVIDED SHIPSTATION ACCOUNT
I posted two days ago trying to make people aware of this 2.00 shipping fee that was being charged to your card for not having an approved API shipping provider – Since been deleted
Which I had ShipStaion and was checked and I was told I would be exempt and now have noticed the setting changed and I am get charged X 4 shipping fees.
So Bonanza keeps says they are the cheapest shipping provider so I was trying to compare theirs to ShipStation was a .02 difference higher, so i reached out to the SUPPORT and was told that I would need to send them a month invoice of differences they would look into it and refund. Hey Bonanza if you cheaper them be cheaper not make me prove to you all you are not.
As for Sales is near to nothing a whole 4 sales with 10,000 listings in December? Other sites can multiply that in a day 10 fold.
So go ahead and steal your 8 dollars from me that I was exempt from but I wont be selling here anymore as I wasn’t losing anything anyways except what you all stole
If you are a Bonanza seller who has been impacted by this issue, did you receive an email notice informing you that you were not exempt and would be charged these fees? Let us know in the comments below or contact VAR!
UPDATE: CEO Quincy Faison has responded to request for comment saying "If a seller is exempt they remain exempt. Nothing has been changed and we are looking into this issue."
However, that still does not explain why the settings and help pages have changed or if sellers who were charged fees after being previously exempt will be refunded. We've followed up with additional questions to clarify.
Bonanza sellers report being hit with unexpected fees after purchasing shipping label via approved API shipping partners - is it a technical issue with API tokens or has Bonanza reneged on previous exemption policy?
The controversial new program was put forward in November 2023, requiring sellers to purchase shipping labels through Bonanza or pay a $2 per order fee if they wanted to purchase shipping elsewhere.
Liz Morton
After significant seller pushback, Bonanza clarified that some sellers would be exempted from the $2 fee if they used approved API partners like Shipstation, ShippingEasy, Doba, and more.
Shipping On Bonanza
What sellers are exempt from using Bonanza's shipping labels?
Exempt will be sellers who manage their order fulfillment through a third-party Bonanza-approved API partner (for example, Shipstation), sellers who obtain and fulfill their inventory through a dropshipper service (for example, Doba), and sellers who ship from outside the United States.If you export your Bonanza listings to eBay and a buyer places an order through the eBay platform, you are not required to purchase a shipping label on Bonanza to fulfill the eBay order.
If you ship from outside of the United States, be sure to set your "Items ship from" location in your Booth Settings.
I meet the exemption criteria. How do I opt out of the Bonanza Shipping program?
If you meet the exemption criteria outlined above, you can opt-out of Bonanza Shipping from your "Selling > Booth settings > Shipping & returns" page. Select the "My inventory shipments are fulfilled by a third party dropshipping service" then enter the name of the service you are using. Be sure to save the changes before navigating away.Sellers using an approved shipping partner are automatically opted out of the program once they have connected the partner service through the API.
Note that sellers whose "Ships from" address is located outside of the United States will automatically be exempt from the $2-per-order shipping assessment.
Sellers who previously confirmed they qualified for exemption now say they are unexpectedly being charged the $2 fee with no warning or explanation.
Exempt will be sellers who manage their order fulfillment through a third-party Bonanza-approved API partner (for example, Shipstation), sellers who obtain and fulfill their inventory through a dropshipper service (for example, Doba), and sellers who ship from outside the United States*.
I have the same issue with them. I was notified back in November I was exempt since I used Shippingeasy which I still am and yesterday with no warning I got hit with $38 in shipping label assessment fees they charged on my card. I have opened several cases and they aren’t getting back to me other than a boiler-plate text reply with a link to their shipping policy. Something is definitely not right.
I got hit with a $52 charge. Same deal — ShipStation through PayPal & told everything was right as rain. Well… I guess they no longer want the $100 & change I legitimately send their way each year. I know I am small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but why would they gouge us?
I had opted out 2.00 shipping fee with and approved vendor Shipstation, Setting was checked Noticed setting was changed back [URL removed]
I ship my own inventory and understand that a mandatory, non-refundable shipping label assessment of $2.00 will be added to my billing statement for each order that does not have a shipping label purchased through Bonanza.
I had checked and confirmed this [URL removed]. My inventory shipments are fulfilled by a third party dropshipping service. Name of dropshipping service – Shipstation
So today notice 2.00 shipping Fees X 4 charged to my card. So Now they can change your settings and charge you the 2.00 fee?
Thank you for letting us know to check our settings. Mine also was changed and my card charged. Never would I have thought they would go behind our backs and change booth settings in order to take money.
Curiously, Bonanza has changed the example image provided on their shipping support page, suggesting this was an intentional change from their previous promise to allow exemptions for other API shipping programs as well as drop shipping programs.
When we wrote about this issue back in November, Bonanza's help page showed this example with two distinct options - one for dropshipping service and one for shipping label API partner name.
As of today, that same page now shows an example with dropshipping service only - there is no option for shipping label partner.
That example picture of course could have possibly just been oddly cropped, but a quick look at the actual booth settings confirms there is no longer an option to enter an API shipping partner.
Other sellers pointed out the removal of the option after another seller said Bonanza support claimed the was problem was with API tokens.
This is getting to be a system-wide issue it appears. They are having token issues between the shipping software vendors and themselves and they are trying to blame the sellers as they hit them with unexpected shipping fee assessments. This was their support reply to me about it today -
“Contact your third party partner and request they renew the token authorization for your booth. It is quick and easy for the API authorization to be renewed. Once renewed and the API connected, the assessment fee is exempted.”
We as sellers have nothing to do with token management, this is their problem to correct. Also notice they have said nothing about refunding the charges they have already improperly made on sellers which for me was $38 yesterday.
I don’t think that’s the issue, since the option to opt out disappeared except for dropshippers. I guess I will have to have to get my bank involved...
...the option was there 2 days ago. So anything charged for shipping done before that is stealing!
We reached out to Bonanza for comment to clarify if this is a technical issue with API token or if in fact they have changed their policies to no longer exempt sellers who use approved API shipping partners and will update as soon as we have more information.
Let us know in the comments below if you were charged fees from Bonanza without notice and if your booth settings no longer allow the option to enter a shipping partner name!
