This article describes the shipping options available to auction houses when using atgPay, as well as information on shipping fees.
This article contains the following sections:
- Shipping Options
- Shipping Fees
- Adding Shipping Fees to a Paid Invoice
- Bidder Impact
- Viewing Bidder Shipping Details
- When to Ship/Release Items
Shipping Options
Auction houses have three shipping options available under Payment & Terms:
- Bidder-Arranged: The bidder agrees to arrange shipping via either a common third-party shipping service (ex. DHL, FedEx or Truckline) or a private service (ex. TaskRabbit or a hired individual). Bidders will have the option of selecting either "Common Carrier" or "Private Carrier" during checkout.
- House-Arranged: The auction house will ship the items to the winning bidding. If shipping fees were applied to the event, they will be automatically included at checkout.
- Local pickup: The bidder agrees to collect all items directly- whether that be from the sale location, the auction house, or the address where the lot is being stored- in accordance with the event's Terms of Sale.
At least one of the above options must be selected. Selecting multiple options will give the bidder those options to select from during checkout.
Specific shipping details should be entered into the Shipping Instructions and Shipper Addresses fields under the event's Payment & Terms page.
Specific pickup details should be entered into the Checkout Date & Times field under the event's Payment & Terms page.
Shipping Fees
Shipping Fees can be applied at the lot level or at the invoice level, if needed.
- If the bidder selects House-Arranged, any shipping fees that have been applied to the event will be automatically calculated and displayed on the invoice. Additional shipping fees can be applied to the invoice, if needed.
- If the bidder selects Local Pickup or Bidder-Arranged, any shipping fees that were entered at the lot or invoice level will be removed from the bidder's invoice and checkout page.
Lot Level Shipping Fees
Shipping fees can be entered under the event's Listing page. When creating a new event, an auction company's default fees will display. Once the event has been saved, those fees can be edited as needed. For existing events, fees can be viewed/edited by clicking on the Listing link at the bottom of the auction event on the Dashboard.
Shipping fees entered here will be applied to each lot and will be automatically added to the bidder's invoice. For additional information regarding fees, see Taxes, Fees and Premiums.
These lot level shipping fees can also be manually edited on the invoice prior to sending or re-sending it to the bidder.
Invoice Level Shipping Fees
If lot level shipping fees are not added to the event, invoice level shipping fees can be added to the invoice under the Totals section prior to sending or re-sending the invoice to the buyer.
Adding Shipping Fees to a Paid Invoice
Shipping fees can be added to a paid invoice by clicking the Add New Charge to Invoice button on the paid invoice. For more information, see the 'Adding Fees to a Paid Invoice' section of the atgPay: Invoicing help article.
Bidder Impact
When bidders click to pay from their email invoice, they will be promoted to login to their Proxibid account.
Here they will see the bidder checkout with the shipping method(s) available, depending on which shipping methods were selected on the event's Payment & Terms page.
If there are multiple options available, they will be prompted to select a shipping method.
Shipping fees will be automatically removed from the invoice if the bidder selects Local Pickup or one of the Bidder-Arranged shipping methods ('self-arranged shipping- common carrier' or 'self-arranged shipping- private carrier') during checkout.
If the bidder selects House-Arranged, or House-Arranged is the only shipping method available, shipping fees that were added to the invoice will be automatically included on the checkout page.
Bidders also have the option to edit their shipping address on the checkout page, prior to paying.
For more details regarding the bidder checkout experience, see atgPay: Shipping.
Viewing Bidder Shipping Details
Auction houses can view a bidder's shipping method by clicking on the Invoice link at the bottom of the auction event on the Dashboard.
Click the Click here to view sent invoice link to view a list of all the invoices that have been sent. (The unsent invoices page will not display shipping details.)
The Shipping Method column will display the shipping method the bidder selected during checkout.
Clicking the Edit link to the right of the invoice will open the invoice. If the bidder selected Local Pickup, or Local Pickup is the only shipping method available, the top of the invoice will display "Local Pickup".
If the bidder selected Bidder-Arranged or House-Arranged the top of the invoice will display the bidder's shipping address.
Editing Bidder Shipping Address and Method
If the invoice has not yet been paid and the auction house is planning on initiating payment themselves, they should first confirm/update the bidder's Shipping Address and Shipping Method on the invoice. For more information, see atgPay: Auctioneer Initiated Payments.
Reports
The Winning Bidders report will also indicate which shipping method a bidder selected.
If the bidder selected Bidder-Arranged or House-Arranged the Winning Bidder report will display the bidder's shipping address.
If the bidder selected Local Pickup, or Local Pickup is the only shipping method available, the Winning Bidder report will display "Local Pickup".
When to Ship/Release Items
The items will be safe to ship/release when the transaction status is “Settled". Settled indicates that the process of transferring funds between the cardholder and your payment processing account is now completed, and the money is now part of your Available Balance.
Payments made via bank transfer (ACH) will take longer to appear as "Settled" than credit card payments.