No More Flat Rate Shipping Soon Episode 96

https://linktr.ee/KarriKennedy

Whatnot announced shipping changes and called it a 20% savings. I am calling it what it is. Flat rate is gone no earlier than August 1st, free boxes are gone with it, and if you ship anything over five pounds the math is not in your favor. Then September 1st hits and every buyer complaint is yours to handle in two business days or Whatnot pulls the refund straight from your balance. I break down the real numbers, the $20 carrier fee you cannot afford to trigger, and what you need to do before August. Read the fine print. The spin cycle is real.

#WhatnotSeller #WhatnotShipping #FlatRateShipping #GroundAdvantage #SellerProvidedSupport #WhatnotPolicy #LiveSelling #WhatnotLive #ResellerCommunity #ShippingTips #SmallBusinessOwner #KarriKennedy #WhyNotWhatnot

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hey there guys. I hope everybody is doing really well. I am uh coming to you with another episode. I think I'm just gonna call it the spin cycle. Um, I just I feel like I'm giving you dirty laundry from like that 80s uh song. Um, but whatnot shipping announcement is what we're gonna be talking about. And I think that, you know, some people who are so 100% pro Whatnot, no matter what they do, they're not gonna like that I give it the truth and and speak what it actually is and how it plays out. Um, they can spin it any way they like it. But when you read the fine print, and if you're in a certain category, it isn't good news. They're gonna spin it like everything they do is good, good, good. It's wonderful. You're gonna be so grateful, you're gonna be so happy. But the reality is no. So when the when the shipping announcement dropped, I the first thing I thought is, oh gosh, here we go again. And why are you getting rid of something that was working? That you know, sellers have built their entire shipping workflow around, and it has been working for a lot of people for a long time. So why are you fixing something that's not broken? And really, I think at the end of the day, it comes down to USPS having issues with keep raising their cost and then whatnot, wanting money because they were dealing with you know having to pay for everything. So I'm gonna mention that again in here, too. Um, just be even though I've done another episode on it, just in case you didn't hear that episode. Um, but basically, um right now people have a system that works and it's going to happen. They say no earlier than August 1st, which is still, once again, they're very big into ambiguity. Um, you know, with a lot of things, you know, you do this wrong, boom, this is happening. It's just it's very non-specific on things, and then it'll just come down like a hammer, and you're like, what? What what happened here? So here is what they said on they published this, right? June 25th, 26th. They said start quote, starting in ear in early August 2026, shipping cost for USPS packages between one and five pounds will decrease for USPS. I mean, for US sellers and buyers. Okay. Now, that sentence is saying a lot, right? It's saying it's starting in early August, and it's also saying between one and five pounds, which we've had this conversation before. The the one pound to five pound thing, whatnot does that, even though it's not completely accurate, because a flat rate box can hold up to 70 pounds, and we know that. And you can send more than five pounds. So I think they do that because they worked out a deal with USPS to say, hey, we we would rather have light power light boxes in this, which is really stupid, but you can definitely put up a higher amount in those flat rate. I do it all the time, people do it all the time, but it all this is mute because they're changing it, they're basically getting rid of the flat rate boxes, okay? Anyways, it says, um, this is what I wrote. That's not a guarantee. It does not apply to every package, and it leaves a lot of information out. But the headline, once again, is quote starting in early August, shipping cost for USPS packages between one and five pounds will decrease for US sellers and buyers. So it's this language. I mean, I'm sure they have lawyers. How they decide to frame these and write these, I think is purposely ambiguous. Um, just so that, you know, they can make it sound better or get you excited. I'll get into that in a bit here. But um, here's what's basically changing. Okay, so right now, whatnot flat rate shipping covers packages from one to 70 pounds as long as it fits in the flat rate box. Okay, that's one price. The weight doesn't matter, the distance doesn't matter. You ship it. Oh, it's a $40, I mean 40-pound bundle, and you send it to Maine from Texas, it you know, that's fine. Or a three-pound item to the town or you know, city next to me or whatever. It's the same cost to you, no matter what. It's $9.21 for flat rate right now. That's how it goes. So I can literally take a flat rate box, I can put whatever weight in there. I mean, I've I've put 25-30 pounds in a flat rate box before, sent it to I don't know where Idaho or Illinois or wherever, and it's gonna cost you 921 no matter what. I am doing consults for people left and right, and they're asking questions. You know, I'm thinking about starting on whatnot. And honestly, my latest advice was wait, wait until this all, you know, wait till September. And I know that's like sometimes you'd be like, oh yeah, start. It's gonna be great. Um, it's not, things are not great right now. They might be great for a few people here and there. Some people might be making, you know, tons of money, and you might be in raid trains, and you might be able to, you know, you've you've got a hundred thousand, you know, followers and you're selling one dollar items, and you have, you know, 800 people in every show. That is not the average of a whatnot person. In fact, I was scrolling through the other day, just seeing people that I follow, my people, and it was insane. I I think it was like Thursday, and people would have one person in their room, maybe eight people in their room, seven people in their room. It was horrible. I was just scrolling. I was like, what in the world? People that are awesome sellers that are selling great items are not getting enough people in the room. And it's not because they don't have good items, it's not because they're not good prices, it's not because they're not kicking ass and doing their very best, it's because of the algorithm. There's so many people and they're sending them to whoever can get them the highest dollar price, right? So even if I've got great items and I'm selling them for a dollar a piece, my standing right now is good because I tried to give money away. So that's messing up the algorithm. And if I'm selling them for a dollar a piece with 921 shipping, but the highest the bid gets to is let's say eight dollars, well, they're getting a cut of eight dollars. Whereas if somebody's holding up something in another category and they're on all the time and they're holding up an item that's the exact same item, exact same item. They have four or five hundred people in the room. That item is gonna go for more, period. Point blank. I guarantee you, if you don't know this, spend some time on whatnot. That's how it works. So there are a lot of really amazing sellers trying to do the exact same thing that the big sellers are doing, and they're basically getting shafted by the algorithm because people don't see them, they're seeing the higher, the higher ones, and it's it's a sad situation. And now with the shipping and the customer service thing that I'm gonna get to, it's going to make it more difficult. They're not making things better for sellers, they're making it worse for sellers, and they're not consulting sellers on, hey, what do you think about this? We're gonna do this. There, that's not happening, it's coming down to their pocketbook and their money. And I am all about, I'm a Republican, guys. I'm a conservative. I am all for big business and for growth. And I'm fine with them making lots of money and making decisions about money. What I'm not fine with is them not having the integrity and the balls to say it upright. Like the reason we're doing this is because we want money. Instead, they're spinning it and saying, Oh, this is gonna be great for all of you. It isn't. It isn't going to be great for all of us. It's going to be great for some of us, and they should have the balls and not be so ambiguous and put the language out there like the truth, like what it is. And you know, it's a business. They're gonna want to keep up their image and their appearance. That's fine. But you know, say what it is is really where I'm at. Um, but that's just me. Um, after August 1st, the system, well, it should be sometime, it'll be after sometime. We don't know when. The system is gone on whatnot. So if you have a bunch of flat rate boxes, yeah, well, I I'll get to that in a minute. Um, US, here's what it says on the help center quote USPS flat rate shipping and flat rate packaging will no longer be supported on whatnot. For me, this is a pain in the butt. I'm just gonna say, and I think I have this in my notes down below, but basically, whenever I have had a box that we accidentally got or we decided to change and we didn't want it anymore, if I've taken those boxes to the post office, they tell me, no, no, no, you can't leave that here. And then I'm like, well, where am I supposed to take it? And they're like, we don't have room for it. We don't want it. That's two post offices by me. Now, maybe your situation is different, but for me, that's the case. So if I don't get rid of all these flat rate boxes by whenever this actually comes to fruition, let's say it's August 15th, who knows when? Whenever that happens, I'm gonna be stuck with a lot of extra boxes. And I, you know, I don't know. Maybe I'll end up using them inside of boxes because the post office won't take them back. I I don't, I don't know what I'll do. Um, but that's a frustration for me. Um, ground advantage becomes the default for everything that you have been doing. So you still can do priority, um, but ground is what you're gonna be using instead of that. And here's how it breaks down, okay? So packages under a pound move um to this new pricing that they have, right? So there's no zones or distant factors, okay? Whatnot has published expected rates, and here's what they are, okay. This is what it says. Under four ounces will be four dollars and 47 cents, under eight ounces will be four dollars and eighty-nine cents, under 12 ounces will be 525, and under 16 ounces will be 657. Now, if you guys haven't figured this out, okay, it doesn't matter where these items are going. So just stop and think about this for a second. If if the item is 16 ounces, it's gonna be 657. Okay, 16 ounces, that's one pound. So instead of you being able to put 25 pounds in a box and get it there for 921, now you get one pound for 657. Do you see that? So if you pack lightweight, they're saying that this is good news because you know it's a flat rate. But the flat rate is very, very specific. Four ounces is 447, eight is 489, 12 is 525, 16 is 657. So yeah, you know if you're selling jewelry or you know, Pokemon cards or whatever, what that's going to be, but it's still not a great deal because most people buy more than 16 ounces across the board. Okay, so packages between one and five pounds. This is what they said, five and twenty five pounds move to new ground advantage rate of 720. Now you're like, wait, Carrie, that's great. 720 is cheaper than the current rate of 921. And that's where their quote price of 20% savings comes from. I actually should do the math. I didn't, um, I it's not exactly 20%, whatever. Anyways, for items that weigh in that range between like one and five, it's supposed to go down to 720. So you're like, woo, yay! Everybody's gonna save two bucks. Okay, that's not gonna be the case because here we go. Packages over five pounds are where things change significantly. Because once again, some people thought you could only put up to five pounds in a flat rate. That was never true. You could put more, actually, up to 70 pounds, okay? 70. Those shipments, okay, so anything over five pounds now are going to be called considered commercial rates with USPS. And that is going to be based on weight and distance. So here's the here's the thing. Whatnot says it directly in their help thing, it says sellers who previously used flat rate for packages over five pounds may see higher shipping cost. There, there's there's no um guys. This is the language that I'm talking about. They may see, are you kidding? You're gonna see it. Don't even I this isn't uh, oh yeah, maybe so. You're gonna see it. There is no cap, no flat fee, there's no safety net, there's no weight and zone determine the price. So it doesn't what the way we had it was awesome. Everybody loved flat rate. It was the greatest thing since sliced bread. We lived it up, it was wonderful. But like I have a friend who was about to start selling clothes here. When I first did a consultation with her, I was like, oh, you definitely should use flat rate if you're selling clothes. Flat rate's where it's at. That's the best way to do it. Now, flat rate's gone. You know, what is that gonna look like? I sold clothes on here. I sold so many clothes on here that I had to pack big, big coats and jeans and dresses and shirts and everything in a 14 by 14 by 14 package, and I had to use the air compression things that you get, you know, to put in your suitcase when you're traveling or whatever from Walmart. You guys I've done episodes on this, but they're like cubes and you suck the air out. So I have I've I've done this and in the big, and when you do that in big, big ones that aren't like you know the flat rate, it cost a lot more money, depend especially depending on where. The other day I had a show and I had some some um oh crate and barrel bowls. It was a set of nesting bowls for the kitchen, and it cost four, it was 14 pounds. And I said to the lady, where is it going to? Because I was doing a 921 shipping, and I said, Where is it going to? And she said, South Carolina. Well, I'm in Texas. The second she said South Carolina, I was like, Okay, I can run it, but I don't have enough people in my room that this is gonna get bit up, and I need to charge you $30 instead of $25 because I'm gonna have to cover that extra fee. She was totally fine with it, and we and she ended up not getting them, but that's beside the point. The the at the end of the day, though, it's going to matter where it's going to, and it it should, obviously. Like, you know, it's harder to get from me to Washington than it is to go from Texas to Louisiana. That makes complete sense. More hands, more moving it, more space in the trucks. I get that. I totally do. But to sit here and say that we're somehow, oh, this is gonna be a great thing because you're saving money because now we're taking flat rate away, that's bullshit. I mean, sorry, guys, that is just bull. Um, so, anyways, okay, priority mail is not going away. Whatnot says you still have that as an optional service. It's gonna cost more than ground advantage, of course. Um, and it's gonna arrive like a day earlier. So for sellers who have to do fast delivery or whatever, it might be food or whatever, you're probably gonna want to stick with priority mail. And I that makes sense. Okay, fine. And I think all that stays the same. Um, whatnot says most sellers will not need to change any settings. That I don't buy. I don't buy that at all. Um, ground advantage flips on automatically when the change goes live. Uh oh, we won't have to change settings in there. Okay, so yeah, we won't have to because it's automatically gonna be, you don't have a flat rate option anymore, is what they're saying. Um, so you have to watch for that notification. And I'll whenever that day actually happens in August, I'll I'll put it here too, obviously. Okay, so here's what the announcement did not say that I want you guys to consider because to me, this is where it all makes sense. Um, sellers who have done their whole entire business model and their workflow with using flat rate, and they have them piled up, and and that's how they do this all day, every day, right? They they arrive at your door, there's no charge for them, you ship them, it's great. Well, that's not gonna happen anymore. So now you are going to have to buy your own boxes. And you guys who don't haven't gone out of that area before, there's an added cost right there. And that is huge. I used to spend, well, it depends on where I am and how many how many shows I'm having. But when I very first started on here, I would spend about $250 or so roughly on shipping materials. The more I sold, and when I had big shows and whatever, I was, you know, between boxes and tissue and paper and bubble wrap and packing tape and saran wrap and all of that around $850. $850. So you're not getting free boxes anymore. That is going to be a cost. And if you're saving $2 according to them, which you're really not, you're going to have to go buy a box. For me, I buy good boxes. I don't go to Walmart and buy cheap boxes. So you're now my boxes are for that size around three bucks. So for me alone, just my own personal, I'm not getting flat rate delivered to my door. I'm going to have to buy a bigger, nicer box. I'm going to have to drive there. I'm going to have to pick it up and I'm going to have to bring it back. And on top of that, you're going to have to get different, more different sizes, right? To fit it the right size. And think about that because you want the smallest size, because now you're also going to have to keep track of all of your measurements and and put all this in. That's happening too. I don't have that. Let me make sure I go through my notes because I don't want to skip anything. Okay, so, but ground advantage is going to require planned packaging. You've got to have your own boxes, your mailers, all that. Um, it says this is uh whatnot says it right here. It says, um, let me find it. The free priority mail and flat rate boxes from USPS are for priority mail services only. They have never been approved for ground advantage. Okay, so that that is true. So do not, and I repeat, do not ever, ever, ever, and we've talked about this before. Don't ever put the wrong, you can't put like a ground box uh label on a priority. And you can't, you know, we're not gonna have flat rate anymore, but you always have to be careful, right? So you can still have the priority mail, um, but make sure it's the priority label with it, okay? Because you can get in a lot of um, I'm gonna get to that in a second. They're gonna start charging way more if you screw that up. Okay, hold on. So if you ship with ground advantage, use your own plain packaging. Do not ever use flat rate or priority again if you're using ground advantage. Now, if you ship with priority, uh, you can always use brown boxes or white boxes or whatever, and you can get these um stickers that you can get from the post office and it can say priority on it. So if you guys didn't know that, you can mail priority in a brown box, just get those stickers so that they see it. So when they're going through really fast with all these things, that your box doesn't get put in ground. It gets put in priority and it goes fast. It's just helping the post office out. And I personally put like three stickers on it. Okay. Now, whatnot puts a warning in bold on their whole on their help center, and it says using flat rate or priority mail packaging with a ground advantage label may listen to this, guys, may result in a carrier fee of up to $20. Ding ding ding. Guys, your fees are going up. You are gonna be charged some serious amounts if you screw this up. So pay attention. This isn't a separate bill. You're not getting a notice through the mail. They are going to take it straight from your balance. Um, I've had um consultations before where people are like, it says I'm a negative $400, and I'm like, wait. What do you mean you're a negative $400? Upon looking, they had sent the wrong package like this and whatnot, took the money out of their account. So they had to make it up to keep going. So they will just deduct it from even if it goes into the negative. Okay. So if you have 10 packages that are wrong, that's 200 bucks. You have 20 packages that are wrong, that's $400. They're not going to give you a warning, guys. They're not going to say, whoop, whoop, whoop. Nope. They don't give real great warnings here, guys. If you do something wrong, boom, you're you're gonna feel the pain. Um, so the flat rate boxes that have been stacking up, you cannot you cannot really return them. Um, I don't think you can. I personally have tried this with other boxes, and I can't. I'll try it again, I'll let you know. Um, but that's the case. You're stuck with a bunch of boxes, and so I highly suggest if that's where you're at and you're at a time crunch, start putting everything on flat rate and get rid of those boxes before this happens. Okay, so here's the math. We're gonna go through it real quick. So they're saying that you're gonna get 20% savings. That's their headline. Look, guys, we're saving you money. Bullshit. Um, right now you pay 921 for any package of one to 70 pounds in flat rate. The box is free and your all-in cost is 921, no matter what the box is and where it's going. I highly suspect. Well, I guarantee there will not be shows like mine where it's 921 free shipping. You know what I'm saying? That's just not gonna happen because, well, first of all, there is no 921 anymore. And why would anybody do that? Because now you're gonna be caught with who knows what, unless it's a small, small, right? I guess you could still do something like that if you're selling something small. Um, but for me, in vintage, estate sales, garage sale, that type stuff, there's no way. I mean, it's just I would unless I'm having like a miniature to show or something like that. Okay, so after August 1st, the label uh for a one to five pound package, not up to 70 now, five pound package, goes to 720. They um that is real savings on the label, but now your free box is gone, so you're gonna have to pay for that. Maybe you guys are getting boxes at amazing prices somewhere. For me, it's gonna be a minimum of 250. So I'm paying more automatically for me. Um, you are buying your own boxes, so you've got to drive there, you've got to plan it, you've got to measure it, you've got to figure it all out. What um whatever that you know cost is gonna be more for you for sellers who ship lightweight in poly math mailers, the math is probably gonna work in your favor because poly mailers are really cheap, plastic, you know, plastic kind of thing. Um, and so if you were relying on flat rate boxes for your shipments before, you could probably put them in poly mailers. Personally, I when I did sell clothes, I even put the poly mailer inside, like the plastic inside the flat rate because I wanted it to have a better look. I wanted it to be safer, I didn't want it to get ripped. I mean, I've had all kinds of terrible experiences purchasing from people on whatnot where they just cram it in there and it's all wrinkled and it doesn't look good. Personally, I if I was gonna sell nice clothes on here, I would not use a poly mailer. Um, that's just me. I would use tissue and a nice box and a cute little, you know, um label and and all of that. Um, I used a little sticker to put the tissue together. I made it look really good. Some people just don't do that. But that if you're gonna use a poly mailer, that's gonna save you money. I think that that will work. For packages over five pounds, the math flips entirely. So a seller who's been shipping a 15-pound bundle of books or collectibles in a large flat rate box for $9.21. I have done this before. Um, you're about to start paying commercial rates and you're gonna pay for the distance, and it's not a minor adjustment, it is significant, and there's gonna be significant cost for people who sell heavy stuff right now. I mean, you still have media mail. So, I mean, as long as everything is media mail, that's still gonna be, you know, okay, and you're still not having to put that in flat rate. So um, here's the point whatnot has negotiated, has not negotiated free plain packaging for sellers the way other platforms have. Sellers on whatnot are on their own with their own boxes, and that cost is gonna come up, and they don't factor that in at all, and they should have. Um, the 20% savings headlines leaves an entire category of real cost that every seller is going to be absorbing, and buyers are gonna feel this, they're gonna feel it because if they're buying stuff and they're used to getting these flat rate boxes to their house and they're only paying $921, guess what? That's not gonna happen anymore. So, you know, I know that inflation happens, I know that costs go up, but people on whatnot, they want things cheap, they want them for a dollar, they want free shipping. I mean, there's a lot of competition, and I think that um they're gonna they're gonna see this, they're gonna feel it. So I'm interested to see how that pans out when whatnot thinks they're saving money. Are they really gonna be saving money when as many people aren't gonna be buying? I don't know. Maybe they're growing so fast, they've taken that into consideration. I don't know. Um, but now you're gonna have to store more boxes, you're gonna have to go buy your boxes. This is not free. You are not saving money, guys. Okay, so learning the new shipping profiles. If you ship heavier items or varied sizes, you're going to have to check all that and make sure you know what you're doing before August 1st. I highly say that you should do that. Whatnot recommends using custom shipping profiles with bundle limits to keep your shipments at under five pounds. So you really are at under five pounds now. Checking weights accurately, it says WhatNot's help center specifically calls out that accurate weights will be more important once flat rate is removed because the system is no large longer charging the flat rate fee, regardless of whatever's in the box. So you're gonna have to change your workflow, and all your years of doing the same thing is all gonna be changed overnight, and you're gonna have to adapt to this whole thing. Um, so, anyways, um, what do you need to do? Basically, go through all your fat rate boxes uh and figure out your priority if you want to go with priority or not. Um, you're gonna have to go into your shipping set settings in the seller hub and you're gonna have to verify your item weights, and everything's gonna have to be accurate. You're gonna have to go in and make sure it's accurate. Otherwise, you could get hit with fees if you do things wrong. Um, let me see. You should also maybe consider if you're a big person, you know, and you you sell a lot and you want to make sure, maybe consider doing a private show um just to test your setup and the transactions and whatever, have some friends on the other side, whatever, and do a private show like that with for friends or family. Okay, media mail is not affected by this. Let me just say that first class mail letter um for trading cards, sports cards, stickers, all that is also not changed. Um, but it goes up four cents July 12th. Four cents, not that big of a deal. So that happens. Um, so these changes apply only to United States Postal Service. This is not international sellers either. So there I've said all that. Okay, so here's the bigger pattern, and this is what I've already talked about. This happens September 1st. Another thing I would just like to say is if you're gonna give us a bunch of changes, do it all at once. So we're not sitting here going, gee, August, this happens, September, this happens. Okay, November, this happens. It's like change, change, change, change, change. And we're constantly having to spin this plate, adjust this, change this. I would rather it all be done in one foul swoop because it's exhausting to have to cheat keep up with all of these. But here's here's the thing that's happening September 1st. Um, this is the other thing. It's it's not all what I just said, that is not the big thing. Um, you a seller provided support, they're calling it SPS. I talked about this in another episode. It becomes mandatory September 1st. So let's think about this. This other shipping thing where we get rid of flat rate, that might end up happening, I don't know, August 15th, August 20th. And then boom, now you're into you're doing all of your customer support. And this is gonna be huge because when a buyer has an issue with an order after the date of September 1st, everything is gonna come directly to you, not to whatnot. Um, you have two business days to respond, so that is huge. You even if you're you know, I don't know, you're gonna have to just be constantly checking it. Weekends and holidays do not count towards that window, of course, just like they never have, but you've got two business days. Um, and if you do not respond to whatever the problem is or the issue is, whatnot, may just issue a refund and pull the cost directly from your account. They're just gonna be like, oh, well, she didn't respond in two days. That, you know, $400 purse here, here's your money back. That's scary, you know. You're gonna, I mean, it that is, and they're not paying you to take over all of the customer support and do all of that. You're not getting any kind of reimbursement for doing all the work that they used to do when you signed up. You're doing it for nothing. And on top of that, your SPS performance, right? Um, your seller-provided support is what they're calling it, um, and how you respond and how quickly you get back to them is going to be evaluated as part of the premiere shop eligibility, right? So to become a premiere shop, if you want to do that, you have to keep a great or excellent support rating. Um, uh, I think it's 95%. Um, at 95%. So let's say you get to six percent of people are upset with you, boom. That's changing the whole way your status on your shop is. So um, whatnot announced the seller provided support as giving sellers more ownership and saying, hey guys, look at we're letting you have this job. Yay! Once again, they're spinning everything, like it is so great, it is so wonderful, and the reality is not the case. In fact, a friend of mine, I won't say who it is, she had an issue just recently. She bought like a $200 purse. It was packaged wrong. I guess it got messed up. It was messed up inside, whatever. She reached out to the seller. The seller didn't want to refund her money. She went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Finally, after a long, you know, pain in the butt, whatnot, finally helped and did a good job. But it was very stressful, it was just unnecessary. They could have done a better job. And instead of whatnot, upping their game on customer support, they're giving it to you like, hey, you get to deal with it and making it sound like um it's such a wonderful thing. So um, yeah, and then if you don't do it exactly right how you're supposed to do it, you're gonna get, you know, in trouble too. So um there's also another thing. Um one more change worth knowing effective June 1st, um, whatnot quietly removed the quality listing rate as a quantification metric for premiere shop program. It's not a big deal, but it did change. So you don't have a quality listing rate in the premiere shop program. I don't think I ever want to be in a premiere shop just because of the I won't get into that right now, but that's not my goal. I know some people want that and they like it, but the amount of savings that you get for doing that and how much you have to sell and keep up with, I'm just not there now. Maybe in another two, three years, if things change and get better, I might be there. I I don't know. Um, but shipping costs drop 20%. Sounds like great news until you've read the whole page. At the end of the day, they make it sound like, you know, oh yeah, this is how it's going down. But we know the real story. Same thing with SPS, seller-provided support. It sounds like you've got empowerment and you get to deal with it. Yay, you. But when you realize what's actually happening, it's very frustrating. So their headlines say part of the story, you all need to be reading the fine print and really thinking about what that looks like. Okay, one more thing. Um, and then I'm I'm done. I was in a show, I it was, I think it was my show, and somebody came in and she was like, Um, there's 1,500 whatnot employees who buy and sell on this platform and they're policing bad behavior. That's what this girl came in and said. And I was like, what? No, I don't think I I didn't want to say I think I call Bull on that, but basically that's in my mind. I was like, I'm gonna add this to an episode. That number is whatnot's total employee headcount, roughly. We don't know for sure, but that's probably how many employees they have, and that's like all the different kinds of employees, like you know, their lawyers, their CEO, the uh, you know, accountants, the everything. That is not an enforcement squad who is on whatnot 24-7 going into shows. And this is just gossip, guys. It's rumor, it's not true. Do not believe that. That is not true. Um, whatnot has um confirmed that every Whatnot employee is actually required to buy and sell on the platform as part of their job. That part is true. They even get a certain spending amount, and so that's that's lovely, that's wonderful. Um, I think that would be really fun. Um, but I'm where I'm at right now is just because they can buy and sell on the platform doesn't mean they're running around going, oh, I'm the police officer and I'm gonna monitor and I'm gonna. I mean, maybe they do call out things here and there, but to act like there's 1,500 people on whatnot and 24-7 policing you, that's not true. Okay. Um, what is confirmed is that, okay, da da da. Okay, hold on, where am I? Um, so yeah, one of those employees could be in your show any given day buying and selling, and they could call you out, but I I just want you to know that is not a true fact, that is rumor. Um, but bad information spreads fast in seller communities. So check your facts before you go around, especially saying them. I mean, I don't know who this girl was, I don't remember her name. I can't go back and and tell her, but I I mean I I think you should know the facts before you do it. Also, um, yeah, I think that's it. So, guys, if this was beneficial to you in any way, form, or shape, if you're learning things here, if you're getting ideas, if you're getting information, if you are finding this educational and informative, please go and share it with others. Also, give me a five-star review on Apple Podcast because the haters that don't like me giving this information out, they never give me a review, they just give me a one star. So I I once again call you guys out, give a review, explain why. Is it because I'm telling the truth here? I'm thinking that's it. So I'm okay with that. Um, also, you can call or text 832-607-1526. If you think I've said something wrong, if you have an issue, give me a call. I'm happy to talk to you. Also, you can text me to do a 30-minute consultation for just $20. Um, this episode, you know, is one of a ton. I think this is episode like 96 or something. There are a lot of episodes previous, and I'm now, once I get to like 100 episodes, I'm probably gonna make like a whatnot guide book or something. I actually pay $125 a month for this podcast. And unless I start getting some money back for this somehow, um, I'm not gonna keep the podcast up anymore because I'm just giving money and information away for free. And that's totally fine. I'm happy to do it right now, but I don't know if I'm gonna do that forever. So I might um make this book, which would be like a guidebook with my ideas, my suggestions, my opinions, my advice, and uh try to get that out instead. Um, okay, that's it. I'm sorry for the bad news, guys. Who knows what else they're gonna come with? But I can pretty much guarantee you the way that they're gonna send it is everything's gonna be just great. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love it. And uh, it's wonderful and it's a benefit for you when in reality it might not be. I hate to say it, but it is what it is. So I have a show tomorrow, Sunday morning at 10 o'clock. I actually really need to sell a bunch of my stuff. I'm looking around my house. I'm gonna clean today, I'm gonna go through my clothes and my purses and my room and just a bunch of stuff. And I'm gonna have a show and we'll see how it goes. Um, I because my rating is in good instead of excellent, because I gave money away, um, I'm definitely not getting the traffic. And I see it across the board. Um, people like myself that are hard workers who are going in and just giving great prices, great items, and we're doing our best, we're just not getting the numbers. And I I feel like this needs to be something that Whatnot addresses and really looks at. How are they doing it? And I think that the Whatnot monster is gonna want as much money as possible, so they're gonna keep funneling people into these big shows where the same item can go for more money because more money means more money for them. And I get it, I understand it. If I was the business owner of whatnot, I would want more money too. The problem with that is it's lacking the integrity and the equal distribution, you know, to give people a chance. And I think that's the the hard part. When I saw it when I was scrolling through on Thursday and I was looking at the numbers of people in rooms, it just my friends, just whatever. I was like, oh my gosh. And no, I did not go into the room and and say hi when you only had two or three people in there. And I wasn't I'm trying not to spend as much money right now. So, um, anyways, that's it. I hope you guys have a great day. We'll talk to you later. Bye bye.