Problem with free shipping....

[westernstargifts]

I am not sure what to do with a buyer who purchased and paid for 2 items and bid on a 3rd which ended 2 days later. The 3rd item had "free shipping" while the others did not.

I sent the info a couple of times and then finally emailed her and politely told her that I have been holding her other order to ship with this one when paid. She has never responded and it is now 7 days since she won the auction.

If I had known she was going to take so long to pay, I would have shipped the first order immediately. Now I am afraid if I send it without the 3rd purchase that she will nail me for "shipping time" in DSR's.

So should I go ahead and mail the order or send a refund and combine the 3rd item with the others? It seems silly to refund when I have payment for the 1st order and I really don't care about the 3rd item which is just a small purchase. I just don't want a neg for slow shipping and want to protect myself.

I am wondering if she wants to make sure she actually gets "free shipping". I have another buyer now who has done the same thing but it has only been 2 days so the buyer may still pay for the second item.

Any advice or input would be appreciated. Thanks.

Judy

[coxengines]

Judy,

We run "free shipping" sales periodically.

When a buyer purchases multiple items, of which one is "free" shipping, the items with shipping costs are invoiced with the reduced, combined, shipping rate.

When everything is paid for, we ship. Buyers are usually surprised (and grateful) that they only have to pay the reduced shipping cost on the other items.

Don't know how you handle combined shipping when one item is "free" but if your buyer is not responding and has paid for full shipping on the other items, just ship them.

Make sure you duplicate your communications via eBay messaging as a surprising amount of mail sent through a proprietary client is caught in spam filters - "Gmail is notorious for that.

Xena

[jewelry_quest]

Hello;
I would go ahead and ship the first 2 items separately after all they are already paid for by the buyer. I would hold off on shipping the 3rd item until the buyer does pay for it regardless of the cost or free shipping issue. Once a buyer takes advantage of you like that they will try the same trick over and over again. It's best to nip it in the bud right off the hop. Ship the first 2 items and await payment for the 3rd item. If buyer doesn't pay for the 3rd item put on an item not paid dispute. This often gets the payment to you and if it doesn't close the dispute and the buyer will end up with an item strike but will NOT be able to leave you any feedback because they didn't pay. Hopefully this helped you, don't let buyers get away with not paying after all we sellers can't get away with not paying our fees to Ebay so why should buyers get away without paying?

[westernstargifts]

When a buyer purchases multiple items, of which one is "free" shipping, the items with shipping costs are invoiced with the reduced, combined, shipping rate.


Xena,

The buyer paid for the first items immediately and then bid on the other item so I couldn't send a combined invoice.

And I do send all of my messages through eBay even if they ask me a question by sending it to my personal email address.

I would hold off on shipping the 3rd item until the buyer does pay for it regardless of the cost or free shipping issue.

Jewelry Quest,

I would never ship anything unless it has been paid in full. Since she paid separately, I can ship the first items but she could still ding me for not sending them out sooner.

I think I will go ahead and ship the first order but will hold off on the UID because that would give her the opportunity to neg me twice. Hopefully she is a reasonable person and not some psycho with a chip on her shoulder. I will send a nice note with it telling her I decided to ship so she could get the first items quickly or something along that line.

Thanks to both of you for your input.

Judy

[recped]

Ship all three together, since the third item ships free simply include it with the others.

If you incur no extra mailing cost by adding the third item to the package then discount the shipping charge to the buyer to compensate. In this case it means sending a small refund (the "value" of the free shipping offer).

[westernstargifts]

Ship all three together, since the third item ships free simply include it with the others.

Good idea, recped, but she hasn't paid for the last item which is why I haven't shipped them yet.

[gifts_of_elegance]

I am finding more and more that I have more and more problems since trying to dance to eBay's tunes with Free shipping, a liberal return policy, etc. My search standing has not improved, my DSR rating has not gone up and my satisfaction rating is about the same. I got some discounts on my listing fees but it cost me more than it was worth.

What are we? A pack of dogs fighting to death for dominance and a scrap of reward to be thrown our way?

I am not dancing to this tune anymore.

[lina-mallows]

gifts_of_elegance- BRAVO! You have sen the light!
Ignore eBay's suggestions regarding FREE SHIPPING- and other nonsense, and make the decisions based on your personal experience of what works for you.