Combined Shipping Not Possible

[oldbazaar]

I've had several buyers tell me they couldn't use the combined shipping feature, as their purchases would not go through without them paying. As I do NOT have an immediate payment setting on any item in my store, I enquired further and found that this is an issue with some mobile apps. I advised the buyers to use a PC to shop, but it is inconvenient for them.

Now I have a buyer telling me she can't even add items to her cart on her PC without paying for them individually, here's her exact words:

"Very frustrated, here. I am wanting to purchase multiple items from you, but cannot for the life of me get ebay to drop each chosen item into ONE invoice so I am not charged full shipping charges for each individually invoiced item. They used to have a dedicated button for this. Now there is a select for "add to cart" but when I click it, it doesn't do anything but take me to a page that tells me that there is nothing in my cart... ??? 
Help please? How do I do purchase multiple items from you on one invoice with ONE combined shipping charge?"

We found no way round this, so she purchased them individually and I refunded her the difference, but surely there's a bug here somewhere? Anyone know?

[towertreasuretrove]

I spent 20 minutes on the phone with customer service. They told me the Buyer is doing something wrong. But I don't believe it...I am so tired of having these conversations over and over again...What a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME! These are just a sampling of what I've been dealing with...all with different buyers. What can we do?

BUYER: "Hi it is ????? from ?????? again. I'm trying to buy this photo and Delhi photo and have a combined shipping charge. I can't seem to do this, PayPal wants to charge me shipping for every purchase. Can you offer a solution? Thank-you, ?????"

BUYER: "Hi ?????, I do not get the "commit to buy" option only the "confirm and pay". To get the "Confirm to Buy" option I have to "add to cart" which I can not do with your photos for some reason. Please advise. It may be better for me to pay and then get a credit from you through PayPal."

ME: Hi ???...Thanks again ....... I've issued you 2 separate $8.00 refunds through Paypal for a total of $16.00 for shipping overpayment."

ME: "Hi ???...Thank you for your purchase and payment. I'll return any overpayment on shipping with a Paypal refund"

ME:  "I owe you a $6.00 refund on shipping.."

ME: "I thought you could wait for an invoice...If not I'll refund any mailing overpayment."

ME:"The best thing to do is not pay for multiple items until you receive an ebay invoice from me..."

ME: "Hi ????...The way it should work is to click 'Commit To Buy' but do not pay for it right away. You can pay later after I send an invoice where there are no extra shipping charges. Hope that works. If this doesn't work then there is some kind of temporary problem with Ebay

ME: "Actually, I just got off the phone with Ebay Customer Service. They checked evrything and say that shouldn't be happening....but I know for a fact that it's been a problem lately with other buyers and sellers. So they weren't much help. It's a 'glitch'. So I can send a shipping refund for any more purchases...any photo after the first one is 'free shipping'"

[tkscollecting]

This issue has been frustrating me for a long time now.  I made many calls about it and finally spoke with a supervisor with eBay that said it was a known issue and that they are having a hard time to fix it.  I take that response with a grain of salt...

This upsets me for two reasons,

1) When a buyer goes ahead and has to pay for shipping on each individual item and then comes looking for a refund which is understandable, PayPal does not refund the full fee it charges on the shipping amount.  So the seller loses out on money if he gives a full refund on shipping.  

2)  I know that there are many American buyers who don't end up purchasing through you and go elsewhere

With your store and listing fees you are supposed to have equal access to American buyers but this is not the case.  

[shaneb_75]

I'm a buyer and have been experiencing this issue on and off myself sometimes it works and other times not. Currently have 8 to 10 items in my cart from the same seller and ebay wants to charge $20 per item for shipping. This is just insane!

[renata6]

I too experience this issue alot. It's been a problem for years.

But what really ticks me off is this:  When you issue a Paypal refund for the combined mailing, Paypal rightly gives back their fee on the amount. But Ebay does NOT give you a refund on the shipping Final Value Fee (FVF). 

Ebay causes the problem and they keep the fee! Of course they don't want to fix this glitch. It's lost revenue if they do.

[reallynicestamps]

ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2014

The problem with zombie threads is that the information in them may be out of date or incorrect.

@shaneb_75 

There are two possibilities here.

One is that the seller has a Block on "too many" purchases from a single buyer in one transaction.

Sellers do this when they do not want to expose themselves to a high risk transaction. The seller's opinion of what is high risk may be more conservative than the buyer's.

The second point is that eBay does not charge for shipping.

The seller charges for shipping and there is no requirement that the shipping be combined or discounted.

If the seller is dropshipping (usually but not always from overseas) she will not have the items in hand, they may be packed and shipped separately, and she has no control over her suppliers shipping arrangements.

Even if she is selling goods that are in her hands, it is up to her what her policies will be.

She may be willing to combine and discount shipping on a substantial order (ie not 10  x$1.00 items but more likely on 10 x $10 items).

Use Contact Seller on any of the listings you have chosen.

Make a list of the items you want to buy and ask that she make a private listing for you with all the items packaged together and shipping redone.

Remember that shipping costs vary not only with weight but with dimensions and with distance.

For example, I can ship a 450gram package to the USA  for $11.14 if it is less than 2cm thick and if I am willing to forego tracking. But if it is even 3 cm thick and if I want to be able to prove delivery, that would cost me $18.85.

When I do this for a customer, I use a Fixed Price listing with all the items listed in it, and the total shipping indicated. Then I use the customer's name as the Title, so no one else can jump in a buy the deal.

This also gets around the selling problem that @renata6  mentions.

While a seller can set up her listings to calculate shipping of multiple items domestically, this is much more difficult for foreign buyers.

Contact the seller.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Kinda sad that the issue being reported in this post in 2014 still seems to be an issue in 2020. Anyone got some 3 in 1 oil or duct tape? This is considered a zombie post, but is it truely?

-Lotz

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@renata6 wrote:

... what really ticks me off is this:  When you issue a Paypal refund for the combined mailing, Paypal rightly gives back their fee on the amount. But Ebay does NOT give you a refund on the shipping Final Value Fee (FVF). 

---

PayPal is changing their refund rules.  American sellers do not get their fees returned when they make a refund, started in 2019. Paypal intends to apply this no fee refund policy to other countries over the next year.

Plus this is a ZOMBIE thread.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began I have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread!