eBay

oranorth · ‎04-27-2015

Six emails later after trying to help my potential US customer, I get this email

I never did get the 2 sales

joetriever · ‎04-27-2015

I'm in the same boat and receiving messages from customers blaming me that they can't add a second item or pick a matching leash to the dog collar they want because EBay's US shopping cart is not working. The only thing I can do is explain the situation to the customer, indicate Ebay has been made aware of the situation and suggest they contact Ebay directly with concerns or questions. Meantime if they do go ahead and make two separate purchases I let them know I will refund them on any combined shipping charges over and above the actual postage cost. Some buyers will do that, others will not but the buyers blame me that the shopping cart isn't working and sales are down.

rose-dee · ‎04-27-2015

You've probably seen this thread, but I'll post it here anyway: http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Cart-quot-Disconnect-quot-issue-A-poll-for-Cdn-sellers/m-...

I'd encourage you to report this at this week's Wed. board meeting with the eBay.ca staff. Not that it will do any good whatsoever at the moment in terms of getting the problem fixed, but I think it's useful for them to see it isn't the same people reporting the problem. They believe this issue affects a very, very small minority of Canadian sellers, so the more sellers they hear from, the better.

The "workaround" suggested by Raphael was to list everything on .com. This seems a rather ridiculous recommendation to me, and for various reasons it wouldn't work at all for my business model, but some Cdn sellers may decide otherwise.

The other alternatives are:

1) List everything with Immediate Payment Required. For some sellers, this may not be a very attractive option, but it does at least prevent the US cart error messages ("Item Not Available", etc.) from appearing, because buyers won't be able to use the cart. It will force them to buy items one-by-one (basically like the "old style" eBay checkout using BIN/Commit to Buy, then proceed to payment).

2) Put a notice on your listings (and/or storefront) asking buyers on .com to contact you if they have a problem or put up a notice asking them to log onto .ca. If they contact you, you can tell them to log in to eBay.ca and the cart should work perfectly -- the only thing to keep in mind is that (as I understand it) eBay Bucks apparently won't apply. So if you have a US buyer attempting to use their eBay Bucks, they'll find they can't.

Also, keep in mind that it isn't only US buyers who will encounter the US cart "disconnect" when trying to purchase from a Canadian seller -- anybody who logs onto .com to buy (including Canadians) will encounter this. To add to the confusion, there have been problems reported with the eBay.UK cart as well.

It's a mess, plain and simple, but it seems that eBay US is in no particular hurry to fix it, so we Canadian sellers are stuck with a very bad situation.

I used to get quite a few multi-item sales each month, but the last one I recorded from a US buyer using the .com cart for a combined/multiple order was in July 2014.

rose-dee · ‎04-27-2015

@joetriever wrote:
I'm in the same boat and receiving messages from customers blaming me that they can't add a second item or pick a matching leash to the dog collar they want because EBay's US shopping cart is not working. The only thing I can do is explain the situation to the customer, indicate Ebay has been made aware of the situation and suggest they contact Ebay directly with concerns or questions. Meantime if they do go ahead and make two separate purchases I let them know I will refund them on any combined shipping charges over and above the actual postage cost. Some buyers will do that, others will not but the buyers blame me that the shopping cart isn't working and sales are down.

I feel for you! I think you and I are in a similar situation as the OP (as is any Cdn seller who offers a variety of similar items in different styles, shapes, types, models, etc.). Multi-item sales used to be the backbone of my business on eBay, because people would see one antique pattern and like to buy one or two other styles to go with it (skirt with blouse and jacket, for example).

I had a few buyers in the fall of 2014 purchasing more than 1 item at a time, but I could see they were doing it one by one, bypassing the US cart. However, those were all experienced eBay buyers, who figured out how to checkout on their own. I think there are so many new buyers now on eBay that many won't even know there is another checkout alternative -- most new US buyers will have used nothing but their cart system to choose and pay for items.

And you're right -- my real worry is that buyers will blame me, eBay.ca in particular, or eBay in general and just go elsewhere.

joetriever · ‎04-27-2015

Thanks Rose, I will post it on the weekly board session with Ebay. Its unfortunate as some buyers think it's a ploy to make extra shipping fees on their orders and feel the seller is trying to rip them off by making them pay shipping cost on each item purchased individually. I do offer free domestic shipping so it doesn't cause a problem with Canadian sales but the US buyers (70% of my market) really object when they can't purchase more than one item at a time.

rose-dee · ‎04-27-2015

In follow-up to my comments above, I think the best thing to do now if a US (or .com) buyer contacts us is to ask them to log onto eBay.ca, but make sure the buyer is aware that eBay Bucks won't be accepted on .ca.

If that's an issue for the buyer, then the buyer will have to purchase each item, pay for it, then repeat for the next. As you say, many buyers will just get fed up and go back to eBay.com sellers to buy what they want.

You might want to take a look at the "Notice" I've posted on my storefront as an example (click on my store icon here). At least if a buyer reads it, they will be aware there is a problem. The question is, will this in itself be a deterrent to buyers?

This really is the most serious and utterly horrible eBay flaw I've ever had to deal with in several years as a seller on this site. The trouble is, eBay HQ doesn't care because it affects only us Canadians.

I just wish more individual Cdn sellers would speak up at the Wed. board hours, because eBay staffers seem to be under the impression that very few of us will suffer from the effects of this issue. I completely disagree -- any Cdn seller who regularly sells more than 1 item at a time to .com buyers (US or otherwise) will be impacted.

rose-dee · ‎04-27-2015

@oranorth wrote:
Six emails later after trying to help my potential US customer, I get this email

I never did get the 2 sales

PS, 'oranorth' -- I see the moderators have been at work on your post. Just to let you know, you're not allowed to post or quote actual messages from buyers on these boards, although you can paraphrase or explain in other words. It seems silly, but those are their rules. (Fortunately I read your post before it got redacted).

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2015

I think eBay simply should remove the shopping cart and let buyers buy multiple items and the sellers to send the invoice with combined shipping which is not that hard.

joetriever · ‎04-27-2015

Thanks Rose! I have a custom storefront so not able to put in much for messages but I took your advise and put a message on with the little space I have to work with. Thanks for the idea! As we know very few people take the time to read but maybe some will. I'll put a message for Ebay management on the wed board when it's available.

oranorth · ‎04-27-2015

O.K. my mistake for posting the email, glad some of you saw it before it was removed. Since my post, my U.S. customer managed to buy the items he wanted by purchasing them one at a time and paying full shipping on both items, very understanding buyer who did not care that ebay wanted double shipping he just wants the items!

So handled the transaction as I always do....refund the extra shipping charges and once a month I get on the phone with C.S. and try and get some of my shipping charges back for all the shipping refunds I did that month. It's not even about the money....I give a partial refund on shipping charges and they keep the commission on full amount...That's just wrong and I wonder how many sellers are unaware that this goes on? BTW in each any every listing, in my description I state:

"Always happy to combine multiple items for shipping.' Some read it ....most do not.

reallynicestamps · ‎04-27-2015

I don't get many multiple sales, a given with my product mix, but you could tell your buyer to look for a Paypal invoice from you for all the items with discounted/combined shipping.

It would be a good idea to tell the buyer that PP's Buyer Protection plan is just as strong as eBay's and that you will be manually marking the purchases as paid.

When you do this, put the eBay transaction numbers into the text box on the PP invoice. This should calm the buyer's fears and will also be useful when you are doing the bookkeeping.