eBay

mattwilliams1 · ‎12-01-2013

Hi everyone. I rarely turn here but I am at my wit's end with the way ebay is functioning and I would like some advice.

Lately it seems that many people are unable to purchase items without paying immediately thereby making it impossible to purchase multiple items with a combined shipping discount. I am getting multiple messages per day with people trying to figure this out.

The worst part about it is that it seems to mostly affect people who have a good feedback rating. (First one of the day has over 400). I know it sounds crazy but it's true because we are still getting the regular amount of non paying zero feedback buyers.

This is hammering our business and I am sick to think about how many people are trying to do this and giving up without emailing us. Right now the only option is to have them buy their items separately then refund a huge shipping overpayment and in turn literally paying ebay for their non functioning system.

FYI - We do not and have never had any items set to require immediate payment. Also, all listings are on ebay.ca.

Any thoughts?

Thank you in advance,

Matt

msmaggie060 · ‎12-01-2013

Do you have your preferences set to allow combined shipping? Go to your Site Preferences->Shipping Preferences->and check off yes for Offer Combined Payments and Shipping.

I have these settings checked and don't seem to have a problem combining and discounting multiple shipments.

mattwilliams1 · ‎12-01-2013

Hi there. Thanks for your answer. Yes those setting are all correct. They have never been changed and we are still able to get some people to make combined purchases, just not all (many). Yesterday a person with a feedback rating of 4 was able to buy 5 items and have them auto-combined. Today a person with a feedback rating of 414 cannot get past the first item as it won't let him finalize it without paying. We still get combined purchases coming in but also get an equal amount of requests from people saying they can't get past the first item without paying.

Thanks again,

Matt

cjacki · ‎12-01-2013

This has also happened to me. Frustrating for the buyer and expensive for the seller.

triber · ‎12-01-2013

I agree, same problem here, and my settings are correct. I someone lets me know they are going to purchase several items, I advise them to purchase on .ca, the combined shipping seems to work better on there, at least for me.

block36 · ‎12-01-2013

Please review the subject Multiple items purchased by buyer from Russia initiated by me on October 15, 2013.

I got good recommendations and used them for a few times already.

westernstargifts · ‎12-01-2013

I had two buyers email within an hour a few nights ago because the items would not combine at checkout. Fortunately they requested an invoice before paying when it wouldn't combine for them.

I wonder how many other sales were paid for with multiple payments because it wouldn't work for them either. Some people just pay and don't bother to contact the seller to let them know.

spinorfields · ‎12-01-2013

This has been an issue for me too an another account. I also encountered it as a buyer. Another issue is second chance offers if there are several from the same seller get added to cart o the .com site and since they have not yet been purchased the seller has no possibility to invoice at reduced shipping. If the buyer pays then the shipping is not combined. Those selling mixed type items cannot easily implement automatic combined shipping rules. So this really should be fixed.

fertotynic · ‎12-01-2013

Im having the same problem 5 times in the last few days, and when they do im bieng told the shipping discount for multiple items shows on the invoice i sent but when they go thru paypal its showing the full amount, a regular customer went ahead to pay knowing i would reimburse and he paid the discounted price. im having to tell people to go ahead and pay the full shipping and ill refund you

the overpaid shipping. also checked all my settings

i have 4 buyers right now with multiple items waiting to pay

e8group2007a · ‎12-02-2013

. "m having to tell people to go ahead and pay the full shipping and ill refund you"

But then you lose the fvf fees on the shipping fees you refunded.

barbsplace66 · ‎12-02-2013

I have been experiencing the same situation, I called Ebay last week and they said my settings were not offering combined shipping but this was not correct as on my site it clearing showed i had the right boxes checked, this has been going on now for two months on and off, Ebay seems to have no answer as to why this is happening, I am still waiting for a call back since last week!

@mattwilliams1 wrote:
Hi everyone. I rarely turn here but I am at my wit's end with the way ebay is functioning and I would like some advice.

Lately it seems that many people are unable to purchase items without paying immediately thereby making it impossible to purchase multiple items with a combined shipping discount. I am getting multiple messages per day with people trying to figure this out.

The worst part about it is that it seems to mostly affect people who have a good feedback rating. (First one of the day has over 400). I know it sounds crazy but it's true because we are still getting the regular amount of non paying zero feedback buyers.

This is hammering our business and I am sick to think about how many people are trying to do this and giving up without emailing us. Right now the only option is to have them buy their items separately then refund a huge shipping overpayment and in turn literally paying ebay for their non functioning system.

FYI - We do not and have never had any items set to require immediate payment. Also, all listings are on ebay.ca.

Any thoughts?

Thank you in advance,
Matt

mattwilliams1 · ‎12-04-2013

Just wanted to confirm for anyone who is reading this that the problem still is hitting us hard.

An email today from someone with 17784 feedback rating "I am trying to buy a few items. No matter what I try, I am forced to check out & pay for 1 at a time. Am I missing something with this new checkout ?"

Meanwhile I have 4 unpaid items from buyers with feedback ratings of 0, 0, 4 and 7.

What is going on here?

P.S. Is there actually no email or contact form to contact Ebay? Phone only? LOL. I have never heard of an Internet based business not allowing you to use the Internet to contact it.

ricarmic · ‎12-04-2013

Hmmm I've have a few buyers in the last few days paying for each item individually too (like 10 items or 5 items)... just assumed they were doing it, but I would guess they're probably encountering the same thing....I checked all my stuff and as far as I know my stuff is all set ok. I reuse the same listings in Turbolisterland and haven't changed anything so it is likely an ebay thing, hopefully only temporary....

barbsplace66 · ‎12-04-2013

Same thing happening to me. I have called Ebay Support three times on this issue, still waiting for a call back from last week,

paulgg132 · ‎12-05-2013

This problem has been happening for months, ever since the new Ebay.com and Ebay.uk sites added their Shopping Carts IMO. I have noted the problem here and sent emails to no avail.

I'm happy to sell direct if Ebay can't manage to make my customer's shopping experience easier. More work for me, however a 10% increase in profit margin doesn't hurt either. My Ebay Store continues to be a great catalog for browsing and then my buyers just send the order direct.

I guess if the US government can't get a simple medical insurance website to work perhaps I am expecting too much from Ebay!

lady.stark · ‎12-05-2013

@ricarmic wrote:
Hmmm I've have a few buyers in the last few days paying for each item individually too (like 10 items or 5 items)...

Are they adding the items in their cart before using the BIN button?

block36 · ‎12-05-2013

I think that this is done and kept purposely to have more PAYPAL transactions.

Keep in mind: for every entry to our PAYPAL account we (sellers) are paying the %-age + .30c.

More entries - more $.30 cents collections.

ricarmic · ‎12-05-2013

Lady: As I understand the way to identify cart payments, no they are not. I very very rarely have cart payments less than 5%. All of the bulk individual transactions are "regular" style.

Block: Theoretically ebays goal is to have happy customers. Making customers pay for each item as they buy it does not make sense, as it certainly would be a pain to pay that many times individually. Losing a customer (from eBay) for the sake of a few extra 30c they garnish from us, wouldn't be a good way to maintain your long term bottom line.....I presume it is a bug that they will someday fix.

block36 · ‎12-05-2013

I share your optimism that this will be fixed one day... At the same time this flaw is quite old and somehow it does not look to be on top of eBay's priorities list

And I am tired to apologize for this problem so many times and to spend a lot of time to make refunds on multiple items.