Shopping Cart Diconnect

[kcgwynne]

I was wondering if we are allowed to put in the description for those that will read it.

'These listings are made on Ebay.ca. If you are having problems with my combined discount try to log on to Ebay.ca.'

would the bots think we are trying to direct to off-site?

Is this even worth it? For the few that ask, how many don't.

For those that do ask I have made up a new listing for them with a better deal that my stated combined discount, just a little extra service.

[triber]

I don't have an answer as to if this would be allowed. I do think that getting buyers to read it would be the problem. I have 3 places in my listings where I clearly ask buyer so wait for an invoice before buying more than one item. Many still don't do that,  pay for each individually or pay the eBay total and then ask me to combine the shipping.

[kcgwynne]

I am just wondering how big of issue this really is? I know of the people who contact me but there is no way to know of the people who didn't.  I have large enough inventory listed that it would not be that hard to switch over some categories to .com as suggested today. If someone has a way to give discounts on free shipping(shipping included). That might be a solution.

[recped]

Of course it's allowed!

Your buyers don't need to "log into" eBay.ca they can just go there.

I've considered adding something similar but I rarely run Fixed price listings and that's the only time it's an issue. When I do run FP eBay seems to make buyers pay right away and as you have found the only way around that is to use the .ca cart. Even that won't always get the required result but at least it usually result in only extra fees on the shipping portion.

It's the 30 cent PayPal fee that really burns me up! I didn't ask for Immediate Payment and I don't want it.

[recped]

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@triber wrote:

I don't have an answer as to if this would be allowed. I do think that getting buyers to read it would be the problem. I have 3 places in my listings where I clearly ask buyer so wait for an invoice before buying more than one item. Many still don't do that,  pay for each individually or pay the eBay total and then ask me to combine the shipping.

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it's not always that they don't read it's that eBay doesn't let them accumulate except using the cart. Even in the cart I've had various reports that the Request Total button isn't available.

[kcgwynne]

Yes it is that darn 30 cent fee. That is the big hitch either I pay that or the buyer does. Other wise I wouldn't care as much.  Tin foil hat time, maybe that is why the carts aren't in sync yet maybe.

[kcgwynne]

Is there anyway to give a discount on the list price not the shipping?

[merritt-motorcycle-salvage]

This is a MAJOR ISSUE...

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/buyers-saying-item-is-unavailable-when-trying-to-purchase...

[michaelbb2]

I run Buy it Now listings and I put a link in each description for a buyer to go to eBay.ca if they wish to get their items combined.  I don't know if it works because I have no way of tracking the activity through the link but I try none the less.

There is a major problem though....anybody purchasing items from their mobile phone using the eBay app will not be able to combine their items even if they are in Canada using eBay.ca.  I have tried this on my phone and the app will not allow it.  Not only is that a problem but in the app the description for each item is hidden so my message and link to eBay.ca is useless.  You have to click on the description link to read the description and I don't think many people will want to do that.   You see the picture, you see the price and you see the shipping cost.  

There are lots of bugs to work out on the shopping cart issue.  It's not a simple fix. 

[rose-dee]

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@kcgwynne wrote:

Tin foil hat time, maybe that is why the carts aren't in sync yet maybe.

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You may be on to something there!  It hadn't occurred to me that there could be a motive behind this problem.  

On the other hand, rationally speaking, why would eBay want to throw away all those FVFs on purchases that could have, but never did happen because buyers got frustrated trying to make combined orders/shipping discounts work? 

By the way, another seller has "tested" my .ca cart vis-a-vis combined orders with shipping discounts, and got unexpected dysfunctional results, so I think 'recped' may be right about even the .ca cart not functioning reliably every time, even for Canadian buyers.  

Speaking of tin hats, if you want a really juicy conspiracy theory, how about the new management at eBay trying to get rid of eBay.ca through attrition?  Death of a thousand non-purchases, so to speak.  

[rose-dee]

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@kcgwynne wrote:

I was wondering if we are allowed to put in the description for those that will read it.

'These listings are made on Ebay.ca. If you are having problems with my combined discount try to log on to Ebay.ca.'

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There's absolutely nothing wrong with putting a note like this in your listings, but as others have said, the problem is getting buyers to read it.  You're not directing buyers away from eBay by doing this. 

U.S. eBay buyers have now probably become very accustomed to using the cart on eBay.com and would expect to be able to use it on all eBay sites, so it can't hurt to direct them to .ca -- assuming they see your note. 

As I said above however, it appears that even the .ca cart, if used on .ca, has some issues.  

For example, I have a "Buy any 5 items, get free shipping" discount set up.  When a Cdn buyer attempted to combine 5 items in the .ca cart, some of which had free shipping, and others which had shipping costs, they did not get the free shipping on the whole order.  This says to me that Raphael's comment at the Wed. board session that the Cdn cart "works perfectly" may be what eBay believes but hasn't in fact tested thoroughly enough. 

[kcgwynne]

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@rose-dee wrote:

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Speaking of tin hats, if you want a really juicy conspiracy theory, how about the new management at eBay trying to get rid of eBay.ca through attrition?  Death of a thousand non-purchases, so to speak.  

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You may be on to something. The two sites are unnecessarily different and we seem to be losing Canadian office staff also

BTW I am still shocked at the unprofessional way you were responded to (mocked?) at the weekly board hour.