WWYD for this combined shipping. $1.75 refund or less or nothing

[musicyouneed]

Hi everyone.  I do offer combined shipping but state on my listings as shown below to contact me first and pay all together.  They would have saved $1.75 should they have followed my instructions. 

When a buyer pays together I only get one fee from paypal and also I don't pay final value fees on the extra shipping paid.   Now I can see from their feedback, only have 31 but they made multiple (2 to 3) purchases from each seller. 

I did send it off today in one envelope, the actual shipping of course is more and cost of larger envelope.  Now, my thoughts are maybe refunding him will encourage him to come back.  I was thinking of refunding them either  $1.00 or $1.25 which is what I would clear after the extra costs are taken off.  

What would you do?

I do offer combined shipping.  You must contact me first for it to work. Do not purchase until you contact me so I can set up the combined shipping as I need to revise the listings.  You need to pay for it all at the same time.

For combined shipping when buying two or more items just add all the items to your shopping cart and then send me an email. I would set up the combined shipping cost for you.

PLEASE USE SHOPPING CART WHEN BUYING MULTIPLE ITEMS. It is much easier, faster & cheaper

To add an item to your Shopping cart, simply select Add to cart beneath the Buy It Now button on any fixed-price listing.

To view the items you've previously placed in your cart, select the cart icon at the top of the eBay screen. You can then proceed to checkout, or continue shopping. 

Canadian orders: 
Standard - $4.25 CDN$ per item, $2.50 CDN$ for each additional item. 

US Orders: 
Standard - $6.25 CDN$ per item, $1.00 CDN$ for each additional item. 

International orders: 
Standard - $11.00 CDN$ per item, $8.00 CDN$ for each additional item. 

[esclyons]

You have your rules posted, i would never refund 1-2$ for shipping, sometimes i make a 1$ sometimes i lose 1$.  You could send a polite email saying, on your next purchase be sure to let me know if you want more than 1 item, i can save you a couple of bucks.. with combined shipping, please message me before you pay, thanks

[ricarmic]

I have a similar situation when international folks buy multiple lots because they see the amount they are paying. (North America is generally "free shipping" so there's no problems here, sometimes NA folks will complain if they bought many items but that is very rare).

Generally if it ends up being only a $1 or two too much I don't do anything.

If it is a few dollars I will often add something extra (I have a LOT of stuff so often I am able to add more of the stuff they like) or if I can't find anything I will refund the excess. 

[recped]

I never refund less than $3

As far as your instructions to buyers, be aware that buyer are not always able to use the Request Total button, it is randomly NOT available.

When a buyer pays together I only get one fee from paypal and also I don't pay final value fees on the extra shipping paid.

How do you not pay the fvf on the extra shipping? It will work that way under MP but not via PayPal.

[reallynicestamps]

Did he ask for a refund?

When you refund at all, you should only refund the amount YOU saved.

If the postage saving is $1.00 but the customer bought in two separate PP payments which cost you 30c for the extra payment, you owe him 70c.

At best.

Which won't even buy you a donut at Timmie's.

Now, my thoughts are maybe refunding him will encourage him to come back.

If he paid, he was satisfied with the price he paid.

Do you find half your customers are repeat? Ten percent? One every 500 sales?

Have you considered putting a price list in each shipment?

[musicyouneed]

The refund would only be $1.00 or $1.25.  I do have it set up on .ca for combined shipping so if they add it to their cart and if the items are both on .ca, then the shipping would be calculated correctly.   In this case both were on .ca and were purchased an hour or so apart.

This is my July sales, and it shows 11% are returning customers.  

[zee-chan]

Put that money in your cookie jar insurance and call it a night.

I never bother refunding because I use "free" shipping for all of Canada and USA, so it's not like the buyer would see what the difference is... If the shipping weight allows, I'd add in a bonus book as a thanks for buying. I wouldn't bother messaging them afterwards either specifically about shipping, as some buyers might be weary of the "extra" communication, and you might actually discourage future sales. For example, the "You must contact me first for it to work" could be interpreted as a hassle.

Likewise when I buy multiple items from 1 seller and they have "free" shipping, I'm not going to message them and ask them to send me a partial refund on whatever the $1-3 shipping difference was. When I paid, I accept the price that I'm paying.

[esclyons]

can i ask where you get that chart from..

[snoopwiz]

can i ask where you get that chart from..

I think it may be from the PayPal monthly "business report" that they email out. I think. Maybe. 

[kawartha-ephemera]

PayPal sends those reports by email, most months anyway, sometimes they skip a month or two.

[recped]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:
PayPal sends those reports by email, most months anyway, sometimes they skip a month or two.

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Interesting.........I have NEVER received such a thing from PayPal. Once or twice I've seen something like that from eBay but it's probably at least 8 years since the last one.

Odd because I always have all communication preferences turned on and I do get a ton of "spam" from both PayPal and (mostly) eBay.

[kawartha-ephemera]

@recped 

Paypal began sending these to me about 5 years ago, the funny thing about them is that they don't arrive every month. In fact it's rare to receive them on back-to-back months, sometimes they skip 3 or 4 months. I've scoured my Paypal account preferences looking for a setting to enable/disable these reports ... didn't find anything.

In the beginning mobile sales were barely a blip, maybe 5%. Five years later, that figure is routinely in the 55% range. I've always wondered though how tablet users influence that number, I for one use mine in landscape mode if at all possible, doing so usually produces a desktop style browsing experience.

[recped]

Regarding tablet users........

I think they base the mobile on how you access, using the app or mobile version instead of the desktop.

For a tablet it could be either  (also true of a phone I guess).

Another thing to muddy the waters, plenty of people window shop on a mobile device but make their actual purchase on a desktop, I don't know which they attribute that to.

Whatever, there is no question that mobile is a big part of everything these days, I know quite a few people who "cut the cord" completely and only have a mobile device (or two or three) but no longer have a desktop / laptop of any sort.