eBay

faircrochet · ‎02-04-2014

I first asked this question on Seller Central but Kalvin has suggested I bring it into this forum where there are specialists in selling.

I used to sell using flat fee shipping discounts (set up in preferences) so I could ship multiple auctions in one envelope and save the buyer some money. I have 3 set up right now.

I was away from selling for awhile so the Business Practices are new to me. I opted in and set up a policy for shipping. There is no place on eBay.CA to link a flat fee shipping discount with a shipping business policy. I called customer service and the rep (although very nice and polite) didn't really seem to know but thought that the flat fee discount would still be applied. I was suspicious of this as there is no way for the system to know which flat fee shipping discount to use if you can't link one to the shipping business policy. Plus the auction listing used to show a message saying there were discounts for buying from the same seller, and that message is no longer there.

I've just had auctions end and sure enough, a buyer won 15 auctions and would have been charged $15 (full price for each) instead of $3.10 (using flat fee shipping discounts). We communicated and I'm going to invoice him in batches and correct the shipping myself because he has bid on many more auctions yet to end. But when people get eager and pay right away they are going to be overcharged.

I can opt out of the business policies and hope the system works the way it used to, but I've heard that people get "opted in" again by the system automatically, and that Business Policies might become mandatory in the future anyway.

So, anyone from eBay who can help, can we get the ability to link a flat fee shipping discount to a shipping business policy so buyers are charged correctly by the system? You can do this on eBay.COM (I logged on and checked how the business policy was set up) but I don't know if it works correctly because I don't sell there.

Thanks!

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-05-2014

I haven't used the business policies although I did try to figure it out on my husband's account. But I just found this page which you may have already seen and which might or might not help you.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/business-policies.html

Question....did you have an amount for additional items on those listings and did the listings have the same business policy name or 2 different names or..?

faircrochet · ‎02-06-2014

I had an amount in the Additional Items box because I thought when I first saw it that it meant additional auctions. I have since found out through the forums that Additional Items in the shipping business policy means multiple items purchased in the same listing.

I had one shipping business policy originally, but now I have two.

On eBay.COM, when setting up a shipping business policy, there is a line in local (USA) shipping and a line in other shipping where you can specifiy a flat fee shipping discount (set up in preferences) - they don't have to be the same. That line just isn't there on eBay.CA so I'm not surprised no flat fee shipping discount was figured by the system.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-07-2014

I know I thought that the additional shipping on business policies was just for multiple listings as well. But it looks like all or most of your items have the same shipping cost so if they all use the same business policy and you put in a cost for an additional item, that "might" combine shipping for different items that have the same shipping policy...just a guess.

Or, you can list in U.S. $ and list on .com. Since you are using a flat shipping rate you don't need the Canada Post calculator.

faircrochet · ‎02-13-2014

if they all use the same business policy and you put in a cost for an additional item, that "might" combine shipping for different items that have the same shipping policy...just a guess

I had 15 cents or something as the additional item, it didn't use that when someone bought multiple auctions, like I'd hoped would happen.

I don't really know why but I'd rather not sell on .COM, seems complicated when the two sites have slightly different rules. I think what I'll do is just cancel the business policies now that my initial auctions have ended. And I'll keep trying to get an answer from eBay.

liz4234 · ‎02-27-2014

There is actually a way that should work. Go into PREFERNCES then COMBINED SHIPPING DISCOUNTS. There you'll see 3 Rule options. FLAT RATE, CALCULATED and PROMOTIONAL rules.

You should be able to use FLAT RATE or PROMOTIONAL. Both have an option for adding $0 for additional purchases. The difference looks to be that The Flat RATE you assign to specific listing whereas the PROMOTIONAL applies to ALL Listings.

Good Luck