Combine multiple purchases from one buyer....eBay makes it so hard

[gillian1023]

Yesterday I had a buyer in Canada trying to buy 4 books from me. It wouldn't allow him to 'buy' them and ask for an invoice. It was showing that he had to pay the full s/h for each one separately. I am not a buyer so am not familiar with the buying process, but I have in the past sold multiple items to one buyer and had them request an invoice. Last week I lost a multiple sale from a customer in the UK, who couldn't figure out what to do. So things have changed I suppose.

The only way we could figure out how I could give him reduced shipping, was to have him buy and pay for one book. That way I had his email address, and I sent him a Paypal invoice for the other 3, and deducted the shipping he had already paid, and lower shipping on the others.. He paid that. I ended the books on eBay, and all went well. What I don't understand, is why eBay has made it so difficult for buyers and sellers when it comes to multiple purchases,

Oh, and I did check my settings and do not have the box checked that makes the buyer pay immediately upon purchase.

Is there something that I (and my buyers) are missing? 😞

[3380davidr]

I have had a similar experience but as the buyer. It was not possible to determine if a combined shipping was possible/or economical without purchasing all five items and adding the individual shipping charges. The seller then reduced the shipping somewhat, but only after the sale was complete. As shipping can be an important part of the sale it makes sense to know this before not after the sale. In the past most buyers were receptive to combined shipping where this was feasible and both sides seemed happy with the results. When shipping becomes more costly than the item the 

ebay experience will suffer.

[pjcdn2005]

On some listings, eBay will automatically require immediate payment even if you haven't specified it. It's more common when shopping on .com than on .ca but Its possible that it happens on .ca too.  The way to get around that is for the buyer to put their items in the cart and then request total from the seller.

[gillian1023]

My buyer tried everything. On 2 of the listings there was no cart option, just buy it now. So 2 with cart and 2 without. It took us about 12 messages back and forth and many hours and frustrated headaches before I thought of the solution that we agreed upon. To buy one book and Paypal invoice the rest. What a **bleep** rigmarole! Well eBay lost out on 3 FVF's. Their loss in the end. Well, my days as a seller are coming to an end. It's just not fun or easy any more. I'll probably wait until after Christmas, then it's sayonara. 

[momcqueen]

Was your buyer on ebay.com or ebay.ca?

If your items are listed on ebay.ca, there is no circumstance under which the Shopping Cart on ebay.com will accept them. Neither will the Shopping Basket on ebnay.co.uk. Those sites are proprietary. Canada and the global sites are universal. This is a long-standing issue. 

[momcqueen]

(Also, to boast about avoiding Final Value Fees will get you into some hot water as well. Regardless of whether you felt it was justified or not.)

[gillian1023]

Buyer was on .ca. 

And I really don't care. I'm at the point now that if eBay wants to boot me off...tough. 

If they made things easier for sellers and buyers, then we wouldn't need to find other ways to do our business. 

And I'm not 'boasting'. Just stating a fact! And as I just said...I don't care. It was a most frustrating few hours of my life (and my buyer's).

[cumos55]

If buyer wants to purchase four books.

Set up your listings each with a Best Offer option.... 

Buyer makes an offer at one penny less than the listed price.

List at $29.99.... and buyer makes an offer at $29.98.... listing is set it up to not accept anything less than $29.98

Buyer makes four offers....  ... Seller accepts offers... and send a combined shipping invoice.....

This way of selling has also been used with a local pick up  of a purchase... and without the buyer paying ....

I do have the cart on all listings as well... but buyers seem to ignore the cart option....

[gillian1023]

I suppose that will work, yes. But why do we have to jump through hoops all the time? Why can't buyers just buy like they used to, and get sent an invoice. It wasn't that long ago that I had a multiple buy and a buyer request for an invoice. Now buyers don't seem to know what to do. As I said in my original post...last week I lost a big sale due to neither of us knowing how to do it. 😞

[pjcdn2005]

I agree, it should be simple to check out.  It is odd though that your buyer was having these problems.  I checked a few of your listings and all show the add to cart function and when I clicked on buy it now I had the option to 'commit the buy' which means that I could have committed to buy a few and then ask for an invoice.  Is it possible that your buyer thought commit to buy meant they would have to pay right away?

[momcqueen]

If the buyer was logged into ebay.ca and using their mobile device, there may be a problem there. Ebay.ca does not have a Shopping Cart on the app. 

[pjcdn2005]

Two of the listings did show the cart, two didn't.  I wonder if the buyer was on .com and didn't realize it.  The op lists on both sites so that would explain the cart on only some listings.

[momcqueen]

Oh! Well there is no possible way to combined items listed on ebay.ca with items listed on ebay.com no matter what site the user is buying from, nor would it matter if they were looking at an app as opposed to the desktop version. That might be it right there. You cannot put two different currencies into the same transaction, period. 

[gillian1023]

My books were listed on ebay.ca, not com. And my buyer was an older gentleman using his computer. 

My items are in Canadian dollars and my buyer is in Canada.

[gillian1023]

I don't know PJ. I was messaging him so much with advice and sent him links to the eBay help page explaining what to do. It didn't seem to help him. 2 of the books had the cart option, 2 didn't, so don't know if there was a problem there. It's just so frustrating. And with me not being a buyer, I am not familiar with the process. 😞

[ricarmic]

I think sometimes we over-estimate the skills of some of our buyers.

I have had some eye openers when I've actually called a problematic buyer because things were just going bizzare (pictures grandm/pas who just got a computer trying to finish or fix up a transaction after their grandson came to help them and isn't there now).

In a similar situation I just had them buy them all individually and pay the shipping on all and I refunded the appropriate amount off one of the items. That was about as much as I could get them to do and they were AOK with it. Extra paperwork, on my end but better than no sale!

[i.am.vivian]

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@gillian1023 wrote:

Buyer was on .ca. 

And I really don't care. I'm at the point now that if eBay wants to boot me off...tough. 

If they made things easier for sellers and buyers, then we wouldn't need to find other ways to do our business. 

And I'm not 'boasting'. Just stating a fact! And as I just said...I don't care. It was a most frustrating few hours of my life (and my buyer's).

---

Another thing you can do is ask the buyer what items they want and then put them all together in a single separate listing just for that person, calling it a "special listing"  with their eBay ID in the title and the body saying that it is just for "Buyer X".   A pain in the rear but it is one way of doing it.  I also don't think it is fair to blame buyers for not "knowing"  because the skill level of a buyer will not make a shopping cart appear.  Things change all the time, features come and go, and sellers find themselves just as clueless as they like to say buyers are.  On the UK site things are "immediate payment" which hardly anybody wants but making it that way was eBay's stupidity not the sellers or the buyers.  It is my own guess that too many sellers complained about UNPAID items and so eBay found what they thought was the easiest solution. 

[gillian1023]

Where did I say I blamed the buyer? Absolutely I did not!! I only blame ebay for making it so difficult for buyers and sellers. 

Please don't put words into my mouth. Read the post properly.

[i.am.vivian]

I didn't say YOU blamed the buyer.  Absolutely I did not.  But if you read the boards often you will find that most do.  Read the boards?  Just read this thread!  I am in complete agreement that eBay is making it so difficult for buyers and sellers.  So please don't put words in my mouth (or in my post, as may be).  Read MY post properly.   🙂 

I was just making an observation.  Earlier on there is a thread I'd just seen about some strange glitches.  Seems when a buyer encounters "some strange glitches" it is because they are stupid and unskilled.  Oh, and they don't read.  But when these same things happen to the sellers,

(wait for it) 

it's eBay's fault!   LOL!