Combined Shipping Glitch...

[westernstargifts]

I don't know how many others are experiencing this, but when buyers pay for multiple purchases with one payment eBay is charging them the full rate for each item. It's a pain in the a@@ when I have to issue refund because they pay for things separately. It is extremely annoying when I have to issue a refund when they paid for all with one payment and shipping doesn't combine because of an eBay glitch.

You would think that buyers, especially repeat customers, would notice that they are being overcharged and contact the seller. But then again, this is eBay and we all know that most of them don't read the descriptions or the shipping terms.

I hope they fix this glitch really fast because it is getting busy again and we have better things to do...like listing.

(I used flat rate shipping for all but one line of products).

Judy

[coxengines]

Judy,

See my earlier post "Shipping calculator glitch".

Bernie

[westernstargifts]

Judy,

See my earlier post "Shipping calculator glitch".

Bernie

Hi Bernie,

Yes, I did see that thread and posted in it. The items I am referring to are all flat rate shipping as opposed to calculated shipping so I am now assuming that eBay has all of the shipping totally scre@ed up. As usual, they make all of these changes right before the busy season and we are stuck with all of the glitches they cause. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for sellers that have far more transactions in a day than I do.

Judy

[pierrelebel]

Hi Judy.

Most of my transactions are for items from multiple listings. For example, last week I sold 675 items to 112 buyers and have not experienced that problem.

All my listings indicate additional purchases receive free shipping and my Shipping Preferences are set up accordingly:

Offer combined payments and shipping Yes

Combined shipping discounts

Flat shipping rule - Add an amount for each additional item: US $0.00.

Promotional shipping rule (applies to all listings)- Charge a shipping cost of US $0.00 for multiple purchases totaling over US $25.00

Offer flat shipping Yes

Offer promotional shipping discounts Yes

On the listing form (SYI3) you need to select:

Combined shipping discounts

Apply my flat shipping rule with profile name:

Apply my promotional shipping rule.

[coxengines]

Pierre,

I have my listings set up exactly as yours. The glitches began a few days ago and affect one out of 3 or 4 purchases that involve either multiples of one item or the purchase of multiple items per se.

There is a glitch for sure. Below an email I received this morning from Italy:

Hello I was about to pay but I found a staggering shipping price for those small items,amounting almost DOUBLE of products expense. I know Canada is not USA and your Mail service is no cheap anyway,but about 60 dollars charge for a perfectly safe Small Envelope packing is too expensive and,even for Customs is higher than the IVA tax only total price goods and this will made me pay a Custom fee charge of about 80 dollars... About 170 USD of total price for a few screws and little parts???

[coxengines]

On average we have a dozen unique buyers per day on eBay and usually receive one or two “please send me the total”. These days it’s more like 3-4/day.

Here is how bad the glitch is:

Had a buyer on Friday with the same problem and I generated the invoice manually by clicking on “Send information”. The shipping cost of $3.95 that the system generated was correct and the amounts displayed on our “Awaiting payment” page matched the invoice.

Yet, when the buyer attempted to pay, the shipping cost went to $16.20. I told him to continue through checkout as I was sure the amount would rectify itself.

I was wrong, had to issue a refund and write an apology.

This morning, over ½ of the overnight orders were unpaid (only orders with single items were paid) and that is highly unusual and indicative that buyers are waiting for an invoice.

Bernie

[coxengines]

Actually, Pierre, I just had a closer look at your post.

We do not have the promo rule.

Our listings are set up to only charge the shipping cost of the item with the highest shipping cost (they range from $1.45 to $12.95 for the USA) and all other items travel free.

This has worked for almost 2 years, jut not reliably these days.

Bernie

[westernstargifts]

Hi Judy.

Most of my transactions are for items from multiple listings. For example, last week I sold 675 items to 112 buyers and have not experienced that problem.

All my listings indicate additional purchases receive free shipping and my Shipping Preferences are set up accordingly:

Offer combined payments and shipping Yes

Combined shipping discounts

Flat shipping rule - Add an amount for each additional item: US $0.00.

Promotional shipping rule (applies to all listings)- Charge a shipping cost of US $0.00 for multiple purchases totaling over US $25.00

Offer flat shipping Yes

Offer promotional shipping discounts Yes

On the listing form (SYI3) you need to select:

Combined shipping discounts

Apply my flat shipping rule with profile name:

Apply my promotional shipping rule.

Hi Pierre,

Thanks for posting the information. I double checked all of those things and everything is the way I had them set before. I also checked the listings to make sure the combined shipping box was checked and all was correct. Everything was working perfectly until the last few days. I have mostly single item transactions but there are a few multiple orders (some of which even paid with one payment...many don't).

The ones which I invoiced worked properly. I didn't experience the same thing as Bernie and it invoiced correctly. I have never experienced a problem with combined shipping until now.

It is very strange that the glitch affects some sellers and not others. I should probably report it through Live Help but dread the thought of contacting them because it always seems to take so long.

Judy

[coxengines]

This shipping cost glitch is really frustrating as it now affects about 1/2 of transactions where buyers purchase more than one item (of the same item or different items).

The nasty emails I wake up to every day like "Why is shipping $59.25 when it is supposed to be $3.95?" ... grr.

Some buyers even pay it all and then complain.

Bernie

[westernstargifts]

This shipping cost glitch is really frustrating as it now affects about 1/2 of transactions where buyers purchase more than one item (of the same item or different items).

The nasty emails I wake up to every day like "Why is shipping $59.25 when it is supposed to be $3.95?" ... grr.

Some buyers even pay it all and then complain.

Bernie

OMG

DH and I were away for a few days and when I checked my phone messages tonight there were 3 from one of my customers. Although it was hard to make sense of her rantings and accusations, I think it all stemmed from a combined shipping glitch. She was overcharged and I gave her a refund of $8.25 without being asked to do so. I don't know what her problem is. She did mention that her PayPal account has a hold on it, then says she canceled PP. Then she phoned back and said she "may have recorded this message (huh?) that SHE left and that she has hard copies and.....I haven't a clue what she meant.

I didn't call her back since it was kind of late when I got home. She, however, left one message at 7:13 a.m. this morning. I did send her an email. It should be interesting to see if she calls tomorrow.

This is definitely the weirdest person I have ever dealt with on eBay.

[westernstargifts]

It gets even stranger.

The customer phoned this evening and I talked to her for about 2 hours. She wanted me to know that she is not upset with me but is upset with PP and eBay. She has told them to close both of her accounts. It was difficult to understand what she was saying but I think I finally got the gist of it.

She believes, for one thing, that her computer has been hacked. Secondly, she bought a few things from me over the past 2 months. What is strange is the fact that they show as different transactions on different dates but she said she bought all items at the same time and paid with one payment. She even told me the total amount. I checked and the amount she gave me, had they been paid for all together, was correct. All except one were FP and I did not include the auction listing in the total. I received a total of 5 separate payments, including the one for the auction listing. She said that PayPal put holds on her bank account with no explanation. I specifically asked if the funds were in her PayPal account or her bank account and she said it came from her bank account. She said there was sufficient money in the account at the time to cover the full amount.

This is not a newbie as she has several hundred FB and has been buying on eBay for a long time. She said she never had a problem until this summer. She thinks that eBay and PP have collaborated to spread the transactions out so they get more fees. All transactions have now been completed but her last reply to the shipping notice I sent to her today was blocked and all I received was part of the first line and then a copy of the email I had sent to her. She said customer support was no help and would not return her calls. Also she said they kept trying to put the blame on me. Although she was trying to tell them she was upset with them, they kept acting as though she were complaining about me.

I don't know WTH to think. It certainly would be nice to hear from eBay. If they are wrongly placing a customer complaint about me (which it was not) on my file I would like to know about it.

If anyone has any thoughts or opinions on this subject I would love to hear them.

[coxengines]

Your customer probably has a few screws loose.

There is no conspiracy.

If she paid you 5x over 2 months then that is what she did. No one waits 2 months and pays all at once.

Paypal cannot put holds on her bank account either, that is nonsense.

Bernie

[westernstargifts]

Your customer probably has a few screws loose.

There is no conspiracy.

If she paid you 5x over 2 months then that is what she did. No one waits 2 months and pays all at once.

Paypal cannot put holds on her bank account either, that is nonsense.

Bernie

That is kind of what I thought Bernie. She said she paid for all of them in September but the payments came out periodically rather than all at once. I also questioned putting a hold on the "bank account" as PayPal does not have any power to do that.

Also the messages she left on my answering machine didn't match what she was telling me on the phone. I think I will chalk this one up as being a whacko.

Thanks for your response.

Judy

[westernstargifts]

Although I have refunded a few buyers for overpayment of S/H because of this glitch, this is the first time I have received an angry message from a buyer. Having read some of the others posted I am sure this is mild.

Hey, the auction states $2.75 s/h on both items, but now it says $5.50 for the ring and TOTAL s/h is $8.25! That's too much. I have family in Canada and know that these two small items should be MUCH less. I'm paying because I NEVER pay late - but I'm hoping for a substantial refund in s/h charges. Thank you, XXXXXXX

S/H should be a total of $2.75. Three items were purchased from 2 listings. Not only did eBay not combine the 2 purchases properly but they also charged double shipping for one FP listing where the buyer purchased a quantity of 2.

I wish eBay would FIX these glitches before making multiple changes which will cause even more glitches.

[coxengines]

I am averaging 3-4 refunds/day + just as many buyers who withhold payment and send a message, sometimes not a very gentle one.

I have checked with my competitors and they are all experiencing the same problems. One seems to think it has to with the change from Auctiva checkout.

Bernie

[westernstargifts]

I don't use Auctiva checkout so I don't see how that would cause the glitch. The only thing I use from Auctiva is their free slideshow.

I can see sellers getting lots of neg's because of this issue. I emailed this buyer and she thanked me for the refund and my quick response. I made sure I explained to her that it was an eBay glitch.

I have also posted a message in my Store header asking buyers to request an invoice before paying for multiple purchases until this issue is resolved. Then if I should get a neg because of the glitch I can point it out to the buyer and possibly get him to change it.

[coxengines]

Perhaps it's not Auctiva then.

I am not concerned about negs as I refund and write but it's still a PITA that adds nothing positive to the equation.

Bernie

[coxengines]

Today was the first morning I got to work and not a single shipping cost glitch despite heavy overnight volume.

Did they fix it or was is mere luck?

Bernie

[westernstargifts]

Today was the first morning I got to work and not a single shipping cost glitch despite heavy overnight volume.

Did they fix it or was is mere luck?

Bernie

I didn't have any payments today for multiple listings so I can't comment on that Bernie.

However, I have also noticed that for awhile now many U.S. buyers are paying the International shipping rate instead of the U.S. rate which is less. I don't know if this is a glitch or not. As far as I know they don't have the option to choose when I have flat rate shipping.

[westernstargifts]

Today was the first morning I got to work and not a single shipping cost glitch despite heavy overnight volume.

Did they fix it or was is mere luck?

Bernie

Mere luck.

I just finished issuing refunds for overpayment for items bought from multiple listings, one for 2 purchases made within one listing, and another that was in the U.S. but was charged the international rate (for 1 item).

I have better things to do with my time.

FIX IT EBAY!