Multiple Paypal payments from a buyer

[cc_stamps]

I have buyer bought 10 items and paid 10 times in Paypal. After calculation, I fully refunded 5 out of 10 payments. However, eBay charged me 10 times 'Final Value Fee on Shipping'. I do not want to call eBay, I left the issue in a comment box in Customer Support, no response.

I have some questions:

1. What would you do if buyer pays you multiple times in Paypal ? Do you refund him all payments from Paypal, then send him a combined invoice ?

2. If I fully refund a payment (say $10), would buyer get back $10 totally ? Or would he lose 30 cents as transaction fee/commission ?

3. How to send this 'shipping over charge' problem to eBay Customer Support ?

Thanks in advance,

CC_Stamps.

[cumos55 · Accepted solution]

Three questions... three answers...

1)  If you refund all ten payments  you lose 30 cents per transaction, for a total of $3.00

2) If you fully refund a payment... buyer gets the full refund  and you lose 30 cents from your account

3) Not too sure about this third question.

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For me

If buyer buys three books... I ship all three books  in the same package, and this is the actual cost of shipping

I refund only the cost of shipping from each  payment... and only to the amount that is equal to

(Total paid for 3 books) minus ( the actual cost for shipping the three books.)

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Should one go to eBay and ask for a refund of  FVF....on postage

I look on things the following way....

So far in 2013  buyers have paid about $100 more in shipping  than was paid to ship the items......This extra $100 is used to cover the FVF eBay charged on the refunded postage.

I have never gone to eBay for a refund in fee charged on refunded postage....  I sell enough each year  that this FVF on refunded postage is not a concern for me...

When I make a refund  I do try to catch some of the FVF on refunded by postage  by giving less of a refund...   For every $10 in refund, eBay gets 9 % or 90 cents... and I try to capture some of that FVF with a slightly lower refund to buyers.

Another thing I do is increase the cost of all books weighing more than 1.0 kg by $3 to $5 ... This covers some of the cost of postage when I do not charge a full amount... when I charge a flat rate  for all destinations whether within Canada, to the US or elsewhere....

By doing so  I find that for each year buyers have not only paid the total cost for postage in any given year,  but they have also covered any FVF paid to eBay on refunded postage.

[cumos55 · Accepted solution]

Here is another way to look at things.

If you refund $50,   eBay's fees on this amount is 10 % or $5

For one buyer this looks like a lot of FVF.

However if you sell 100 items,  This $5  is now 5 cents per sale where there was no refund.

and over 500 sales  that is one cent per sale in any given year.....

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Never refund  the total for any one payment because then you lose 30 cents a per payment. made to Paypal... on top of the FVF on refunded postage....charged by eBay.

A small handling fee charged on each sale should cover these extra costs of selling on eBay.

Many use the principle of cookie jar insurance... this is cookie jar FVF.

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Make the focus all sales in any specific year, and not just one sale....  and any FVF charged on refunded postage,  becomes a very small part of selling on eBay.

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[cc_stamps]

Thank you Cumos55

[lady.stark]

If a buyer purchases 10 items seperately, I will refund overcharged shipping LESS PayPal fees of $0.30 per payment LESS FVF from eBay on overcharged shipping cost.

[pierrelebel]

Let's find a solution to prevent similar occurences in the future.  Having sold stamps on eBay for over fifteen years gives me some experience on the subject.

The original poster sells low, very low priced items ($1/$2), and as such will often attract buyers of multiple items.  The secret here is to provide the incentive to buyers to combine all purchases into one payment.

How?  Simple really.  Offer "free shipping" worldwide for all additional items purchased when combined in one payment.

The idea is to set up a "flat shipping rule" where all additional items are charged $0.00 shipping.  For more information:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/shipping-discounts.html

All listings should clearly state the policy in the description so buyers see it and take advantage of it.

For more expensive items ($10+), I suggest raising the price by $1 or $2 and offer "free shipping".

While at it, I also recommend changing your handling time to "one day" instead of three and your return policy to 14 or 30 days instead of 7.  Both changes may slightly improve your position in search results.

[rose-dee]

I'm wondering if the OP's buyer was fairly new to eBay (or maybe his first multiple purchase) and didn't realize that eBay would automatically group purchases into one invoice?  Offering shipping discounts is an excellent idea anyway, but I wonder if it would make any difference unless the buyer understands his purchases from one seller will all go onto one invoice?

I had this happen -- a beginning buyer who thought that once you see the "Pay Now" button after committing to buy the first item, you must pay, then go back and buy the 2nd, pay for that, etc., the result being a string of Paypal payments, and no doubt considerable aggravation for the buyer.  I refunded all the excess shipping payments, explained the system to her, and she was delighted to know she could easily make multiple purchases.  Currently I have discounts set up to charge free shipping for any purchase of 5 items or more of any value, to encourage multiple sales, and it's worked. 

I've considered how best to let new buyers know they can shop and select as much as they like before "checking out", and finally decided to put that information in 2 places -- in the listing, and in the "checkout instructions" where hopefully the buyer will see it when the invoice pops up the first time (although I'm not entirely sure where eBay displays it to the purchaser now).