eBay

barbsplace66 · ‎03-07-2015

I had a buyer email me last week to buy 5 post cards and requested combined shipping, I am familiar with the cart disconnect issue ebay has on the Canadian side , so I sent a message to customer providing him with two or three different options, option #1. if he purchased the cards individually I would provide any partial refund on the shipping, or option 2, if you provide me with the transactions I will set up a new ebay listing to include price of all the items and combined shipping, my third option would of been to pull the cards and list then on the United states side, later that night he emailed me saying he called ebay and that my listings were not set up to combine well I am one of those unlucky sellers that has to deal with this cart disconnect issue, and I have called Ebay on many occasions and all I hear is there is no date when it will get fixed. this only effects a few buyers a week as I do business daily with US buyers,

Couple of days later buyer messages me back saying it would be a hassle and that he would pass, yesturday I received another message that he really want these cards and that If I guaranteed Air Mail buyer would follow through with purchase, I had to email him back to let him know that Air Mail would cost more then the items you are purchasing however buyer returned message he would pay the extra money, I then sent him the price of shipping and price of cards etc, did not hear from buyer til yesturday and so buyer then sends me all the transactions, thought things were running smoothly now, I then removed the cards so no one else would buy them and prepared a new Ebay listing at my expense to include the price of cards and air mail shipping cost, sent buyer a confirmation ebay message that here is a transaction number and that will be your new invoice to pay on ebay, I also confirmed everything in the email that this invoice was for 5 cards and price of air mail at buyers request, , now tonight buyer sends me another message that he wants to make sure he is protected, All buyers are protected but now I am seeing a red flag would you follow through or block this buyer

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎03-07-2015

"Quite isolationist" - quite the understatement! But ehe poster stated that the .ca shopping cart did not work for US buyers signed into it. And that is what I'm interested in, as Raphael has most emphatically stated that this would work.

barbsplace66 · ‎03-07-2015

Yes Picdn2005 you are right, all my listings have the same service, standard letter mail unless they purchase 15 cards then it is free shipping, I have daily sales from United State buyers so it only affects some buyers, as the other poster noted above that he tried examples and customers are getting different messages, this poster is correct as I have encountered the same situation, customer is seeing no combined shipping or not available, when indeed the combined shipping was added in each listing,I only have one listing up with free shipping as it was part of the last week promotions which I did one and thought it was not worth the time as those would have to be revised causing more work, many US buyers purchase my items daily using the check out cart with combined shipping some run very smoothly with no glitches while other customers see restrictions or missing shipping, every item a customer asks about I immediately check the shipping and sure enough it is all there, quite often Ebay has checked my listing and agreed that my shipping is set up the way it should be for combine shipping with no solution.

rose-dee · ‎03-07-2015

@maggiebvintage2010 wrote:
"Quite isolationist" - quite the understatement! But ehe poster stated that the .ca shopping cart did not work for US buyers signed into it. And that is what I'm interested in, as Raphael has most emphatically stated that this would work.

Yes, precisely my point too.

When 'pj' says that my automated combined shipping discount (buy 5 get free shipping for the order) won't work if some of the items already have free shipping, that to me is a flaw in the .ca cart, and a big one too! The whole point of having an automated shipping discount is that it's automatic.

A customer should get the whole discount whether they purchase only one item in the group that has free shipping, none that have free shipping, or 4 out of 5 that have free shipping. Obviously eBay.ca cannot say the cart "works perfectly" if it doesn't work in some cases. I'm flabbergasted at the total lack of insight.

rose-dee · ‎03-07-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

As I mentioned before, that rule will only work if you put 5 items into the cart that do not already have free shipping. I tested that again today with the .ca cart and added 5 of your items which normally do have a shipping charge. After I added the 5th item, it showed free shipping for all of the items.

Well, as true as that may be, it's not a solution, is it? It's simply proof that the .ca cart, despite all the protestations and assurances by eBay.ca staffers, does not work in every instance. What are we to do? Beg buyers not to purchase anything in a multi-item order unless it already has a shipping charge? Offer free shipping on everything, to everywhere? (This was one of Raphael's less-than-helpful suggestions for a "fix").

So I must now face the possibility that some of my buyers, even if logged onto .ca, are not going to see the automated shipping discount when they go to check out. How many will bother to contact me so that I can adjust the order? How many will just give up in disgust? I have that shipping discount advertised all over the place in my listings, apparently to little effect.

Ludicrous of eBay not to know this problem exists, and even worse of them not to admit it. I'm beyond disgusted.

P.S. I am not going to list on .com, for a whole variety of legitimate reasons.

barbsplace66 · ‎03-07-2015

I ran a 6 month trial run of listing from the states side to see if this would be a solution, color coded all my listings so that I knew which ones were listed on the states side I went step by step with ebay with any listing that had issues I specifically used transaction numbers with ebay for any customer that had emailed me with a check out problem, my results were the same, some sales would come through with no hassle but pulled my listing of f the states side as I was having more trouble then when my cards were listed on the Canadian side,

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-07-2015

many US buyers purchase my items daily using the check out cart with combined shipping some run very smoothly with no glitches while other customers see restrictions or missing shipping, every item a customer asks about I immediately check the shipping and sure enough it is all there, quite often Ebay has checked my listing and agreed that my shipping is set up the way it should be for combine shipping with no solution.

I'm curious as to how it is possible for a customer shopping on .com to get your combined shipping. The .com cart is not set up for listings that have been done on any other site so they must be bypassing the cart. I have heard that only some buyers have to pay immediate payment while shopping on .com but I didn't think that was true now but perhaps it is. Otherwise, I can't think of any other way they could purchase more than one of your items at a time.

Phone customer service reps know little to nothing about how .com and .ca sites interact or about .ca at all so I take all of their comments with a grain of salt.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-07-2015

@maggiebvintage2010 wrote:
"Quite isolationist" - quite the understatement! But ehe poster stated that the .ca shopping cart did not work for US buyers signed into it. And that is what I'm interested in, as Raphael has most emphatically stated that this would work.

I believe that it does work for U.S. buyers. If the OP's buyers are saying that the cart says her items are not available, that is exactly what happens when you try to add more than one item listed on .ca to the .com cart. I've never seen it happen on this cart. In reality, the .com cart is not set up to have anything from .ca added to it but there is a glitch on it right now that Raphael wasn't aware of. It will allow you to add one item but you can't actually check out with that item in the .com cart.

rose-dee · ‎03-07-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
@maggiebvintage2010 wrote:
"Quite isolationist" - quite the understatement! But ehe poster stated that the .ca shopping cart did not work for US buyers signed into it. And that is what I'm interested in, as Raphael has most emphatically stated that this would work.

I believe that it does work for U.S. buyers.

Well, we now know that it won't work, every time, reliably for every item, as you pointed out earlier. This will be so whether one is logged onto .ca as a U.S. buyer or as a Canadian buyer. I have no faith in the Canadian cart's ability to function "perfectly", as Raphael seems to believe.

I've recently put a big notice up on my main store page asking U.S. buyers (who are 90% of my customers) to log onto .ca if they're having any issues with the cart. However, now it's clear even that won't work in every case, I don't know what else to do other than to wait and hope that someone at eBay.ca acknowledges the problem and does something about it before we all go broke.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-08-2015

@rose-dee wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I believe that it does work for U.S. buyers.
Well, we now know that it won't work, every time, reliably for every item, as you pointed out earlier. This will be so whether one is logged onto .ca as a U.S. buyer or as a Canadian buyer. I have no faith in the Canadian cart's ability to function "perfectly", as Raphael seems to believe.

I've recently put a big notice up on my main store page asking U.S. buyers (who are 90% of my customers) to log onto .ca if they're having any issues with the cart. However, now it's clear even that won't work in every case, I don't know what else to do other than to wait and hope that someone at eBay.ca acknowledges the problem and does something about it before we all go broke.

We know that it won't work for your particular type of promotion in all cases. We don't know if any of the carts are set up to work the way that you want them to in that situation so it may not be just a problem with the new carts (.ca, .au, etc.) but a problem with any ebay cart. I realize you said the promo worked before but that would have been before immediate payment and it would not have been put in a cart.

Have you shown Raphael that exact scenario to see if it can be addressed? Perhaps no one has ever shown them that specific problem?

If it isn't possible for the cart to do that type of promo then you might be better off to set up combined shipping rather than free shipping for 5 items. I understand why a seller would want to offer free shipping as a bonus if a buyer purchases a certain number of items. But as a buyer, I would wonder why I would have to pay full shipping cost on each item if only 2 or 3 items are purchased so you might want to consider doing another type of promo....or not....it's just a suggestion.

I know that your point is that all of these things should work properly and I agree with you. But this isn't our site and things are never going to be exactly the way that each one of us would like things to be.

barbsplace66 · ‎03-08-2015

Hi, my free shipping only applies to a purchase of 15 or more post cards, this special shipping rate is usually used for all my regular weekly buyers, all my listings have a standard shipping rate, my previous customer purchased 5 cards but could not combine to have just one shipping flat rate, for that buyer he requested different shipping arrangements but the shipping was not free, while it may be a solution to removing all the shipping deals and discounts there will still be issues as some buyers have emailed me having a hard time purchasing just one card,from the states side and Canada side, may I note that not to many have issues on the canada side however some buyers have tried to pay for just one item > clicks to pay and it shows them the item is not available, and this has happened from customers on both sides of ebay. this cart disconnect issue effects a purchase of just one item.

rose-dee · ‎03-08-2015

Holy crow, 'pj', you're starting to sound like the eBay staffers.

I'm using the features that eBay designed, in the the way they were supposed to work, and obviously they don't work properly (they did at one point, but not anymore). I'm not some sort of special case, and I haven't done any "custom" programming on eBay that might adversely affect those features -- I wouldn't even know how.

I expect a site like eBay, with hundreds of millions of users and years of experience as an online venue, to have figured out by now how to allow any customer, on any of its sites, to pay for what they have purchased quickly and simply, without any difficulties.

If the checkout features don't work properly 100% of the time, they should not have introduced them in the first place. If the automated shipping discounts don't work with all of their carts, they shouldn't offer those features to sellers -- let us do it manually the way we used to. If "Immediate Payment Required" is mucking up the cart functions, they shouldn't have brought that in either. In my estimation, eBay has made their own mess, and they really, really need to fix it or go back a few steps. It's stupid beyond belief.

Honestly, is this too much to ask of a site like eBay? They've been the world's major online selling venue for over a decade. I would think that that one thing -- not all the fussing around with the décor of the site, or forever changing the rules, would be Job #1 for a venue like eBay, no matter what the effort involved.

I've done enough buying online over the years to say that eBay is the only venue on which I've ever had problems moving through the payment process. Even with experience as a seller, I've sometimes found it confusing and somewhat frustrating trying to check out easily when buying from an eBay site.

I'm not concerned about my little problems as a seller -- I can deal with those. I'm concerned about what eBay loves to call the "buyer experience". Judging from what I'm hearing, that experience isn't being enhanced by a smooth, seamless, user-friendly checkout process.

How many times will a thwarted, frustrated, confused buyer who is willing to pay their money but just can't click, click click and get it done, is going to come back and try again? I expect they'll just find another place to buy what they're looking for. There are many other online options nowadays that weren't there a decade ago, and their checkout processes work well, every time.

I think eBay ought to start looking to its own house for a few reasons why a lot of buyers may be turning away.

latigojo · ‎03-09-2015

ohmy gosh... I just had two customers try to add to cart and advised me that it would not work and I just thought... oh brother here we go!!! Then I check community and found out I'm not alone!!!! I'm a Canadian seller and now I'm cranky because one customer wanted to purchase 15 pins from me and he was a new buyer and was frustrated and gave up on my store... that's not good for sales! Had no idea that ebay.ca was having this issue as I have never had this problem before.

Questiion; Do I call ebay with this or are they aware ???

Told him to email the id numbers and i would delete the shipping cost but he still would have to do the checkout... what a hassle.

cumos55 · ‎03-09-2015

I have had the following happen...

(1) Buyer buys five items.... individually... and does not pay.... ` and asks for an invoice....

I provide a combined shipping cost and forward an invoice.

(2) Buyer buys five items and pays for each individually.... shipping plus item price for each item.

Once the exact cost for combined shipping is known buyer gets a partial refund of postage. The maximum refunded for each item is postage.....

Never give a full refund... item plus postage for any one item ... because that ends up as a defect.

(3) I have also had situations where a buyer has given me a list of items they want to buy...... and before they bought a Best Offer option was added to each listing.

The acceptable offer was one penny less than the listed price....... an example, the list price was $19.99, the listing was set up to reject all offers less than or equal to $19.98.

Buyer makes the offer... Offer is accepted and a combined shipping invoice is forwarded for payment by the buyer...

This Best Offer option worked well for a buyer that was confused about asking for an invoice.... with a purchase of more than one item, and when combined shipping, all purchased items in one parcel, was an option...

----------------------------------------------

Option 1 is preferred

Option 2 requires a partial refund of postage... and a loss in FVF on the refunded postage

Option 3 works exactly like Option 1... minus one penny for each item purchased....

rose-dee · ‎03-09-2015

@latigojo wrote:

Questiion; Do I call ebay with this or are they aware ???
Told him to email the id numbers and i would delete the shipping cost but he still would have to do the checkout... what a hassle.

Don't bother calling. You'll get the same old obfuscation, or (more likely) the phone people will probably have no idea what you're talking about.

I would however encourage you to mention this at this Wednesday's open Board Meeting with the eBay.ca staff (or what's left of it). They seem to think it's a very limited issue connected only with the U.S. cart. They claim the eBay.ca cart works perfectly if a buyer is logged onto eBay.ca, but that hasn't been my experience.

Check the March 4, 2015 Wed. board hour -- I've been banging my head on a brick wall over this issue for months now. It might help if they hear other voices too.

barbsplace66 · ‎03-09-2015

Hi, latigojo, I have had my combine shipping problem for well over a year, some buyers have little patience for this issue, so as soon as any customer sends a message, in short detail I explain it is an ebay glitch and that any item they wish to purchase to place a watcher on the items and have them just send you the transaction numbers, this saves you a little bit of time and easier to find the items, if a customer wants 5 items I will go into one of the items they wish to purchase and change the price which will then include all the items the customer wants and then send your customer a message with a transaction number of the listing you updated, this will work for some buyers, however I have also had some US buyers try to purchase just one item and many still can not even complete one transaction, it does not happen to all my US buyers but over the year I have lost lots of sales over this glitch. many buyers do not like signing into our Canadian site or to a buyer it is simply to much work, and like the other poster said if a customer pays for each item only refund on the shipping so that you do not get a defect. I spend a lot of time doing partial refunds almost daily and like many of us we are banging our heads to have this fixed, many buyers do not take the time to call ebay with this problem so Ebay thinks it only happens to a small portion of sellers and buyers.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-10-2015

I agree with much of what you wrote.

My point was that as a business person, when something doesn't work properly and the fix is not in my control and there is no indication of when the problem will be fixed, I try to figure out a way to work around it. Yes, things should work properly but focusing on that alone is not going to help my business or my buyers. But I realize we each have our own way of dealing with things obviously yours is more vocal.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-10-2015

latigojogo - Were the buyers in Canada or in another country?

rose-dee · ‎03-10-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I agree with much of what you wrote.
My point was that as a business person, when something doesn't work properly and the fix is not in my control and there is no indication of when the problem will be fixed, I try to figure out a way to work around it. Yes, things should work properly but focusing on that alone is not going to help my business or my buyers. But I realize we each have our own way of dealing with things obviously yours is more vocal.

Well, there's an old saying: "the squeaky wheel gets the oil". So far, Raphael seems to be inferring that the whole business of the cart "disconnect" and associated problems is a rather rare issue, limited to a very small percentage of Canadian sellers. As I've said many times, the ability of any buyer to checkout smoothly and easily from any eBay site is not an insignificant problem. If we say nothing, my conclusion is that nothing will ever be done.

I believe that if enough Canadian sellers bring this issue forward, firmly enough, it might just get more attention than it has, or at least be treated with more urgency and priority, which might actually lead to someone fixing it (which coincidentally would help my own business).

Last week Raphael stated it was "my problem" to fix using the "workaround of listing on .com. For some reason the absurdity of that suggestion didn't seem to reach him. Why should buyer problems checking out be an issue at all? I certainly don't see this particular mess as the seller's problem to "solve". Why have a .ca site at all if it doesn't work properly for anyone but Canadian buyers?

Yes, we could all remain silent like good little schoolchildren in our seats and put up with it, giving eBay a complete pass on having to do anything, anytime soon, to correct this problem for Canadian sellers.

In my view the cart disconnect is a fundamental and systemic flaw, not merely another irritating eBay glitch. I'm happy to use workarounds for annoying little bugs and site issues, and I usually do, but I'm not happy to use rather drastic alternatives (listing on .com only, or offering free shipping everywhere) in order to solve eBay's biggest mess for them.

It's not just about my own lost multiple sales. My main concern is, and has always been throughout this issue, that U.S. (and possibly even U.K.) buyers are going to be put off by a frustrating and confusing checkout experience when attempting to buy from a Canadian seller, and may just not come back. There are lots of other alternatives, with checkout systems that work just fine, every time.

rose-dee · ‎03-10-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

"I understand why a seller would want to offer free shipping as a bonus if a buyer purchases a certain number of items. But as a buyer, I would wonder why I would have to pay full shipping cost on each item if only 2 or 3 items are purchased..."

I didn't mention this earlier because it wasn't directly relevant to the cart issue, but I almost always give my buyers an additional shipping discount (beyond my already subsidized shipping rates) if they buy more than 1 item. I do this manually because frankly I just don't trust the "automated" discount rules to work properly now.

I know that your point is that all of these things should work properly and I agree with you. But this isn't our site and things are never going to be exactly the way that each one of us would like things to be.

This may be eBay's site, but we sellers are paying fees for a service (under a contract), and I think eBay has an obligation to provide at least the most necessary and fundamental services in accordance with the essential requirements of site use.

If I rented space in a B&M mall and 5 times out of 10 my customers couldn't get in the door, I think I'd be complaining.

EBay has lost track of what is important (buyers being able to check out easily) and what is not (prettying up the site and making new rules). Or maybe they do just want to get rid of a whole lot of Canadian sellers who become so fed up, or lose so many buyers, that they go elsewhere.

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-10-2015

Well, there's an old saying: "the squeaky wheel gets the oil".

Well good luck with that but squeaking to those that have zero control over the .com cart and checkout may not get the results that you want. If anything, it might just antagonize those who you do want on your side.