Sellers starting unpaid item cases without sending invoice!

[clapadat]

Hi,

I'm a Canadian buyer of items that are listed on EBAY Canada, where the seller is in the USA, and clearly states they ship to Canada, and will combine shipping.  The problem is that Ebay's Shipping program has major flaws w.r.t. allowing seller to combine shipping, and in almost all cases (for over 1000 items I've bought over the years) not once could the EBAY shipping calculator calculate the combined shipping (shipping to Canada is expensive and often exceeds the value of each item purchased by a large amount).

So, the problem I have is that some sellers don't "get around" to sending me an invoice with the correct total owing before the unpaid item case gets filed.  And, in some cases the only option the EBAY case resolution software allows me to do is make a payment, or request an invoice, and if the seller still doesn't respond within this time period, they cancel the order and issue an unpaid strike against me.  Although I can get the strike removed through appeal, it seems blatantly unfair that a seller can get out of a legal transaction (for example, if they don't like the winning price) by simply not responding to any requests for an invoice and waiting for an unpaid item case to let them get out of the contract.

A simple solution, would be to not allow unpaid item cases to be opened until the seller has sent an invoice.  I hope EBAY will implement this important change immediately!

[reallynicestamps]

Don't fault your seller entirely.

He may have an automatic UID mechanism as a default. He can override this.

If you plan to bid on multiple items, let the seller know BEFORE bidding so he can watch out for your purchases.

If the seller is signed up for the Global Shipping Program, another weakness in this poorly thought through program is that seller cannot combine shipping.

So you may have to dicker with the seller. The best result would be Mutual Cancellation of all the won items, a new listing with all the items together and your name as the title, and the agreed shipping price. To be sent with or without GSP.

The GSP price may be lower than the doorstep price, so don't get all twisted knickers until you have crunched numbers.

US sellers like the GSP because it protects them from phoney Not Recieved claims and makes cross-border paperwork non-existant. It was never concieved to help buyers.

[nubian_treasures]

"A simple solution, would be to not allow unpaid item cases to be opened until the seller has sent an invoice"

It certainly sounds like you're encountering sellers who have enabled the unpaid item assistant. The sellers set the number of days the assistant is to kick in and start the unpaid item process. In the past, buyers could message the seller through the resolution centre when an unpaid item dispute has been started. As you know now, that option is no more. The only option is payment from the buyer or closing of the dispute from the seller - no messaging to explain the situation.

" I hope EBAY will implement this important change immediately!"

What may be important to you may not be important to ebay. To sellers, leaving negative feedback for buyers is important but not to ebay so they eliminated that feature a few years ago.

[clapadat]

Thanx for the comments. "This poorly thought through program"... is exactly the root of the problem. I can understand EBAY supporting power sellers over buyers (following the dollars), but the fact that their software is often poorly thought out, and sub-par to stuff from Facebook, Google, Amazon, and other large companies, suggests to me that some executive level changes need to be made. To overlook something as important as combined shipping is at best amateurish, and more likely a sign of incompetence at that level of management.

[clapadat]

Thanx for the suggestions w.r.t. Mutual Cancellation with a new listing. Of course, this does assume that the seller is cooperative and responding, and not looking simply for a way to get out of a transaction price they didn't like.

I'm all for simplifying US/Canada paperwork. But unlike in the US, US to Canada shipping is expensive... often more than sending something from Poland, England, China, and India, so combined shipping is extremely important. Maybe the EBAY VPs need to spend time in the countries they deal with, ordering a standard, varied bunch of items, so it's blatantly clear to them where they're failing to do their jobs!