Why is my buyer getting this message?

[triber]

I had a buyer purchase 2 items and asked if I could send a combined shipping invoice. She said   I get the error message :The seller does not offer combined shipping discounts. The seller has disallowed combined payments and shipping discounts. Please proceed to checkout to complete your purchase.

That is just not correct, I always allow combined shipping discounts. I am wondering if all my buyers are getting that message.

[pinetreecottage]

Do you have "Immediate payment required"? If so, purchases cannot be combined.  The only thing you can do, (risky) is make shipping free on one invoice, and charged the combined on the other.

[triber]

No, I certainly not have "immediate payment received", in fact just recently I have had 4 lots of multiple purchases that have come up for a combined shipping invoice. This is a first for me.

[dutchman48]

Join the world of the messed up Ebay cart, combined payments, and all other things payment related.

Were they listed on .com or .ca?

Where is your buyer located?

[momcqueen]

I just grabbed two random items and put them in my ebay.ca cart and it looked fine but I stopped short of Request Total From Seller. If your buyer was ebay.com or elsewhere, that might explain the error. Maybe they've upgraded the message? 

Worked good for this:

Your eBay Shopping Cart

Christmas Tablecloth Santa Houses Holly Pine Cones 70" x 100" NEW was just added to your cart.

Seller 

triber (14746)

Request total from seller

LAST ONE

Christmas Tablecloth Santa Houses Holly Pine Cones 70" x 100" NEW

Condition:

New

Quantity: 1

C $25.82

Expedited (2-8 business days)

Canada Post Expedited Parcel

+ US $11.00

C $14.21

Remove|Save for later

---

LAST ONE

Cone Tweed Yarn Wool or Cotton Oatmeal Relaxed 680g 24 ounces

Condition:

New

Quantity: 1

C $14.20

Expedited (2-8 business days)

Canada Post Expedited Parcel

+ US $11.00

C $14.21

Remove|Save for later

Subtotal (2 items):	C $40.02
Shipping to R2J 1Y4:	C $28.42
Total:	C $68.44

Proceed to checkout

Continue shopping

Your saved items

Did you know that you can save items from your cart to buy later?

Just click "Save for later", and it'll be moved here. Remember, these items can still be purchased by other eBay members, so don't wait too long to buy.

Cart summary (2 items)

Total: C $68.44

Proceed to checkout

Covers your purchase price plus original shipping on virtually all items.
Get the item you ordered or get your money back.  Learn more

BUT BUT BUT when I went to browse to your listings, I got a strange page I've not seen in recent memory. It looks super-old school. Can anyone tell me what this is? (Please ignore the rest of the screen capture. It's my desktop. It looks a little weird but I can assure you it's nothing more than an extreme close-up of lego minifigures.) 

[momcqueen]

Interesting. 

When I log into ebay.com, I am also able to add two of your items grabbed at random to my cart without difficulty. You must list in USD? on ebay.com?

Seller 

triber (14746)

Request total from seller

Girls & Boys Party Dress Ring Bearer Size 3-8 New Look SEWING Pattern 6688 

Condition:

New

LAST ONE

Quantity: 1

$4.99

Economy Int'l Shipping(8-15 business days)

Economy Shipping from outside US

+ $3.30

Remove|Save for later

---

Womens Circular Dress Sweater Capelet Jacket Bag Knitting BOOK #863 NEW

Condition:

New

LAST ONE

Quantity: 1

$12.99

Economy Int'l Shipping(8-15 business days)

Economy Shipping from outside US

+ $6.70

Remove|Save for later

Subtotal (2 items):	$17.98
Shipping to 58271-9703:	$10.00
Total:	$27.98

Proceed to checkout

Continue shopping

Pay today and earn $0.36.See terms

Cart summary (2 items)

Total: $27.98

[momcqueen]

Is it then possible that your buyer was trying to purchase using a mobile device? eBay.ca doesn't have a Shopping Cart on iPhones. The same might be true for iPads. 

[triber]

The items were listed on .com (I also list on .ca) and the buyer was Canadian. I don't know how I can tell if they were using a mobile device. I revise my invoices for multiple purchases so that I can give the correct combined shipping cost.

[triber]

I don't get this page when I browse my listing.

[momcqueen]

You wouldn't be able to tell whether the buyer was using the app to make a purchase on ebay.ca; they'd have to tell you. 

I'm sorry but I don't have any theories as to what that message was about. It's a new one to me and the two most likely causes (incompatibility between ebay.ca and the ebay.com cart) seem to work fine.

Maybe it was a momentary problem. Or maybe the buyer had accidentally found themselves at your page from someplace like a very foreign ebay from which you don't offer combined shipping? 

Oh WAIT! Is it possible one listing was originally in CAD and the other in USD? You must use USD to list on ebay.com but your ebay.ca listings have probably converted to CAD. You can't add two currencies to the same invoice. 

[momcqueen]

It looks like all your listings are USD. 

In that case, I would suggest it is a variation on the erroneous Item Not Available error message that buyers see when attempting to add an ebay.ca USD listing to the shopping cart with an ebay.com USD listing. I'd chalk it up to the incompatibility for ebay.ca-created listings in the ebay.com cart. Assure your buyer you'll do whatever it takes to combine shipping and carry on. There's not much we can do as ebay.ca sellers to limit the disconnect confusion other than to abandon ebay.ca entirely for ebay.com. 

[pjcdn2005]

It's a common problem with the .com cart. I have no idea why it happens but it doesn't seem to be constant. I don't know either if it has affected the .ca cart.