Can I use Send offer for a combined shipment of 4 items?

[vintagenorth]

I have a UK buyer trying to buy 4 items and even though I have my items set up for combined shipping she is getting the “this seller does not offer combined shipping” glitch. Her original eBay message does show Reply and also Send Offer. Can I reply using Send Offer for the 4 items and also tell her the shipping cost even though it says does not include shipping in the Send Offer? I’ve never used Send Offer before.

I’m limited to what I can do on my iPad, my laptop hard drive crashed Christmas Day 😥 so don’t want to start setting up a special listing.

i sent her an email through eBay messages offering to refund the difference after her purchase but I don’t think eBay actually sent it to her. Possibly the word refund stopped it. I can’t see it as being actually sent.

[reallynicestamps]

Shipping is specifically NOT a part of Best Offers.

I suspect this is something the coders never thought of when they set up the programme, not being sellers. GIGO.

There is a workaround.

You leave the shipping as is, but reduce her offer by the amount of the shipping as your counter offer.

So, if the original price was $4x($25 +$10)= $140 and her offer was $100 and Free Shipping,

your counter -offer (and invoice) would be $60 +$40 Shipping= $100.

Don't get hung up on names.

It's the bottom line that counts.

The reason for shipping being excluded is that theoretically it is beyond the control of the seller.

[vintagenorth]

stamps, she didn’t make an offer, she just sent a “contact seller” email to me asking about combined shipping and the email gave me a choice of Reply or Send Offer. I was more worried about the fact that the email didn’t show any item numbers, she just used two word descriptions for the knitting patterns but I knew which ones she meant. I wasn’t sure if she had to state exactly what she wanted in the email, using item no’s., etc. I haven’t been listing much on this ID lately (Christmas plus my laptop died).

[pjcdn2005]

Send offer only covers the listing that the buyer sent the message through. If they just a message not attached to an item I don't think that you would even see a send offer option on the message. If you know which items she was referring to I would reply back with a shipping cost but tell her that you would first have to do up a listing with all of those items and the correct shipping cost and then you would send her the item number. You could put in the title something like Private LIsting for xxx only

It's odd though that she can't request the total when she uses the cart (basket on the UK site) When I put two of your items in a cart on .ca or the Uk site I do see a request total in the cart. I haven't actually clicked on the request total though since then I would have committed to buy so perhaps that's where the buyer is having the problem.

[vintagenorth]

Yes, I think I will wait and see if she responds to my last email. I often sell to the UK and have never had a problem with combining items before. She has gone quiet so may have just given up. Don’t blame her.

[momcqueen]

Have you tried using this as a workaround? 

If the buyer purchased each item separately but bypassed the cart to do so, you could adjust the final of the invoices to reflect the combined shipping discount. Prior to payment, of course. 

[vintagenorth]

Yes, I’ve used that method quite often. In this case she hasn’t actually purchased anything yet. Haven’t heard back from her so I think she has given up. Too bad, would have liked the sale.

[ricarmic]

As a note, I use send offer (on .COM) all the time.

You never see the actual message you attached to the offer (at least I have never found it).

At the time of sending the offer you can manage offers to see the amount but that's all I've ever managed to see.....and I don't recall ever being able to go back to it again later.....

[vintagenorth]

Ric, I’ve never seen the Send Offer on a Contact Seller message before either. Maybe it is a UK thing since that is where the message came from. If I thought it would work to use in my situation then it would be a good workaround for when a buyer can not use Request Invoice. Guess I’ll have to ask Tyler next Wednesday to look into it. I also list using .COM.

[lady.stark]

If you get a reply, you could add "Best offer" on the 4 items she's interested in. She then sends an offer a penny under the asking price. You accept them and can send a combined invoice.