Combined shipping. What am I doing wrong or not doing?

[musicyouneed]

Hi I sell CD's and if people want they can without a jewel case combine shipping for up to 4 CD's in Canada and 3 CD's for US or international.  My listing are set up with a buy it now, immediate payment required so I ask the buyer to let me know so I can arrange for the combined shipping.  

I go to the listing and remove the requirement to pay immediately and I amend so they can do a shipping discount and then do a flat shipping rule that if they buy more than one $2.95 will be taking off shipping.  

Well fortunately only 3 buyers have ever taken advantage of this but each time it has never worked properly.   What am I doing wrong???

[femmefan1946]

Start with your listing.

Why are you demanding immediate payment to begin with? Is your customer demographic prone to thrill bidding or do they often ask for cancellations after several days?

Getting the immediate payment is nice of course, but you could instead use 'bidders must have an active Paypal account' which has much the same effect but doesn't put you in the awkward position.

Does this situation happen often? Once a week? Daily? Once in ten /50/100 sales? Is it worthwhile giving up the immediate payments to reinvoice the occasional buyer?

Would you be comfortable accepting the (over)payment on shipping for a few hours while you use Paypal to Send Money ? Sending a refund of the overpayment (less eBay shipping fees which are not refunded when you do this) is not likely to be unpopular with your buyers, or is it?

Add a cheery note" Hi! Thank you for your multiple purchase and prompt payment. I am able to ship these CDs together for a better price than you have paid, so I have sent you a refund. Enjoy your music and shop with us again!'. 

BTW, you can add your email address to a PP textbox, in case the buyer has any new 'questions'.

Now there is something about avoiding defects with this scenario, which i really don't understand. I will leave it to others to talk about that.

[musicyouneed]

Thanks for your input.  I just want to know on the few occasions that I want to combine shipping on how to do it.  

"Start with your listing.

Why are you demanding immediate payment to begin with? Is your customer demographic prone to thrill bidding or do they often ask for cancellations after several days?   I like to have immediate payment and that I will not change.  I've done it the other way and it doesn't work for me.  

Getting the immediate payment is nice of course, but you could instead use 'bidders must have an active Paypal account' which has much the same effect but doesn't put you in the awkward position.

Does this situation happen often? Once a week? Daily? Once in ten /50/100 sales? Is it worthwhile giving up the immediate payments to reinvoice the occasional buyer?  This happens so rarely but it does happen, just happened yesterday.

Would you be comfortable accepting the (over)payment on shipping for a few hours while you use Paypal to Send Money ? Sending a refund of the overpayment (less eBay shipping fees which are not refunded when you do this) is not likely to be unpopular with your buyers, or is it?  What happened yesterday, was I refunded the shipping while on the phone with ebay and they credited my fees back on the shipping amount.  But that shouldn't happen.  I should be able to do it right the first time without having to phone ebay. 

Add a cheery note" Hi! Thank you for your multiple purchase and prompt payment. I am able to ship these CDs together for a better price than you have paid, so I have sent you a refund. Enjoy your music and shop with us again!'.  The buyers have to make a choice to go without the jewel case to take advantage of the combined shipping.  If they want to have the jewel case I cannot combine shipping.  Most buyers want the jewel case. 

BTW, you can add your email address to a PP textbox, in case the buyer has any new 'questions'.

Now there is something about avoiding defects with this scenario, which i really don't understand. I will leave it to others to talk about that."

[pjcdn2005]

Why are you demanding immediate payment to begin with?

If the buyer is making the purchase on .com, chances are that ebay will require they pay right away anyway. That's the major complaint about the cart system. Ebay requires immediate payment whether the seller wants it or not but doesn't allow all the carts to work with each other.

OP...I don't know enough about combined shipping to help you out but if you have only had a few people ask about it, you might want to consider permanently setting up a smaller discount for all combined purchases regardless of the jewel case.

[cumos55]

Combined shipping.

Many buyers will pay the cost of shipping for each item in a combined shipping situation.

Now you have to make a refund.....

The maximum refund for any item should be the original cost of shipping.... Do not make a full refund of any one item purchased.

Make a full refund... item cost plus shipping  on any one purchase...and .... that becomes a defect.

Example...

If someone buys five items each costing $20  with $10 shipping each  You now have a total of $50 paid for shipping... With combined shipping   that cost could be about $16.... Now you have to refund $34.00

Do not refund  $30 for one purchase..... This will create a defect.

Refund  $10  from each of 3 purchases  and $4  from the fourth purchase....  and there is no defect.

Never refund more than the cost of shipping from any one purchase in this situation... and there will be no defect...