@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Neither of us have any idea if millions are involved. Everyday there are people who get combined shipping and who are able to request an invoice. Yes, it's a problem in some cases but to say millions are affected is just guessing on your part.
Not so much guessing, but a bit of reasonable extrapolation I'd say. How many millions of independent, smaller sellers does eBay have? Likely still millions around the world. Of those, how many make a sale of more than one item at a time now and then, and offer manually-adjusted combined shipping discounts? Probably the majority. (Actually, it's rare to see a smaller seller who doesn't offer such discounts, it's a common theme). And of those, how many have, on their own, set up automation rules, or understood the message from eBay that they must toggle combined shipments on? It's probably safe to say a large proportion haven't.
So we're still left with a pretty large number that could conceivably be in the millions. Or tens of thousands. Or just a few hundred. The actual number is hardly the point.
Every potential checkout problem is a potential lost customer, not only to the seller involved, but to eBay itself. By allowing any checkout issues to continue, eBay is giving away its buyers to the competition. In fact, I'd be willing to bet even eBay doesn't know the net effect, because there is no way to prove a negative. It's impossible to quantify how many buyers may have given up trying to check out when they can't get a total easily from their seller.
"I don't get the impression that ebay is saying that buyers should not be able to request the total when a seller wants them to. They are saying that as long as the seller has their combined shipping enabled (shipping rules not necessary) and they don't have seller enabled immediate payment then buyers should be able to ask for an invoice in the cart."
I agree, I don't think eBay is saying buyers shouldn't be able to request a total. They're just not ensuring that it's possible in all possible checkout situations on eBay. What they've done is to re-design the system to benefit sellers who prefer to use automated shipping rules (which will include most of the bigger sellers), while utterly failing to clearly explain to all sellers that the combined shipping option must be turned on (even without rules). I see this eBay's failure to provide proper service to all its paying users, across the board.
Anything that I've read from the .ca or .com reps suggests that they think that it is working as I described.
I realize that they may still not fix it even if shown that it doesn't work the way it was intended but I still like to think that most of the time, a cup is still half full.
Yes, of course it's working as described, but it isn't working for all sellers or buyers because of eBay's negligence in either:
(a) not clearly informing all sellers what they must do to ensure their buyers can check out without problems; and/or
(b) not designing programming to overcome the gap they created in the first place.
That programming could take several forms, but as I've said earlier, I'm sure eBay's designers could come up with something -- if they wanted to. This isn't the first time they've "improved" some feature and muddled it up for a whole lot of people as a result. Personally, I just don't think they consider all the consequences, and so they minimize the situation when they are made aware by users that there is a problem.
I'm sorry, but in my view there is absolutely no cup half full when it comes to customer checkout. Providing a fully functional, easy, and consistently operational checkout experience for all buyers and all of its paying subscribers and users (sellers) should be the top priority of any online venue.
w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
