eBay

pinetreecottage · ‎04-11-2018

Every day something new and different. I sold an item to a buyer in Texas. I sent the invoice as usual. The copy of the invoice into my email is in Spanish. As I don't speak Spanish I am assuming it's the standard format for an invoice. I've been messaging back and forth with this buyer before he bought, in English of course, so why the switch to Spanish. Yesterday, I had issues with the shipping calculator, which seemed to have me located in Hong Kong. I changed my passwords, and things went back to normal. Any input here would be appreciated.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-11-2018

I'm assuming that the buyer has their ebay settings set to Spanish just like someone here might have there preferences set to French. The invoice would be exactly the same setup as if it were in English. But why are you sending an invoice? The buyer receives one from ebay and/or can pay through their purchase history.

If you are using calculated shipping, sending an invoice can cause problems although it doesn't happen that often. Once you send an invoice, any calculated shipping function is overwritten so if I click on buy it now while using my Alberta address and then you send me an invoice, the shipping cost will stay the same even if I then change my address when I pay to somewhere in Nova Scotia. You shouldn't assume that their address will stay the same until they actually pay.

pinetreecottage · ‎04-11-2018

This is a straight forward invoice. Item $75.00 shipping $20.00 total $95.00. Buyer is in Texas. On my end it looks like a normal invoice. I sent it as usual. The same invoice in my email has now been translated to Spanish. The buyer is on .com. in El Paso Texas. Last time I checked that is in the US. As I mentioned, the buyer and I messaged back and forth before he bought. So how is it possible ebay has changed the invoice to Spanish. He hasn't paid yet, so don't know the shipping address he has on Paypal. I tried calling CS. Kept me on hold, so skipped that.

pinetreecottage · ‎04-11-2018

Aside, I always send an invoice, with clear details about how long to allow for del. so there is no misunderstanding regarding timelines. Some buyers like to know when to expect their delivery with a personal note.

vintagenorth · ‎04-11-2018

You can send a note to the buyer when you ship the item. Use contact seller.

momcqueen · ‎04-11-2018

"Once you send an invoice, any calculated shipping function is overwritten so if I click on buy it now while using my Alberta address and then you send me an invoice, the shipping cost will stay the same even if I then change my address when I pay to somewhere in Nova Scotia. You shouldn't assume that their address will stay the same until they actually pay."

Are you positive that is the case? Can you cite a source for me to investigate for my own peace of mind, please. Calculated Shipping is the way I do things and my experience in this respect does not correlate with what you've asserted.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-11-2018

The US has a large Hispanic population so it wouldn’t surprise me if buyers had the option on .com to get info in Spanish rather than English but I’m just guessing that.

I just don’t see the need to send another invoice when they already have that information in front of them it that’s up to you. I know that I would never notice a message on an invoice either, but again, perhaps that’s just me.

CS is not going to tell you what their PP address is and even if they did, you still wouldn’t know where they plan on having their item shipped to as they can change their address on eBay at the time of payment.

I didn’t know that you were using a flat rate on the listing....the problem I described only happens with calculated shipping.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-11-2018

As far as I know there is nothing about this in any official ebay pages but I have read about it happening a few times on the US boards. The way that I understand it is once you send an invoice, it becomes static and is no longer connected to the shipping calculator so an address change with payment won’t reflect a new shipping amount. I’ve only heard of this happening with domestic shipping so I don’t know if the same problem would occur when a domestic buyer changed to an international address.

Am I positive that it happens that way...no because I haven’t experienced it first hand but I have read enough about it to be fairly certain that’s how it works. I seem to remember (but not positive) it being confirmed by an eBay rep but that would have been months ago on .com and it would be very difficult to find that post again. Tyler would probably be able to give you a definite answer or we could do a test run ourselves

You said it doesn’t work like that in your experience buy have you ever sent an invoice yourself to a buyer for a listing that had calculated shipping to one address and when the buyer paid, they used a different address? If you have had that happen are you saying that in your experience, the shipping amount changed to the correct amount when they paid?

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

“ If you have had that happen are you saying that in your experience, the shipping amount changed to the correct amount when they paid?”

I’m saying that happened when I DID NOT Send Invoice. The act of sending invoice is a red herring, it’s a defect of calculated shipping that it doesn’t re-calculate postage to anything other that nation after purchase but before payment.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-12-2018

@momcqueen wrote:
“ If you have had that happen are you saying that in your experience, the shipping amount changed to the correct amount when they paid?”

I’m saying that happened when I DID NOT Send Invoice. The act of sending invoice is a red herring, it’s a defect of calculated shipping that it doesn’t re-calculate postage to anything other that nation after purchase but before payment.

To confirm what you are saying.....If I add one of your calculated shipping items to a cart and when I check out I add a new address and want the item sent there, the shipping cost would stay the same cost that I was originally quoted?

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

As far as I can tell, yes. Send Invoice has no bearing on that. I believe a certain segment of buyers has learned to exploit this. If they can see the location of the seller, they can create a new (fake) Local address and use that to buy it but then switch to their own in the farthest reaches of the country, and pay without eBay recalculating.

It is a theory only. And the only way I can think to explain the phenomena. It didn’t hinge on Send Invoice, that’s for certain.

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

Of course, it’s a lot of extra work for the buyer to maybe save $8 on postage. And, I’d think, easy to mess up and suddenly they’ve sent their order to someplace they don’t live.

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

Naturally, I could be completely incorrect. Maybe whatever was causing this to happen was part of some unrelated glitch. I haven’t seen it for awhile now.

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

AND it has nothing whatsoever to do with the original question posed so my apologies to the Original Poster.

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

If you’d like to test it tomorrow, pj, pick a couple of my Cars (multiple-quantity, please so I don’t pay insertion to relist) and then make a fake Winnipeg address. Buy one and switch to your real address at checkout. Then buy another with the fake address and wait for me to Send Invoice before you pay to ship to your switched real address. We’ll see if eBay recalculates either properly. Then, once we have our data, ask to Cancel and I’ll refund you for it. That way, we’ll know. And I’ll only be out-of-pocket 30 cents times two to PayPal. I can afford 60 cents on troubleshooting if it means eBay can see a problem spot to fix with calculated shipping. I’ve lost $$ on it as a glitch already.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-12-2018

Ok I’ll have a look tomorrow. I did put one of your items in my cart earlier and postage was 11.87 to my home address. Then I added an address in Kelowna and the shipping changed to $13+ so the amount did change this time. Eyes are getting too tired now though so I’ll look again tomorrow.

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

Okay. But it’s not the Cart where the problem arises. It’s after purchase before payment where my shenanigans have occurred with Canadian addresses... the same place a seller uses Send Invoice so I can see the reason Send Invoice would be blamed. Probably also IPR prevents the domestic address switcheroo. I’m interested to see if ebay has closed that loophole; I haven’t had this mess up since late fall.

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

Make your fake address Winnipeg City Hall or something so the price difference is dramatic.

momcqueen · ‎04-12-2018

If you still want to do this, pj, I'd suggest Winnipeg City Hall to show the 'cheap' domestic postage manipulation we're trying to recreate and that is 510 Main St, Winnipeg, MB R3B 1B9

And then the 'real' buyer address, the second far-away one to which they switch after purchase but before payment, let's make it really good. Like Atlantic Canada pricey so I'd suggest the Labrador North Chamber of Commerce at 6 Hillcrest Road P. O. Box 460, Station B Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL Canada A0P 1E0

Just make sure you delete these once we're done so you don't inadvertently start sending gifts to strangers. Haha.

I'm heading out soon but I'll be back this afternoon/evening if you want to continue the experiment. And I promise not to get excited when I see things have sold.

Oh and instead of one of the Cars, maybe take this listing https://www.ebay.ca/itm/331923096661 because I've lots in stock and it's Calculated Shipping, despite being small, they're too tall to ship via domestic lettermail.