Invoices and sold for prices are not reflecting the correct selling price in Canadian funds

[tuckhouse2021]

Ebay is giving the price on the invoice in the wrong currency. It is doing the currency conversion but is not actually changing the dollar symbol from US to Canadian or vice versa.

 I recently sold two items and the sold prices are incorrect as they are not getting converted properly.

Calendar item number 234755838389 sold for 125.00 Canadian on the ebay description listing page and says 93.83 Can. on the invoice. The sale price was 93.83 US dollars and not 93.83 Canadian dollars.

I have no way of changing the price on the invoice back to the selling price of 125.00 Canadian.

Item 234755838380 sold for 100.00 Can. on the ebay description item page and 75.07 Can on the invoice.

If I were to send the invoice it would show as 93.83 Canadian. 

I would then loose money on the transactions as the prices are not correct in canadian funds.

The shipping prices are also the wrong amount for the currency.

Is anyone else having problem with the Ebay invoices and are there any suggestions for help?. 

I have tried the Facebook chat but got no answer and have had several calls to the ebay help and support with tickets being made but no help as yet.

[intimewithmusic]

  Thanks @lotzofuniquegoodies 

  Because this is 3.43 Kg it's got to go Exp USA. Unless it's TR Pkt USA I don't think theres much of a difference between Shippo and eBay.

   I thought of Shippo because eBay might send the prices over in CAD. That won't work because nothing will go to Shippo until the customer pays. 

  I think I have my account setting to time out a pending order after 3 days. The buyer says no problem. I'm going to try customer service chat and see if they can send me an invoice in CAD I can adjust. If I were to just send it back as is I have no way of knowing whether eBay will convert the erroneous USD called jCAD on my invoice into something else. I can see state taxes and exchange rates causing troubles. 

 On top of that as usual I have to fudge quantities and sale prices on the 5 line eBay label.

I'll try CS chat.

[intimewithmusic]

   Just got off the chat with two CSR's. Not going to make the post office today.

Woops there goes another $200 rubber tree plant or sale that is...

  I was very polite and patient for the hour or more the chat took.  The 1st rep got confused and ditched me when I mentioned a  "Request Invoice From Seller" option.

  The 2nd rep never could tell me what was going on with the USD on a Canadian invoice. Instead he told me my buyer's account was on hold. I find that hard to believe as he has 100% Positive with all transactions in the last month with great feedback.  I've enjoyed 5 or six similar orders from him this past year. 

   The rep said I must now delist all nine items now and completely relist them. He told me to cancel the order using "Problem with buyer's address." In the meantime I've been messaging my customer who has spent nearly $1000 in my store and telling him not to worry while I salvage this.  

  The CSR had trouble with English. Fine.  After 6 years of French and 2 kids fluent from immersion I can't even ask where the bathroom is.  "Où se trouvent les toilettes." Oh yeh, anyone can Google it but try and say it...

   He left the chat for extended periods to consult.  I hoped for an "old dog" and politley asked for an escalation.  Didn't happen.  The fact is this is a back end glitch. 

   If the request was properly addressed at the beginning eBay should have;

• cancelled the order,
• messaged the buyer saying there was a glitch
• asked him to reorder the items.

 I don't know why I was involved & I don't want to signal out the CSR who is obviously an ill equipped person just trying his best.  Having said that he used phrases that made me uncomfortable...

"Our team has reviewed and share few informations. First your buyer account is on Hold."

"There account is on hold with some sue amount."

    True or not (probably not) after 30 years of brick & mortar I think it's innappropriate to share this.  

"I have reviewed there account , that person have 9 separate orders." "Your buyer has purchased all items individually rather they should add all items in caart , If they have kept all item in caart they can pay in bulk and you can send combined invoice after making changes. The best resolution is you may request your buyer to reach us and caart all items. you may send invoice and they can pay for it." 

   This can't be true. I "trained" this buyer to utilize the "REque3st Invoice" feature.  The eBay Invoice I received was completely in order including all 9 line items that somehow replaced my BIN Canadian prices with USD. 

   I'm pretty sure he was doing the best eBay equipped him to do. He said he was filling in a bunch of glitch tickets. I told him devon@ebay had done the same. 

   I think the best course of action is to message my buyer and tell him due to a glitch the easiest solution is for me to cancel and for him to reorder. After that it's up to eBay.

  In the meantime it's New Years Eve. The post office closes in 15 minutes. A bust.

I'm getting a drink.  I lost a $200 sale. Maybe not.  I'll find out next year.

  Here's a photo circa 1975 of my band somewhere in Saskatchewan.  The band's name was "Hot Rod Lincoln". 

  eBay said "Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin' If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln."

 Cheers!

   ITWM over and out... Happy New York... er  New Year that is!

PS. I wonder how many words there are that rhyme with "GLITCH".

[byto253]

If getting him to cancel, suggest budling all the items into 1 exclusive listing for the buyer with immediate payment for all of those items in one shot.  Just skip the invoice back and forth. 

I use exclusive listings a fair amount and it has worked out well. 

[tuckhouse2021]

For me it made no difference if I sent an invoice or not. The error is made by eBay as soon as the items were sold regardless of how/when they were paid for and I could not change the price to the correct one in the correct currency.

Putting everything into a special lot may help. However the price may still be the right number BUT in the wrong currency.

Also I had one experience when I asked a buyer not to pay yet and explained the problem. He paid straight away realizing that he could get the items for about 30 percent cheaper as the shipping costs were also in the wrong currency and so not correct either. Be carful with this.

My only option was to get ebay help or to shut the store down completely. I spent about 8 hours in total on the phone with reps and had two tickets made. This forum involved Devon@ebay and I don't know what helped the most. Good luck.

[intimewithmusic]

@tuckhouse2021  @byto253  

Thanks for the response! That's a consideration Byto but doing that forfeits your eBay Seller protection and sets you up for an INAD.  This order for 8 rare books plus another lot of 6 rare books has possibly 50 to 70 pictures and 14 individual descrptions in the listings with a $225 value. 

I would do that for a small quantity lower value sale.  "Exclusive listings" leave out 95% of the detail leaving the flaws/photos/descrptive elements out. Your entire $225 order can then go sideways unless you're lucky. That said I have history with the buyer &  I doubt there would be an issue. It's just not good practise. Thank you though for the suggestion.

After sleeping on it I think what the CSR meant when he told me to make new listings for all the items  was to use "Sell Similar" instead of re-listing them with the same item numbers.  I'm going to try that. It's not much effort. New item numbers might remove any back end "rail trail".  The buyer can then repurchase fresh listings and I might get a proper  CAD currency invoice.  

I'll post the results . 

Thanks!

[intimewithmusic]

Hi @tuckhouse2021 

  This is how I'm handling the same issue; 

• I rec'd a copy of the eBay chat transcript.
• I cancelled all the orders using "Problem with buyer's address" as instructed by eBay. 
• On cancelling I selected "Do Not RE-list for Free"
• I relisted all the orders using "Sell Similar" not "Re-list to generate new item numbers. (This will reduce your free listings quota) 

1st  Msg to buyer:

"I spent a couple of hours on this with eBay. The displaying the wrong currency issue has been happening now and then. Unfortunately eBay customer service cannot go into their back end and fix a corrupted order.

They instructed me to cancel your order and re-list the 9 items with new eBay item numbers. This gives the items a new identity in the store. They "shouldn't" go down the same road as before. I should then receive an invoice in Canadian currency, apply your discounts and return it to you in US currency.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I have to do this now. If the items are left to time out they will register on your account as being abandoned and unpaid which isn't great.

It's 10:00am pacific. All nine items should re appear in my eBay store within the hour with new item numbers. You should see them in my store at the top if you sort by "new listings".

To be sure I will also message you the nine new listing numbers here.

Thank you for your patience."

2nd Msg to buyer

"Hi,

Further to my message 30 minutes ago all 9 have been re-listed as new in my eBay store. I checked and if you go to my store and sort (top right) by "newest Listings" they will be at the top. In case that doesn't work for all nine here are their individual eBay item numbers . Enter any of them into the eBay search bar and they will come up.

Unfortunately because these are now live listings they are available for anyone to purchase.

Once again thank you for your patience."

------------------------------------------

 Bottom line is I do not know if this will work but it's worth a try.

IT

[tuckhouse2021]

This is still a problem for me. I just received a series of orders with a request for a combined invoice and all the sold for prices are wrong.

 

devon@ebay 

@tuckhouse2021 

@ricarmic 

@byto253

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

[intimewithmusic]

It sounds counter productive but It seems like eBay wants sellers to abandon combined shipping and employ immediate payment. I just had a european customer avoid combined shipping altogether by completing checkout 10 times for one order. Of course he paid double the shipping. It's a mess.

[tuckhouse2021]

Yes mine is a mess too and I amstill having the same problem. So far I am out over 175.00 Cdn and surely losing customers as I think it makes me look like a bad seller.

I had a request from Sweden and can't send a correct invoice so dont know what to do now. I have talked with eBay again but have not heard anything back.

I have yet to respond to the current invoice request. The first time this happened the buyer paid in an effort to be helpful and I lost money, the next time I explained to the buyer, he paid straight away realizing he was getting a deal. I mailed off the packages and did not refund any for the combined shipping so I got a bit of money that way but it makes me look like a bad seller as I did not combine the postage and give them a refund as they would normally expect.

My current order that I am having the problem with is a buyer from Sweden. I am not sure if there has to be a language translation or not but it is difficult enough in English to explain.

The following are the details for the most current request.

Order number       Item number       Ebay sold for .     Original listing sold for price in Can.      Lost amount 

                                                         price in Can. $                   price in Can. $                             in Can.$

3221                      234761774872               56.33                         75.00                                          18.67

3223                      234761774888               48.82                          65.00                                          16.18

3224                      234825912199               26.66                          35.50                                            8.84

3222                      234761774914                26.29                         35.00                                             8.71

3225                      234761774862                22.53                         30.00                                             7.47

3227                       234761774903               18.78                          25.00                                            6.22

So total price LOSS is 66.09 Canadian dollars. I cannot reasonably be expected to get that back by making the postage huge. And how do I make the customs forms make sense?

[intimewithmusic]

You should not manipulate a European order customs form for dollar value. the only change I would make is if you need an extra line on the eBay form and the tariff code is the same for multiple items. . For International orders that have over 5 tariff codes I use Shippo. You get a proper CN23. I don't see much diff in the label cost for overseas but it depends how your Shippo account is set up. 

You didn't mention the Canada Post service you use.  It looks like your order would exceed $100. You can only insure overseas orders for more than $100 by using CP Xpresspost.  I sent 4.5 kg to Switzerland yesterday via Xpresspost. The level 1 cost was $161 plus insurance. eBay would not even insure xpresspost for more than $1oo so agian I used Shippo.  You can add any value of insurance. 

If the buyer hasn't paid I would cancel this order without giving them time to pay and explain eBay sent you a "corrupted invoice". I would use  "Problem with buyer's address." for the reason. You should confirm this with eBay chat (not by phone) so you have a copy of the chat transcript.  they probably won't know what you are talking about and consult with others. It doesn't matter as long as they agree you need to cancel the order. 

We don't do this to lose money on eBay's back end glitches.  Besides the loss you may also have problems with customs and/or the buyer could claim NAD or want a refund.  If the order itself is corrupted you can expect the refund request to be as well. You are better to cancel than suffer a loss. 

If the buyer wants to work with you you could try cancelling the order and relist the items. See if the issue resolves. It's IMPERITIVE the buyer knows they must purchase the items as soon as they're live. Relisted items can attract attention from other buyers (watchers) They get a notification and scoop them 1st.  I'm not a fan of making a "exclusive listing" unless it contains all the same photos and details of the original. 

PS If you cancel the buyer's order attach a screenshot of the corrupted invoice with your message and circle the USD prices with the "CA" beside it so they see the eBay glitch and know you aren't a "bad seller". 

[tuckhouse2021]

Has anyone heard or feel that there is a resolution to this problem? I recently got multiple  single orders from the same buyer so think that the combined shipping option and invoiceing is still a problem.  

My sales are also down so can't judge well what has changed but I have had no combined orders that reflect the proper prices yet since this issue started before Christmas.

My buyer that requested an invoice for the 7 items has stopped answering my emails and I am unable to complete the sale(over $300.00 Canadian). I cannot invoice for the correct prices yet and she has not responded to my request to make one new combination lot as was the suggested work around. The offer to add the missing payment funds to the shipping price did not go well either. Should I cancel and take the loss as she is not answering me or is it up to her to cancel?. Will I be punished? How do I proceed with this?.

I have heard nothing back from any of the eBay help that I have talked with and the lack of eBay guidance is frustrating and discouraging. 

Has anyone else that has been affected received answers or solutions?

@tuckhouse2021  @lotzofuniquegoodies @ricarmic  @pjcdn2005  @byto253 @intimewithmusic

devon@ebay

[ricarmic]

I've not heard anything from the support perspective.

So far my "combo" response of providing the invoice with the inflated shipping along with a description in it advising of the reason why and the alternate option of cancelling them all and creating a single special for them item AND a separate ebay message repeating the situation and options has worked ok in my (stamps) category.

This is the text from my last one:

Hi BUYERNAME! THX for your purchases! At the moment eBay is BROKEN for cross site multi item purchases, the items you've purchased are on .CA and are listed in $C however at invoicing time eBay erroneously converts them to the US$ equivalents but left them in $C which means the prices are about 25% too low compared to what they were running at before you purchased them. The price for these 3 lots was $18.99 $C, $15.99 $C and $9.99 $C plus the shipping costs. I'm not sure what you saw them as before they were purchased but now they'll show as lower, or they will when I issue the invoice. You were of course correct that I do combine purchases, all 3 lots will ship for the shipping price of one lot, ie $9 Canadian (and I use nice stamps on the packages).

The eBay support staff have advised that the only way to fix this is to put the missing/dropped value in as "shipping" so now you'll see the shipping number increased above the $9 $C combined total to "fix" the ebay error. Hopefully you can see the drop that's happened from before you purchased the items. If this concerns you, alternatively, I can cancel these 3 items and relist as 1 Item special only for you at the correct price ($44.97 $C) and with the combined shipping cost ($9 $C) for a total of $53.97 $C. Either way is fine by me.

I am sorry for all the ebay confusion/trouble here, I really hope they fix this soon, this has been a problem for weeks!

[intimewithmusic]

@tuckhouse2021  @ricarmic 

I can't agree with Ricarmic.  It's too complicated and could have the side effects described below.  These are International buyers.  it's important to consider the buyer may not speak fluent English. Even if they do it looks "suspicious" to the buyer causing them to "cool off" and you lose them. 

 I recently completed one order from Switzerland for 10 listings.  Instead of putting all the items on one invoice he completed checkout multiple times with no issue. He paid too much shipping. He didn't bring it up because I refunded him immediately (SEVEN times). The transaction was over quickly and the goods were shipped within a few minutes. Nothing was "fudged" but on my end it was a heck of a lot of work. The only way to make a corrupted order good is to get a good one.

  RE: Overcharging on shipping to compensate. We've already mentioned the possible side effects: A) Bad seller image, B) Customs Fraud  C) In the event of an INAD or INR the claim will likely be corrupt also.  

Send the buyer a copy of the corrupt order offering 2 remedies.

BUYER : 1. They can purchase each seperately and you will send an instant shipping refund.

(If the value of a sale is less than the total refund you owe them you will need to break it up over the group of purchases like I did. I had to send 7 partial refunds totaling $211 on 10 listings purchased.  You don;t need to explain that. (too complicated)

or,

BUYER 2.  THEIR alternative (if you don't think they will trust you to refund) Tell them to contact eBay via the HELP button. Make sure they have a copy of the corrupt order 1st. 

SELLER:  Step 1. Contact eBay yourself via "Chat".  Ask them to send you a proper order (formality) . They will say they can't.  Ask them to back you for cancelling the order due to "problem with buyer address". They will back you.  Save the transcript.

Step 2. Cancel the order. Relist the items. Message the buyer "I have followed eBay's direction. The items items have been relisted. Time is of the essense because they are available for ANYONE to purchase. " I'm very sorry for this glitch in the eBay order system." 

Under the circumstances this is all you can do when you get a corrupted order apart from forging documents. 

   It's very dissapointing eBay Canada and it's forum representative aren't prioritizing this month long glitch. Combined orders are important. Customers need time in certain stores.  if this isn't addressed I might as well switch to immediate payment, AKA "Slam Bam Thank You Ma'am" and make 1 sale instead of 6 to avoid the grief.

[intimewithmusic]

Sorry I'm revising my "SELLER STEP 2 MESSAGE"  It's too complicated . Change to;

"I completed eBay's direction and relisted the items for you.  IMPORTANT.  Time is of the essense.  To avoid dissapoinment please act before another buyer purchases them.  I'm very sorry for this eBay order glitch beyond my control.  Thank you" 

Leave it at that.  Less is more. Even a google translation of that will get the msg across. If they come back with questions you could suggest they try to complete checkout one item at a time. You will refund any extra shipping. (They're still at liberty to cancel their order if the refund isn't satisfactory. Remember, eBay will charge you the 30 cent international fee on each item but thats peanuts compared to losing the exchange. If you have a handling charge it might cover it.  )

[tuckhouse2021]

Thanks for your responses. It has been difficult to navigate.

One thing about refunding on the individual European sales orders is that the buyers are also being charged the VAT on the shipping. When the extra shipping is refunded they do NOT get the extra VAT refunded so they do loose out on it as well.

This is an issue for some of my buyers even without this mess.  

My buyer in Sweden has just responded about the 7 items I can't invoice her for. She came up with a different total for the sale price. At least I can be reassured that she will still respond to my attempts to complete the sale.

I am wondering what numbers she saw upon purchase--My original sold sale price or the ebay sold for sale price?.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

---

@tuckhouse2021 wrote:

Thanks for your responses. It has been difficult to navigate.

One thing about refunding on the individual European sales orders is that the buyers are also being charged the VAT on the shipping. When the extra shipping is refunded they do NOT get the extra VAT refunded so they do loose out on it as well.

This is an issue for some of my buyers even without this mess.  

My buyer in Sweden has just responded about the 7 items I can't invoice her for. She came up with a different total for the sale price. At least I can be reassured that she will still respond to my attempts to complete the sale.

I am wondering what numbers she saw upon purchase--My original sold sale price or the ebay sold for sale price?.

---

@tuckhouse2021 

@intimewithmusic 

devon@ebay 

Devon, Can you look into this please? When a seller refunds a buyer for whatever reason ARE any taxes paid originally refunded. Same question for the FVF's on that tax. It is nowhere in help that I can confirm. In reviewing a recent refund email for postage I received it just shows the following with no mention of tax.

Refund totalC $7.60

Fee credited to refund -C $1.01

Final value fee-C $1.01

Amount you owedC $6.59

Thanks,

-Lotzofuniquegoodies

As a subplot for all of this when a refund is done there is no way in the system to officially correct the the packing slip and customs documents to make the numbers "Jive". Hand writing corrected amounts would not be acceptable from a customs perspective. 

[intimewithmusic]

@tuckhouse2021 

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Thank you for posting tuckhouse. You have almost 1000 views on your topic. That's a lot.  although we're chatting to each other I think a lot have an interest in this.  Good post!

Tax, in your case VAT, is not your responsibility unless you're self registered to collect and remit it.  As sellers all we need do is indicate to Customs it's been collected & remitted by eBay. 

eBay charges, collects, remits and in these cases should refund taxes. This is another reason you can't process a corrupt order. A refund on a item should cleanly reverse itself all the way through eBay's point of purchase system including taxes. 

 A side note:  The provicincial government also pays a commission (it used to be 4% ) to entities to collect and remit PST.  The point is eBay is paid through seller final value fees to provide the service not unlike processing  the Visa, Mastercard and Paypal services. It shouldn't  be a concern of a seller.  

In the Switzerland example I was expecting eBay to charge VAT.  They didn't. I can only assume eBay had a reason or there's  no VAT for Switzerland. Maybe someone else knows?

In that case no VAT  was collected so no VAT refund was due on the seven refunds. eBay refunded my final value fees just fine. My order/refund went smoothly because I was working with 10 proper orders not one big corrupted one. 

[tuckhouse2021]

I agree that tax is not my responsibilty to pay but I need to be accountable to my buyers. I want to do a good job and have an interest in taking care of my customers. This eBay pays my bills and groceries at the moment. It is essential to my livelihood that I make this work.

Most of my Eorpean customers are well aware that they do not recieve the extra VAT back and I often am asked to pay it myself in order to make the sale.  I will give it back in the form of a shipping discount or give free shipping(I have to go in and alter the listing) for one of the items in the order.  The VAT is roughly 19 percent so about $20.00 per 100.00 order.

It is significant to some buyers and it is only right that they should pay a fair price and not be overcharged.

They should not have to pay extra in the first place if the invoice and shopping cart system would work the way it should.

[intimewithmusic]

---

@tuckhouse2021 wrote:

I agree that tax is not my responsibilty to pay but I need to be accountable to my buyers. I want to do a good job and have an interest in taking care of my customers. This eBay pays my bills and groceries at the moment. It is essential to my livelihood that I make this work.

Most of my Eorpean customers are well aware that they do not recieve the extra VAT back and I often am asked to pay it myself in order to make the sale.  I will give it back in the form of a shipping discount or give free shipping(I have to go in and alter the listing) for one of the items in the order.  The VAT is roughly 19 percent so about $20.00 per 100.00 order.

It is significant to some buyers and it is only right that they should pay a fair price and not be overcharged.

They should not have to pay extra in the first place if the invoice and shopping cart system would work the way it should.

It would benefit both you and your buyer to get past that. Your ministry is commendable however  by wearing by eBay's "tax Hat" you overcomplicate things especially with a foreign buyer who may have a language barrier. 

The more you try to explain things the more you involve your buyer in this glitch.  Buyers simply want to buy stuff without details.  By involving them you will both lose. 

I was  a retail store owner, a music teacher and stage technician for 30 years. I worked with hundreds of icons.  The  approach was always the same.  Make them play better on a "need to know" basis.  always say "Yes" and leave it at that. Your job is to make "Yes" painless. 

 EG: In the 90's most of my drum students didn't want to learn latin music. They wanted to be John Bonham. In order to become pro you need to play every style so  I taught them "Fool In The Rain" by Led Zepellin. They thought it was fantastic.  I never told them it was a latin Samba. 

In this case let eBay do their thing. Forget taxes. As a seller your job is to make the sale painless & happy for your buyer. 

---

[intimewithmusic]

Hi @tuckhouse2021 

   I took some time to review your listings and your solds.  You certainly have a unique in demand product. I can only guess how much impact this will have if it continues.  I understand your concern.

  That said I stand by all of my comments as the best way to cope with this currency glitch until resolved. 

  Being you are  located smack dab on the Canada US border if your USA saales are high have you thought of switching your store to eBay USA from Ebay Canada?  It's my understanding most border sellers prefer ebay dot com and you would then be selling to your buyers domestically if the majority live in the US?

  As a last resort, if this issue isn't resolved soon based on your quantity,  item value, category and your healthy turnover you might consider setting up direct sales through Shopify or cross list on a platform that can execute combined orders. 

You seem to have very in demand collectibles. We should all have your problem!

  Best of luck.