It ain't sold till it is paid for problems - HELP

[zwiggys_notgeld]

Can anyone suggest how to silve this problem and if blues or pinks are out there, this new rule is ridiculous.

I have combined shipping discounts set up on my other ID. Buyer just bought 6 $4.50 items and paid for each one separately. I emailed him previously when he did the same thing. I can't afford to refund all the excess shipping per item and eat the Paypal 30 ¢ fee per item as well as the FVF on each shipping charge. 

Ebay is destroying the seller's DSR's with this stupid policy, Buyers want the item, they don't want to lose it, so pay right away. They don't care about the sellers situation. If you don't refund, they hammer shipping DSR and if you do refund, you lose any profit on your cheap items.

Please don't say add shipping into item and use free shipping. I tried that on cheaper items and buyers know they are getting ripped for shipping and leave DSR's accordingly. 

I reralize Ebay makes more money but it is upsetting buyers and sellers on both .com and .ca. I do partial refunds but it is a lot of extra work as have to print recipts for each item and include umteen receipts adding to the weight of the package if it is letter mail. Meanwhile Ebay is gouging the buyers and sellers.

What is everyione else doing in these situations with lower priced items? Any rumours that Ebay may change this policy to not punish sellers and buyers alike?

I wish all the buyers would start complaining to Ebay daily as Ebay will not listen to the sellers and if the buyers are always right, may listen to them.

[femmefan1946]

I can't afford to refund all the excess shipping per item and eat the Paypal 30 ¢ fee per item as well

When you refund a Paypal payment, even partially, PP gives back the appropriate fees. EBay does not refund the shipping FVF. (grrrr).

However if the buyer sends you $5 and the shipping will only be $3, there is nothing that says you have to refund $2. You can refund whatever you think is fair.

After all, you still have packaging costs and those pesky fees to cover. That is why it is called shipping and handling. (The UK site calls it postage and packaging which I think is much clearer.)

If your customer pays $5 and gets a $1.50 refund, I believe she will be quite happy.

And if you are using PP labels, she won't see what postage you actually paid anyway.

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

Pack everything up, figure the postage, add yer fees back in, refund the difference. How tough is that? No complaining needed. Simple.

[dutchman48]

femme

It is not the % of the paypal payment but the 30 cents per transaction that does not get refunded at all, Paypal,/Ebay keeps that as well.

Inuk

That is what I am doing and it is a lot of work if a bunch of items are purchased, printing 2 invoices for each purchase, and then mucking around with shipping and refunds. The idiotic policy has more or less ruined setting up shipping discounts as can't use them well for buy it nows. They work fine for auctions. Ebay says they did this for non payer which is a crock. They did it to make money. Unfortunately, it is PO both BUYERS and SELLERS.

And even if I do what you said, it will still cost the buyer more money due to the FVF's on shipping not refunded as well as the 30 cents per transaction Paypal fee not refunded. Buyers are getting shafted or seriously need to be educated but Ebay would never do that as they would loose phony income from their bottom line

[dutchman48]

Inuk

Here is my example and it is not as simple as you make out.

buyer buys 20 $5 items with $2.50 shipping per item. He pays for each on separately. So he pays 7.50 each for a total of 150.00. Let us say shipping is $10 for all the items (hence why I have combined shipping discounts set up). I now have to keep the $10.00, the $6.00 Paypal 30 cent fees, and the $3.00 FVF's on shipping, plus print 40 invoices as well. Package will weigh more than it should as well. So,according to you, I should refund $31.00 which means doing a number of multiple refunds due to the price of the item. Contrary to your comments, the buyer is paying almost 100% more than they should for shipping, and sellers are doing a whole lot more work for nothing.

Also, buyer can now leave nasty DSR's due to excessive shipping charges and I know Ebay wants that as well so sellers lose their TRS status and 20% discount.

I realize all this can be done but the change Ebay made is doing more harm than good for buyers and sellers. 

[pierrelebel]

"the change Ebay made is doing more harm than good for buyers and sellers. "

I totally agree.

When the change of policy was announced earlier this year, I only had one word for it: STUPID.

I have not changed my mind.

From what I understand, eBay (based in the USA) is trying to have buyers use their "shopping cart" and someone with a MBA piece of paper on the wall assumed that was the right way to do it because other online sellers use a shopping cart!  STUPID.

eBay is not like any other site where one merchant sells its wares.  eBay is made of millions of independant sellers many selling to collectors who typically purchase more than one item at the time. That individual in San Jose with that MBA on the wall forgot to take that into account.

[rose-dee]

"That individual in San Jose with that MBA on the wall forgot to take that into account." 

Chances are that individual also didn't try out this assinine policy by selling for a while on eBay either.  I can see no long term benefit whatsoever to this policy, to eBay, buyers, or sellers.  We already had a policy to deal with non-payers.  All this bright idea does is make for upset buyers and frustrated sellers. 

I agree with "femmefan" and "inuk" that refunding, minus the FVF is a workaround, but it is, as the OP says, also an issue of time wasting and unnecessary paper-generation.  After paying FVF on the huge accumulated shipping cost of one multiple sale to Europe even though I fully refunded my buyer the excess she paid, I decided to favour my buyers, not eBay, from that point onward, so I set up free shipping for purchases of 5 or more items.  My theory is that if I attract just one additional multiple sale, I will have made up for the loss on shipping all the others.  On multiple purchases of less than 5 items, I use "femmefan's" net refund procedure. 

I use only flat-rate shipping (all of which rates are already lower than the actual), and I must admit eBay doesn't provide very flexible options for automated shipping discounts.  I wanted to offer different discount levels to different areas (Canada/US/Europe or overseas) and that's just not possible to do.