My customers can't buy Multiple items using the Shopping cart in Ebay.ca

[rufis1966]

I have had several US customers unable to buy Multiple items using the shopping cart. Ebay tells them that I don't Combine shipping..YES I DO! I have called Ebay and made Changes in my preferences over this but still makes people have to pay for each Item Right away…so now they have to pay full postage for each Item and I have to Refund that..then call ebay to get my fees back.

It seems that Ebay has made changes to LOSE money rather then to Make money.   I don't make sales? Ebay dosnt make money, I don't buy from US sellers because they use the GSP..so Ebay dosnt make money. Ebay makes the Feedback Private? Now I see people using that to jack up their own auctions..  So I don't bid…I don't buy as much…I don't sell…and it seems that Ebay would rather make money on Shipping and scam Canadians.

Who decided that making feedback private was a good idea? whats the point? Sales are now lost because of that. Yes I used to check out other peoples feedback and see what they bought and YES i purchased from other sellers because of that!  well not anymore. Now I see auctions starting at low prices and the seller has other user names with 97% bidding activity with that seller….its such a joke. So of course i won't bother bidding on that sellers items.

So Canadian shopping cart does not work for American buyers…I haven't had a simple multiple sale in over a year, Ive had to refund lots of shipping costs to only charge the buyer the combined shipping price that it would actually cost to ship the items. There was nothing wrong with the system before…people could buy several items then send me a notice for a combined shipping invoice….not anymore. So I am not listing anymore new items because I have no room to put things since its just piling up here. I just pay fees for nothing…Maybe ebay wants Canadians to Leave Ebay? I don't know how much longer I can continue with Ebay with all these issues.

[momcqueen]

There is apparently incompatibility between the shopping cart on ebay.ca and the other sites. I'm in the process of changing each one of my listings form flat-rate to calculated because of it. I hear your frustration on that front. Other sellers may have other workarounds to suggest to you. Ebay is aware of the problem but feel free to add your voice to the choir and call them to protest these shortcomings. Good luck as you carry forward.  

[dutchman48]

Ask your buyer to log into the .ca site and see if combined shipping will work

[rose-dee]

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@dutchman48 wrote:

Ask your buyer to log into the .ca site and see if combined shipping will work

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Yes, this is the only reasonable workaround at the moment, and it's what the eBay.ca staffers suggested, but of course your buyer probably will have to contact you to get this information -- I doubt most U.S. buyers would think of it, or even know how to switch from .com to .ca.

Sophisticated eBay buyers may realize that they can work around the problem by using the "Commit to Buy", then backing out again, purchasing the next item with "Commit to Buy", and then asking the seller for a total (i.e forcing the old style checkout system), but most buyers either won't know this, or won't bother to ask a Canadian seller what they should do.  

Frankly, I think it's ludicrous that a commercial online venue should not have fully integrated cart functions throughout its sites, but eBay has been saying they're "working on it" for months.  EBay has been so busy with frivolities, it seems they've lost track of the essentials. 

By the way, to respond to 'mjwl', I really don't see how changing from flat rate to calculated will make any difference in terms of the multiple purchase cart problem.  A calculated shipping rate will still end up being applied to each item, resulting in a total shipping overage on a multiple order.  

The cart disconnect is between the programming on .com and .ca -- what happens is that a U.S. (.com) buyer attempting to make a multiple-item purchase from a Cdn seller is forced to fully pay for item #1 (including applicable shipping) before being able to purchase item #2, and so on.  This obviously completely defeats the whole concept of having a cart.  I don't believe changing to calculated shipping will make any difference in the end result where multiple/combined purchases are concerned.  

[recped]

Even using the .ca cart doesn't always work. I had a Belgian buyer over the weekend who emailed me to tell me that he was being forced to pay for each item individually (Fixed Price listings). I suggested he try the .ca cart (my listings are on .ca).

While he was able to add them to the cart he was unable to request a total, he was able to pay for the entire order in one payment but the result of that was that I had to refund the shipping over-payment (on which eBay keeps their fees).

I'm sure the idea is that sellers should have combined shipping rules in place so it can all be done automatically. That certainly makes sense BUT combined shipping rules are not always flexible enough IF (and it's a biggie) they work properly to begin with. A few years ago I tried setting up the auto-combine rules but they didn't produce the intended results.

I might have concluded that my buyer couldn't figure it out but he's a long time seller and was purposely trying to avoid extra fees for me.

Even if he wasn't trying to save me from extra fees; for a portion of buyers who are paying from their bank account, THEY incur a fee every time THEY make a payment unless they have a "no-fee" bank account.

[Anonymous]

I think ebay needs to remove "Add to Cart" feature as it is a pure hassle for many sellers for way too long.  It is causing lots of loss potential buyers that way.

[dutchman48]

I just hold my back arrow down and go back to the sellers listings. Works all the time. Yes, old fashioned but Ebay refuses to fix much of anything any more, especially on .ca.

[pjcdn2005]

While he was able to add them to the cart he was unable to request a total, he was able to pay for the entire order in one payment but the result of that was that I had to refund the shipping over-payment (on which eBay keeps their fees).

recped, according to one of the ebay.ca reps, immediate payment is not 'forced' on listings done on ca. If that's true, a buyer should be able to sign into ebay.ca and do things the 'old' way without a cart and then request a total. I had a buyer do that the other day but I don't know if it differs between categories. 

[berubegirl]

This is clearly a site issue where the OP originally posted this thread under Site Issues/Discussion Forums

But the Almighty ebay MODERATOR moved the thread to seller central/discussion forums?....really!

That alone tells the entire community that ebay has washed their hands of this problem and expect the Canadian sellers to solve it....lol

Stellar customer service displayed by ebay once again......bravo!(puke a little in my mouth)

[melissasminis]

I have had two Interational customers recently that contacted me and told me they are unable to buy my items because it says I don't ship to their country. There are no countries on my excluded list. I have many International customers, why are some able to purchase items, and some not? When I checked the buyer requirement activity log, it shows the buyer was blocked because they are in a country I don't ship to. One buyer was from New Zealand. When I go to my listing and look for New Zealand to see what comes up under shipping & payment details, New Zealand isn't even on the list. Is this a glitch?

[pocomocomputing]

If you set up your shipping using the country check lists in the Shipping section even if you check all the boxes, you probably do not get all countries. New Zealand seems to be one country that does not appear if you use the countries check boxes.

What you have to do is set up the international shipping as follows on ebay.ca

One option for Shipping to the USA using custom locations and checking off the USA from the selection check box list and whatever shipping option you want to use.

Then add another shipping option and use Worldwide. This will get all countries and even the USA again giving you a duplicate rate for USA, one with the USA option you set up and one with the worldwide option international rate. No way around this.

Then if you want to exclude countries you use the Shipping Countries excluded list in site preferences for all listings or use the exclusions in the listing itself for a custom list for that listing.

[pocomocomputing]

I just created a couple of test listings. One was made with USA and worldwide. The other with USA and worldwide select using the checklists. I got the same number of countries in the dropdown list. So much for my theory of using check boxes. My apologies.

How do you select worldwide?