eBay

rose-dee · ‎04-01-2013

Here's a situation that may make some sellers smile (especially the more, shall we say, mature ones).

I recently received an offer on an item that was on sale for $44.10. The offer was $44.10. I puzzled over this, wondering if I should email the buyer to see if she had hit the wrong button. On reflection, realizing that it's necessary to manually enter the offer price, and virtually impossible to make an offer by a slip of the finger, I decided to simply "Accept" and let the buyer tell me if there was a problem.

Well, today I received a brief email from the buyer asking me to revise the total, as her offer had been "$44.10 including the shipping costs". Hmm, I'd better check the offer again. There on the line reading "Terms of Offer" was this:

"Inc post to UK"

OK, I admit it, if I were a hip 20-something, I would have seen and understood this shorthand. I may have seen it, but it certainly didn't register as "offer includes cost of shipping to the U.K." Oh, the Brave new Word! I saw in this apparently insignificant but momentous event, the true meaning of getting older - being left in the dust. :_| Oh, how did this happen -- to me, of all people? I was 40 just...errr...let me see, can't recall how many years ago.

So much for the chuckle, my real issue is that I was unable to find anything in the drop-down menu on my "Sold" screen for the item that would allow me to "Send Invoice". Apparently in eBay.ca, once you've sent your invoice, you're done. I ended up logging into eBay.com, going to my "Sold" page, the drop-down menu includes an option to "Revise Invoice (or it may say "Send Invoice", I can't recall), and by clicking that option, it took me to a link back to eBay.ca and my invoice, where I was able to make changes and re-send it.

Does anyone know if this is a gap in eBay.ca's seller software, or am I really missing something?

pierrelebel · ‎04-01-2013

The very few times I had to revise an invoice already sent, I simply went back to the original email received from eBay "Congratulations, your item sold" and used the "Send Invoice to buyer" link.

Problem solved. 🙂

rose-dee · ‎04-01-2013

Thanks Pierre, I suppose I also found a "workaround" to the problem. However, I'd still like to know whether this is an omission on eBay.ca. On the U.S. site, it's easy to point and click on the drop-down menu right on the "Sold" page to revise an invoice.

True, revising an invoice is only necessary once in a blue moon, but it would be helpful if .ca had the same options as .com.

pierrelebel · ‎04-01-2013

"it would be helpful if .ca had the same options"

True but since I do have a solution to the problem of sending a revised invoice when the problem arises (once in a blue moon) I never bothered to look for a second solution!

Life is too short. 🙂

rose-dee · ‎04-01-2013

True but since I do have a solution to the problem of sending a revised invoice when the problem arises (once in a blue moon) I never bothered to look for a second solution!

Life is too short. 🙂

The real problem is that the option is not in the place you would most logically expect to find it and which is fastest and easiest to access, i.e. where it should be, in the drop-down menu on the "Sold" screen. The first time I had to revise an invoice, it took me nearly an hour of messing around to find an alternative. It was very frustrating and time-consuming. Now that I know the workaround, I use it, but it would be best to have it where you can get at it easily.

This is something I'd like to ask the "Pinks" next time I get a chance. Perhaps someone simply didn't realize it wasn't available and they can easily fix it.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-01-2013

If you go to the item and click on order details, the drop down on that page should have the option of sending an invoice.

I know this wasn't your concern but just as a note...best offer's are not supposed to include shipping cost unless there is no shipping cost stated for the item.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/best-offer.html

For listings in which the seller has specified shipping costs for the item, the Best Offer price includes only the listed item. For listings in which the shipping costs aren't specified, the buyer can choose to include shipping costs in their offer.

rose-dee · ‎04-01-2013

"If you go to the item and click on order details, the drop down on that page should have the option of sending an invoice."

It sounds as if you're not referring to the "Sold" screen here? I'm not quite following you. I'll take another look at the item and see if I can find the drop-down item for revising an invoice that you refer to. It seemed to me, both this time and previously, that on eBay.ca, once you sent your initial invoice, there was no easy, accessible option for revising that invoice.

I know this wasn't your concern but just as a note...best offer's are not supposed to include shipping cost unless there is no shipping cost stated for the item.

Yes, I knew it was wrong when I finally understood what the buyer was trying to do. I was going to send her a message to inform her for the next time she made an offer, but I decided not to make an issue of it by that point. On the revised invoice, I just revised the shipping to $0.00.

rose-dee · ‎04-01-2013

To "pjcdn" -- I just tried your suggestion. The link "Order Details" does lead to the invoice as sent (in this case as revised and sent), but that screen doesn't permit revisions to be made.

As I said, I think I'll try to bring this up at one of the Wednesday discussions and see if eBay can look into it. I may not remember my "workaround" next time around.:^O

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-01-2013

The link "Order Details" does lead to the invoice as sent (in this case as revised and sent), but that screen doesn't permit revisions to be made.

It allows revisions to be made. I've always made revisions in that way and I just tried it again and I was able to change the shipping cost.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-01-2013

btw..perhaps I missed it but what does this have to do with mobile phone's as referred to in your title?

rose-dee · ‎04-01-2013

It allows revisions to be made. I've always made revisions in that way and I just tried it again and I was able to change the shipping cost.

Oh, all right, I didn't actually get that far. When this comes up again, it's an easier way to revise an invoice than jumping back and forth from .com to .ca.

The "mobile phone" reference was to the truncated, code-like message left by the buyer as her terms of the offer: "Inc post to UK". I guess I'm still of the generation who needs full words and sentences for comprehension.:-)

rose-dee · ‎04-01-2013

I know this wasn't your concern but just as a note...best offer's are not supposed to include shipping cost unless there is no shipping cost stated for the item.

For listings in which the seller has specified shipping costs for the item, the Best Offer price includes only the listed item. For listings in which the shipping costs aren't specified, the buyer can choose to include shipping costs in their offer.

The more I think about this transaction, the more I wonder if this was really a clever ruse on the part of the buyer to get around paying shipping -- effectively to make sure the seller paid shipping.

This was an experienced buyer, who knew that a reasonable offer, once made, was not likely to be rejected by the seller, and that the seller would not be inclined to argue with a buyer over the way the offer was presented and insist on adding shipping charges.

In this instance, I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but I may not be quite so generous the next time this sort of thing occurs.