Since when did ebayers start paying for items they won before receiving an invoice?

[biff1918]

I have had this happen many times lately where an ebayer pays before I have sent an invoice. the destination is never known till the auction is over. I specifically request that they wait in the listing but it is obviously ignored. SOMETIMES THEY PAY TOO MUCH AND SOMETIMES I HAVE TO REQUEST MORE MONEY FOR SHIPPING.

How do you teach people to read everything in the listing, anybody out there have similar problems.

[pierrelebel]

'Since when did ebayers start paying for items they won before receiving an invoice?"

It has been like that since late 2000 when PayPal became available to Canadians on eBay. 

Buyers never had to wait for an invoice.  It is not a problem when sellers offer free shipping or have fixed rates based on buyers location or have calculated shipping rate through Canada Post when selling on eBay.ca.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@biff1918 wrote:

I have had this happen many times lately where an ebayer pays before I have sent an invoice. the destination is never known till the auction is over. I specifically request that they wait in the listing but it is obviously ignored. SOMETIMES THEY PAY TOO MUCH AND SOMETIMES I HAVE TO REQUEST MORE MONEY FOR SHIPPING.

How do you teach people to read everything in the listing, anybody out there have similar problems.

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I use calculated shipping when listing on eBay.CA to solve the destination cost issue.

As for teaching people to read the details... never going to happen... most buyers just skim the surface.

[pjcdn2005]

You are using calculated shipping on your listings for Canadian buyers so those amounts should be correct if you are entering the correct info on the listing form.  There are no shipping costs showing for the US or any other countries so either there is a problem with the information being entered or you have not set that up.  Many buyers are not going to wait for an invoice or ask for a shipping cost if there isn't one listed, they will just move on to another seller's listing.

If you are entering shipping information for international locations using calculated shipping, please give us an example on a couple of listings telling us what service (small packet, expedited etc.) you are using for the United States and what service for the other countries. Also, please give the dimensions and weights that you are using for those listings. We may be able to tell you what the problem is and why the shipping cost is incorrect or not showing up.

[femmefan1946]

SOMETIMES THEY PAY TOO MUCH AND SOMETIMES I HAVE TO REQUEST MORE MONEY FOR SHIPPING.

You are not required to refund overpayments, although most of us sellers do because; ethics.

You are NOT ALLOWED to demand more money after the customer has agreed to buy. He got an invoice with the selling price and the shipping you advertised. And that is all he is required to pay.

As others have indicated, shipping is the hardest part of selling by mail order.

You need a digital metric scale and a metric tape measure.

Canada Post went metric in 1974, if you use any other system, you will make mistakes. GIGO as the computer wonks used to say.

Whether you use Calculated Shipping or Flat Rate, knowing the dimensions and weight of your parcel is a basic first step.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

While I have you pinned down.

• 99 cent auctions are a mug's game.
• Buyers detest shipping costs that are higher than selling costs
• Do you know you indicate you are willing to ship to Burkino Fasa? to Estonia? and to Papua New Guinea? Did you notice you can set Blocks on any country and even entire continents?
• Did you know that Registered Mail is not supported by Paypal and does not give Confirmation of Delivery outside of Canada?
• If you are able to use LetterPost/LightPacket shipping, which is cheap and fast but not tracked, you can move those listings to dotCOM, where you can list in US dollars using Flat Rate shipping.

[rose-dee]

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@biff1918 wrote:

I have had this happen many times lately where an ebayer pays before I have sent an invoice. the destination is never known till the auction is over. I specifically request that they wait in the listing but it is obviously ignored. SOMETIMES THEY PAY TOO MUCH AND SOMETIMES I HAVE TO REQUEST MORE MONEY FOR SHIPPING.

How do you teach people to read everything in the listing, anybody out there have similar problems.

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Sorry not to commiserate, but you should be delighted that your buyers are willing to pay at all -- and quickly.  

It's never been necessary for buyers to wait for an invoice on eBay in order to pay.  In fact, with most buyers now used to checkout carts, they just want to pay for what they've chosen and leave.  Don't expect them to read your explanations in the listings.  

Rather than dealing with after-the-fact adjustments, you should either set up calculated shipping as others have mentioned (if you're listing on .ca), or use an averaging system to charge a flat rate.  Yes, you may lose on shipping on some orders, but you'll gain on others.  Or if your items are of the right type and value, roll shipping into the item price and offer free shipping. 

Refunding excess shipping to buyers is fine if you wish (deduct the excess FVFs from the refund if you want), but it's a bad idea to request more money from buyers for shipping after they've paid.  In fact, it's an eBay policy violation (aside from being just plain bad business practice), and you may end up being reported to eBay by one of your buyers.

Using eBay's shipping tools -- as imperfect as they are -- to automatically apply the shipping is still far better than attempting to mop up manually after every sale. 

Incidentally, I ditto everything 'reallynicestamps' has said.