w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
@rose-dee wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
When I add 2 or more of your items on .com or .ca, there is a link on the top right of the cart that allows me to ask you for a total. The buyer could have done that as well. It has been like that on both sites for a while now.
If you already had discounts for combined shipping set up, the buyer could skip the ask seller for the total step and pay for all the items in their cart.
Or......On com ebay often requires Immediate payment but if the buyer had sgned into .ca they could have clicked on buy it now and then commit the buy so that they wouldn't have to pay until they were done shopping. They could then request a total from you.
I'm not sure that "Request Total" is functioning properly as it used to do. The button may still be there, but I don't believe it's doing its job anymore. I've been meaning to post a description of some experiences I ran into a few weeks ago in buying on eBay where the "Request Total" led to a complete dead-end (both on .com and on the U.K. site), but I've been too busy to get back to it.
For the moment, I'll just say that in all four instances I was unable to actually get past the "Request Total" button -- it led to a screen that said something along the lines of: "This seller does not offer combined shipping discounts" (which in this case was nonsense, since these were all sellers I'd purchased from on a number of occasions and I knew they did offer such discounts).
This alarmed me on two accounts: first, from my perspective as a seller, because I've wondered whether my own buyers are being thwarted in the same way; and secondly, from a buyer's viewpoint this is a really bad checkout experience. Either the "Request Total" option should be removed, or eBay should ensure that it works.
In all my own recent experiences, I had to back out, remove the items from the cart, use the "Buy it Now" to commit to buy the items one by one (without going through to the actual payment), use one of the item's link to send a question to the seller, asking about combined shipping and requesting the seller send me an invoice with adjusted shipping. Holy cats, what a rigmarole.
Had I not been a seller, I doubt I could have navigated around all of that. I think many buyers might just give up in frustration and make no purchase at all. After all, what ordinary buyer is going to want to pay quadruple shipping costs on 4 items hoping that the seller will refund the excess later? And what seller wants to pay FVFs on excess shipping refunded (or do battle with CS to get those FVFs back)?
This really concerned me, especially since I'd been banging on this drum with Raphael for months and recalled that he did say it had been "fixed". Evidently not, at least not as of a few weeks ago.
This was not the first time this happened to me as a buyer either. On the previous occasion, I didn't stop to take screen shots -- this time though I did. When I have more time, I'll post the complete explanation, with the screen shots.
If it's true that this longstanding "alternative" for buyers to get an adjusted total is not working, it's very serious indeed, particularly if eBay is telling buyers the seller doesn't provide combined shipping. Sadly we no longer have anyone like Raphael to bring this up with. Just be aware that it may still be ongoing, and that as a seller you'll never know about it unless your buyers specifically mention it to you. The only reason I found out was because I do occasionally buy on eBay, and enough items at a time to make combined shipping well worthwhile.
Howdy everyone -
The options described by @pjcdn2005 are the ways we'd walk buyers through purchasing from you if they called in.
While we've had reports historically of the Request Total button not working, we don't have any currently. Looking forward to screenshots from @rose-dee so I can take a closer look and get things reported!
tyler@ebay wrote:The options described by @pjcdn2005 are the ways we'd walk buyers through purchasing from you if they called in.
While we've had reports historically of the Request Total button not working, we don't have any currently. Looking forward to screenshots from @rose-dee so I can take a closer look and get things reported!
I'm sorry to disagree Tyler, but I'm afraid the options mentioned by pjcdn don't work, at least not as of a few weeks ago when I tried to use them (as well as a few months ago, when I first encountered it and brought it up with Raphael). What she describes used to be the easy and obvious alternative.
Keep in mind that this is something sellers will never see unless (like me) they buy on eBay -- and buy multiple items that would normally be given a combined shipping discount by the seller. If you buy just one item and pay for it, you'll never know. Or if you happen to put a number of items in your cart from a seller who has automated discount rules set up, you will get the adjusted shipping/discount total.
For example, I have a "Buy 4 patterns, get free shipping" automated rule set, and this works every time (at least on the .com cart where I sell). However, if a customer buys, say, a mix of items, some of which are not patterns, they won't get the automated discount and will have to somehow ask. If the "Request Total" button leads nowhere, they may be likely to just give up rather than pay the total for multiple full shipping.
I'm going to post here my experiences recently (Feb. 2017) -- along with the screenshots I took on this occasion -- to try to explain what I encountered. I ran into exactly the same problem a few months ago (I don't buy every week), but didn't take screen shots at that time.
Also note that in February, I made multi-item purchases from a U.K. seller and a U.S. seller, and exactly the same thing happened as is described below, with the same screens appearing. I just didn't take screenshots of all of those instances, but the result was precisely the same.
I would be very grateful if someone could look into this. Raphael understood what the problem was, but it clearly didn't get dealt with before he left. This is a very poor result for the buyer, and even worse for the seller if the buyer gives up. Experienced buyers may know enough to back out and send a personal message to the seller about combined shipping, but many won't know or won't bother. Many of us sellers direct our buyers to use the "Request Total" feature -- either it should work, or it should be removed by eBay if they can't make it work.
Multi-item purchase from a seller in France: I've bought from this seller before, so I know (and they advertise) combined shipping. Here is what I encountered when I attempted to check out and get an adjusted total for the order from my seller:
- Items in Cart (I was shopping from eBay.ca) – Note “Request total from Seller” button at top right. There were 14 items in my cart, each showing the individual shipping cost. The total shipping for the order (all small items on their own) would have been about $70.00, so it was worth it to try to get a combined shipping adjustment from the seller.
- The next screen (on pressing ‘Request total from Seller’) appears to permit the request (note that I've asked in the message box as well). All seems normal, including the blue "Commit to Buy and Submit Request" button at the bottom of the page:
- When the ‘Commit to Buy & submit request’ button is selected (blue button shown at the bottom of the previous screen), the following screen appears:
- This particular seller most certainly does offer combined shipping discounts, and even directs buyers to use the ‘Request Total’ feature (as many of us do). What must our buyers think when that "Request Total" button takes them to a dead-end screen?
Featured Posts
