Combined Postage PLEASE HELP

[michelle40_5]

PLEASE HELP!!!

Ive been selling on here for a bit now and have always taken pride in offering true combined postage.

BUT now that ebay charges fees on the postage I have lost so many sales as my customers can not request a combined postage invoice. I have told them to add to the cart (as ebay have told me) but they still don't have the option to request a invoice.
I have double checked my listings and made sure they are not asking for instant payment. 

Its really hard to ask a customer to believe I will refund the difference in postage for them.

I really hope I'm just missing something and I can offer true combined postage to my customers again.

I have spent A LOT of time on line with ebays live chat and everything they say is untrue and whatever they recommend doesn't work.

[davewil1964]

If somebody buys several items from me and pays the various separate postage, I refund the difference less eBay and (often) Paypal flagfall.

If they ask prior, I set up a separate listing for what they want, with a ridiculous BIN and Best Offer enabled. They offer the agreed price, I accept, they pay.

I don't know that I've lost sales doing that as I get no more than one query a month and seem to be refunding overpaid postage to those that don't enquire at least once a week.

[brerrabbit585]

It could be that your statement about loving to offer true combined post is putting them off. That statement could be interpreted as meaning that when they go through checkout the right postage will automatically show without them needing to ask for an invoice.

Ebay has obviously opted you into immediate payment required because when I clicked on BIN on one of your items it took me straight to checkout rather than confirming my purchase first.

I tried putting three items in the cart and up the top right it says "request total" but it's not clickable. Next to it is a small i in a circle and when I hover over it, it says "You can't request a total because the seller has already offered a discount for these items." Unfortunately the request a total button doesn't always work and the buyers get conflicting messages that just leave them confused.

Perhaps your promotional discounts are interfering with the cart but it doesn't work for a lot of sellers who don't have the discounts. I use letterpost most of the time so I've stated in my description how much postage will cost and said that I'll refund any overpaid postage. I've decided to just wear the extra fees on postage but it's much more complicated when you use parcels because you're refunding much higher postage amounts that you've already paid fees on. I think the only way is for you to offer to set up special listings if they want several items, but with what you're selling a lot of buyers won't bother to ask.

[gumleaf_goodies]

I do what Dave does i.e. refund the excess postage paid minus the fees I have paid. 

The only time I actually get to set up a special listing is (of course) if the buyer asks first about combined listings, and experiences trouble using the cart to request an invoice. 

But something I discovered quite recently is that a BUYER can set up immediate payment on their purchases. If this is the case, then there is nothing the seller can do to delay an invoice so that combined postage can be applied.

[lyndal1838]

And something I discovered recently.....if Immediate Payment is on the listing and the Cart is used ebay tell the buyer that THEY (ebay)

will not allow combined postage no matter what the seller has in their listing.

That is really beyond the pale....first of all ebay can put best offer on listings and/or Immediate Payment with no reference to the seller and then refuse to allow combined postage whether the seller is agreeable or not.

[go-tazz]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

And something I discovered recently.....if Immediate Payment is on the listing and the Cart is used ebay tell the buyer that THEY (ebay)

will not allow combined postage no matter what the seller has in their listing.

That is really beyond the pale....first of all ebay can put best offer on listings and/or Immediate Payment with no reference to the seller and then refuse to allow combined postage whether the seller is agreeable or not.

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That's eBay for you,(it's all about charging the maximum amount of money and ethics doesn't mean anything

to them).

The best offer is so that the items sell regardless,(so they don't care how much the seller loses as long as

eBay gets the money),

[respect.our.planet]

With these tricks eBay will also lose money. Some time ago somebody in my family tried to buy from an eBay pet store and combined shipping didn't work by adding the items to the cart (although according to the seller all additional items after the first one should have been free). We contacted the seller but they replied after the 20% off was over and they had no clear idea what to do and basically told us to pick up the items from the store. Obviously we didn't go ahead with the purchase...

[digital*ghost]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

And something I discovered recently.....if Immediate Payment is on the listing and the Cart is used ebay tell the buyer that THEY (ebay)

will not allow combined postage no matter what the seller has in their listing.

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Obviously it's not good for ebay to prevent anything in that regard, but if it's gonna happen, I'm glad to see eBay taking the blame for it, rather than what it usually says (i.e. "this seller does not allow combined postage"). At least it puts the blame where it lies. 

[lyndal1838]

Digi, my jaw hit the keyboard when I first saw it.....I had to reread it several times before I could believe it.   I have seen it twice, first time about 6 weeks ago.

[digital*ghost]

I'm actually hoping that these are teething problems (for lack of a better phrase) that are partly caused (and will therefore be resolved by) the switch from PayPal to on-site payment processing. I know the glitches have been happening forever, but a small part of me hopes it's because eBay always knew it was gonna switch, and the programmers were told to keep that in mind when doing anything re: postage, carts & payments.

I think that's the same part of me also believes in faeries, and I should know better by now, but never the less... I really just hope there's a bigger picture, and that it's not the one titled "get everyone to checkout at the highest cost, as often as possible".