The old offering free postage and bundling problem

[transport-posters]

I was an idiot and gave in to eBay's constant pestering automated emails about offering free postage as a way to enhance my exposure in search result.  As my sales have ground to a halt over the past few months, I thought I'd give it a try.  To my surprise, I had one sale earlier today and then another 7 - to one person.

I don't want to have to roll up 7 posters into 7 tubes addressed to the same person and put them all through individually at the post office.  I can easily bundle them all into one tube for the price of a single poster's postage weight bracket, as I have normally done in the past.

When I send the invoice, putting in -50.00 (for example) into the "Seller discounts (-) or charges (+):" field and then clicking recaculate had no effect.  (That field has always seemed useless anyway?)

So I'm thinking I tell the buyer I will refund them (after they pay) for the 6 overpaid postage amounts, minus eBay's 10% fees on the postage components for each item.

A stupid situation to be in, and a smart buyer could argue they shouldn't have to pay such excess to begin with and that they shouldn't have to cover the fees on each item.  I know they agreed to the sale prices by committing to buy the items and they haven't requested an invoice yet or paid, so I think they are just as stuck as I am.

Any advice appreciated... thank you.

[digital*ghost]

Basically, once you enter the discount (or just enter the postage total into the P&H field), don't hit recalculate, as that is actually "reset to original".

Just either hit 'send', or 'preview' if you want to double-check all looks as it should, then send. 

[lane-ends]

---

@digital*ghost wrote:

Basically, once you enter the discount (or just enter the postage total into the P&H field), don't hit recalculate, as that is actually "reset to original".

Just either hit 'send', or 'preview' if you want to double-check all looks as it should, then send. 

---

While true for items with postage OP is offerring freepost hence there is no means to discount.

[digital*ghost]

Ah yeah... For some reason I read it as free postage killed sales then was listed as a separate cost again and sales came in  (t'was this bit "(after they pay) for the 6 overpaid postage amounts, minus eBay's 10% fees on the postage components for each item." that got me ).

OP - you can either value-add (eg provide a free poster, upgrade the postage service etc), or - if the price of one poster would be around the price of the excess postage - invoice for 6 instead of 7, then cancel the 7th so they get that free? 

Otherwise you'll have to invoice for the total, then refund any overage you want to....unless you send them a PayPal invoice for the correct total. The FVF on the full amount would have already been charged by eBay, so you can account for that in a PP invoice and eBay don't miss out on anything. (If you have a PayPal Me profile, you can also message the buyer the link with the amount after a forward slash). 

[lane-ends]

Transport, are you saying buyer has already paid for all seven individually?

Or that you have put up the price to include postage in each one, hence you now see them as overpriced, and can do a better deal due to combining?

You could offer to add in freebies as a reward for multiple purchases. Buyer is already happy to part with contracted $$, Any further negotaition is PR. Better to sell more or same $$ than sell same for less $$

[lane-ends]

If you cancel or refund on anything make sure you dont do it in a way to cause you a "can't supply" defect..ie it must be arranged to be by buyer request.

Always best to keep things as simple as possible and not confuse the buyer, or Ebay.

If you get a request about issues like this from buyers before they purchase you can make a reduced cost offer reply via return message.

Unfortunately dificulties with regards to combined discounts is one of the hurdles to "freepost". Ebay cant resolve this until they admit it is post included rather than non existant post.

What buyers dont want to hear is that you have bumped your price up to include postage. Even if they think it they dont want you to come out and say it.

Has it actually made any differences to your best match search standings? Its not the dominant factor it once was.

[phorum_junkie*]

I state clearly in my listings that there is no discount for delivery on items with free postage.  I have started charging a nominal $5 postage cost on my store items so that I can discount for multiple buys. There was no change in my sell through rate after I did so. I don't think having free postage or any of the other ebay suggestions make a difference.

[transport-posters]

Thank you for all the replies.  Unfortunately the buyer paid before I could sort something out so I might look at refunding some money less eBay fees.

I think I won't be doing free post again.  It's only beneficial for selling to a specific country / region as there are so many variations in shipping price for different countries.

[yeoldecoinco]

So called "free" postage killed my sales, made my items less competitive and discouraged buyers from buying multiple items, or led to problems with buyers wanting/expecting a discount, but me still being charged the eBay fees on every dollar.

I tried it for 12 months and it was terrible.

Once I got rid of it, sales improved a lot.

I still offer free postage on some more expensive items, but the majority now have postage as an addition.

[transport-posters]

It has been resolved.  I have gave the buyer the choice of another poster for free.

I often had multiple purchases and up to a few months ago 4 x the sales I have today.  I always avoided free postage because of these kind of problems and a belief that buyers are not stupid like me and understand what free postage really means.  It's only coz sales dropped did I change it.  I'm going to be ending these listings soon and relisting more with the 1,000 promotion so I'll be going back to normal postage with those.