eBay need to stop micro-managing

[soundsugly]

Since the new outrageeous policy of charging sellers a percentage of the postage cost there have been other changes made which make it nigh on impossible for sellers to charge the correct amount of postage for combined purchases. The end result of this is ebay have now effectively doubled their take in final value fees. This combined with other recurring fees means I am now paying 25% of my gross earnings in fees. Since this policy change my monthly fees have risen from an average of $400 per month to $800.

I have persevered since ebay seem to have me over a barrel.

However one recent change really **bleep** me off.

The 'send revised invoice' option is missing from the dropdown menus under selling manager, and the 'send invoice to buyer' button is gone from email notifications.

This means once a buyer has completed the checkout there is no way to specify correct combined postage - the only option is to refund the overpaid amount, for which I am still charged fees. Even tho I state clearly in my listings "PLEASE WAIT FOR MY INVOICE BEFORE COMPLETING CHECKOUT", i find with novice buyers, even sometimes with experienced buyers, this does not always work.

Even based on ebays dubious 'final cost to the buyer' justification for the new fees, I should not be charged multiple times for postage which i do not charge to the buyer.

Something needs to be doone to give sellers greater control over the checkout process.

If anyone knows of any workarounds for the current situation I'd be glad to hear form you

Thanks.

[stampingpaws]

I had this problem with selling Stamp Albums on CD. I solved it by taking 3 months postage and working out average per sale (Australia and International) then applying this average to item price and offerring everything as "FREE" postage Worldwide. Got rid of postage on multiple sales, discount postage being requested as buying multiple items. Actual postage might be more or less than average but it evens out in the long run.

And, EBAY love me as I offer "FREE" postage.

And, I think sales have gone up a bit.

Best wishes

[davewil1964]

If they don't wait for combined postage invoice they get refunded the NETT saving (ie less eBay fees). Some sellers allegedly send everything separately if paid separately. You get to choose, so wearing the increased fees is your choice.

[lane-ends]

If they make combined postage discounts difficult, they will as a side effect remove one of the barriers to adapting freepost, were combining rates is impossible.

[satpran]

Hopefully this should work, but not very sure

Go to Site Preferences, then Postage Preferences, then Offer postage discounts on combined purchases

edit your preferences and see if it works, good luck

[davewil1964]

That really only works if everything is a similar size/weight.

[bettyboopsadaisy]

I had the same problem in not being able to find a way to send a revised invoice with combined postage (incorporating postage discount) to a buyer a couple of days ago.

I decided to just change the postage on the existing invoice for the two items this one buyer had won and send it.

It didn't seem to work as the postage amount I could see was still just the addition of the two full postage costs for two items.

I went on live chat this morning and asked how this can now be done since, contrary to the info in the ebay help pages, there was no longer a 'send revised invoice' link that I could find.

This is what the live chat rep instructed me:

1. The seller after loging in to his/her PayPal account, click the 'Request money' tab.

2. Then he/she will click the 'Create an Invoice' link.

3. The seller will fill in the information on the "Create Invoice" page (address, phone number, the buyer's email address, and the invoice details).

4. After reviewing the invoice details carefully and if everything is correct, he will click the 'Send' button.

She said this was the only way to now manually revise an invoice.

Then (LOL !!!) lo and behold, the buyer paid for their items. They HAD received the correct invoice with the revised postage cost !!

That's how much ebay's customer support reps know !! Pretty much par for the course !

[soundsugly]

@bettyboopsadaisy

Yes, I have also had to use this method, but it is not always reliable. Apparently you cant send a payal invoice/money request to someone who doesnt have a paypal acccount.

recently I've received paypla payments from two buyers who insist they dont have paypal accounts and paid by credit card. I can't accept credit card payments so this was news to me.

I refunded their ebay payments and sent new invoices through paypal to the email addresses which appeared in the payment notification. Neither buyer recieved the invoice. I rang paypal and was told that the buyers email addresses were not registered with paypal and therefore they would not receive the invoices.

 I did not know this was a thing - Has ebay become an intermediary for paypal in this instance??

Anyway, the whol situation is infuritating. I dont remember ever signing up to pay ebay 25 - 30% in fees.