shopping cart doesn't work internationally. Strategies to deal with this fact?

[rival-sky-games]

HI all, most of my sales occur internationally. Ebay.com.au's shopping cart only works if buyers are logged into the .au site though. 80% of my customers are in USA and UK, and they will be logged into ebay.com and ebay.co.uk They are unable to see the shopping cart, meaning they HAVE TO pay shipping on every single item they buy! Most of my products are game pieces which cannot be used alone, meaning all of my sales have multiple items in them, so combined shipping quoting is essential. But the shopping cart handles combined shipping. 

I am sure this is costing me sales. Every week though, I get sales from customers who have perservered, and made purchases from me even though they are charged for shipping on every one. (Normally $14.20 or $18.20 for each item!) So I have to go through and refund them all, minus the 30c fee paypal takes per transaction. So my customers are getting ripped off 30c by ebay's absent shopping cart. For 2 years I wasn't even realising the 30c was being taken out, so I was the one wearing that cost. 

What strategies have other sellers aware of this issue employed to get around this?

Clear advice in the listing encouraging buyers to log into .com.au? 

Free shipping on all items, with a statement in the listing that I will invoice all buyers for the combined shipping cost after they have bought the item? 

Both of these approaches rely on the customer reading the listing. But I'm sure only 10% of buyers actually do...

Any advice!?? 

Cheers

[rival-sky-games]

To be honest, I'm not sure how many users are aware the carts don't work internationally. I used to call ebay support about this issue regularly, and never once got a support person who knew about the issue.
Hoping someone here knows about it!

[digital*ghost]

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@rival-sky-games wrote:
To be honest, I'm not sure how many users are aware the carts don't work internationally. I used to call ebay support about this issue regularly, and never once got a support person who knew about the issue.
Hoping someone here knows about it!

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This started happening more than two years ago. 😞 (This link will take you to a fairly lengthy thread from January, 2014, in which some eBay customer support responses are relayed, and vary from claiming there's no problem at all to it's an intentional "improvement".  http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/Selling-to-the-USA-and-UK-Buyers-are-having-to-pay-for-each/... Some possible solutions were also tested by myself and some other sellers, but they all rely in being able to instruct the buyer prior to purchase, unfortunately - I should also add I've done no further testing since that thread, so some of the info may no longer be applicable). 

eBay have known about it for a long time, and they do nothing at all. The fact that there's so much denial about it being a problem (from eBay CS) suggests they either intended for this to happen, or just don't care that it does (don't forget that when a customer pays the full amount of postage for each item they buy, you're charged FVF on every single postage amount. So if you can post 10 items for $30 you'd normally be charged up to around $3 on that by eBay, but if a buyer pays $15 postage on 10 items, eBay will charge 10 x $1.50 [$15.00], which is not refunded even if you refund the excess to the buyer, unless you call and harass eBay about it every single time, then they might refund).

It's so short-sighted - this is just one of the reasons I won't sell internationally here, and my international sales elsewhere are actually quite strong, so what amount they might gain unethically in one way, they lose in a lot of other ways. 

[rival-sky-games]

Hey thanks for your reply!

Hmm. I'm quite sure they don't take a cut of anything I refund... I haven't gone through and counted it, but the sales record does update automatically after I refund directly on paypal. I am assuming that if the sales record becomes accurate to the post refund amount, surely they take the fee's from that figure? 

[digital*ghost]

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@rival-sky-games wrote:

Hey thanks for your reply!

Hmm. I'm quite sure they don't take a cut of anything I refund... I haven't gone through and counted it, but the sales record does update automatically after I refund directly on paypal. I am assuming that if the sales record becomes accurate to the post refund amount, surely they take the fee's from that figure? 

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Sadly, no.

eBay do adjust the sale amount, but they do not credit the fee. (You can check this by going to your eBay account and viewing all the fees charged, you can also filter results to show only credits).

I issue refunds a few times a week for excess postage (even domestic buyers can have difficulty using the cart, especially if using an app), and can confirm that eBay has never given me a FVF credit. The only credits I get are for unpaid items and cancelled sales - my postage rates are very low, though, so it's not worth my time to phone eBay and try to seek $1.50 or so in credits a week, but with postage costs in the $20 region, the fees would definitely be adding up. 

[rival-sky-games]

Oh man. That is so depressing. I will go back and have a look, but I don't know how to go about requesting a refund from ebay for the last 12 months at least of this...

[rival-sky-games]

You are right. I just had a quick look, and on my last invoice, all the transactions which are recorded as a 'final value on shipping' amount are full of erroneous charges. Its going to easily be hundreds of dollars for me. 

Sigh. This is really dissapointing to learn another example of this.

[digital*ghost]

Sorry to have been the bearer of bad news... I would start by tallying up as much as you can and then use the Help & Contact link to request a callback from eBay CS (at least the call will be on their dime). They have been known to issue credits when called (an email probably won't get you anywhere, as they just tend to respond with canned replies), so it'd be the best place to start, and you will have a record on eBay for the last few months to show how much has been refunded, so they should be able to do something for at least that, if not all of it. 

[rival-sky-games]

I am currently going through 2 years of paypal refunds. I expect this will be the way I prove to them the refunds were made. Thankfully Paypal has clear records of all this.

[lyndal1838]

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vladimirpetlyakov wrote:

HI all, most of my sales occur internationally. Ebay.com.au's shopping cart only works if buyers are logged into the .au site though. 80% of my customers are in USA and UK,

The cart does not work...full stop.

I am an Australian registered buyer, buying from Australian sellers and I cannot put anything into my cart.  It has been happening to me since Christmas 2014.

It is extremely annoying when the ebay discount offers allow up to 10 items in a single purchase.  I usually purchase DVDs and it would make such a difference to be able to put multiple items into the cart for one payment, especially when the seller wants Immediate Payment for single items.