Ebay Plus info for sellers - traps for buyers and sellers

[aus-cb]

It came as quite a shock to see that ebay had added 'free postage' to my listing for ebay plus members.  I do not do free postage, as in some ways it is a bit of a scam, as free freight is always worked into the end price of a product, and the seller then profits on mulitple purchases when combining postage for the one customer. 

I'd rather be fairer and transparent to the customer.  I do combined postage, and I also refund postage if multiple separate purchases are made by the same customer.

However it turns out that ebay covers the cost of free postage to sellers (for those that don't offer free postage) for ebay plus members.

What I have recently discovered (if you are an ebay seller) is that if a customer is a ebay plus member and offered free postage by ebay plus - then purchasing/paying for items separately is advantageous/cheaper, getting the free postage offered by ebay plus, and then getting a further combined postage refund from the seller.  Massive savings for the customer can be sort this way.  The seller is none the wiser as they dont see any difference their end.

It is therefore disadvantageous to the ebay plus customer to get a "request for total' invoice from the seller, as they miss the double dipping of postage discount.  

It is worth ebay sellers knowing this, so they don't get a "where's my discount and free postage" when you send the customer a request for total invoice, with combined postage. 

Having done it this new way on a recent transaction, ebay actually lost money on the transaction.  My ebay seller fees came to $22.05, yet ebay plus covered the cost of $23.95 of postage.  The customer also saved near $50 overall, by getting free postage from ebay plus, and me also refunding postage on combined postage (plus I gave them a little bit of a bundle discount).  I did not lose out at all, and the customer saved some near 25% on the overall combined cost.

[lyndal1838]

I am not sure why you are complaining.

If ebay is paying the buyer's postage the buyer is happy.  You say you have not lost anything so you are happy.  So what is the problem...ebay is the one who should be unhappy but they set up the system....we can only assume they are happy too.

[aus-cb]

It's not a complaint.  It is just worth knowing the differences in pricing structure for the customer, and how they can maximise it.  The seller needs to be aware of this to the benefit of both parties, otherwise misunderstanding may occur.

[lyndal1838]

Surely if the seller follows the usual practice of combining postage and sends an invoice with the combined postage then that is the amount that ebay will pay.

I cannot see how the buyer or the seller would be able to manipulate anything.

[aus-cb]

Because with combined postage, only one combined postage cost is incurred (in a request for total invoice), and covered by ebay plus.

If purchased separately, multiple postage costs are covered by ebay plus.

If the later, the ebay plus buyer can also ask for a combined postage discount after paying, after already receiving free postage from ebay plus.

[brerrabbit585]

Um, you're educating people on how to rip off ebay and get more than they're entitled to.

Sellers should be perfectly aware of which sales were under ebay Plus as there's a link in seller hub to show you those sales.

[aus-cb]

I don't use seller Hub, as I don't like the format, so I don't see that.  

I am not responsible for the pricing structure method put in place by ebay, and I don't know if it is an oversight on their part or not.  

Sellers just need to be aware of the difference, so their customer don't say "hey where's my discount and free postage"  I know, it happened to me, and the customer and I were both surprised by the difference.  I have been selling for years, and this is the first time I have come across this particular occurance, but it could happen again.

I note that if you ever refund a customer postage cost, ebay does not appear to adjust your seller fee to reflect that.  Just saying.

[brerrabbit585]

No, you have to ring ebay to ask for a refund of fees on postage you refund. There have been a few discussions about that.

[aus-cb]

Goes to show how much I check out the discussion board I suppose - but by the same token, I should not have to ring ebay to receive the rebate.  It should be automatically written into the software codex of the platform.  Paypal does it automatically, but I suspect that ebay does not - as most would see it too much effort and not claim back, or not know they had to do that (like me) and ebay benefits.

Perhaps in both cases, the software codex is flawed.  With any software development, bugs and loop holes have to ironed out.