topic Re: Combined postage in Selling

Combined postage

egglesdtp — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 22:07:15 GMT

Twice in the last couple of days I have had buyers trying to buy multiple items and saying that they get a message which says I don't offer combined postge - but I do!

I have checked the settings on the individual listings and neither have immediate payment required (I don't have it on any of my listings). I have also checked Postage Preferences under site preferences and I have 'Offer combined payments and postage' marked as Yes.

In the past, I have always been able to create a combined invoice for those wishing to buy multiple items - so something has changed, and quite recently. How can I create a combined invoice?

Re: Combined postage

brerrabbit585 — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 22:40:45 GMT

According to ebay, immediate payment is being rolled out to all sellers whether we like it or not. It's not supposed to happen if you have bank deposit as one of your payment methods but some people have said they have bank deposit ticked and it doesn't make any difference.

Buyers have to use the cart instead of using BIN, and they have to request a combined total from the cart. I don't really understand the cart as I've rarely used it, from what I've read in the forums requesting a total is the same as buying the items. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

Re: Combined postage

egglesdtp — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 23:07:47 GMT

I have bank deposit as one of my payment methods, so that's not it. I asked the first buyer who was having trouble to use the cart to try and get around the issue but that didn't work either.

I've decided to create a combined listing as being the best way round this, but of course this will only work if the buyer lets you know beforehand which items they are interested in. Not all of them do, and refunding excess postage payments is not always the way to go either.

Re: Combined postage

clarry100 — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 23:15:57 GMT

Ask your buyer if she is using the ebay app on a mobile device.

If so, then its likely that causing the problem.

Ask her to try again using a desktop/laptop if she has access to one.

Re: Combined postage

egglesdtp — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 23:41:50 GMT

Hi Clarry

The buyer was using a mobile, and doesn't have access to a desktop/laptop. So I created a special listing that combined both items. Hopefully this will solve the issue for the time being, but what a rigmarole to go through when buyers want to combine purchases. Why can't ebay leave this alone, especially as there is provision for it in the preferences.

Re: Combined postage

wide-world-of-stamps — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 00:15:28 GMT

We've had this problem on & off for months, sometimes the same buyer can request a total one time & not the next. As we have a lot of regular buyers, as part of our customer service we tell them to pay the full postage & we'll refund the extra. Although this costs us more in fees, we find that the buyers keep coming back so it's at least partly worthwhile, but very annoying & shouldn't happen.

As we sell low value small items (mostly stamps), we don't offer free postage as we like to encourage buyers to buy multiple items rather than just 1 item at a time for a couple of dollars.

Wouldn't it be great if Ebay left things alone instead of trying to "improve" them all the time - obviously I'm dreaming even thinking such a thing!

Re: Combined postage

javacentric — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 06:28:16 GMT

If the buyer was using a mobile, then the eBay mobile app does not have a function for mulitbuys or combined invoice/postage. It never has, even though it's been around for years now. But eBay never tells the buyers this...

Re: Combined postage

mirrhing — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 09:10:55 GMT

If a buyer wishes to purchase more than one item they are forced to use the cart. When they use the cart, there is no option to request an invoice to get combined postage. I'm sure I'm missing out on sales due to this. I had one buyer over-pay on postage by more than $10 because they bought 6 items and Ebay wouldn't confirm purchase without payment, and simply added all the postage costs together. I'm sick of doing refunds. When we had the invoice request available, if someone overpaid because they didn't ask, I would refund less the Ebay fee. With buyers not getting the choice to request an invoice, I am now refunding the full amount, so how do I go about getting my fees back on the postage refunds? Another glitch in the system seems to be the handling time. Mine is set to 1 day, but I have sales over the last 2 weeks with as much as 5 days handling. The whole system seems to be very scrambled with new glitches popping up each day. I'll be bald by Christmas if this keeps up.

Re: Combined postage

twyngwyn — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 10:02:32 GMT

have your buyer do this:

Here's the steps about removing the automatic payment checkout:

1.Go to My eBay.

2.Click Account

3.Select Personal Information

4.Scroll down to Financial Information

5.Click Remove on the right side of Checkout saved payment methods

they should then be able to buy WITHOUT immediate payment

Re: Combined postage

mirrhing — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 21:34:44 GMT

Thanks twyngwyn. Will see how that goes. How do I go about getting fees back from Ebay?

Re: Combined postage

everard6920 — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 22:49:57 GMT

Hi Eggles,

Yes, this will happen if the buyer clicks the "buy it now" button.

What I have done to try to prevent this happening, is put a brief step-by-step guide in my description entitled, "How to Combine Postage". The steps are:

1. Click "add to cart". This will take you to the "shopping cart" page.

2. On the shopping cart page, click "continue shopping"

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until all of the items are in the shopping cart

4. Click "request total from seller"

I've had considerably less people buying each item separately with "buy it now", and less "how do I combine postage?" messages since I put this on my listings. I actually didn't expect anyone to take any notice of it, but they seem to.

Feel free to put it on yours.

Cheers.

Re: Combined postage

mirrhing — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 23:37:37 GMT

That's all well and good if the request option is there, but the problem is there is NO option to request an invoice. It was gone for a few weeks, then came back for a few weeks, and the past week it has gone again. I have checked with my buyers that have bought multiple items and there is not option to request an invoice. I also got caught last week in buying multiple items - there is no option to request an invoice.

Re: Combined postage

egglesdtp — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 00:19:57 GMT

@everard6920 wrote:
Hi Eggles,

Yes, this will happen if the buyer clicks the "buy it now" button.

What I have done to try to prevent this happening, is put a brief step-by-step guide in my description entitled, "How to Combine Postage". The steps are:

1. Click "add to cart". This will take you to the "shopping cart" page.
2. On the shopping cart page, click "continue shopping"
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until all of the items are in the shopping cart
4. Click "request total from seller"

I've had considerably less people buying each item separately with "buy it now", and less "how do I combine postage?" messages since I put this on my listings. I actually didn't expect anyone to take any notice of it, but they seem to.

Feel free to put it on yours.

Cheers.

Thanks for this suggestion - I will add similar to my listings, although with more than 700 over more than one ID, it will take time.

Re: Combined postage

dazzledayz — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 01:08:21 GMT

@mirrhing wrote:
That's all well and good if the request option is there, but the problem is there is NO option to request an invoice. It was gone for a few weeks, then came back for a few weeks, and the past week it has gone again. I have checked with my buyers that have bought multiple items and there is not option to request an invoice. I also got caught last week in buying multiple items - there is no option to request an invoice.

That looks a lot like A/B testing.

Run scenario A then tally results, run scenario B and see how that goes, wash, rinse, repeat.

After a while you'll have a dataset that tells you which scenario is better (criteria for "better" may be quite original).

My guess is that ebay are trying to figure out if the market will accept the instant payment regime on a permanent basis.

Instant payment is, after all, a good way to gouge extra fees without doing anything to earn them.

Re: Combined postage

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 04:31:15 GMT

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
According to ebay, immediate payment is being rolled out to all sellers whether we like it or not. It's not supposed to happen if you have bank deposit as one of your payment methods but some people have said they have bank deposit ticked and it doesn't make any difference.

Buyers have to use the cart instead of using BIN, and they have to request a combined total from the cart. I don't really understand the cart as I've rarely used it, from what I've read in the forums requesting a total is the same as buying the items. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

I added bank deposit, but that didn't work. I tried to buy a few things from one seller a few weeks ago. Added them all to the cart, requested a total, got the message that the seller doesn't combine postage. I contacted the seller as it was in his listings that he does combine. Neither of us could work it out. He was out of free listings for the month so wasn't keen to relist as a bulk, even though I offered to pay the insertion fee. I missed out on the items I wanted, he missed out on a big sale.

Re: Combined postage

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 04:33:25 GMT

@egglesdtp wrote:
Hi Clarry

The buyer was using a mobile, and doesn't have access to a desktop/laptop. So I created a special listing that combined both items. Hopefully this will solve the issue for the time being, but what a rigmarole to go through when buyers want to combine purchases. Why can't ebay leave this alone, especially as there is provision for it in the preferences.

I've found if the seller has sent a combined invoice, most of the time you can combine on the app. In future, suggest that your buyer access the full site via the browser on their phone/device if that's all they have access to. It can be a bit confusing for them if they've not used it before, but if you are happy to send instructions, most are happy to follow them.

Re: Combined postage

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 04:34:58 GMT

@javacentric wrote:
If the buyer was using a mobile, then the eBay mobile app does not have a function for mulitbuys or combined invoice/postage. It never has, even though it's been around for years now. But eBay never tells the buyers this...

For a lot of my purchases, providing the seller has sent an invoice with combined costs, *most* of the time it allows multi buys. Well, it has for auctions I've won any way. I say most, because it is eBay and what works today, doesn't always work tomorrow!

Re: Combined postage

*tippy*toes* — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 04:36:49 GMT

I think I might just go back to all auctions and put a note in the listing saying if the buyer wants me to end early so they don't have to wait, then send a message. Most of the time I only get one bid, so it wouldn't worry me ending early to sell to them. At least with auctions you're not forced into immediate payment.

Re: Combined postage

davewil1964 — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 05:49:09 GMT

@*tippy*toes* wrote:
@brerrabbit585 wrote:
According to ebay, immediate payment is being rolled out to all sellers whether we like it or not. It's not supposed to happen if you have bank deposit as one of your payment methods but some people have said they have bank deposit ticked and it doesn't make any difference.

Buyers have to use the cart instead of using BIN, and they have to request a combined total from the cart. I don't really understand the cart as I've rarely used it, from what I've read in the forums requesting a total is the same as buying the items. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!
I added bank deposit, but that didn't work. I tried to buy a few things from one seller a few weeks ago. Added them all to the cart, requested a total, got the message that the seller doesn't combine postage. I contacted the seller as it was in his listings that he does combine. Neither of us could work it out. He was out of free listings for the month so wasn't keen to relist as a bulk, even though I offered to pay the insertion fee. I missed out on the items I wanted, he missed out on a big sale.

In future get them to do what I do - edit one of the listings to include the required items. Simple.

Re: Combined postage

markruth1 — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 08:44:15 GMT

Hello, I have been around a long time lurking on this forum and I have that written down beside my computer and have sent that info off numerous times , but Buyers don't believe it is their problem and have to change anything, it is always the Sellers fault. One buyer tried that after I sent line by line the steps to follow and then came back to me and said they already had that setup. So life isn't meant to be easy.