No combined postage if items are discounted?

[padraicpaul91]

I just completed the purchase on two items.

In checkout a notice came up stating that because the items were discounted, combined shipping is not available.

On this occasion it was still worth paying the postage twice, as the discount was significant.

I have written to the seller pointing out what has occurred and hopefully a small refund.

I find this situation perplexing, both as a buyer and seller.

As a buyer, if the discount is smallish, I could find the total cost more than if I paid full price but with combined shipping.

As a seller, this appears to be a disincentive for to customers purchase multiple items, if on sale at a discount.

[padraicpaul91]

Sorry for the typo. I keep brushing the touch pad and words move.

[twyngwyn]

I wonder whether you will receive them together.....their lowest rated star is for postage & handling

[padraicpaul91]

Hopefully the seller is not that dumb.

That word is better directed towards ebay's decision makers.

[brerrabbit585]

It depends what you mean by the items were discounted. Some sellers set up automatic discounts when you buy more than one item (paid for together) in lieu of refunding postage that they've already paid fees on.

[padraicpaul91]

Yeah,maybe,I dunno.

With so many idiosyncracies within the ebay platform I find it hard to know.

The seller had indicated to me earlier that he does combine.

Previously, a different message would come up stating that a seller did not combine iinvoices.

[padraicpaul91]

In this circumstance I bought  2 different items that had been marked down.

The seller is set up for combined postage and has kindly refunded the extra postage cost. He was also unaware of this policy.

I  contacted CS who emailed back with this policy statement regarding combined postage. See below.

Where they state it has been policy, that may have been enacted last week, month, year, I don't know. It is the first time for me as a regular buyer.

As requested, here is an email about the concern you've raised with us earlier. I talked to our Selling Team about and they have confirmed that it has been eBay's policy that if a seller lists an item with a discounted price, it is automatic that the combined postage will no longer be applied. This is because the seller can only offer one discount per transaction. Since combined postage is also a form of a discount to the total price of the item, you can no longer request for it.

I understand that this is something that you'd like to know since you also offer discounts on items you're selling. Moving forward, there is an option for a seller to send an invoice to the buyer with an amended postage even when the buyer cannot request total. This way, the discount is applied so as the combined postage.

[*tippy*toes*]

But it wasn't a seller discount, it was an eBay discount. Totally different thing.

[digital*ghost]

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@padraicpaul91 wrote:

As requested, here is an email about the concern you've raised with us earlier. I talked to our Selling Team about and they have confirmed that it has been eBay's policy that if a seller lists an item with a discounted price, it is automatic that the combined postage will no longer be applied. This is because the seller can only offer one discount per transaction. Since combined postage is also a form of a discount to the total price of the item, you can no longer request for it.

I understand that this is something that you'd like to know since you also offer discounts on items you're selling. Moving forward, there is an option for a seller to send an invoice to the buyer with an amended postage even when the buyer cannot request total. This way, the discount is applied so as the combined postage.

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eBay policy, lol. Not unless it's "eBay policy" to deliberately inconvenience members, make it hard to perform standard tasks, and to force people to pay more for things unnecessarily so that eBay can profit a little bit more... Oh, wait. 

Re: the seller can only offer one discount - bogus. The issue is purely to do with the cart when items have a discount on them (seller-instigated discount, that is), however postage discounts can still apply in the cart automatically if they have been set up through postage rules (mine certainly do, with or without discounts I've applied), so there's no actual or official policy dictating this, it is just a cart non-function that they have no incentive to fix. 

[padraicpaul91]

THIS WAS NOT AN EBAY DISCOUNT. IT WAS A SELLER INSTIGATED MARKDOWN OFF REGULAR PRICE.