Sellers not combining items

[qazpolwertrip]

Whats the deal latley with buyers (me) buying more than one identical item from the same seller
and the seller is sending items individually?
What is so difficult about putting everything into one box so I receive all my items at the same time?
**bleep** I am the one who is paying for the postage.

Or, are sellers coming up with some way of making money on postage just like ebay does?
Or is ebay preventing people from combining postage in order to somhow get more commsion
on the postage that they dont provide?

this is not an isolated incident, this has been gone on quite a lot in the last few months.
I am fed up with this, Its no wonder I found somewhere else to shop
Ebay is appauling latley  and a lot of the sellers are dodgy as.

[lyndal1838]

Combined postage has become a problem since ebay has been encouraging sellers to ask for Immediate Payment of each item which means no combined postage.

[1781anna]

Also with buyers using the phone app.and adding multiple items to the cart there is no "request total" icon in the cart with the app like there is with a computer. 

[shoppingbag*]

It is a Seller's choice to offer combined postage or not. You need to ask before buying. Sometimes large volume Sellers take some time to reply. It is not possible to get combined postage with the Global Shipping Program. Also, some Sellers have things already packed and ready to post, so combining postage may not be an option, as they make not want to unpack and repack the items. The couple of times I have had someone not request combined postage before paying, I have asked them if they would like it combined (there may be reasons that they do not) and if so, I combine and refund the difference. I do this as a goodwill gesture even though I lose money on eBay fees, and now that Paypal is not refunding in this case, there is an added out of pocket there as well. There are a lot of posts about buyers not getting the "request total" button when placing items in the cart.  I only had this happen once, and it was because the buyer was using their phone, and when they went to their laptop they got the "request total" button. Buying via phone, can be problematic. A lot of features are not avaiable via phone, and that applies to all aspects of the Web, not just eBay.

[davewil1964]

I had one today. Somebody purchased an item and 'chose' local pickup. We are about 500km apart.

On further investigation I discovered that eBay had stripped my postage information from the listing. I also discovered (even though I have never opted for it and never would, especially for pickup, where I would prefer cash) that eBay had helpfully also labelled the listing 'Immediate payment required'.

So, it is reasonable to assume, on a statistical sample of one, that this might well be why sellers don't combine. Because they can't due to eBay's systems overriding their own preferences. And, yes, it is dollar driven, because eBay won't refund the fees on any refunds made.

The ex-CEO of eBay is on record as stating that eBay's plans to drive revenue growth are to gouge sellers rather than increase turnover. Whether the handpicked replacement knows anything about economics and commerce remains to be seen, but the previous few have just been clones of their predecessors, at least as far as understanding online marketing.

[countessalmirena]

... after eBay fairies have tinkered around with things.

[zanadoo_56]

I remember buying some A4 packs of card for craft from a big Oz stationery supplier some years ago. 

The seller's listing said they combined postage.  Great....so I bought one pack of white card and one pack of blue.  Both were the same number of sheets, card weight, pattern and size.  Only the colours were different.

When I got the invoice postage wasn't combined.  I queried the invoice I was was told: 'They had a very big warehouse and the card was stored in different places.  So the discount only applied if I'd ordered two packs of white card....or two packs of blue card'.

Needless to say I never bought from them again!

[*tippy*toes*]

I offer combined postage. However, eBay in their infinite wisdom has forced me into immediate payment required, despite me not having that option ticked in my settings. If people buy multiple auctions it's not a problem, but with buy it now, it's immediate payment or nothing. Not my doing, not my choice and I'm sure as heck not happy about it. Nor are my buyers who think I'm trying to rip them off by stating I offer combine postage, then they are forced into immediate payment, so can't wait for an invoice.

Don't assume it's the seller's doing. Ebay will eventually be rolling this out to all sellers so it will become an even bigger issue.

[twyngwyn]

I offer combined postage also (I mainly run auctions)....but when a BUYER bids & BIN, they end up paying for the BIN immediately.

This can be fixed if the BUYER changes from immediate payment at their end