Buyers now have to pay individually for each item, no more combining invoices :(

[purplerain55]

No joke, it was apparently trialled from 17th May til 26th June and is now being implemented on all ebay sales. Some will still have the old checkout until it is fully implemented.

Buyers have no option to pay later, it is apparently to stop non paying buyers. But it is affecting sales big time. I've been on ebay for over 12 years and I was totally confused when I attempted to purchase 17 items from 1 seller, seller was happy to combine postage. But when I attempted to buy the items I found I had no choice but to pay for each item individually, so I didn't buy them. So how confused will new ebay shoppers be.

At the same time I had a buyer wanting to combine items from my ebay store and was having the same issue. So I phoned ebay about it, at first the ebay rep thought we were pressing the wrong buttons and eventually she informed me that this will be how the new checkout will be for everyone. The buyer has to pay individually including postage costs, if they don't pay there is no sale. The seller can then refund the overpaid postage and then the seller has to contact ebay for a credit on the fees for the overpaid/credited postage.  

This sounds very complicated and it turned me off buying the 17 items I wanted to purchase, so how many other buyers are turning away because they don't like or don't understand the new checkout system.

Try it if you don't believe me, click on buy it now and you will see it takes you directly to the ebay checkout, there is no longer a COMMIT To BUY button, you either pay or there is no sale. It's to stop the non-paying buyers, but what about the buyers who want to buy lots of items and don't want to have to pay all those individual postage costs in the hope that the seller will refund the overpaid postage. 

Hoping ALL buyers & Sellers that aren't happy with this new system will contact ebay to voice their opinions. I think it's promoting off ebay sales, buy 1 item contact the seller or buyer and do the rest of the deal another way. Not that I'm promoting off-ebay sales, but if I thought of it I guess all others will too. 

Hoping Ebay will see some sense and revert back to the old checkout system. Maybe bring back the ability to NEG non-paying bidders to get rid of the time-wasters rather than fiddle with a system that has worked for over a decade.

No doubt there will be some that think this is a good idea, but if you actually try it as a buyer you will see how fumbled it is. On-line shopping should be as stream-lined as possible, having to pay and then wait for a refund is definitely not stream-lined.

[everard6920]

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@mbselections00 wrote:

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@everard6920 wrote:

Okay, I requested a call back and spoke to Christine.

Basically went like this:

Me: "Many buyers and sellers are concerned about a proposed change to the cart. Are there any proposed changes to the cart?"

Christine: "The change is not to the cart. The change is to the "buy it now" button. eBay management is alarmed about the high number of unpaid items, and buyers tell us that they tend to press the "buy it now" button and then forget about it and not pay, so this is why eBay is requiring immediate payment via the "buy it now" button for items under US $1000 (AU$800)."

"However, don't be concerned, because the buyer can still add the items to the cart to receive combined postage."

Me: "Okay - so one more question - currently, after a buyer has added items to the cart, they can press a "request total from seller" button. Is that button going to stay?"

Christine: "Yes, there are no changes to the cart. Just the "buy it now"."

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but she seemed to know what she was talking about (unlike most of them . . .)

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Really ? What a load of rubbish, (hope I don't jinx myself here) I couldn't ell you the last time I had an unpaid item it was so long ago and it has been my experience over the last two weeks that buyers most certainly can't request a total from the seller once added to the cart.

So while she may know what she is talking about, and describing how the system SHOULD work, from what I'm experiencing that is not how it's working at all

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I can't really do anything else unless/until that happens to me, but I did just put two of your items in my cart and I got the "request total from seller" button . . . although as we know the change has only been applied to some accounts as of now, so that doesn't mean much.

I can understand having immediate payment required for the "buy it now" button, because to "buy" something includes payment, so "buy it now" should logically include immediate payment.

It should've been this way from its inception, though, because changing the goal posts halfway through is just confusing for everyone. I also don't see the harm in leaving it up to the seller to require immediate payment, or not.

eBay should be giving sellers more options, not less, especially in what is an increasingly competitive e-commerce market. It's getting easier/cheaper for sellers to set up their own sites, sell on social media, etc, and meanwhile, eBay is making it more difficult (and expensive) for its sellers.

[brerrabbit585]

The fact that she's got the exchange rate so wrong shows she DOESN'T know what she's talking about.

[hellogoodbuy_au]

I think the only other way around this is to open a store.  Then you can use promotions to automatically discount the postage in Checkout.  I've bought from some sellers that do this and it works really well.  Bummer for those who don't want to open a store though, and I think it is a bit tricky to set up. 

[padi*0409]

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@hellogoodbuy_au wrote:

I think the only other way around this is to open a store.  Then you can use promotions to automatically discount the postage in Checkout.  I've bought from some sellers that do this and it works really well.  Bummer for those who don't want to open a store though, and I think it is a bit tricky to set up. 

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For a store to be viable you need around 100 listings and a good sell-through rate, which you appaer to have.

Have a look at the link below, it may help you in opening or checking out the feasablility of a store.

https://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/store-getstarted.html

Hopefully a store owner will be along to show how to set up the postage discount.

[everard6920]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:
The fact that she's got the exchange rate so wrong shows she DOESN'T know what she's talking about.

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She only said, "the limit of $1000" and then I complicated matters by swapping the currencies in my post.

I think the limit will be $800 USD (so roughly $1000 AUD). Sorry for the confusion.

[gwynni-2008]

I posted this in another thread:

Hmmm...I wonder if it has been dropped. I just visited a seller's page that I frequently visit and was able to 'Buy Now' -> 'Commit To Buy' without being taken to checkout. At first I thought it was becuase the items were on sale, but I was able to do it with non-sale items as well.

I better try a couple other sellers just to be sure.

I hope it has been dropped or made an 'opt-in/out' setting, it will be so much more convenient for buyers and maybe even sellers too.

_

As for the "Request total from seller" button, the only time I haven't seen it is when the seller isn't charging postage.

[lane-ends]

Buyers are not educated to use the cart. They just hit buy now by default. This is not helped by the fact they dont intend to buy more when they hit the first item, it is only an after thought to "top up".

How does this affect returns and disp[utes etc. Traditionally two pauyments meant two packages or it complicated issues.

I actually use discounted postage even for one itm. eg flate rate of $5 regardless of whether it is 500gm stachel or 3kg. So if the system doubles up for 2 items it is going to be $10 still less than the probable 3kg satchel (unlikely to get two of my items under 500gm). This reduces a lot of the after sales postage adjustments. I am phasing out free post on much of my stock as it stings when you get a return and have paid outgoing post for no sale.

[hellogoodbuy_au]

Hey gwinni you're right!  I just checked my listings on a couple of accounts and the Commit to Buy button is back. Looks like it was just one of their weird experiments.

[mbselections00]

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@everard6920 wrote:

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@mbselections00 wrote:

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@everard6920 wrote:

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I can't really do anything else unless/until that happens to me, but I did just put two of your items in my cart and I got the "request total from seller" button . . . although as we know the change has only been applied to some accounts as of now, so that doesn't mean much.

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Thanks so much everard for trying that for me, much appreciated.  Hopefully as others have since suggested it was just some kind of trial or glitch and it's fixed now.  I guess we'll have to wait and see if buyers continue to complain

[mbselections00]

Ho hum , here we go again already - this message (edited to delete item descriptions) was received this morning - grrrr not the best way to start the week

I have ordered the A, B & C but there is a gliche with eBay so they tell me and it wont let me request a total from the seller. Would it be possible to do a listing for me of these 3 items and I can pay you straight away.