Forced Immediate Payment

[*tippy*toes*]

Had a buyer buy 12 items last night. He was forced into immediate payment for each one. He selected express post, which I have listed for $11.50. An over payment of $126.50. I paid 12 lots of 30c PayPal fees. Plus an extra $12,52 in fees, with 1.25 in GST on top of that. PayPal gave me the part refund of their fees minus the 12 lots of 30c.

I am really dirty about this because I don't offer immediate payment for this reason. I know the buyer was forced to pay because I asked. I suggested to try and use the cart for multi purchases in future to avoid that, and he said he'd never heard of the cart! 

Most of my items I make a pretty good profit on. These were things that had been listed for ages so I'd dropped the price a fair bit and whacked them on as BIN's. With those extra fees, I didn't even break even. I've now added bank deposit as an option on my other 2 accounts to see if that makes a difference. I only had it on my main account.

I'm going to ring eBay and get those fees refunded because I shouldn't have to pay that because they've been tinkering with stuff. I know this has been happening to others for a little while, but it's the first time it's happened to me.

[everard6920]

Jokes (Joe-kes?) aside, I, like others, suspect that it's an issue with the cart.

This is never a problem for me, except when the buyer uses the cart.

In that situation, Tippy, I would refund the buyer the excess postage less the fees, and less the extra 30 cent flagfalls. I stipulate on all my listings the following:

1. how to combine postage (with step-by-step instructions and a note that it will not work with the app).

2. that if they go ahead and pay without waiting for my invoice, or if they pay for multiple items separately, excess postage will be refunded minus the fees. I know eBay will refund the percentage if you ask them to, but frankly, I don't have time to call them all the time to do this.

I've done thousands of refunds (minus the fees) and nobody has ever complained. And I don't feel the least bit guilty about it because it's in every listing, and as far as I'm concerned, that's fair warning.

[padi*0409]

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@everard6920 wrote:

Jokes (Joe-kes?) aside, I, like others, suspect that it's an issue with the cart.

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I couldn't even put items into the cart this morning (Freaky Friday no doubt), then when I finally got them there I was told "no combined postage" even when the seller said "yes we do combined postage". So I had to email them directly for an invoice.....................

At least the items didn't come up as "immediate Payment".

eBay's just getting harder to deal with all the time.

[everard6920]

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@padi*0409 wrote:

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@everard6920 wrote:

Jokes (Joe-kes?) aside, I, like others, suspect that it's an issue with the cart.

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I couldn't even put items into the cart this morning (Freaky Friday no doubt), then when I finally got them there I was told "no combined postage" even when the seller said "yes we do combined postage". So I had to email them directly for an invoice.....................

At least the items didn't come up as "immediate Payment".

eBay's just getting harder to deal with all the time.

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Agreed - I'm not blaming the buyers at all. eBay is at fault here.

[ozstockman]

Please read my first post at https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/How-does-a-seller-send-an-invoice-with-combined-postage/m-p...
Do not waste your time on trying to change it in settings.

[ozstockman]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

I reckon it's eBay's way of forcing free postage. I told my buyer the reason I don't offer free postage. I would have added the costs into the item cost, so he would have been out a heck of a lot of money. Instead he's got the excess paid back and can use it to buy other stuff.

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That's one of the biggest eBay lies that they help buyers with better prices if there is free postage. Their free postage idea is actually ripping off buyers and only makes eBay richer. It also makes unhonest sellers richer who doe not refund excessive postage when combining more than one item. All buyers should be aware of that so if you explain to your buyer who is ripping them off setting it all that way you may get another angry at  eBay member. With a mass of angry members we can force eBay to stop doing it.

Actually you may have that power later, I am in the process of stop selling from this dump and unfair hole. I just do not want to do it over holidays.

[chameleon54]

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@shoppingbag* wrote:

I'm rather curious, you have zero feedback and zero listings yet you are selling so much?

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 Knowing at least one of both Dave and Tippys other selling accounts, I can vouch for the fact that they both have feedback in the thousands and are highly experienced sellers. Like many on the boards, the ID,s they post with are not their selling ID,s

The use of posting ID,s allows experienced sellers to give more frank and honest answers to questions than they would otherwise do. It also allows them to give out more details about thier own businesses than would otherwise occur such as current sales trends etc. without fear of other forum readers copying succesful product lines etc. and driving prices down in the catagory. 

[clubesquire]

....and we're grateful, at least I am, that they unselfishly share their time and experience with us.

Thank you.

Melina.

[aussie-picker]

Same here, Its a pain in the butt , Im refunding overpaid postage fess like no tomorrow.

Many of my customers regularly have bought off me for years and never had an issue with this before.

Its a joke , they cannot buy multiple items and request an invoice as per normal .

its immediate payment with postage cost on each item compounded to ridiculous levels.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@shoppingbag* wrote:

I'm rather curious, you have zero feedback and zero listings yet you are selling so much?

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I'm rather curious why it's any of your flipping business?

As for the more recent suggestions since I started this thread in September, none of them work. My buyers are still being forced into immediate payment. The only solution I can see is to go back to auctions and add a note to my listings that I am happy to end the item early for them if they want it that way (most of my auctions only get one bid). EBay can get stuffed and stick their immediate payment up their clacker.

[5kazam]

Last sentence - big tick !!

I've been out of things for a while and just starting to get a hang of what's going on. 

For years, whether it be BIN or Auction, I've been able to do combined invoices, but it seems that eBay has changed my settings without any advice to me that they were doing so.  Not happy about that.

I had a recent enquiry as to postage cost if the buyer bought 2 items, and I quoted a figure which was happily accepted.  I did say not to pay immediately as I would send a combined invoice, and as an afterthought said 'unless eBay has shifted the goal posts'.  And sure enough they had!.  So my buyer had to pay postage twice, with me doing the overpayment refund through PP and then having to get a credit from eBay on post FVF.

If eBay was a normally run business it wouldn't be around for too long with that sort of rip-off.  But as it IS eBay, and a lot of sellers don't/can't be bothered requesting their small refunds ('cos of the time it takes to get hold of someone/anyone), eBay is making a hell of a lot of additional money.