Needing help with Shipping Rules

[joelchummel2010]

I have read the Seller's Help pages backwards and forwards and cannot find an answer to my situation.

All of my listings are single item Buy It Now listings - Qty=1.   Some have Make Offer.

To offer combined shipping, I state in my listing template that buyers should add whatever items(listings) they wish to purchase into their Shopping Cart and use the Request Total from Seller option - I create an invoice, enter an appropriate amount for the combined shipping cost, and Send Invoice.   Works PERFECTLY and does what it's supposed to - the buyer pays the correct amount for shipping AND I pay the proper seller's fee on that shipping cost.

Okay, that was as a non-store seller.  Now, I have started a store subscription, and used the Promotions Manager to offer 10% OFF with two or more items - and all inventory is eligible.

But, I had a buyer put six items into their Shopping Cart, and they reported that Request Total from Seller was unavailable - they messaged me to say that it was telling them Request Total from Seller was unavailable because a 'discount had already been applied' - that is to say, the sale price of each of the six items(listings) had been discounted 10%.

I had the buyer pay the order in full - the total of the individual shipping costs of the six items was $32.50.  The actual shipping cost (6 small items, not much weight in total) was $10.50.   I issued a refund after printing postage of $22.00 using Partial Refund.

The problem I have on that is that I paid 12.55% seller's fee on the $32.50 ($3.80) instead of paying that sellers fee on the $10.50 ($1.38).  What a rip off.

Okay, so I've read till I'm blind about setting up Shipping Rules 'for when the buyer purchases more than one item' - either Flat Rate or Calculated.

But from all that I can tell from the Seller's Help pages, these shipping rules apply only WITHIN a listing.  So, if I have a listing for Widget A, 100 available, and the buyer wants 10 of them, then whichever shipping rule I have in effect for that listing is applied to the quantity 10.

But I have no multiple quantity listings.  So it would appear that these Shipping Rules don't help.  What I have is three separate listings, each with a specific shipping cost - one Widget A (shipping $6.00), one Widget B (shipping $5.00), one Widget C (shipping $4.00), and the buyer adds all three listings to their Shopping Cart.  Since I have a promotion running of 10% OFF two or more of my items, eBay applies that to the sale price on each, in the buyer's Shopping Cart.   As to the shipping, the Shopping Cart shows a shipping cost of $15.00 because it simply added all the individual costs (6+5+4).   But because the 10% discount promotion from the Promotions Manager prevents the buyer from using Request Total from Seller, they are forced to pay for the purchase at that point, and have overpaid.  And correspondingly, I have overpaid the seller fee.

What to do?  How to set up a Shipping Rule that applies not just to multiple quantities within a listing, but to all the items/listings in the Shopping Cart?  Is there such a thing as a Shopping Cart level shipping rule?

Totally lost here and not sure what to do.   On one order alone, I paid $3.80 in sellers fees when I should have only paid $1.38 because of how the Promotion Manager discounts override the Request Total/Send Invoice process, and I cannot let that happen for long.

Would appreciate any ideas/solutions.

      Joel

[wooden_flower]

The buyer will only see the request total button in the cart if you have told the system that you will combine shipping. 

1. On the Manage shipping settings - opens in new window or tab page, select Edit beside Allow combined payments and shipping.
2. Choose the time period during which you're willing to combine payment for purchased items and select Save.

3 days is good for the time unless you run auctions and want to allow longer.

[joelchummel2010]

Thank you for your reply.   I did that yesterday.  So far I have not had any requests for total come in from anyone having multiple promotion discounted items in their shopping carts - so no way to tell if that is working.  But I will keep an eye on it.  My guess is it won't.  The message from the buyer's shopping cart was "Request Total from Seller not available because discount has already been applied" - the promotion itself is suppressing the Request Total feature.  But again, I will keep an eye on it.

[joelchummel2010]

From the Manage Shipping Settings page, I can see right below the Combined Payments are the Flat Shipping Rule and Calculated Shipping Rule - I can go it to either or both and set up a rule - I chose to set up a Calculated Shipping Rule - Combine All Weights, Specify a Handling Cost $2.00 Save

But how do I get that to apply to my listings?  It's not the same as a shipping policy for the listing itself, like $5.50 USPS First Class Package.   Does it apply to all items in the Shopping Cart?

[wooden_flower]

No, you have to tag each listing with the rule. You can use bulk edit to apply the calculated or flat rate shipping rule.

Do you use calculated shipping? Or do you enter the $5.50 or $6.00 (first class) as a $ amount?  I ask because I get the same rate to me in IL or to CA, and CA should cost more. You can't use the calculated rule unless you use calculated shipping.

To add the appropriate rule using bulk edit, on your list of active items, select all items, click edit at the top of the list.  Select all items again on the edit page, then select domestic shipping discount from the pull down menu of edit fields. Check apply ___ rule - it should pick the right one for you based on your shipping settings.  Save and close.  Back on the main edit page, click submit.

[joelchummel2010]

So far all of my listings have been Flat Rate.  Since the available quantity of each listing is always just the one item, I have my Each Additional amount set to $0.00.  I have no idea what impact that has unless the listing is for multiple quantities of the same item. 

But earlier this evening, I had a customer service agent tell me through a chat that I should try setting the Each Additional amount to $1.00 for each Shipping Policy in use in my listings.  She seemed to think all items added to a shopping cart with the same Each Additional would affect the cart's shipping total.  Instead of 5 items with a shipping cost of $5.00 each appearing in the shopping cart as $25.00, she thinks it would be $5+$1+$1+$1+$1 or $9 in the shopping cart.  That actually would be the solution I seek, I could tweak it from there.  But I would have to test that somehow.  I need a buyer to serve as a guinea pig!

Okay, as to the bulk edit screen, all items selected, I ran into trouble right off the bat because my pull down menu doesn't have Domestic Shipping Discount, and I see nothing with reqards to Apply Rule.  What I do have is Shipping Policy, with the chance to bulk edit the business policies, including the Shipping Policies, with a dropdown select menu showing my available Shipping Policies. 

I don't know if Shipping Policies and Shipping Rules are the same thing though, I get the feeling they aren't.

As for a Calculated Shipping rule, the items I sell are all over the place in weight - for first class postage I have 3 different Flat Rate shipping policies, $5.50, $6.00, $6.50 depending on whether the item weight is low, medium or high relative to the 13 oz. weight limit, and combined items can jump above 13 oz quickly, forcing me to select Priority Mail, but overall weight would be the biggest variable of everything I sell, more so than say box size.

Anyway, I will keep trying on this, thanks for your help and your knowledge

   Joel

[joelchummel2010]

Found it!  Under Business Policies - it shows a table of the different policies, of all types.  Select the shipping policies to edit, one at a time, and there is the check box to apply my flat shipping rule.  Set the each additional amount, check the check boxes, Save.  Edit next flat shipping policy.

I'll find out what effect this has, but I couldn't have gotten this far without your input.  Thank you SO MUCH!!!

    Joel

[wooden_flower · Accepted solution]

OK I thought you were using flat rate.  So you need to make sure you set up a flat rate rule when you were looking at the combined shipping page - you only mentioned setting up a calculated rule.

The flat rate rule will be either add x$ for each item, or subtract x$ for each item.

If you have use business policies to set up your listings, changing the policy will apply the change to all of your items. 

[joelchummel2010]

Yes, I did set up a shipping rule for Flat, then edited my existing flat rate shipping policies - all of them, not just the ones in use.  

My interest in calculated rates is due to the fact that of the figurines I sell, their weights are all over the place, from just 2-3oz. for the smallest, up to 36oz for the very large - I developed the habit of weighing them so I would have a more accurate estimate of the shipping weight for each, and I developed the habit of applying a different priced shipping policy ($5.50, $6.00, $6.50) when creating the listings.  So, adding up the individual weights seems a more natural way to go in the shopping cart.   Under 13oz., First Class Package rates apply, over 13oz, use Priority Mail rates.  I was wondering how the calculated rates make that distinction.   Always something more to learn.

Thanks for you help thus far, I will let you know how this turns out - I need some buyers to hit up my listings, and buy several figurines, and see what happens.

    Joel

[joelchummel2010]

It's working! 

I had a buyer check out with four items in their shopping cart - two of which were items already purchased via Make Offer and already appearing in my Orders Awaiting Payment, plus two new items added to the cart. 

With the two new items added to the cart, it correctly applied the promotional discount of 10% OFF two or more items to the purchase price of those items, but it left the Make Offer price of the first two pieces.

As to the shipping, I saw where both the Flat Shipping Rule was applied - one item was $6.00 First Class Package, two items were $1.00 each additional First Class Package, one item was left alone because it's shipping was $10.50 under Priority Mail.

But get this - because I had ALSO applied a Promotional Shipping Rule of $16.00 order maximum, the total shipping cost on the cart WAS $16.00, and each item had a prorated amount under that rule.

And of course, with all this going on, the Request Total from Seller feature was disabled, but that was the problem I was trying to work around in the first place.  

Getting the right settings in terms of the Shipping Rules on Combined Shipping, Flat Rate Shipping (and optionally Calculated Shipping), and enabling those rules in the Shipping Policies in use inside the listings, proves to be THAT workaround. 

No more customers adding 6 items to their shopping cart and getting stuck with a $32.50 shipping cost.

And, I can adjust the Promotional Shipping max down a bit, even $16.00 is pretty high - most of my items are lighter in weight, so the total weight isn't going to stick me with a Priority Mail package weighing much over 3 pounds under most circumstances.

So far it's working! 

[wooden_flower]

Excellent!  eBay doesn't give a lot of documentation of how the rules work together,  but you proved that they can when you turn all the right dials.

BTW - once you have combined shipping rules set up, the buyer will not see the request total button. If you did happen to have some items where the rules were not pinned to them, then the button would show up.