EBAY Changing best offer Rules , and not in a good way !

[emorysurplus]

i been buying and selling on ebay for years now and often used best offer to catch some good deals , a few days ago i tried to place a best offer and ebay asked for me to set a default payment method that would be charged if the seller accepts the offer , this has never been the case so it appears that ebay silently is toying around with the rules and in the process shafting buyers !

In case you wonder why this is bad for buyers i will give you a few examples :

- if you place best offers on multiple items from the same seller but the seller has no combined shipping rule 

  set up ebay will just add up the shipping charges for the individual listings and you end up paying more 

  than what you would have paid with combined shipping , of course you can contact the seller and ask him    to refund the excess in shipping but this is a hassle for both !

- another case is that you place best offer on multiple items , the seller accepts some and counters others , you now pay for the ones he accepted and shipping and then you pay again once you accept the counter or you counter and the seller accepts 

[eburtonlab]

You can thank the scammers that misuse offers to try to entice sellers into getting involved in an off-eBay transaction -- or the "buyers" that make multiple offers and then fail to pay -- for the changes in how offers work.

Sellers have the ability to opt-out of the requirement for a buyer to provide a payment method to make an offer, so sellers that are concerned about combining offers or combining shipments can avoid the issue by changing the Buyer Requirements for their items.

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

[house*of*paws]

Hi @emorysurplus 

Best Offers cannot include the shipping cost ... EVER ... so combining shipping could never be a part of an offer.  There is no such thing as a 'combined shipping rule' with offers.  

Buyers are being asked to include payment info because too many were refusing to pay after their offer was accepted.  

[mudshark61369]

@house*of*paws,

"Best Offers cannot include the shipping cost ... EVER ... so combining shipping could never be a part of an offer.  There is no such thing as a 'combined shipping rule' with offers".

That is not exactly true.   You're right that buyers can't ask a seller to change shipping methods or costs.  However, if a seller already states they combine shipping on purchases in their listings, they could do that if a few offers from a buyer were accepted, before the IPR enter payment info, on offers was put in place. Now for those using it, the only way to combine shipping would be to issue a refund. 

  I found on this buying only account if I were to start selling today, the Requirement for;

Buyer Payment Requirements; "Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer". was already checked.  

[house*of*paws]

@mudshark61369 

Thanks for the correction.  Could you please explain how ‘combined shipping’ worked with offers prior to ‘prepayment info’?  

How did sellers adjust shipping costs on offers on multiple listings … or was it only on offers for multiple quantities of same item?

I always thought a buyer had to message the seller prior to making  offers on more than one item in order to get an adjustment on shipping cost.  [Color me discombobulated.  😋]

[ittybitnot]

I always thought a buyer had to message the seller prior to making ....

@house*of*paws 

Many sellers DO state in their listing that they will combine items for reduced shipping.  If they don't say that, it is always good to ASK, since they don't have to.  I would presume that sellers of small easily combined products who DON'T would enjoy the consequences of an unhappy buyer. 

Prior to this new program, you simply made the offers (say ten things for purposes of discussion), when accepted you didn't have to pay right away.  You could then request a combined invoice and pay from that with the adjusted shipping cost.  

So, if I made offers on ten of your fountain pens, I am not stuck with paying $10 shipping on each one as I would be if they stuck my Buyer ID in this program and the seller offers combined shipping.  They can offer combined shipping all they want, but I am going to be charged the $10 each anyway automatically once my BUYER ID is blessed (not) with this. 

They want to make this eventually apply to "auctions" as well.   So if I bid and win ten of your sterling rings, I pay the full shipping price for each because they will charge me as soon as the listing ends.  

[house*of*paws]

Thanks @ittybitnot .  I wasn’t aware that sellers had been able to send a combined invoice AFTER multiple offers were accepted.  I thought that an offer acceptance automatically locked in the price of shipping for that item.

[ms.rodriguez*]

You should email them because some of them won't combine or give the discount.  I automatically do it when I get a buyer that buys a bunch of items but not everybody is me.  If you collect diecast, definitely send me an email and I will give you my seller account ID.

[emorysurplus]

the problem is that ebay usually implements stuff like this in a stealthy fashion and then makes things like this the default setting !  they should have send a message to the seller telling them this is what we are going to change and if  you want to opt out of it you can do it at this link ..... Sure there always will be some people who abuse ebay but at the end of the day this is costing sellers orders 

[emorysurplus]

not exactly correct ,  when a buyer places multiple best offers that are accepted than the seller can send a invoice which will use the combined shipping rule ,  if the buyer however pays after his offer is accepted than the combined shipping is not automatically applied !

[emorysurplus]

sure you can refund but here is the problem ,  i had 4 best offers from a buyer in europe , i accepted them and 5 minutes later they were paid before i even could send him a combined invoice obviously because the payment method on file was charged. Since this is a international sale using ebay shipping i can no longer combine anything, i now have to pack 4 packages even though i could have packed everything in one box and the buyer paid about $30 more in shipping 

[emorysurplus]

normally ebay just adds the shipping specified in each listing so if you sell 10 items that weigh 3oz and you have priority mail specified than they add 10x the $8.50 for priority mail and the buyer pays $85 shippping .

if the seller sets up combined shipping rule than the weight of the items are added up so for the 10 items its 30oz which is about 1lbs and 14oz which knocks shipping to $9

now as far as i know you can exclude items from the combined shipping rule usually items that are oversized or heavy or fragile items you dont want to trust USPS with 

[emorysurplus]

ebay already has a rule that requires for buyers to pay within 4 days regardless of auction or best offer so there already was a safeguard in place .

i have a lot of buyers that are in europe , paying shipping on a few items doesnt make sense for them so they usually shop for 2-3 weeks until they have enough to fill a box and then i send them a combined shipping invoice and get the stuff out .  ok now that i know you can opt out i can do this to accomodate them but the problem is that if they encounter this at other sellers that have not noticed this yet than it will drive them off ebay 

[emorysurplus]

usually if a buyer places multiple best offers i accept and then send a invoice 

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy · Accepted solution]

Overall agree on how it's a problem for combined shipping & invoices. Especially whem buyers may make only 1 offer, and if accepted, then and only then continue shopping to combine. May not make multiple offers at once and wait to add as items are accepted and added to cart.

That being said, I'll counter it all and say EBay's goal is to get sellers to offer free shipping, so it may be problematic to us but it advances their goals of getting sellers to offer Free S/H... no?