OT: Need help with my wording on Payment Instructions

[old.crows.nest]

I worked on the format for this till I thought that there was no way it could be misunderstood. (I specifically wanted to avoid being strung along for weeks without a payment by a Bid and delay strategy.)

Apparently I was mistaken. Seems that the Buyer is happy to treat a Bid on an item within three days as a purchase for that additional item. Of course there is always the chance that they plan to pay separately and are waiting till the last possible minute to pay on the first item.

Anywho, after having a look at the Buyer's FB left for others which is a string of "Satisfactory transaction. Thank you." I was worried enough to smell my own possible upcoming Defect-ivenss that I turn off my Unpaid Item Assistant (set generously for 7 Days.)

Buyer /Bidder has not contacted me regarding combining shipping. (They are from the UK and also Sell.)

Did I miss something? Should I add it back into the Listing Description to Contact me? I took it out references to Contacting me because of the way ebay uses those emails to set the Sellers up to get Defects.

From my listing:

"It may be possible to combine Shipping for multiple purchases within a 3 day period; the cost would be based on the combined packaged weight of all items as well as Postal Service upgrades when appropriate."

I think it was Sandy who made the prophetic comment about Buyers disregarding even well constructed Payment Instructions:

"Unless otherwise instructed by eBay, payment is required within 5 days of a single item purchase. In some cases it may be possible to combine Shipping on items purchased within 3 Calendar days. When paying for multiple items a combined items Invoice must be requested and payment made within 5 days from the initial item's purchase date. Items paid for separately will be shipped separately. eChecks are subject to clearing times."

[1940fc]

They are making it more & more difficult for us aren`t they. I don`t see how you could be any clearer in your instructions..& it`s apparent they aren`t reading. 

I have seen listings where the seller plainly say s buyer must request the combined invoice, otherwise they will  wind up paying extra shipping.  Have always wondered if that worked for them. 

[old.crows.nest]

Thanks for having a look Sarah 🙂

Yup! And, lol, the hoops are getting so tiny I am having problems getting my oversize self through them 😉

[arlene_v]

OCN, your instructions are perfectly clear, but unfortunately the vast majority of folks simply don't bother to read. They are going to do what they are going to do.

I have always been very leery to sell items here, but most esp those  that are likely to sell for less than $15.

Think about it .. if you sell an item for $10.00, is it really worth all the aggravation? Unless you are selling hundreds of items daily for which you orginally only paid $1 MAYBE then it's worth it, but otherwise, factor in the following:

Your time finding vintage items

Your time taking multiple pics

Describing item

Dealing with buyers delaying payment

Packing and posting items

Waiting for feedback and ratings

Unless you have a happy go lucky, devil may care personality, in addition to endless hours to while away, which is not the norm in life, for most of us regular folks, the time, effort etc is just not worth it for  low dollar amounts, unless one sells in volume.

It works out to earning cents for each hour of work. Not to mention the worry which goes on and on, until each transaction is concluded ... and, considering buyers often leave no feedback, this can be weeks on end of waiting.

Why not set up BINs with a "happy price" with immediate payment? But, I know nothing about fees etc. so this is me just stating my opinion.

Anyway, I wish you all the best in this, it is not for lack of thought and effort on your part, that's is 100% for sure.

[old.crows.nest]

🙂

I'm with you, I cannot think of any good reason I do this either.

[bluedaemon23]

How long before the second item ends? In your place I'd ride it out, send the buyer a combined invoice when she wins the auction, and start the clock ticking. Right now you're not actually out anything.

I once had a buyer hit two or three successive auctions plus buying a bunch of stuff off my store over a couple of weeks. Drove me crazy while it was going on, but she ended up buying over $100 worth of stuff. Since this person IS a dealer, there's a potential for turning her into a repeat customer and that needs to factor into your "cost" calculation as well.

[denwolf13]

OCN I think its clear and to the point also

Short and sweet compared to some listings I've seen.

To get a higher percent of people reading this you could try "Combined Shipping" as a heading just before your statement. Make the words a larger font, bold and possibly underline or even a different color. Something to catch the eye.

Now getting them to do it, even once they've read it, is a whole other can of worms!

[old.crows.nest]

Thanks bluedaemon23 and DW 🙂

The second item ends in a little over 4 days so I will do a combined invoice after auction ends and leave the UIA on for that completed listing.

I will also work on implementing the suggestion about highlighting the Combined Shipping.

For the most part I had priced these items individually to appeal to collectors. I tried to set it so that they would be valued below the UK's import threshold and so maybe combined shipping was a possibility as I cannot ship for cheap.

[bluedaemon23]

Combined is always better because for most jewelry items a lot of the weight is in the packaging. Though one of the reasons that buyer drove me so nuts was that every time she bought more stuff the order needed a bigger box!

[old.crows.nest]

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@bluedaemon23 wrote:
Combined is always better because for most jewelry items a lot of the weight is in the packaging. Though one of the reasons that buyer drove me so nuts was that every time she bought more stuff the order needed a bigger box!

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🙂

I just sent a package to the Czech Republic; two items combined in a small box by my nested method. I might be able to get more items in a couple small nested boxes but after that I would have to upgrade the service.