Ebays brainchild cart system BE AWARE it does NOT FUNCTION

[quicksilverdiecast]

Ok ebay explain to me why my customers have to keep sending me messages with screen shots of your wonderful cart system that does not work, instead of letting ME the SELLER see what the buyer wants and so that I may combine it and give the customer good service and generate sales? Now as I have said before, the ONLY way I know that this customer has money in hand wanting to buy stuff is because he messaged me! OTHERWISE I would have never known and lost the sale.....YOU, Ebay, need to stay out of the middle of things and let buyers and sellers manage their sales. This is NOT something new that just happened because of the latest changes NO IT HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE YOU INITIATED THAT STUPID CART which I estimate has cost me 1,000.00's of dollars in lost sales as well as losing potential repeat customers, which will give me a bad name, as the buyer (as would anyone with common sense would) assume that I can see what was placed in his cart! And since I cannot see it, nor even know about it the buyer goes away unhappy to make his purchase somewhere else....like another platform that does not hinder commerce! NOR do you educate the buyer or guide him to be able to complete the transaction. You took something simple (before the cart system) and decided to fix something that was not broke! AND SIMPLY SCREWED IT UP. I have explained it before at how this cart system SHOULD WORK PROPERLY and keeping it simple....I will explain it again, rather so those who will read this can also advise you of their thoughts.  #1 the buyer finds numerous items in my store that he want, so he begins to use YOUR CART system, once he places the first item in the cart, a window will pop up and simply ask if he would like to purchase another item, a "Yes" or "No" (button) if he chooses YES the he is prompted to continue, and chooses the next item etc. Once he has everything he wanted to buy in the cart and the yes or no button window pops up and he hits "no" the next window will prompt him to "Send Message to Seller to combine items" once he hits that button it comes to me and I CAN FINISH it up and send him back the combined deal for the buyer to make payment...once payment is made I pull items and ship...STRAIGHT FORWARD & SIMPLE....

[quicksilverdiecast]

It is NOT a shipping rule issue and yes ebay does read these posts, shipping rules may work fine for numerous items that are of the same weights and dimensions, and for sellers who do not have a vast amount of items listed in their store, however when you have 3000+ plus listings of all shapes sizes and weights.....you figure it out... I have called ebay on this as well numerous times and said to them OK where is the problem, they way I list the shipping(with no rules for 25+ years) or what? and one of the techies who is a few levels up on issues rather than the basic 1st phone answerer said No it is not something I am doing (this was about a 45 minute call on this with him running checks back and forth) and said it was an ongoing issue and would send up a ticket to the proper team to figure out.

[ittybitnot]

Just set up your shipping rules like everyone keeps telling you.

@boatdog68 

Can you please enlighten the OP, and others that experience this same issue how to set up shipping rules that will combine a car muffler, 3 stickers, 4 model cars, and a sweater automatically?   

What is to be done when the infamous "request total" button in the cart does not function? Mobile app buyers don't even have that option at all on a good day.   Buyers using a computer will have the request total "greyed out" if any of those items in the hypothetical list about is "on sale" or was from an accepted offer, was an auction win when the others are fixed price, the items are of different shipping classes,  eBay has selected to invoke the "invisible IPR" when the seller has specifically not chosen that option,  and a long list of other circumstances .  

The seller can elect to "allow combined shipping", yet buyers cannot commit to buy items in their cart and still shop with that seller without paying.  Yes, they can make ONE payment, but all the shipping charges are added together. 

If you are not a buyer of assorted eclectic items, you will not see the problem.   Truly it exists.  If I win an auction or two from a seller, and naturally go see what they have for sale with BIN (no IPR), I cannot request a total for a combined shipping order with my auction wins and additional products.  It does not matter what  shipping rules are employed.  I cannot request a total, and the seller cannot send an invoice since what is in my cart is not visible to the seller until I pay. 

 

[ladyindecadence]

I have this exact same problem all of the time. And yes it has cost me thousands of dollars in lost sales. Being able to look into a buyers cart and adjust the prices and shipping would be like a dream for me.  I have spent hours sending messages back and forth with buyers trying to explain to them how to make offers and how to buy items but not pay for them so I could send them an updated invoice with the correct shipping cost. Often I have had to just make a special listing of all the items they want in a single listing with the correct shipping cost and send them the link and tell them to just buy it now and remove the other single item listings.

Overall the lack of having control over being able to create and send a real invoice to a buyer is lame on ebays part.

[quicksilverdiecast]

EXACTLY!

[quicksilverdiecast]

EXACTLY as stated!

[quicksilverdiecast]

And the same issue here! and as I stated before YOU the buyer and seller will never know because ebay does/will not inform you, nor instruct you at how to complete the transaction. the ebay cart has 4 flat tires and needs to be taken to the crusher, sooner or later someone will get the picture that both the seller and EBAY are losing sales monies and fees. In the buyers case they should NOT be required to "Commit" to purchase before they know what the total combined order will be.

[ittybitnot]

In the buyers case they should NOT be required to "Commit" to purchase before they know what the total combined order will be.

@quicksilverdiecast 

Actually, when ebay removed the "commit to purchase and continue shopping with this seller" in favor of the CART (lol@four flat wheels)  is when the issues started.    

A commit to purchase for a combined order would allow the seller to combine the items into ONE BOX and ship for that ONE BOX price.    As an example,  I could be the 'winner' of five actions from one seller.  The seller states they will combine items (usually inferring for a lesser cost than one).  Each of these items weigh less than an ounce and have shipping at $3.00 each.  Then I look to see what else the seller has for sale that were NOT auctions.....I like ten more (less than one ounce products).  I cannot commit to buy these and pay with the rest of the order.  In this instance the "request total" button in my cart is unusable i.e. greyed out. 

Yes I can, as stated before, pay with one payment.  I will be paying shipping on each and every product to the tune of $15 for the first 5 and and an additional $30 for the next 10.....

eBay has always said the "cart is working as intended"....which to my evaluation means eBay doesn't want to give up a penny of their take on the extra shipping fees paid.  Even if a seller refunded the difference, they were not going to get reduced final value fees as a result of providing good customer service. 

Recently, I remember reading that eBay was working to correct this issue.  So far, nothing.  They can't give up those  shipping fee"pennies" for a larger dollar sale? 

At the same time, sellers who combined items into one box and were able to send an invoice for the proper amount, were met with an additional issue.   If the buyer complained about ONE of the products in the combined order/shipment, the whole payment was at stake for the seller.   For example, a seller combined five items, and the buyer filed a complaint that "one was missing".  Sellers were on the hook for the whole payment and shipping for the FIVE.   eBay could or would not allow the complaint for the ONE item, only for the whole amount.  This did not settle well with sellers.  Buyers found it rather invigorating to continue to shop and combine. 

[quicksilverdiecast]

Here is todays buyer with cash in hand but again nothing showing on my side and he send pictures of what is in his flat tired cart, I guess I should be thankful that the message system works.

Also another new problem seems to be cropping up due to the cart NOT working properly Monday I Opened up my sold listing and ONE buyer had 15 items showing unpaid, however it was 3 different items he attempted to buy 5 times, he only wanted the initial 3 items NOT 15! This created lost time for the seller going thru and sorting it out and cancelling the unwanted items. This also leads to a false registering in the performance chart as well as showing false sales of total sold of each item listing! So as far as it being accurate it is NOT. (domino effect) of the cart not working properly by the buyer attempting to purchase multiple items.

Yesterday I had another buyer with the same issue on items he wanted combined which was duplicated 2 times, again lost productivity due to having to undo and fix the issues EBAY has created. All of this creates a negative experience for both the buyer and seller. 

"Can you combine shipping on these 3 items? If so send me an invoice with shipping discount? I will buy all 3 in picture if so."

[quicksilverdiecast]

And another happy buyer who cannot complete a transaction...getting close to starting a "Dump the Cart Campaign" 

"Hi i have put this and a few other decals in my cart, have not purchased yet due to shipping charges on all 4. Please help , thanks Rob"

[quicksilverdiecast]

two in one day, and substantial, you can see where even the buyer tried to "Commit to purchase" and ebay Aplogizes!!!!! Which indicates the inmates are running the asylum!

Again to ALL seller's unless a buyer actually sends you a message...YOU WILL NEVER KNOW how many sales you are losing & LOST!

"Hi - - I've added 14 cars to my cart for around $150 including S&H for each car. I clicked on the Request Total link and then on a follow-up link which said Commit to Buy and Request Invoice from Seller. The next page (from eBay) said Sorry, we cannot complete your request at this time. This happened once before to me, and the seller just refunded the difference from the lower combined shipping. How would you like to proceed? I can also put all of the cars in my Watchlist, as I imagine you cannot see those right now. Thanks in advance! - - John" 

[quicksilverdiecast]

and here is todays lucky buyer who cannot make the cart work!

"I have 4 items in the cart what next?"

yesterday after the big order failed to show up I called ebay once again, and had the techie (Elizabeth) read the messages and ask her to show me where the order is at on my side. She read thru everything and went investigating and she could not find it either and said it is certainly a problem(we talked for over 45 minutes) as I had her try finding the other buyers orders as well and she could not! She said she was going to write an IT ticket right now and send it up the line to get some kind of answers. 

I also have noticed scanning these message boards that many are complaining about having NO sales, well this also very well be part of their problem, you might have buyers trying to purchase items you just do not know it! 

[quicksilverdiecast]

Last night in my daily phone call to ebay, this one concerning an International Buyer with multiple items being block buy ebay from combining(There is a work around for that issue) I brought up the cart does not work issue and showed her step by step and about the issue of unless a buyer asks a question about the order/combined shipping(USA) that a seller would never know a cart was there with a buyer assuming the seller can see what is in the cart to be able to combine it (Ebay will not let you see the cart nor send a notice that a buyer with cart is even there!) the conversation lasted nearly an hour (this was a high level techie) and she agreed this is not as ebay puts it "a good buyer/seller experience" as well as realizing that when looked at in the broad spectrum of all buyers and sellers on ebay that she agreed was losing a great deal of money daily due to lost sales. She also wrote a very long detailed ticket for the IT team to research and fix!

Here is another fine example of the flat tire cart system. "Time to dump the cart campaign"

Messages from buyer:

1st message: "hello made a list on my cart when i went to commit and get total would not do it, states something went wrong. thank you frank."

2nd message: "hello now my cart is showing 18 items which is wrong i only ordered 1 of each.

its all messed up. thank you frank"

[subtlethinker]

OK, that's cool to know. But does this work for just a variation item listing? Or does it also work for other multiple items? In my experience, and all that I have been able to figure out, this only works for variation listings- not sperate items. 

If if works for separate items, then we're golden! If not, then back to the drawing board. 

Let me give you a hint on how I do my business. I am toy seller. I have come up with an idea(though I am not the first) to give my domestic buyers one flat shipping rate as a bonus for combined shipping at $5.50. This would mean, even if the shipping costs me $30.00 for 10 items for shipping, my buyers only pays $5.50. A thank you for buying multiple items from me- my "selling gimmick" if you will. If they are buying that many items from me, there is a good chance they are buying $150 to $300 worth of items from me, and for me, that is good sale! Paying an $24.50 out of my sales with that kind of money sold, is nothing for me to cry about.

I have tried this an that. It is fine when it comes to variation listings. But selling action figure accessories and then selling vehicles are two totally different weights! Figure accessories quite often, don't even weigh a tenth of an ounce. Vehicles on the other hand can weigh up to 4lbs with packaging. Obviously, it would be quite stupid to put accessories and vehicles into the same variation listing, for the very reason of parcel pricing. I also don't put accessories all in the same listing as other toy sellers do, due to the volume I sell of a certain figure line, and also to split the organization of the listings better for both I and my buyers to find.

Regardless, if they buy from the 1988 list, then buy from the 1989 list, then buy from the 1990 list, it still charges $16.50 for s/h. I still have to got to go through the measures to refund them the $11.00 owed as promised. 

[subtlethinker]

Worrying about what is in the cart? Yes and no. No, sellers shouldn't have to worry about what is in the cart. What is in the cart is NOT the problem. The problem is what is being charged for shipping and handling. Often, buyers have to screen shot their cart, especially international buyers, to show me what they are dealing with and asking me to help them- which cheerfully I do. Often it results in me having to make a private listing for my international buyers and sometimes even my domestic buyers. This is only a problem with the mobile app- not the traditional desktop/laptop app. The frustration here is that eBay has been neglecting this problem for over 10 years, and we are quite frankly tired of their incompetence, or perhaps just apathy(which is worse), over fixing the issue with their mobile/cellphone app.

eBay corporate just sends out its peons to give us the usual lip service in an attempt to make us go quiet.