The insanity continues with buyers trying to figure out how to request combine shipping from sellers

[quicksilverdiecast]

This is snowballing to an insane degree and a huge waste of sellers time, when it is caused by ebay's lack of common sense.

#1 EBAY does not nor seems to care about providing clear and easy to follow instructions to buyers who want to purchase multiple item and get a combined shipping total! 

The current system in play is using ebay's cart....which on its own is not a bad idea! HOWEVER!!! a buyer who manages to get as far as figuring out how to put items in the cart and does so and then SENDS me(seller) a question that he has multiple items in the cart and is wait for a combined shipping total!!! That works fine on the buyers end HOWEVER is does NOT work on the sellers end! Why not you ask? Because in ebay's infinite wisdom they will NOT let the seller see what is in the cart! Now I liken this to going to the grocery store and rolling my cart into the check out lane BUT NOT letting the cashier see what I have in my cart! (whoever thought this was a great idea and implimented it should be shown the door) It DOES NOT WORK! IT does create a LOT of frustration on both the buyer and seller, and for those who simply give up and goes to another platform where they can get what they want without ebay's hassles causes LOSS of sales as well as ebay getting nothing too! Now I have been on an tolerated ebay since nearly day one and there was a system that worked PERFECTLY but ebay could not leave well enough alone and "fix" something that was not broken! while they should be focused on issues that do need fixed(like this current cart mess). The system that did work went like this: the customer found an item he wanted and clicked it on indicating to both me and him his wanting to purchase, the buyer would continue to select each item in the same manner and It would show up on my sales list the different items he wanted and I could then generate and invoice with combined shipping and send to the buyer and he would pay it, I would ship it and all was good in the world.....Ebay pushes the "free shipping aspect" to sellers, which #1 we all know is NOT free and never has been, the problem there is the seller stands to lose a great deal of money, again how you ask? With the current chaos the last few years the actual cost of shipping seems to change almost daily (higher ONLY, rarely ever goes down) so this leaves the seller locked in and of course the addition shipping cost comes out of the sellers pocket NOT ebay's leaving the seller to continue to have to revise the items price to reflect the increased shipping costs, which if a seller has only a few items is not a big deal, but when you have say like 2-3000 listings it becomes impossible to keep up. THE ONLY way to keep up with shipping costs increases is to use the "calculated" tool which automatically keep pace with increases from the carriers. If the current cart system worked I would not get 2-3 emails a day asking. I will continue to update this thread everytime I get a new question about "combining" shipping.

NOW ebay PAY ATTENTION HERE you want to fix this? Here is how....Leave the cart system as it is BUT make the following changes, #1 when a buyer puts items in HIS cart let the seller see it as well, when the buyer enters the 1st item into the checkout cart there should be a LARGE EASY TO READ AND UNDERSTAND pop up button that askes "would you like to add anymore items to you order" with a yes or no response button, where as either way the transaction will continue smoothly, for those buyers who chose "NO" they can pay for the item at that point, for those who say "yes" they can continue to add items and then choose "NO" which would then indicate to me(seller) that I need to generate a combined shipping invoice and send back to the buyer for payment! Amazing at how simple it can be and not aggravation or lost sales on either the buyer or the seller....This is for USA buyers...NOW the international side of combined shipping is even more screwed up if you can believe it! Listen to this: say your the buyer and you found 10 items you want...EBAY wants you the buyer to pay each item and shipping individually! which leads to so much overcharged shipping that it exceeds the price of the items...and EBAY blocks both buyers and sellers for trying to combine the order! In my effort to work around ebays stupidity for those sellers who ask what is going on and why shipping is so expensive I tell them to send me each item number and I will generate a new listing package deal just for them with all the items they need in ONE parcel with one shipping costs based on the items. Example: ebays way shipping on 10 decals total approx 40.00 or more, my way 10 decals approx 5.00 plus the international leg of the trip shipping costs(this will vary on each country and its reg's for import or VAT tax but still nowhere near 10x's when shipped individually! Now ebay has told me they cannot allow nor will they combine shipping on international orders!!! BUT wait! every now and then I get an international order where the customer actually combined items and paid the invoice himself! (I have no idea how?) So so much for NOT allowing it! Can't have it both way ebay~! FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!!

.......................

3/8/22 (assuming I can see what is in his cart which ebay blocks me from seeing)

I ordered a few things, hopefully you can do some combined shipping on them and save me some $.

Thanks for any help.

3/12/22

I am buying this tag and 1972 1979 Dodge Plymouth Chrysler Door Jamb Bumper Kit New MoPar, do you combine shipping and if so how do I work it?

[quicksilverdiecast]

The stupidity continues as a customer (one of a number this week) writes..... 

"Good Afternoon,
I would like to purchase this decal and the 1970 Dodge Charger & R/T Rotate Hidden Headlamp Decal New MoPar (360704215472) that has free shipping. I will not pay $4.85 for the shipping since both decals can go into the same envelope. I assume the invoice was automatically generated. Please correct the invoice you sent me."

...Now I cannot even see the invoice nor did I approve of ebay sending any combined invoice without my review of it! Maybe ebay should just buy the parts and sell and ship the stuff themselves so they take the heat from unhappy customers....EBAY pay attention here all you are doing with your stupid cart system that blocks seller from seeing and adjusting, and NOT instructing buyers of it IS ONLY CREATING A BAD EXPERIENCE FOR BOTH BUYERS AND SELLERS WHICH RESULTS IN BUYERS GOING ELSEWHERE AWAY FROM EBAY TO MAKE PURCHASES, AS WELL AS RESULTING IN LOST SALES, AND GUESS WHAT? THAT MEANS YOU GET ZERO FEES AND SELLERS LOSE SALES AS WELL AS GETTING BAD REVIEWS FROM BUYERS! IT ALSO DRIVES SELLERS AWAY FROM EBAY TO OTHER PLATFORMS THAT DO NOT TRY TO MICROMANAGE EVERY KEYSTROKE! I also instruct each buyer that since your ebay cart system is broken that they need to contact you*(ebay) to fix the buyers account, so you can take the heat! 

[pjcdn2005]

Please correct the invoice you sent me."

If an invoice was sent by ebay then the buyer has committed to buy the items.  Once they have committed to buy, you should be able to send a corrected invoice.

[rfmtm]

Not sure why you are having such a problem.  While it does have shortcomings, combined shipping does work reasonably well, if set up properly and appropriate for the type of items you are selling.

If you have Combined Payments/Shipping enabled in your preferences, then buyer will see Request Total when he adds items to his cart.  Once the request is made, you see everything the buyer wants shipped together to adjust the shipping and send an invoice.

You also have the option to set up some combined shipping rules so the combined total is automatically calculated and shown to the buyer without you having to send an invoice.

Note that without any rules and combined payments enabled, you should check the default settings so ebay doesn't provide the buyer discounts incorrectly.

[deltilogical]

You can't request combined invoices from the phoney app.  I don't know if you can put it all in the cart and then pay for it combined.  I don't use the phoney app.

What I do know is I regularly get requests from customers asking me to combine their orders that I can't do anything about.  

I then cut and paste some template language because I got tired of typing the same thing over and over.

[quicksilverdiecast]

I currently have a customer who has a number of items and wants combined shipping to save money, now I have no issues with that aspect and would gladly do so....however put ebay in the middle and they only screw things up and get in the way. So I attempt to combine shipping for this buyer and here is what ebay does, basically torpedoing the sale, wasting both the buyers and sellers time, not to mention POing both, the seller for lost sales and the buyer who wanted the items.....AND ebay sticking it up their own rear by losing the wonderful fees they charge!

"The Global Shipping Program already provides your buyer with an invoice for all applicable item, shipping, and import charges. Unfortunately, you can't edit these charges, even to offer a shipping discount. When your buyer pays, just ship the item to the US shipping center specified, and the Global Shipping Program will forward it to the buyer. Your buyer will directly pay you the purchase price of the item, plus any domestic shipping cost you specified in the listing."  with that being said I have question ebay over this and have yet to get a viable answer! This leads me to think that blocking combine shipping substantially raises the price by making the buyer pay for each item and shipping! Now if you take a look at this seriously  the chances of the buyer doing so is 2...slim and none.  BUT ebay does collect fees on the total dollar amount INCLUDING sales/or any tax or duty that adds to the total and shipping, now making a seller pay ebay fees on a buyers sales tax be it International or not is basically taxing a tax.  Now if this was a one time event a seller most likely will just throw his hands up in the air and let the ebay non paying bidder app take care of it and move on, BUT  when a seller has developed and is willing to ship International and sales account for 30+% it gets extremely irritating fighting this stupidity and a waste of time for all involved.  Ebay does not educate the buyer at how to make ebays system work properly and simply lets the seller take the heat, as if it was his fault for not combining shipping....NOW there is a work around ebay red tape blocking your sale from being combined, BUT is time consuming, and this is only about the ones a seller knows about and shows up on the sold page, and does not know how many sales were lost by the buyer simply giving up and moving on to another platform(of which NONE have this issue) SO if your are a seller and reading this and really want to take the time to capture the sale and make both buyer and seller happy here is how to do it. 1st. you have to advise the buyer what is happening and who is the cause,so the buyer knows it is ebay and NOT the seller causing the problems, Then explaing to the seller to send you the item number(s) and qty(s) of  each item ad you (seller) will create an entirely new listing as a package deal including all the items the buyer wanted into one new listing and once it has been created you(seller) will send him the item number of the new listing of what he wanted and then he can make payment, this is basically what ebay should do in the first place,but then again it is ebay! Once the buyer gets the new invoice he is happy as it is combined into one parcel with all items at a reasonable shipping cost! AND will most likely come back later for more, while doing it ebays way will not only lose the initial sale, chances are the buyer will NEVER come back!

[quicksilverdiecast]

I currently have a customer who has a number of items and wants combined shipping to save money, now I have no issues with that aspect and would gladly do so....however put ebay in the middle and they only screw things up and get in the way. So I attempt to combine shipping for this buyer and here is what ebay does, basically torpedoing the sale, wasting both the buyers and sellers time, not to mention POing both, the seller for lost sales and the buyer who wanted the items.....AND ebay sticking it up their own rear by losing the wonderful fees they charge!

"The Global Shipping Program already provides your buyer with an invoice for all applicable item, shipping, and import charges. Unfortunately, you can't edit these charges, even to offer a shipping discount. When your buyer pays, just ship the item to the US shipping center specified, and the Global Shipping Program will forward it to the buyer. Your buyer will directly pay you the purchase price of the item, plus any domestic shipping cost you specified in the listing."  with that being said I have question ebay over this and have yet to get a viable answer! This leads me to think that blocking combine shipping substantially raises the price by making the buyer pay for each item and shipping! Now if you take a look at this seriously  the chances of the buyer doing so is 2...slim and none.  BUT ebay does collect fees on the total dollar amount INCLUDING sales/or any tax or duty that adds to the total and shipping, now making a seller pay ebay fees on a buyers sales tax be it International or not is basically taxing a tax.  Now if this was a one time event a seller most likely will just throw his hands up in the air and let the ebay non paying bidder app take care of it and move on, BUT  when a seller has developed and is willing to ship International and sales account for 30+% it gets extremely irritating fighting this stupidity and a waste of time for all involved.  Ebay does not educate the buyer at how to make ebays system work properly and simply lets the seller take the heat, as if it was his fault for not combining shipping....NOW there is a work around ebay red tape blocking your sale from being combined, BUT is time consuming, and this is only about the ones a seller knows about and shows up on the sold page, and does not know how many sales were lost by the buyer simply giving up and moving on to another platform(of which NONE have this issue) SO if your are a seller and reading this and really want to take the time to capture the sale and make both buyer and seller happy here is how to do it. 1st. you have to advise the buyer what is happening and who is the cause, so the buyer knows it is ebay and NOT the seller causing the problems, Then explaining to the buyer to send you the item number(s) and qty(s) of  each item ad you (seller) will create an entirely new listing as a package deal including all the items the buyer wanted into one new listing and once it has been created you(seller) will send him the item number of the new listing of what he wanted and then he can make payment, this is basically what ebay should do in the first place,but then again it is ebay! Once the buyer gets the new invoice he is happy as it is combined into one parcel with all items at a reasonable shipping cost! AND will most likely come back later for more, while doing it ebays way will not only lose the initial sale, chances are the buyer will NEVER come back!

[pjcdn2005]

If a gsp buyer places their items in the cart, they automatically receive a combined invoice for the international shipping costs and for the import fees.   They only part that is not combined are the domestic shipping fees.   I know that some sellers will refund part of the domestic shipping to the buyer (less their fees)  when they purchase multiple items through the gsp.

[quicksilverdiecast]

Here is another customer trying to use ebays wonderful cart system and expecting me to be able to see what is in his cart, however ebay still blocks me from seeing it, nor do they educate the buyer on how to even request it....

"Hi, I have three items in my cart and would like combined shipping, please send me an invoice with the up-dated shipping costs."

Ok ebay there you go since you will not let me see what is in your cart systems cart them YOU do it (if you cannot do it right and I lose money because of it you can refund me that difference) I however do know how to combine ship my items, so where is the issue. AND stop charging seller fees on the sales tax that the buyer has to pay....
Thank You

[pjcdn2005]

If the buyer contacts you would it not put make sense to tell them to click on request total in the cart so that you can send them an invoice?  They will have to do that on a PC as it doesn’t work in the app.  It also doesn’t work 100% of the time but it sounds as if you are not trying to get the buyer to try that.

[joelchummel2010]

That is incorrect, what you said about "If you have Combined Payments/Shipping enabled in your preferences, then buyer will see Request Total when he adds items to his cart."

That option is grayed out for every buyer who adds items to his cart, because at that stage it is not yet a sold item under the category of 'committed to purchase' such as when a buyer wins an auction but hasn't paid yet, or has made an offer and the offer accepted by the buyer, or if the buyer has sent an offer and the buyer accepted and again hasn't paid.

Those are the only times when a buyer will have items in the cart that he didn't actually add to the cart using Add to Cart on any listing, and sadly, those are the only times when Request Total from Seller is actually available.

To recap, the distinction is the Buyer committed to purchase the item threshold.   I can surf eBay all day long and add items to my cart, and it means nothing, as I can just as easily go to my cart and Remove them - no commitment to purchase has been made.

[joelchummel2010]

I agree in principal with every answer here - the Request Total from Seller option in the buyer's Shopping Cart should be available 24/7 even for items that haven't crossed the 'buyer has committed to purchase this item' threshold yet (as occurs when auctions are won, or when offers sent either way are accepted).

My problem with combined shipping started smoothing out when I got my seller's preferences for shipping smoothed out by allowing combined payments/shipping, and got a Calculated Shipping rule going.

At first most of the items I shipped were all first class package, and I had flat rate shipping, with a small 'each additional item' amount.   The problem is, weight can build up relatively quickly if your product weights vary anywhere from 2 ounces to 12 ounces or so, and in a shopping cart filled with first class package items, the total weight exceeding 16 ounces and requiring priority mail can easily outstrip whatever the 'each additional item' setting was adding to each additional items.  $6.00 + $0.25 + $0.25 for three items, AND you gotta ship it Priority Mail?  They pay only $6.50 at checkout, you pay $7.96 when purchasing the label - OUCH.

I finally opted to go with calculated shipping by location instead of flat rate - adding the weights is much more accurate.

Then I found another problem - since all of the items in the cart would be first class package, then at checkout, eBay wants to can everything into lots of 16 ounces or less, because it knows that 16 ounces is the weight limit.   Three small items, say 3, 6, and 4 ounces - total 13 ounces for the cart, no problem, that is ONE package, one postage label, say $7.30.   Three big items, say 13, 11, and 14 ounces - whoa - none of them combine, each one is a 16 ounce lot in itself - as if each one were going to need it's own shipping label, that's like $7.30, and $6.75, and $8.25, and the shopping cart shows shipping to be $22.30!   What is MISSING is the common sense rule of thumb, less than 16 ounces use First Class Package rates, greater than 16 ounces use Priority Mail, because then eBay would look up the shipping on a 38 ounce priority mail package and show $12.75, not $22.30.   I've had some bizarre cases before - 11 items bought, $76 in shipping, 6 items in cart, $38.40, 6 items in cart, $44.70 and it's because if all you give eBay is items assigned to First Class Package as the shipping service, that is all eBay can do to try to total up the shipping.

However, the workaround to this is to add Priority Mail as an added service to your listings.  Sure nobody is going to buy a single one of your listings by themselves and deliberately select to pay for Priority Mail when First Class is already the default service.   BUT, the beauty of this, is that going into the buyer's Shopping cart and proceeding to Checkout, it brings the option to select priority mail over first class with it.  The only downside is that eBay does not automate this First Class --> Priority Mail transition - the buyer MUST click Priority Mail manually.   By default, going into the shopping cart, then into the Checkout window, all items still show the default shipping method, but once inside the Checkout the buyer can take control.  

Check out the following three images and watch the magic happen!

1)  Shopping cart shows raw shipping cost estimated using default shipping service - buyers will freak, but they must procede to checkout to see combined shipping kick in:

2) Now the Checkout screen - same default shipping service is still applied on each item, same total as shopping cart screen:

3)Now the buyer has selected Priority Mail for each item.  Note that the price of shipping 6 figurines before was the same as six different First Class Package labels - $40.40.   NOW, the price of shipping 6 figurines as ONE Priority Mail package is $14.70   THAT is Combined Shipping.

It beats the heck out of me why eBay doesn't say anything about stuff like this to sellers about how to set up their shipping policies and their shipping rules, or about why their shopping cart shipping total is very often wildly inaccurate because it is merely using the raw shipping and not yet applying any reasonable shifts from First Class to Priority Mail, that could actually be automated by eBay but they won't do it.

[rfmtm]

Just as bad as the problem you pointed out going from FCP to Priority, is the fact no combining option takes into consideration the growing size of the box as items are added.  So once it shifts from actual weight to dimensional weight there can be even a bigger error in the calculation.

[pjcdn2005]

That is incorrect, what you said about "If you have Combined Payments/Shipping enabled in your preferences, then buyer will see Request Total when he adds items to his cart”

@joelchummel2010 

That option is grayed out for every buyer who adds items to his cart, because at that stage it is not yet a sold item under the category of 'committed to purchase' such as when a buyer wins an auction but hasn't paid yet, or has made an offer and the offer accepted by the buyer, or if the buyer has sent an offer and the buyer accepted and again hasn't paid.

———————-

Although I agree that the request total and cart definitely need some work, your comments above are incorrect.    The request total is greyed out if the seller requires immediate payment, if an item is on sale or has free shipping or if buyer is on the app.  There may be other reasons but for the most part the request invoice is not greyed out.  Once the buyer clicks on request total they are told that they are committing to the purchase.  The seller does the.  see those item as having been sold and can then provide an invoice. 

[joelchummel2010]

"The request total is greyed out if the seller requires immediate payment"

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.   

I was referring to the fact that it is greyed out even if the seller DOESN'T require immediate payment.   I wasn't asking anyone, I was explaining it to them.  If you had paid close attention, you would realize, the require immediate payment issue is not the problem with Request Total from Seller, has nothing to do with it.

The issue is the 'committed to purchase' threshold.  What is the prospective buyer going to request a total on?  Items he has already committed to purchase, he's wanting to know, "Hey, I've bought these items, can you combine them as one package and let me know the total for shipping?"    And if you read my post, you will know the exact conditions where an item has crossed that threshold:  1)  An auction won, 2) An offer accepted, regardless of who made the offer.   Those are sold items, the buyer is committed to purchasing them.

What are items in the shopping cart?   Nothing.   What is in there to request a total for?  A bunch of items the seller can't send an invoice for, they aren't sold yet, they don't appear in his Orders Awaiting Payment page.