Lost my top seller status for combining invoices - eBay will not respond

[born2record]

I have a customer who buys a few hundred belt buckles each week for the past few months - which is awesome!  I always combine shipping to send them in one box and reduce the shipping fee.  eBay’s invoicing program freaks out after 20 - 35 or so items - so I have to spend hours with the customer trying to coordinate my sending revised invoices and getting all of his payments back in time in order to get things shipped out.   Somehow!  by shipping them out over the weekends, I have actually gotten them all shipped within the set timeframe!  However, I have now lost my Top Seller ranking because the eBay system does not recognize that all of these orders are shipped together.  Usually the first 3 or 4 invoices worth of orders just simply don't show up and are counted towards the "tracking information uploaded late."

Since I've lost my Top Seller rating I can see a MAJOR decrease in sales.  I've spoken with eBay three times in the past three weeks.  Each time the people I speak with agree that I should not have lost my ranking, however, I keep being told that my case is being passed onto a supervisor  - and then, nothing.  No response back, from anyone.  This is disrespectful and just plain bad business.  As time passes by and nothing is done, my sales are down around $245 - 350 a day, and I will be paying eBay 10% more!  Because this customer has been buying so many items for the past three months, this is going to continue indefinitely – and it seems that there's nothing that I can do about it.  Has anyone else run into a situation like this?

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

Go to Orders Page. Go to Left Hand Side where it says "Shipping Labels".

That takes you to a page where you can see all your labels purchased. At the top above the list it says "Have More Orders Waiting? Use the Bulk Listing Tool". If you use that, it gives you the option to "Combine Orders Per Buyer".

You can combine all separately paid orders under a single shipping label. If you purchase that label, it will upload tracking to all those separate orders (separately paid invoices) and you won't have to run around adding tracking to each item...

Invoice tool limits 40 items total. You should be able to do 40 per invoice, not just 20-35

This SHOULD solve your problem... but I have never shipped a buyer 100s of items so I don't know if there is somehow an item limit on the bulk shipping tool like there is with invoices... this is combining orders not just items, but who knows.

Try it out and let us know? 

[mam98031]

First, go to your Seller Hub.  Then to the box called Seller Level, AKA Seller Dashboard.  There you should find what area you got too many defects in that has caused your problem.  Tell us what you see.

Ebay does not count every transaction by the same buyer as a defect if they are purchased in the same week.  It would count as ONE.  I believe Ebay weeks are Monday through Sunday.  Each section on the Dashboard has the ability in their section to see the details of what transactions have caused the defects.

Little known fact that could be affecting you.  When you invoice a customer [up to 40 items per invoice] that resets the sale date to the date of the invoice.

There are much easier ways to handle doing your invoices for this buyer.  First Pull all the inventory they bought.  Make sure you have everything.  The go to invoice the buyer, the first 40 will appear.  Create and send that invoice.  Print the invoice out and match the inventory to that invoice.  Rinse and repeat until you get everything invoices.  Doing it this way you can get those invoices sent quite quickly.

You don't need to go picking which items you want on an invoice.  Just let Ebay select them and you work to that list on the given invoice.

[born2record]

Unfortunately, up until I started calling them last month to complain about this, Ebay's invoicing did not work the way that you're explaining above.  Today's seller report continued to be the same as last month so I am still very concerned and upset - and have gotten absolutely no resolution from eBay.   My sales have seen a MAJOR decrease and I'm to the point that I'm going to have to either take out a loan to get through this or give up on eBay altogether.   Here are some facts from today's monthly report.   It is showing that I had 176 items in the past 3 months that were marked as "tracking updated late".   Everything else was perfect.    Of the 176 "late" uploaded tracking numbers, 125 of them are from the same customer.    Of these 125 items, all were sent in 4 different packages.   Meaning the report shows 4 shipments and 4 tracking numbers.  Because of eBay's invoicing "glitch," they are being counted late and I'm told there's nothing that can be done.          

Now eBay has somehow changed my invoicing to work as you explained above.    This is good –  except for the fact that I've been getting 5 to 8 messages a day from customers saying that they can't pay for their items.   In addition, I have no way of seeing on my "unpaid orders" page what date the items were actually sold – each time I send an invoice, it now re-figures to today's date.  I currently have over 50 items that have not been paid for and have absolutely no idea when they originally sold because I send out invoices daily to remind people to pay for their items and combine their orders to save them money in shipping.     

Is this the way that the eBay system works for everyone else?   If so, how do you all know the original sale date of your items?  

I'm sorry if the tone of my message is angry, but I am!   It's Saturday night and because of eBay's miscommunication and software problems, I’m going to have to spend it trying to figure out how to pay my overhead – AGAIN!

[animegination]

Ebay IT is out of control.  I have been selling since 1999.  My sales are down 75 percent even though I am trying to list more.  I say try because so many listing features no longer work and Ebay keeps generating nonstop popup ads that muck up the process even when I am trying to log in and those ads direct you away from Ebay to other sites.  So annoying to buyers as well and now they are sent elsewhere instead of your Ebay site.  Taking a picture of an item now takes 3 steps instead of 1.  Inventory searches do not work properly unless you know the exact keywords you used.  Trying to search sales history of an item in order to determine a price for yours no longer works.  The scan button image on my mobile app is gone.  The system is ungodly slow.  I promote all of my listings and list new items daily, yet I no longer show up even on the first page of a search because someone mucked with the search algorithm.  They control my ability to mail items media mail if I list them under the Japanese manga category which they have combined with comics.  I routinely find double listings because Ebay no longer catches them.  They have "improved the site until it is less functional than it was in 1999.

[reallynicestamps]

Don't you have AdBlock Plus or some other similar program on your computer?

I see ads on my listings from competitors, but never any popups while I am listing.

And if you are having trouble listing on a phone, don't use a phone, use a laptop or desktop.

[reallynicestamps]

They control my ability to mail items media mail if I list them under the Japanese manga category which they have combined with comics.

Your dolls are not manga- just related to manga and anime.

They can't be sent media mail in any case.

List them under their proper category->https://www.ebay.ca/b/Collectibles/1/bn_1858810

[sin-n-dex]

@born2record 

I have a buyer that purchases 70-80 tokens on auction day Sunday, and I just send an invoice for the first 40 items, wait for him to pay, and then send another invoice until all items are paid for (so 2 or 3 invoices).

I gave up on quick handling to get discounts and such and worry more about making sure my metrics look good. what's more important, to save a little bit until your metrics fall, or ensure your metrics are always good so you can keep selling? I have two weeks handling time on my listings and not once every has an order been shipped late, for the past 7 years that I've had the 10 days handling.

Discounts are good, but you have to look at the big picture. You're trying to make significant volumes in sales, so getting more sales with less FVF discounts is better than fewer sales and having the FVF discount (which will go on until eBay pulls the plug... which it sounds like they do if you are rated as being late shipping).

C.

[mam98031]

You do have to be very careful that the tracking number does record on ALL the transaction when you to combined shipping.  Doing the shipping through Ebay usually fixes this quite easily.

You need to STOP sending out those daily invoices.   Instead, send them daily reminder emails if you feel you need to pester them on a daily basis.  You are just adding to your problem.  I can see where that can get extremely confusing.  You should however be able to go to your Seller Hub and see what is Awaiting shipment because they are paid for and those that have not yet been paid.

[pereirahawk]

None of the above suggestions are working right now, in regards to combining orders.   In fact, the suggestions are what you normally perform when combining orders.  But, thats not working at the moment.  To make matters worse, Ebay CS are clueless to the issue and appear to be ignorant to Ebay seller functions.  

The end result is you lose your TRS status due to percentage of orders  without tracking.

Further discussion: you can't even manually upload the tracking.  The system appears to work but you go back and check, the tracking is blank again.

I've created tickets, contacted Facebook Ebay support, reported the problem through the app...the list goes on.  Such a disconnect between Ebay functionality and customer service.  

I'd fix it myself if they let me.  I'm hopeful Ebay will eventually get around to it...

[born2record]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to respond.   If nothing else, it’s good to know that I'm not the only one that is dealing with these issues.     It appears that I have no choice but to suck it up and move forward without my top-rated seller ranking.    There is no question that I have lost the ranking due to eBay’s poor software issues and the bottom line is that If I treated my customers the way I (the customer) am being treated by eBay – my shady business ethics would lead to me being banned from selling on eBay! 

In addition to the money that eBay makes with shipping labels and cross-promo advertising, I have been paying “eBay fees” of well over $50,000 a year for quite a few years now and the fact that they are treating me this way means that It's time for me to explore other options.    I’ve spent the past few weeks developing a new website and have been learning about cross-market platforms that will allow me to sell in other outlets, not just solely on eBay.    

Some positive things that I’ve learned from this:     The Top Rated Seller ranking is serious!     Now that I have 30 days' worth of sales numbers without my TRS I’m able to compare them to previous months.        In addition to the 10% discount – my conclusion is that the TRS gives you a MAJOR advantage in the search/promotion algorithm of eBay.        I can see the actual date that I lost the ranking in my daily sales totals.   It has decreased by roughly 30%.      In fact, all analytics followed suit.        Because I was not getting my normal sales volume, I’ve been putting in at least 4 extra hours a day and have increased the listing of new products by over 200%.  !   Even with this, my overall monthly sales are down by 22%.     My advice to everyone is,   Do whatever you need to do to maintain your top-rated seller status! 

Until they get it figured out,  I am going to have to stop trying to combine unpaid invoices for my customers.      I'm also using the notes option on the unpaid invoices page to write the original sales date and or dates that I combined invoices.      

I started combining invoices as a means of marketing and have proven it to be a major success over the past 6 years.    Whenever anyone makes a purchase, I write them a personal note – which I have pre-set in my computer as MES1         It says:

Thank you for your business!      If you would like to add any other items that would normally ship USPS First Class Mail onto this order, I will be happy to adjust the shipping charge to a fixed $5.00.      No matter how many items you purchase I will send you a final revised invoice to reflect the discount.      Thanks again!

In doing this it gives me an opportunity to reach out to the customer and show that I’m a real person,    a small company and that I care about the sale.        If they have already purchased more than one item, they get an MES2

Thank you for your business!      Now that you’ve committed to this purchase,  I’ll be happy to add in any other items that would normally ship via first-class mail,  at no additional shipping charge!    If you want to take me up on this offer go ahead and commit to purchasing the other items,    I will then send you a final revised invoice to reflect the shipping discount.      Thanks again!

As I've said, by following this business policy, I’ve gained many long-term customers and have seen it make a major improvement in customer relations.     Hopefully, eBay can resolve some of their software issues so that I can one day get back to my normal way of business!    

[winterpalace25]

I can't address your problem with loss of your top seller status, but I am puzzled by your issue with this customer. Am I missing  something, or is there a reason  you do not create a separate listing for, say, 200 belt buckles? You say this wonderful customer seems to be making these orders into the foreseeable future. Couldn't you make a separate "lot" listing for him instead of combining invoices?

[born2record]

That's logical -  I sell vintage belt buckles.   No two are the same.      The customer goes through the listings and spends a lot of time picking out and making offers on the ones they are interested in.     Your suggestion is most likely what we're going to have to do however it's become such a hassle that he hasn't made a purchase in the past three weeks!

[mam98031]

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@born2record wrote:

That's logical -  I sell vintage belt buckles.   No two are the same.      The customer goes through the listings and spends a lot of time picking out and making offers on the ones they are interested in.     Your suggestion is most likely what we're going to have to do however it's become such a hassle that he hasn't made a purchase in the past three weeks!

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@born2record 

Why would that happen?  Did you tell your buyer you were having problems with Ebay regarding your transactions with them?  If so, what did you say?

[born2record]

It's been so frustrating for the customer.    I'm supposed to be able to send invoices for 40 items at a time - however, it's been more like 25 - if they send at all.      The customer is in his 70s and not very technologically savvy!     The last time we spoke I asked him to message me the item numbers and offers for the items that he was interested in so that I could make a "lot auction".  I do realize this is a lot of work for him and suspect this is why I haven't heard from him in a while.