Sellers not sending invoices?
I'm going to scale back my purchases of multiple items at once.
Sellers won't send an invoice anymore with a price to reflect combined shipping.
Now they are making me pay full price shipping on each item and then I have to wait for a refund of over payment of shipping costs.
1) I have to have my money tied up waiting for the refund because I was overcharged.
2) I'm at the sellers mercy because I never know if or how much they are going to refund.
If it wasn't for me being a buyer,ebay or the sellers would not be here. I'm not going to be taken advantage of like this anymore.
30 comments
kathiec
·5 months agoWhile you may think the listing is not as described, eBay would disagree. Anything negotiated outside the listing itself isn't enforceable. So a seller can say, "Trust me, I'll refund this excess shipping" and then not do it, and eBay will have no way to enforce that agreement. Sure, they're going to take the buyer's side in any trumped-up reason for a return, but that forces the buyer to 1) lie and 2) return items they obviously wanted.
My point is not to slam your business practices. It's to point out that sellers who think the current immediate payment option only drives away bad buyers are sorely mistaken. And it might behoove sellers to pressure eBay to correct the parts of that option, like combined shipping, that are also keeping good buyers with money to spend from your listings.
mamacassidy
·5 months ago@kathiec
I respectfully disagree about the INAD. If a seller has told me combined shipping was included in the listing and then didn't include, then the listing is Not As Described.
And I wasn't lecturing you any more than you were lecturing me. Just sharing a different point of view.
chapeau-noir
·5 months agoDuly noted.
fern*wood
·5 months agoI'm always happy when my buyers are able to request an invoice, but all too often these arrive in the middle of the night and the buyer doesn't wait for me to get it figured out and sent before they pay. I'm guessing ebay bugs them to pay and they fear waiting for me or they just like to get it paid quickly and not wait for the invoice.
annadryl
·5 months agoMiffed buyers and sellers ALWAYS say this here.
So, if it makes you feel better> Thank Goodness for you, small ebay buyer, for keeping the site alive!
(Oh, wait, you're leaving. Will ebay be here tomorrow?)
deltilogical
·5 months agoIf you are using the cell phone app the combined invoices doesn't work anyway. And if they have immediate payment switched on it doesn't seem to work. And if it is international, it doesn't seem to work.
More than once I've found refunding the overpayment is the only way it can be done on this sophisticated advanced platform.
I often do not know the exact cost until I bring the item to the post office. The rate changes constantly these days! The same weight is $2 more now than it was a few months ago.
You need to realize there are humans here, not corporate warehouse sweatshop laborers.
onefootflipper
·5 months agoYou brought up two massively huge issues here.
#1. Yet another reason why no serious seller should be managing ebay on the phone app.
$2. You have 5000 listings and are buying postage at the post office? Why? You seem to be a postcard seller. Get a thermal printer (I suggest a used Zebra) and start printing standard envelope labels instead, save yourself a mountain of time and more than a little money, actually get semi-tracked shipping for your customers and free insurance.
bbcardzman
·5 months agoThis is how eBay works now so get used to it or buy somewhere else if you can't handle the inconvenience because getting eBay to change something is almost impossible.
toomuchstuffagain35
·5 months agoIf the items you're trying to combine have immediate payment required, or are on sale ebay won't allow the seller to send an invoice for combined shipping.
lovincloud9
·5 months agoI've never sent invoices, its a waste of paper, but I also give shipping discounts so I actually pay for most of the shipping myself and people have messaged me asking for a refund for combined shipping when there isn't one to give bc its so hard and confusing to figure out an actual cost sometimes plus we get shipping discounts for whatever store we pay for an what not. My point is everyone has their own way to of doing things. But after saying that, from a buyers stand point, I completely agree that some sellers will absolutely cheat you on shipping costs. Ebay should have in place a system that calculates it automatically in situations like this. But also remember that ebay isn't the only site like this now days, even a lot of items on Amazon doesn't come with free shipping or calculate it separately anymore. And I will say this is one of the reasons so many people have stopped buying on ebay.
toomuchstuffagain35
·5 months agoThe "invoice' for a combined shipping request isn't a printed out 'invoice', it's sent digitally and that's what they pay from.
onefootflipper
·5 months agoThe last 5 people who forced me to send an invoice have then gone on to not purchase the items I just packed up for them. If they can't accept that I will refund overpayment once I ship then I won't deal with them anymore.
Heck, I recently had an international customer wanting me to make a custom lot for them because Ebay international won't combine shipping. I made them the lot and then they proceeded to not buy it.
centennialofthreads
·5 months agoEvery single one of my listings says "I refund excessive shipping". I've done this for YEARS. Never had a complaint. When I make the refund after I print the shipping label, Ebay sends every buyer a notice of said refund and how much it is. So, Buyers ARE notified. Check your email. I've also purchased from sellers sending refunds, I understand the reasoning behind it.
luckythewinner
·5 months agoWithout *any* buyers, I agree that sellers would not be here.
But without *you* as a buyer, no one will notice and sellers will still be here and do just fine.
luckythewinner
·5 months agoThe reason many sellers do not combine shipping is because they have set up their listings to require immediate payment, because so many buyers fail to follow through and actually make a payment on the items they have committed to buy.
tarotfindsandmore
·5 months agoI haven't had a single request for an invoice in at least two years. I'd happily send one if someone asked, and I could. I'm not even sure where, or even if, that option shows up for a buyer on the checkout page anymore. I sure can't find the option to create/send one anywhere on my seller dashboard.
I would much rather send an invoice with the correct combined shipping charge than have to send refunds every time the ebay system fails to correctly combine the shipping (despite having it enabled forever). They're far more time consuming than sending an invoice with the correct total up front.
Maybe someone else knows where, or how, to create invoices for BIN buyers.
mamacassidy
·5 months ago@tarotfindsandmore
Because I changed all my listings to immediate payment required, there is no place to send an invoice.
Before I made that change, if someone bought something and then didn't pay, there was a clear button on the order that said "send invoice".
Do you have immediate payment required set up?
tarotfindsandmore
·5 months agoI do! I didn't even put together that the two were connected, but that's exactly what the issue is. I wish I didn't have to have "immediate payment required", but the dawdlers put an end to letting buyers pay at their leisure.
It would be nice if ebay's system actually combined shipping more accurately. Oh well, refunds it is...
toomuchstuffagain35
·5 months agoAt one point you were able to still send an invoice because the RQT in the cart overrode the IPR but it appears ebay has changed that.
slippinjimmy
·5 months agoThe "changes" started in 2011 when the Request Total function stopped working reliably. I have a lot of buyers who purchase multiple items. Prior to 2011 every buyer could use the Request Total button and I would send an invoice with the adjusted shipping. After 2011 I started to get reports from buyers that the Request Total was greyed out. The number of report continued to increase and is now to the point that it has become almost impossible for buyers to use this function.
I have a statement on my listings that combined shipping discounts are available and if the Request function is not available I will refund the difference. Some buyers will ask me in advance what the discount would be but many others just buy, pay the full amount and rely on me to refund (which I do 100% of the time).
I have brought this up with various eBay reps for 15 years, they are consistent, "the Request Function is working" (no it's not), "It's must be one of the reasons we have always deprecated that function" (no it's not), "we haven't made any changes" (yes you have).
It's just complete deny, deny, deny on eBay's part.
Of course they make useless suggestions like "use Free Shipping" (this actually deters multiple item purchases).
or
Use calculated shipping (at least half my orders ship via carriers that are not supported by eBay).
or
Use the Flat-Rate Shipping Rules (barely works for me as it is too simplistic).
The most infuriating part is that the Help files makes this sound like the function is almost always still available when it clearly isn't. I've talked to many buyers about this over the past 15 years this problem is NOT a random occasional thing, it's consistently not working as intended.
In the past year I have only had one single buyer able to use the Request Total function, that is out of about 100 that tried.
toomuchstuffagain35
·5 months agoThanks for that. I do recall some of it happening along the way.
But then, what DOES manage to "work reliably" on ebay? Pretty much just their taking their fees LOL
But, never fear, all IS "working as intended" (apparently).
mamacassidy
·5 months agoAs a buyer, you should definitely not purchase from someone who you think is untrustworthy. You should only make purchases that you are comfortable making.
As a seller, I have my account set up to require immediate payment. This is something I had to do a few years ago because of the amount of people who would purchase something then not pay. It was a business/ financial decision that I had to make after weighing the pros and cons.
One of those cons is that I can't send invoices. If someone wants multiple items from me, they have to purchase them and make immediate payment. When I have them all packaged up and get a shipping total, I refund any difference they paid.
I see where you are coming from. But hopefully you can see why some sellers have their shops set up the way they do. Again, if you don't think a seller is honest enough to refund your extra shipping, you should definitely not make that purchase.
orangetri-axle
OP5 months agoI can understand you doing what you did with your account.
I hope you understand sales like that when I have to overpay for shipping then have my money tied up for days waiting for a refund has me to the point where I will be buying less which means spending less. Less money in ebay and sellers pocket.
kathiec
·5 months agoI see where you are coming from. But hopefully you can see why some sellers have their shops set up the way they do. Again, if you don't think a seller is honest enough to refund your extra shipping, you should definitely not make that purchase.
Hopefully you can see that buyers have no more idea whether a seller is going to refund excess shipping than you have whether a buyer is going to pay. You've chosen the "all buyers are deadbeats until proven otherwise" approach, yet seem to think it's wrong for buyers to be leery of sellers sending shipping refunds. And of course the kicker is that buyers have no way to enforce a seller's promise to refund shipping.
The OP has a valid complaint. It's one of several problems with the way eBay chose to implement immediate payment. I'm not saying the concept was wrong, only the execution. And it's time for sellers to finally realize they're losing good customers and push eBay to make some needed changes to the program.
mamacassidy
·5 months ago@kathiec wrote: "Hopefully you can see that buyers have no more idea whether a seller is going to refund excess shipping than you have whether a buyer is going to pay. You've chosen the "all buyers are deadbeats until proven otherwise" approach, yet seem to think it's wrong for buyers to be leery of sellers sending shipping refunds. And of course the kicker is that buyers have no way to enforce a seller's promise to refund shipping."
You can reasonably infer that a seller is honest based on their feedback and their profile. I have many feedback that mention the combined shipping refund. I also have a history of completed sales for many years and top rated status. Of course, this doesn't guarantee the seller will refund, but I think it gives a pretty good idea of who you're dealing with.
On the other hand, I have no idea who is buying from me until they make payment.
Also, the buyer could reasonably open an INAD return if a seller offered discounted shipping and didn't refund it.
kathiec
·5 months ago@mamacassidy
There's really no need to lecture me on how to vet sellers. I've been buying here for nearly 30 years, and selling with another ID for almost that long. As for opening an INAD return for a seller not refunding shipping, that's not a legitimate reason to do so. So the buyer would have to drum up another reason to do so, which let's face it, buyers can and do already. Plus do you really think I would want to go through the hassle and return what I received because a dishonest seller reneged on a shipping refund.
albertabrightalberta
·5 months agoThe time to ask about combined shipping is BEFORE you purchase the item(s).
Some sellers don't combine shipping. And even if the seller combines shipping, they aren't required to reduce the cost of shipping. You need to ask specific questions and don't make purchases until you're satisfied with the seller's answer. And if sellers don't respond, find different sellers with the same item.
orangetri-axle
OP5 months agoI do ask the sellers if they will combine shipping before I do the sale. They always tell me they do combine shipping and will refund any money over actual shipping costs.
Also,if you ask for combined shipping using the link in your cart,ebay wants the buyer to commit to the purchase as soon as you click the send button. The seller hasn't even gotten a reply from the seller about combined shipping but ebay has the buyer committed to the sale.
orangetri-axle
OP5 months agoSorry,the last sentence should say buyer hasn't even gotten a reply for the seller
toomuchstuffagain35
·5 months agoAre you able to send a Request Total from the cart?
I've had buyers say they did that (and I certainly got the ebay email to do so) but then ebay insists they have 'committed to buy' and to pay now. Then when I go to do the invoice they've already paid, so I have to do a manual adjustment refund.