Shopping cart needs scrapped fails to function properly resulting in lost sales
With over 150 documented buyers who have had issue with the cart here is another one today.
"I have 3 items in my cart....can you adjust for combined shipping so I can complete checkout-thanks"
(Keep in mind SELLERS & BUYERS if this buyer would have not messaged about not being able to check out neither you nor I would know about it resulting in lost sales and you will never even know you lost the sale!)
and here is ebays non functioning system:
34 comments
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoHere is another one, from another seller no less who is a customer...
"I am a seller of used parts and I get the same problem, thank you"
ebay you can keep ignoring this issue...but it is snowballing and not going to go away...
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoHere is ANOTHER ON TODAY! and yes I will keep posting these until you fix the cart, or ebay starts paying for the lost sales they cause...
"Morning, I have 27 cars in my cart. I'd like to make you a $48 offer for them. Thanks"
(there is no cart showing, there are no messages from ebay stating that there is a cart....)
( I simply am telling them now to call ebay and have them fix their accounts...put the blame back where it belongs)
UNFORTUNATELY as I have said before ebay fails to show sellers what is in a buyers cart!
This one is a perfect example where if the buyer never sent me a message asking, I would NOR if it was YOUR STORE we neither of us would know there was a buyer with money in hand ready to spend! Ebay will not show you NOR tell you.....you have to hope a buyer sends you a message.....So how many sales do you think you lost because a buyer had a cartfull and since he assumed you are ignoring him and he did not message you, he simply walked away AND WILL BLAME YOU for something that ebay did...
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoand another buyer who had no way to combine or request till after the fact...today
"Just purchased 2 items.. Please combine shipping and issue some credit please.
Bryan"
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoas I said before I created a simply easy to understand "pop up" that once a buyer chooses his first item this pops up and is plain and simple...no guess work, no lost sales, so easy even a caveman can do it., if he chooses yes then it directs him bask to the store to "Continue Shopping", once that buyer is through and hits No it sends the order to me(seller) where I can properly combined it in the appropriate sized box now that ebay and USPS uses dimensional size and weight, and no longer one size box fits all, nor will the seller have to jump thru numerous hoops to create a shipping preference for an unlimited number of items of all weights and sizes, nor go thru and revise from a few to 1,000's of items and then HOPE whatever they did was correct....
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoSo ebay what is the current status at fixing or scrapping the cart.....or refunding sellers for lost sales due to the improper function of the cart...
bradley_bell
·2 years agoHave you even tried the steps I wrote in my previous post that are needed to get it working?
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoI read down through it and like everything else it gets convoluted and well beyond simple., when it says you can create up to 26 shipping policies, edit this and revise that.....of which would have to be applied to almost 4,000 listings and hope it is right, sorry but I only need one shipping policy....and since I know my products and how to ship. Ebays batting record is not that great. You also have to "opt in" to the business policies which come with different strings attached
I especially like this one, so if one goes through and jumps thru the hoops and hope it is right and say that particular combination is not used for awhile ebay will remove it....well what happens if the next day after EBAY removes it and a buyer's order would have needed it? After one spent countless hours setting it up.. "Select Clean up policies on the Manage business policies page. If you have any policies that aren't being used in active listings, or haven't been used recently, we'll remove them."
You also now have "dimensional" base rates where a 12 x 10 x 8 box that weights say 6oz and a 2 x 6 x 9 box that weights 6oz cost 2 different prices to ship...
Why please tell me why one needs up to 26 shipping policies to put item A and item B into a package and weight it apply to buyers zip code send to buyer for payment, get paid and ship it....vs trying to figure out an infinite number of combinations from 1oz and the size of a business card to exhaust systems parts that weight up to 50lbs+ which they will order...Keep in mind also that NOT everything can be safely combined into one parcel...it is not wise to ship a glass item or a fragile item in with a heavy item such as a ball joint for a car...
Keeping it straight forward and simple also eliminates any possible changes a carrier may make in they way they do shipping would affect any ebay policies.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoHere is from another customer today that has had issues.
"I want to thank you for your message. I have only been using the "cart" option several times - up until recently I have been buying a single item at a time. From now on I will simply be ordering without cart - I can contact you when ordering and discuss shipping arrangements with you at that time. Do I pay fiirst and then contact you or the other way around? By the way, I like your assortment of parts available."
This is another one of the issues with the cart...many buyers get confused and are not sure, and rightly so to be apprehensive as it concerns money and a transaction (just like with this new "autopay" poping up before you had a say of anything!) they want to be certain of...yet they find no clear direction to do so, only the numerous hoops they have to jump thru.....on a side note of the buyers statement...all sales are done thru ebay and not outside, reading his statement one could draw the wrong conclusions.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoHere is exactly one of my points from today...the buyer was overcharged roughly 10.00, all 3 items weigh less thank 4oz combined which is roughly 5.00 depending on zip code.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoHere is another unhappy buyer:(he sent a second message with a screen shot showing items in the cart--but here again ebay fails and shows nothing anywhere to indicate a buyer waiting/wanting combined shipping...if the buyer would not have messaged me I would have never known he was out there ready to buy items....NEITHER WILL ANY OTHER SELLER know if they are losing buyers...and to the buyers DO NOT BLAME THE SELLERS...the blame goes 100% to ebay and where you should direct your frustration)
"Hello, I’m getting ready to purchase this decal along with the decal that goes on the front portion of the air cleaner lid can you combine shipping?"
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoHere is today's failure of the cart:
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoTHANKS EBAY LOST THE LAST BUYER SALE! IS THERE A WAY I CAN BILL YOU FOR THE LOSS YOU CAUSED?
EBAY: this is how you should do business.....from another buyer who YOU ebay, ripped off on shipping...
"I want to thank you for your attention in this matter. It is sellers such as yourself that will make me a return customer. I appreciate your refund also."
AND that is my point, your crappy cart that you will not fix nor have attempted to for 2 years losing not only buyers/sales in my store, but for the entire platform. When you take care of your customers and do the right things you build a good base of repeat buyers, but when you drive them away when they have money in hand and want to spend it and cannot...because of your cart.they will blame the seller and most likely NEVER come back and probably go to Amazon or Etsy...and then you rub salt in the wound crying poor and need to raise fees!!!!!! When if you did not drive buyers away you would generate a lot of money just in fees collected
shipscript
·2 years agoThis is a rant. Please explain the details for a more coherent post.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoThis "Rant" is because ebay fails to fix the shopping cart for the past 2 years! Countless phone calls, countless checking my settings(which are fine), at least 5 "IT" tickets written along with detailed step by step examples, Countless phone calls from my buyers to ebay who are very upset. Almost 200 documented issues with the cart between with my buyers. Losing sales with buyers who have money in hand and want to spend it and cannot figure it out....even developed and easy fix step by step.....
Also in the "RANT" highlighted in bold the message from a buyer whom EBAY ripped off on combined shipping, where I had to go back and undo things and refund him the excessive shipping costs as well as explaining that it is caused by ebay and not the sellers....at the beginning of the "RANT" is my gratitude to ebay for losing a sale because ebay blocks EVERYONE from combining shipping so the customer does not get ripped off.
AND the best part is NO SELLER will know if they have a buyer out there who has their items in his cart and cannot figure it out and/or blocks them from going any further, and unless that buyer actually messages the seller, the seller has no idea the buyer has a cart with items in it ready to buy, otherwise they just abandon the cart after awhile and go make their purchases somewhere else (most likely a competing platform). Ebay even has a "Items eligible for combined shipping" notification line in the sellers seller hub, where it says (Laughable) "You can combine up to 40 items" (I would pay to see that actually happen) and to date it has never once shown any indication of any eligible buyers YET actually there is from the back and forth messages with the buyer trying to figure it out....I also might add that this is with shipping within the USA....I won't even get into International shipping issues. So yes this is a RANT because I am tired of busting my behind everyday for 10-12 hours building a successful business for the past 27 years on here, only to have ebay get in the middle and screw things up and I lose sales. Which also means it causes ebay to lose "fees" of which then ebay says it needs to raise fees....NO no it does not, they just need to fix the cart so it is easy for the buyer to understand and use to complete a successful sale and the fees will roll in (collectively from other sellers as well)...If you like I can post each of the almost 200 cases with buyers trying to figure out the cart and those who were ripped off and had to be refunded, some as much as 30.00 overage on shipping. All the while I have to spend time going back and forth with buyers trying to make the cart work, and the time of finding other completed orders and correcting and refunding, where that time would be used for adding more product and processing and shipping...but everyday at 1-2 hours are wasted.on the combine shipping issues. Keep in mind that combined shipping worked near flawlessly before the cart was stuck in the middle, and the only lost sales were was if a buyer failed to pay(very few).....
bradley_bell
·2 years agoI just got this working and it should not have been so hard to find.
I think the magic link you need is this one: https://www.bizpolicy.ebay.com/businesspolicy/manage
You can also get to it through "My Ebay -> Account (Under "Selling") or Seller Hub -> Listings (under "Settings" on the left side)
1st, use this page to consolidate down to as few shipping policies as possible.
2nd, you have to edit those policies (from this business policy page, it doesn't work from the shipping preferences page!) and check the box under "Combined shipping discounts" to actually make them Apply.
I hope this helps
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoSo I get off the phone with ebay and they tell me it cannot be done....I had to laugh when she said just click on one of the awaiting payment items and you can combine the items.....I said he is setting there waiting with the items in the cart and has no way to request a new total! She then said I will have to have the buyer contact ebay to walk him through it!!!! I have a huge problem with this. #1 is the fact that the buyer SHOULD NOT have to call ebay to figure it out...it should have been designed in the first place that anyone can figure it out! #2 NO ONE likes calling ebay and getting the run around, and rarely the same story twice. So with no way to invoice him and no way his cart items are showing up on my sold listings...the sale is considered lost DUE to EBAY. This is only part of what one has to do to try to save a sale...before it used to be easy...PP has my vote.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoI can also begin to post each of the documented buyers who have issues trying to complete the sale(without their seller ID) the transaction and the outcome....
shipscript
·2 years ago@quicksilverdiecast
Do you know if your buyer is using the mobile app?
If not (if your buyer is using a browser), you can share the above screenshot with the buyer.
One picture is worth 1000 words — how to request combined shipping:
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoI have no idea, HOWEVER I did call (twice) 1st call was useless, 2nd call tried payments and got someone who has a grip on what is happening, I had her read the buyers messages and even looked at their cart which has the items it and the "request a new total" button, but when pressed states the seller has offered a discount(NO I have not) and blocks it from being combined!!! Two problems here! LIE #1 The tech checked my setting and found NO discounts offered! and ebay blames me the seller for it! LIE#2 also had her check the overview "ORDER" column at the bottom on "eligible for combining etc" and sure enough the buyer is setting there with cash in hand wanting to buy, yet ebay fails entirely to even give the seller a hint someone is wanting to spend money with you! HOW CAN YOU TAKE SOMETHING THAT IS SO EASY TO DO AND SCREW IT UP SO BADLY!
shipscript
·2 years agoWhat item or items has the buyer selected? I can try those in another test.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoI cannot as he wanted the items bad enough he paid the forced shipping on each item and I had to go back and undo things and figure it out and refund him the forced overcharge.....but at this point after yesterday it does not matter as ebay has done away with combined shipping completely....The forced into "autopay" eliminates any chance of combined shipping....I purchased a Chevelle promo off another seller and went to pay for it and ebay has taken(without my consent or authorization) the liberty to pay for it...This will not stand nor will I make any more purchases from ebay.....ebay is getting a little to free with my money and banking...I also lost a sale yesterday because of being unable to combine shipping......I will also check with paypal today and see if they can block any requests from ebay without my authorization 1st....
shipscript
·2 years ago@quicksilverdiecast
The seller has the ability to turn autopay (for offers), or "immediate payment required" (for BIN) , on or off. If you had to pay immediately for a BIN, that is a feature the seller installed on the listing. If you paid immediately on an offer, the seller controls that feature within Buyer Requirements.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoToday might turn out to be a good day, as I have another buyer who has numerous items in a cart I cannot see, and he wants me to invoice him since the cart still fails to function....so I told him to leave the cart as you have it and once this place opens I will call and force ebay to make it work if it takes all day on the phone.
If you go through this thread and read it all you will find both sides of this issue, 1 where a BUYER gave up and refused to pay the ridiculous shipping and unable to get a combined total, (2)as well as a number of sellers who have noticed this issue and now know why, which proves that sales are being lost/fees are being lost/buyers getting mad/and as I have been saying if it is happening to me it is happening to all of you both buyers and sellers. So when many of you set back and wonder why sales are down(besides chaos, supply chain and everything else). Am I aggravated after 2+ years of losing who knows how many sales because of this..and include the untold hours wasted in dealing with it and the unneeded back and forth between buyer and seller only to lose the sale because ebay backs you into a corner with no way to complete a transaction...........you bet I am. I as well as many other sellers work hard to generate sales and income and spend many hours building it into a good business, only to have sales hindered by the platform you are paying to sell on! Further rubbing salt into the wound is the fact that these are sales that have buyers with money in hand trying to spend it, and not just tire kickers.....There should be way to account for lost sales caused by ebay and bill ebay for it....
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoPerhaps we can hire employees from Amazon where Amazon has this feature? Just a thought.
I am so tired of refunding shipping because buyers cannot combine everything and send an invoice to update the shipping charge. And yes, there is no problem with my shipping set-up on my side. That .30 per fee per item purchased does help someone...but not the seller.
shipscript
·2 years ago@quicksilverdiecast
Which shipping rules have you set up on your account's Shipping Preferences page so that shipping is automatically combined for the buyer?
https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf
Items must be placed in the cart to combine. If not automatically combined (as shown by lack of discounts in the screenshot below), then the buyer must "Request combined shipping" from within the cart. I do see that option on your listings and am able to request combining from my desktop browser:
I wonder if some issues are occurring when shopping through the app?
That buyer who contacted support was being wrongly advised. The seller is the one who allows purchases to be combined if made within a limited time window. This time window is defined on the seller's shipping preferences page that is linked above, and defaults to 3 days, but could be extended. The time window only applies to items that are purchased but unpaid. That means requiring immediate payment would disqualify the purchase from combined shipping, while simply adding items to the cart would have no time limit.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agothis is where the setting has been all along
Accept combined payments
shipscript
·2 years ago@quicksilverdiecast
If you want combined shipping to be automatic, you must use a shipping rule and apply the rule to the affected listings. Otherwise, buyers must put items in their cart and request combined shipping from within the cart. My cart screenshot of your listings is from my desktop browser. The mobile app may perform differently, since it seems to have more problems with required updates.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoI am fine with them doing it the old way of buyers putting items into the cart and using the request button, I also certainly am NOT going to sift thru almost 4000 listing and try to make sense of that! Only to have things end up worse! With that being said I have at least 150 document cases at trying to make the cart work properly, as well as myself, considering I have been on here for 27 years and I can't figure it out, nor can the ebay whiz kid techs, and ebay expects a noobie to just slide right and all will be hunky dory.....here is a pet peeve which follows ebay logic...everytime there is a rip in the ebay sphere they send a "how are we doing" questions which is all well and fine, however one GIANT point is missing....exactly which transaction is ebay referring to? Obviously ebay knows or they would not have sent it to begin with! So maybe let us in on the secret so we know how to evaluate it properly at what transpired,....otherwise the questions are worthless and delete button is pressed.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoI have recently been contacted by a buyer who could not request an invoice for products in their cart.
They paid the inflated shipping, and I refunded the difference. My buyers are human so I do not lose sales because of this problem.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoMy buyers are human too, so how do you know 100% you are not losing sales, if the buyer nevers messages you and ebay never notifies you or it never shows up on the seller hub sold transactions? You don't!
Not all buyers are that trusting....If I was presented an invoice that was 35.00 more that what it should be to ship it...1. I would mad at the seller and never come back, 2. If it were me and was 35.00 over I would run from it myself. Luckily I have a large base of repeat buyers who do have trust in me to correct ebay's ripoff and refund them.
wailingglobe
·2 years agoI've had this happen as well with about 10 different buyers since mid Janaury. Where they will message, often times very frustrated with me that they are being charged shipping because their order won't combine correctly and I have no options on my end. Often times for me this has resulted in them just giving up on their purchases even after I explain that I will refund them immediately.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoI just checked back and the buyer,as I instructed to contact ebay, got this message, which shows they are still clueless at how to fix this wreck.
"I contacted them......they had me change my settings to allow seller 3 days to modify/adjust shipping for multiple items purchased at same time....and told me to contact seller to confirm" (this is a new one I never heard of)
My end still shows nothing, not even a trace of this buyer or his items...,then they will ask to send them an invoice....nope can't do that either ebay leaves seller no way to do this...it used to be nice with pp as you could salvage a sale....and next time ebay cries poor and wants to raise fees..point to the shopping cart and say fix it right and you will begin collecting a LOT more fees from successful sales....If you can imagine collectively from all the sellers across the platforms total sales lost and lost fees!
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoAnd another one today:
"Hi there
I'm interested in some of your items and I'd like to make some offers on them. However if you accept them eBay will charge automatically one shipping value for each car and I can't request you an invoice with combined shipping.
That way I'll go forward if you agree in refunding me the shipping difference after you calculate the right value.
What do you think about? Please let me know.
Thanks"
Word is finally starting to get around, and hopefully snowballs to the point they fix it.
One would have to consider that if the shopping cart is that much of a problem, where neither buyer or seller can figure it out...and accounting for the fact that I am approaching 200 documented cases from buyer(who either messaged me or paid the rip off shipping and were refunded), Have complained to ebay for at least 2 years, Lost who know how many sales, have had numerous high level techs go over my settings and finding no issues, Techs have written at least a dozen IT tickets to fix this issue....and I even developed an easy fix by just adding a simple "yes" or "No" Pop Up Button question. Which would work like this:
Buyer comes into my store and finds numerous items he wants...he chooses the 1st item and puts it in the cart, then a pop up window opens with a question "would you like to purchase another item" "yes" or "No" button, he chooses yes and adds the next item and so on for each additional item(s) he put in the cart, when finished he hits the "NO" button and it automatically send it to the seller so it can be combined where possible, and then sent back to buyer to make payment....pretty simple, easy to figure out for buyers, saves losing sales, generates more income and fees....There is an old saying when developing things for the public to use it is called KISS= Keep It Simple Stupid....ebay you would do well to remember that.
quicksilverdiecast
OP2 years agoOk so if you shake the tree long enough..... for all who want to point to my store and the settings...here it is in black and white. So for all you who have stores, like I said if it is happening to me it is happening to you as well....
"I read your email and happy to help regarding the order number you provided.
Reviewing order XX-XXXXX-XXXXX I do see it's partially refunded so there is no way to troubleshoot using that order. I also attempted to locate another order to use as a example when reporting the issue but no orders awaiting payment. Next time you run into a order where the buyer purchases multiple items they should have the ability to request to combine the shipment for 3 days per your settings in the Shipping Preferences. If they are unable to have them contact us since we may have to troubleshoot on their account since you have everything set correctly in your Shipping Preferences.
We thank you for allowing us to clarify this and thank you for reaching out to eBay Customer Service."