Multiple variation listing and combined shipping

[nygiants20]

Ebay recently informed me that my seller performance level has dropped due to shipping tracking information not being uploaded on 45 items. Ebay said I didn't do combined shipping properly.

Here is what happened. I have a multiple variation listing for some baseball cards. On April 21, a buyer bought 10 cards and immediately paid for the 10 cards and shipping ($5). Within a few minutes, the same buyer bought 40 more cards from the same listing. Then they, again, immediately paid for the 40 cards and shipping.

Then the buyer sent me a message asking if I would combine the shipping and refund the amount for one of the shipping charges and I agreed to do this. I would have done this even if the buyer hadn't contacted me.

I issued a refund of $5 to the buyer. Then I packed the 50 cards into one box and shipped it via USPS on April 22. The package with the 50 cards was delivered to the buyer on April 24. Positive feedback has been received from the buyer.

When a buyer makes multiple purchases from a listing with multiple variations, the purchases appear as if they are separate transactions. So, when I look at my "Orders" section of my dashboard, it appears as there are two orders but 50 separate purchases (I hope I'm saying this right).  When I created the, one, shipping label for the shipment the shipping tracking number was uploaded to a few of the items in the first order, the one with 10 cards. But, the tracking number was not uploaded to any of the items in the order with 40 cards. At the time, I had no idea this would be an issue so I never thought about it. So, now Ebay says I had 45 items that didn't have shipping tracking information added.

But, I still don't believe I did anything that warrants my seller performance level being lowered.

Can anyone help me understand what, if anything, I should have done differently?

I was on the phone with Ebay customer service today and they either didn't understand the issue or wouldn't make an effort to help...very frustrating!

Thanks in advance for any assistance!!

[nygiants20]

When I was on the phone with eBay yesterday, they kept saying something about an invoice that I should've sent the buyer. But, since the buyer immediately paid for the two orders, there was no reason for me to send any invoice. I couldn't get the eBay rep to acknowledge or understand this.