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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers

I have now had three different buyers, all three who are experienced ebay buyers of many years, repeat buyers of mine for many years who have now told me that after adding items to their cart they can not Request Total from Seller. 

After asking some questions of the buyers it seems that this is only happening for sellers who have applied their promotional shipping rule for shipping discounts. This seems to only happen when they have won some auctions and have other auctions going and then want to add items to their cart. After adding items to their cart the Request Total from Seller link becomes unclickable with the circle i info icon next to it that says something like unable to request total because you have already received a discount.

 

It's totally frustrating as the buyer experience seems to get worse and worse on ebay. I have had buyers tell me as much and it is obvious by reading these boards. Now a longtome customer of mine who probably spends around $1000 to $2000 a year and has been buying from me for over 12 years says he is done. He is tired of the extra steps it takes , the glitches, the changes that seemingly no ebay users thinks improves the site are implemented. I now spend multiple hours on a regular basis trying to help navigate customers through the glitches and such.

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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers

I've placed two multiple item orders in the last 24 hours. Neither of them allowed me to request a total. The seller said in their listing they combine shipping but did not have shipping rules set up because they sell different uncombinable items.

 

Not happy.

 

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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers

@the_sports_page,

 

Your buyers may be running into this problem, if they are trying to use the cart with a combination of Buy It Now Items and auctions.  The cart does not work well with auctions and until an auction is won it should not be added to the cart. Once an auction is won the price is commited to, just as using BIN commits a buyer to pay.  Until then the auction is an uncommitted item, and will not work with the cart.   If you have set a payment time frame or use the unpaid Item assistant, the time frame you have set may interfere with purchases made several days apart.  You may want to think about giving people a longer time to pay if that is the case, or set a policy of only combining payments for items purchased in a one week period Mon. - Sun. 

https://pages.ebay.com/shoppingcart/

 

In your combined shipping terms on your listing you tell buyers to add items to the cart.  They do not have to do that to be able to pay, if you have combined shipping rules set up. 

Each BIN or Auction win will show up in one box on their Purchase history. When they are ready to pay, they can request a total there or your add .50cents for each additional item rule will be applied.  I do not know if the cap you set of $6 max combined shipping cost can be applied, and for high volume buyers that might be a problem. 

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FOOLPROOF, BECAUSE FOOLS ARE SO DARNED INGENIOUS!" (unknown)
Message 3 of 9
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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers


@mudshark61369 wrote:

@the_sports_page,

 

Your buyers may be running into this problem, if they are trying to use the cart with a combination of Buy It Now Items and auctions.  The cart does not work well with auctions and until an auction is won it should not be added to the cart. Once an auction is won the price is commited to, just as using BIN commits a buyer to pay.  Until then the auction is an uncommitted item, and will not work with the cart.   If you have set a payment time frame or use the unpaid Item assistant, the time frame you have set may interfere with purchases made several days apart.  You may want to think about giving people a longer time to pay if that is the case, or set a policy of only combining payments for items purchased in a one week period Mon. - Sun. 

https://pages.ebay.com/shoppingcart/

 

In your combined shipping terms on your listing you tell buyers to add items to the cart.  They do not have to do that to be able to pay, if you have combined shipping rules set up. 

Each BIN or Auction win will show up in one box on their Purchase history. When they are ready to pay, they can request a total there or your add .50cents for each additional item rule will be applied.  I do not know if the cap you set of $6 max combined shipping cost can be applied, and for high volume buyers that might be a problem. 


I appreciate the feedback. If they use BIN, they have to pay for each item separately. I only encourage buyers to add items to cart if they are purchasing multiple items. That is the only way they can get the combined shipping rates. I don't have a payment time frame set up or unpaid item assistant set up.

 

If a buyer comes in and adds 10 items of mine to their cart, they can just checkout and pay and it calculates the correct $6 capped shipping charge. Here is an example as best I can describe of what is happening.  First, I pretty much list new items everyday so my regular buyers I believe usually check for new listings everyday.

So for example, I list some auctions and a buyer puts in some bids and wins a couple items. then I list some new Fixed Priced items that they want. In the past they have been able to add those fixed priced items to their cart and request a total so no one else buys the items out from under them while they bid on more auctions. Requesting the total in the past has committed the buyer to buying items in their cart. Now for some reason, when they try to do that, it won't let them request the total. They either have to pay then or the items stay in their cart and they risk someone else coming in and "stealing" the items in their cart.

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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers

And just to make things even more interesting, this doesn't seem to happen to all buyers. Just had someone last night with a similar buying pattern and they were able to request total. 

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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers

I have been on the phone no less than 15 times over the last 2 years with this request total thing and each and every time ebay came up with a different reason.. None of which apply to me or if it did,, we corrected it then,, and still my buyers can't request total,, This all started with that danged CART!!  I hate that cart. I don' thave auctions all my items are BIN so this auction thing don't apply to me.,

I spend no less than an hour every day refunding overpayment on shipping.. I need to be listing during that time not spending it on refunding shipping..

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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers


@storytimequilts wrote:

I have been on the phone no less than 15 times over the last 2 years with this request total thing and each and every time ebay came up with a different reason.. None of which apply to me or if it did,, we corrected it then,, and still my buyers can't request total,, This all started with that danged CART!!  I hate that cart. I don' thave auctions all my items are BIN so this auction thing don't apply to me.,

I spend no less than an hour every day refunding overpayment on shipping.. I need to be listing during that time not spending it on refunding shipping..


Ebay is well aware of this problem and seems to refuse to fix it. It`s my opinion they won`t fix it because they keep the full 10% they charged for FVF on shipping even though you partialy refunded the buyer. It`s been stated on these boards from ebay officials that you can call ebay and get the overage they kept credited back to your account but how many are/will do that? I also believe this is a leverage move to get sellers to offer free shipping.

 

The problem with offering free shipping is sellers don`t tend to get multiple purchases from buyers this way and paypal then reaps the reward of a 30 cent fee for each and every payment recieved. If you do the math....the seller looses no matter which way you go and your buyer gets frustrated. Some folks will say to add the cost of shipping into the price but is that fair to a buyer that wants multiple items from you? It`s a lose / lose for everyone but ebay and paypal.

"There`s always barber college" - Dalton - Road House
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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers

I figured out a hack. I wanted 5 puzzles from a seller and he told me what the combined shipping would be in a message. He offers a discount is you buy more than 2 items from him. So, if you buy more than 2 the Request a Total icon is deactivated. So, I did this:


I used my iPad to add 2 puzzles which made the “Request a Total” highlighted. Then I used my phone to add the other 3. I went back to my iPad which still only showed 2 puzzles in my cart. I hit the “Request a Total” and viola it allowed me to request a total for all five. Sneaky.  But it works

Message 8 of 9
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Buyers unable to Request Total from Sellers

Perhaps I'm wrong but I thought that the request total has never worked if one of the listings has free listings or if combined shipping is already set up.  It sounds like it was working for you though in the past.

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