How can I ask this?

[barely_tan_gerbil]

I want my seller to give me the option to "Request Total  from Seller", after I load up my cart.  My issue is, she has the make offer button active on all the items I want to buy.  I want to make Best Offer and have them ship together (it's clothing) to take advantage of a small shipping discount through combined shipping.

I previously purchased 9 items using best offer on each.  The seller accepts the best offer on each separate listing which includes each separate shipping cost.  Then she refunds me 9 separate times. 

Is there a way for me to say I'll offer the same price for each blouse or whatever it is, which she has already told me she finds agreeable, but allow me to pay once after she makes the adjustment for the combined shipping?

If I make offer, she accepts it along with the shipping cost.  That's how I get charged up front for shipping 9 x over.  Then only after does she make shipping calculations and then issue me the separate refunds.

I'd really like to avoid the refunding altogether, just have her adjust the total - so that's why I need help knowing if this is a doable thing (to make several offers, but request total from cart,,, leaves me scratching my head how to do this).

Can anybody help me streamline what we are doing?  I want to offer $30 each piece instead of $35, plus she discounts the shipping a little bit.  I don't expect it to be even across the board, cost wise, because shipping has to reflect reality of weight etc.  Thank you all.

[wastingtime101]

Offers operate independently from everything else so you will never be able to do what you want with offers.

If the seller has a store she can send you a private coupon for the discount.

If the seller does not have a store she can simply lower the price of the items.

Another option is the seller can set up automatic combined shipping rules so there's no need to request a total, but if she's an old-school seller she may be resistant to that kind of change. If she wants to give it a try you can tell her to post here and @ mention me and I'll help her set it up. That would need to be done in conjunction with a discount or lowered item price because, as I mentioned, offers are independent so even automatic combined ship rules won't apply.

[bandrhome]

Personally, Id make a bundled lot listing with the proper shipping for x items. List all items in the description, etc so we have seller/buyer protections.

Not sure if they would be open to that as we all dont work the same. 

[wastingtime101]

Another good option, but a lot of work for 9 items and seller takes a chance that the buyer will flake. Plus with clothing what if buyer wants to return 1 or 2, but they purchased 9 as a single lot - can make things more complicated.

Some sellers are happy to use that option. For 9 items I'd rather lower the price for 24 hours if I didn't have a store and give the buyer a window to purchase before raising prices back to where they started.

Although I do have a store with automatic order discounts and combined shipping so this isn't a problem for me. As you said, we all have different processes. 🙂

[bandrhome]

I can get that for sure. Im still working that out myself listing anything on Ebay in many years! LOL I know we can set up rules now. Ive been mainly selling on Etsy/website/FMP all these years.

Id just quick copy the descriptions and add photos with a bundle price. They dont buy Id relist the original listings or maybe keep it live and see if another bites on the bundle, haha.

More so because they are a repeat buyer.

[ittybitnot]

I want my seller to give me the option to "Request Total  from Seller", 

@barely_tan_gerbil 

If the seller requires that you provide a payment source in order to make an offer at all, the "Request Total" feature will not be available.  Your seller can turn this off providing they even know they have the requirement set to the defaut eBay provided them. 

You will be billed for 9 separate transactions individually, and the seller will pay nine 40 cent transaction fees instead of one for a combined order.  

Though I have had quite a few sellers tell me that they will refund "after the fact", only one has ever done it.  These, however, have been for seller generated offers as these now require immediate payment with no opportunity to combine for one shipping price as well. 

[mudshark61369]

@barely_tan_gerbil,  you wrote:

"I want my seller to give me the option to "Request Total from Seller", after I load up my cart... My issue is, she has the make offer button active on all the items I want to buy....  I want to make Best Offer and have them ship together (it's clothing) to take advantage of a small shipping discount through combined shipping...  I'd really like to avoid the refunding altogether, just have her adjust the total - so that's why I need help knowing if this is a doable thing (to make several offers, but request total from cart".

I may have a different interpretation of your question than @wastingtime101  has.

If you want to make offers on the seller's item while they are in the Cart, that will not work. The Cart can only be used with Fixed price items. Buy It Now listings w/  Offers and Auction listings cannot be added to the cart to request combined shipping until an offer has been accepted, or you win an auction. Making them fixed price listings.  Then you can add the items to the Cart and request combined shipping.

  You will not know until trying to make an offer if the seller;  

A)  Has auto pay set up.  You would see a message telling you If the offer is accepted your payment source will be charged, when you make an offer.  However, the message shows up before you confirm the offer, so you can back out.

Offers include the stated shipping cost, so you would end up paying for each item's stated shipping price, then hope the seller will refund the difference. That is something you should ask the seller about, before making any offers.  Will you combine shipping if my offers are accepted?  Most sellers willing to combine shipping will state that somewhere in their listings.

B)  If the seller is actually accepting offers.  Many sellers have the Best Offer option on all of their listings, but do not want to deal with them.  Often those offers are just ignored until they time out after 24 hours. The option is there because they use ebay's basic/quick listing tool, which adds the option whether the seller is willing to accept offers or not.

C)  Is what wastingtime101 wrote about making one listing for all of the items, causing problems if one or more have to be returned.

Before you ask a seller about accepting multiple offers or combining shipping, you need to make your feedback profile public.  Sellers are very wary of buyers whose feedback is private and may block you from buying from them at all.

[barely_tan_gerbil]

Thank you, now I understand. 🔥

[barely_tan_gerbil]

Thank you, my seller seems happier with the way she's done it before, so that's that, but I surely thank you for the suggested solution for my situation.🐦

[barely_tan_gerbil]

Wow, automatic discounts and combined shipping seems the way to go!  Wish all sellers did this.  Is it difficult to make so?

[barely_tan_gerbil]

Boy do I wish she'd do that, I send screenshots of the ones I want, but,,,sigh.  Nope.  Great idea though!  Thank you! 💓

[barely_tan_gerbil]

Thanks for the insight, yes this seller has refunded me immediately, but it's an inscrutable process that keeps me perched on the edge of my seat, oh well 🤪

[barely_tan_gerbil]

Yes my seller has autopay set up, which is probably a wise safeguard for her in general, although I've already purchased multiple items two times from her, I don't think she'll change the listings to fixed price for me to request combined shipping.  I wouldn't return unless an item had a big defect like a missing sleeve or a big hole in it or the wrong size (since these are new in original packages I don't see that happening). 

Thank you for suggesting that I make my feedback public.  I hadn't considered the effect it might have on a seller. 💐