How can I buy multiple items thru Best Offers?

[idbrbi]

I’m really confused with the new Auto-Payment Best Offer. I always buy Multiple Items for each sellers before so I can take advantage of the Combined Shipping but now I can’t ask to combine the shipping anymore because of Auto-Payment. Some sellers say they will refund the differences but what’s my assurance? They can just get away with Ebay on their side since I agreed to pay the binding offer. I don’t wanna pay a total of $36 shipping for a 3pcs thin small shirts d*mn.

I hope Ebay considers and have more options for Multiple Item Buyers like me.

[ed8108]

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I suspect ebay knows some buyers will be discouraged from making multiple item purchases

Avoid  paying more than the items & shipping are worth to you

[kalyoth]

You can ask a seller if they would be willing to turn off that function for you to make multiple purchases & combine them. That is up to each seller individually - until ebay makes it mandatory.

It is in ebay's financial interest to discontinue combined shipping as they tax sellers for each sale & that higher shipping means higher revenue from their taxes.

[ittybitnot]

but what’s my assurance? 

@idbrbi 

There is none.  The items are already paid for.  EBay makes more money from this program. sellers do not, and buyers have a BAD BUYER EXPERIENCE.   

The seller needs to uncheck the preference to require you to put up a payment source FIRST.  Most sellers do not even know it is there. 

eBay has just added a "new" one on the seller's buyer requirements page that requires a buyer to front a payment source IN ORDER TO BID.  It is set to YES as the default.  

So, as you have noticed, it prevents combined shipping discounts.  Sellers pay .30 cent for each, instead of .30 for ten items combined, and each is a separate transaction that should require a unique tracking number.  

Good thing the internet is a big place and eBay is no longer the only game in town. 

[rrr555]

I    just got opted in to the auto pay and it is a nightmare.  I spent over $100,000 on ebay last year and over $40,000 so far this year but for now I'm done buying because I mostly bid on auctions and sometimes do best offers and those are both ruined now.  I went to make an offer on a $750 item and it forced me to say my payment method, so I did Paypal which I always use.  The seller accepted my offer of $725 and it auto paid using Paypal, but it charged my bank account instead of my credit card, which comes with a 3% cash back offer.   I never use my bank account so I called ebay and they explained that I'm now in autopay and they have no control how paypal makes a payment and I have to call Paypal.  It was after 9:30 PM eastern so Paypal is closed.  So I explained to seller what happened and asked seller to cancel and he did.   

   So the ebay rep said auto pay was set up to reduce the number of transactions that aren't paid for but the irony for me is that I always pay and been buying for 20+ years and now for the first time I am enrolled in auto pay and for the first time I cancel and it was $725.  Forcing buyers who buy a ton and mostly do auctions or best offers is a horrible move by ebay

[mudshark61369]

@rrr555,

The reply posted just before yours by ittybitnot, explains why this is happening.  eBay has Defaulted seller's into the automatic payment system without their knowledge.  All you can try doing to not have to enter the payment info and be able to get combined shipping invoices from sellers, is if you go to place a bid on an item and are asked to enter payment info, is to message them before making multiple offers or bidding on multiple items. Ask them to go to their Buyer Requirements page and check to see if the boxes requiring payment info to be entered have been checked without their knowledge. Explain if it has, they can no longer send a combined shipping invoice for multiple item purchases.  They can either un-check the requirements, or place you on their exemption list.

[ittybitnot]

or place you on their exemption list

@mudshark61369 

There is some evidence from other ecommerce discussion venues that the "exemption list" method is not working.  It may be related to the fact that eBay is not informing sellers as to how many buyers have been blocked (or refused to participate?) due to the block(s) being in place as they do with other requirements that are affected by the exemption. 

This method of upfront funding is SUPPOSED to reduce the non-paying bidder/buyer problem, but it does NOT account for how many PAYING buyers are not participating due to this and are in effect turned away by the requirement.  

It would be better all around if eBay simply got rid of the non-payers instead of employing this new (monetarily advantageous to eBay only) program that essentially prohibits combining items for one shipping price.  Why not simply enroll the non-payer IDs if those are the problem? 

Why are they NOT informing sellers that they have been awarded this default on their buyer management page?  Yes, it may reduce non-payers, but it also just may reduce your sales to those that do pay.