Buyer wants multiple items, and trying to make that happen is turning out to be a real pain...

[sin-n-dex]

OK, so I have an international buyer who wanted to buy a stamp lot. When he found out the shipping, he asked about putting some other stamps in the package and combining shipping. Well that's not a problem with me, so let's see what happened next...

First he puts them all in his cart and "requests total", and it tells him that he can't request a total from me.

So I tell him I can do a custom listing (see I remembered from the last time this happened), but before I get the items down and a custom listing up, he goes and buys the stamp lot he wanted (but not the other stamps). Then he messages to say he wants to combine the one he just bought with the others (he bought, but hadn't paid yet).

He goes and puts the other stamps in his cart again and tries to request total, it tells him he can't request a total because the unpaid item was already discounted (at some point an offer went out to him and he accepted it, which is why he ended up buying that right away on it's own, to take advantage of the offer... some of my items are sending offers automatically still).

So I tried sending offers for other items, but it wants him to pay one by one with ridiculous shipping on each item. Some of these are 1.99 items. So I go back to my suggestion of combining the items into a lot.

So I do this, but I have a problem, if I put the combined lot up with free shipping someone else that lives in the same country can go ahead and buy, and I'll be on the hook for free shipping to them. Plus it will make the lot look attractive.

So my suggestion was "don't pay for the lot you just bought right now, wait for the custom lot, do buy it now and pay the shipping, and once you've done this I will send an invoice for the first purchase with free shipping". I don't want to send an invoice with free shipping because then I'll be spending $15.89 to ship an item I just sold for $8, that's why I have to make sure shipping is covered and I'm refunding overage, not discounting shipping and being on the hook to pay for it. I think that's common sense from a seller point of view.

Anyway this morning I get a payment for the one lot, but the stamps I put up in a custom lot are still for sale. I really don't know what's going on or why he did that, I thought my instructions were pretty clear to pay for the one I just listed and wait for an invoice so I could remove shipping.

Now the custom lot is up and the only thing I can do is refund his shipping once he buys it (or ship the one he paid for by itself, which isn't what he wanted, he wanted to combine shipping).

I see this is all eBay's fault for making it so difficult for a buyer to get multiple items on one invoice for one shipping charge, and benefit from a seller's discount in the process. I did my best to make it as minimally complicated as I could with what I had to work with, but now I have a paid transaction in limbo because I don't know what the buyer wants me to do.

C.

[pcobra93]

The easiest way I have found to sell a lot to a specific buyer is to list the special lot as a Buy it now with a "Best offer" that is really high. That specific buyer can then make the agreed offer and you can accept. That blocks out all others unless someone was messing with you. You can also add "for a specific buyer" to the item title. I don't like adding the persons username as some do in the title.

[wastingtime101]

eBay's immediate pay on offers creates problems when you want to combine shipping. No question about that.

That said, this was more complicated than it needed to be. From the get-go I would have told the buyer I'd create the custom listing and cancel any existing orders.

Then I would have sent them the custom listing which would have a higher price and best offer option since there was a concern somebody else could purchase it. That way you could make sure to accept an offer from him alone.

You were halfway there by offering the custom listing, but could have nipped it in the bud by proceeding with custom listing and cancelling any existing orders earlier on in the process.

[sin-n-dex]

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@pcobra93 wrote:

The easiest way I have found to sell a lot to a specific buyer is to list the special lot as a Buy it now with a "Best offer" that is really high. That specific buyer can then make the agreed offer and you can accept. That blocks out all others unless someone was messing with you. You can also add "for a specific buyer" to the item title. I don't like adding the persons username as some do in the title.

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I don't put usernames in the title for buyer privacy (just like i wouldn't like my name in the title unless I'm selling the item, I usually say Customs Listing by Sin-n-Dex. That might be followed with "stamp lot" or "3 coins" or something if I have multiple custom listings).

The buyer actually replied when I was typing my tirade and told me he's not very comfortable with eBay and decided to just go ahead with the lot he paid for. We've agreed if I can save him shipping on it I'll refund shipping tonight once I buy shipping. Normally this item would be $15.89 to ship, but I think I can save him a bit with my new shipper if it's less than 8oz packed.

He did say we could work on a custom lot later on when he gets more comfortable with buying on eBay.

C.

[wastingtime101]

Just curious @sin-n-dex :

Have you ever considered running markdowns instead of sending offers since offers are consistently problematic for you with combined shipping?

In conjunction with markdowns, set up combined shipping rules or rate tables to avoid all this manual work and headaches?

Seems like you're making things harder than they need to be. You might be surprised that markdowns generate the same, if not more, sales than offers.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

eBay's immediate pay on offers creates problems when you want to combine shipping. No question about that.

That said, this was more complicated than it needed to be. From the get-go I would have told the buyer I'd create the custom listing and cancel any existing orders.

Then I would have sent them the custom listing which would have a higher price and best offer option since there was a concern somebody else could purchase it. That way you could make sure to accept an offer from him alone.

You were halfway there by offering the custom listing, but could have nipped it in the bud by proceeding with custom listing and cancelling any existing orders earlier on in the process.

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Because of the buyer's comfort level (or lack there of) with buying on eBay, it actually probably worked out OK for him with the one item. I'm going to try to save him postage if I can. Some of my stamp lots are heavier than others, and my shipping price anticipates up to 8oz. I think my new shipper will be cheaper if I'm under the 8oz mark.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Just curious @sin-n-dex :

Have you ever considered running markdowns instead of sending offers since offers are consistently problematic for you with combined shipping?

In conjunction with markdowns, set up combined shipping rules or rate tables to avoid all this manual work and headaches?

Seems like you're making things harder than they need to be. You might be surprised that markdowns generate the same, if not more, sales than offers.

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I wasn't able to do markdowns before because the organization of the store was a mess. I set it up a long time ago when I only had 500-1000 items and it didn't matter if the categories were very general. As the store grew, I changed the layout to be eBay categories to deal with the mess.

I've actually recently recategorized everything and got rid of the very general categories that had all kinds of items, thus a markdown might actually be possible now. It's something for me to try out.

Lots of buyers only get one item though, so the offers isn't really a huge problem most of the time. I did put in combined shipping discounts in each category (where it made sense to offer that) and now instead of waiting for offers, most people just add to cart and check out for the combined shipping discount.

I come here and complain and get very vocal when the problems amount to general frustration with eBay's website.

C.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

Give the markdowns a try as an alternative to offers for a while - see how it works out for you.

I've said this before (probably last week) on one of your combined ship threads: eBay should not force auto-pay on offers if the seller's settings do not require it. The problem stems from eBay ignoring that setting.

Knowing that's the case, see what you can do to work around it. Hopefully markdowns will be a good solution for now.