Regards,
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Although I specify to request invoice, I don't have a problem with buyers paying immediately then asking about combining their items or shipping refunds but my question is, if they pay for items seperately, don't we have to ship the items seperately? 
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@gymbo_limbo No, you can combine them in one package, print a label for one item then copy the tracking number and add it to the other item(s). You can Refund shipping thru PayPal but make sure you send a message to the Buyer in eBay Messaging that the small refund was for shipping.
Keep in mind that you pay the eBay FVFs on ALL paid shipping by the Buyer and refunding through PayPal does NOT get your eBay FVFs back ...
Its best to use an invoice but sadly, eBay lets the cart stay broken where Buyers can not request a revised total and it may have something to do with them being able to collect more fees that way ...
No you do not. You can combine the shipping. There is an option to do that when you go to print your shipping labels through Ebay as well. I do it all the time.
I too ask my customers to ask for a invoice before payment. Some do and some don't. I ALWAYS refund the over payment of shipping whether they ask or not. And when multiple payments are submitted, I keep enough to cover the extra fees on the extra payments. I have emails I've designed that I send before I issue refunds stating all this to my customers. It has worked well for me for many years.
@gymbo_limbo No, you can combine them in one package, print a label for one item then copy the tracking number and add it to the other item(s). You can Refund shipping thru PayPal but make sure you send a message to the Buyer in eBay Messaging that the small refund was for shipping.
Keep in mind that you pay the eBay FVFs on ALL paid shipping by the Buyer and refunding through PayPal does NOT get your eBay FVFs back ...
Its best to use an invoice but sadly, eBay lets the cart stay broken where Buyers can not request a revised total and it may have something to do with them being able to collect more fees that way ...
@gymbo_limbo wrote:Although I specify to request invoice, I don't have a problem with buyers paying immediately then asking about combining their items or shipping refunds but my question is, if they pay for items seperately, don't we have to ship the items seperately?
You should understand that in many cases eBay will not allow buyers to Request an Invoice, they are forced to pay full price. If the buyer doesn't use the cart then eBay may force them to pay for each individual item immediately. The later is the worst because it involves multiple PayPal transaction fees (this should go away under Managed Payments).
As others mentioned you don't need to ship the items separately, you can either combine in the label creation process on eBay or you can manually add the tracking number to the other transactions. You can add the tracking number to any amount of additional items as long as they are all for the same buyer and all from the same seller account.
I have both listings with IPR and those that don't. That is a good point that you make. Thank you for throwing that out there.
@drusalina wrote:If you give your buyer a refund on the sale or shipping through Pay Pal, make sure you call eBay and get your Final Value Fees and Final Value Fees on shipping back. It won't happen automatically. Another money grab by eBay to keep your money anyway they can.
This is great advice if the FVF amount warrants it. Often times it is less than $1 for many of us and hardly worth the time that is necessary to call to get the refund. But for those that had a larger fee, it certainly can be worth the time.
@ittybitnot wrote:As others mentioned you don't need to ship the items separately, you can either combine in the label creation process on eBay or you can manually add the tracking number to the other transactions. You can add the tracking number to any amount of additional items as long as they are all for the same buyer and all from the same seller account.
Though I have found that adding the same tracking number to different purchases is not allowed, and produces an error message..."this tracking number has already been used...yada yada", but not all the time. The most important thing to remember is this:
When combining items for one shipment, and if the buyer should claim "one is missing" from the lot, the seller is on the hook for the whole payment for all five or ten as the case may be. You can guess the rest, and it will not bode well for the seller.
I do it all the time. Add the same tracking number to multiple items purchased that I received separate payments for. With that said, I've heard of this problem reported on the threads before and I don't know what causes it at all. However some have reported having success if they enter the tracking numbers into PP instead of Ebay. And of course PP updates Ebay.
@drusalina wrote:If you give your buyer a refund on the sale or shipping through Pay Pal, make sure you call eBay and get your Final Value Fees and Final Value Fees on shipping back. It won't happen automatically. Another money grab by eBay to keep your money anyway they can.
Oh that's right, many FVF claims are NOT Automatic but should be. For myself, the $$ refunded on shipping is usually rather small and does not happen too often ... not worth calling for 50 cents to a dollar or so ... I can "make" more money in the hour on the phone then that LOL!
@ne*1*huskers wrote:
I just had this happen and couldn't add the tracking number.
Saw that buyer had used two different user names which of course looked to Ebay as two separate customers.
E-mail, and address was all the same but the user name was very similar but different.
That has never worked to be able to combine shipping to. As you say, it is two different accounts. So they have to be handled separately in Ebay. But this is different than what most are talking about here.
