Ebays brainchild cart system BE AWARE it does NOT FUNCTION

[quicksilverdiecast]

Ok ebay explain to me why my customers have to keep sending me messages with screen shots of your wonderful cart system that does not work, instead of letting ME the SELLER see what the buyer wants and so that I may combine it and give the customer good service and generate sales? Now as I have said before, the ONLY way I know that this customer has money in hand wanting to buy stuff is because he messaged me! OTHERWISE I would have never known and lost the sale.....YOU, Ebay, need to stay out of the middle of things and let buyers and sellers manage their sales. This is NOT something new that just happened because of the latest changes NO IT HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE YOU INITIATED THAT STUPID CART which I estimate has cost me 1,000.00's of dollars in lost sales as well as losing potential repeat customers, which will give me a bad name, as the buyer (as would anyone with common sense would) assume that I can see what was placed in his cart! And since I cannot see it, nor even know about it the buyer goes away unhappy to make his purchase somewhere else....like another platform that does not hinder commerce! NOR do you educate the buyer or guide him to be able to complete the transaction. You took something simple (before the cart system) and decided to fix something that was not broke! AND SIMPLY SCREWED IT UP. I have explained it before at how this cart system SHOULD WORK PROPERLY and keeping it simple....I will explain it again, rather so those who will read this can also advise you of their thoughts.  #1 the buyer finds numerous items in my store that he want, so he begins to use YOUR CART system, once he places the first item in the cart, a window will pop up and simply ask if he would like to purchase another item, a "Yes" or "No" (button) if he chooses YES the he is prompted to continue, and chooses the next item etc. Once he has everything he wanted to buy in the cart and the yes or no button window pops up and he hits "no" the next window will prompt him to "Send Message to Seller to combine items" once he hits that button it comes to me and I CAN FINISH it up and send him back the combined deal for the buyer to make payment...once payment is made I pull items and ship...STRAIGHT FORWARD & SIMPLE....

[downunder-61]

I used the cart the other day (as a buyer) I had no issue, mind you I only had 4 items, maybe it is struggling with more, no idea to be honest but good luck sorting it out

Tag an eBay rep maybe they can advise what is happening.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I don't understand what the problem is.  I have never had an issue using the cart, nor have I ever heard of one from my buyers, with the exception of it not knowing if I've sent them an offer.  

What exactly is the problem?   

I don't think it's an issue that we can't see a buyer's cart, I totally understand why we can't do that.  

[gamersbaystore]

The cart does work, its just that your shipping discounts aren't being properly applied.  Let me see if I can help, as I've run into problems with this in the past.

For starters, look at the image below, its the shipping policy for my DVD's. Notice the box that says "Each Additional." After entering an amount into that box, I later realized the discount wasn't being applied at checkout. 

The reason these discounts weren't working is because I first needed to setup a flat, calculated, or promotional shipping rule, and this can be done from the Manage Shipping Settings page, which is located by clicking summary, account, shipping preferences. Or you can click the link directly from the top of this article to take you there: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/shipping-rates/offering-combined-shipping?id=4169

Now, once you setup the promo shipping rule, you then need to go to the shipping policy you want to apply those discounts too. Now look back at the image above, and notice the checkboxes that says apply promotional and flat shipping rules. You need to check the box there to apply it. Now the discounts should work.

Now, the other problem we run into here is the fact that not all products ship at the same rate, and sellers typically have multiple shipping policies for this reason. For example, I have 2 separate shipping policies for my DVD's and video games, because the DVD's are cheaper to ship than the games.

Now what we need to do is go back to the manage shipping settings page, and under flat shipping rules click apply a new profile as shown in the image below. You'll assign a new name for each policy that you will reference later.

 

Now go back to the shipping policy in question, and after you check the apply flat shipping rule box, notice there's a drop down box that now appears to the right of it, click on it and select the flat rate/promo rule you want to apply as shown in the image below.

 

So there you have it, you can create multiple promotional shipping rules to be applied to alternate shipping policies, and the discounts will be applied at checkout.

[coolections]

Why are you worrying about seeing what someone puts it their cart. The cart is for the BUYER to see. When they purchase the items in their cart you will see what they bought and see the invoice. Sounds like a non issue to me.

[inhawaii]

The cart works for me and my customers ever since it has been implemented.

[toysaver]

"as the buyer (as would anyone with common sense would) assume that I can see what was placed in his cart!"

That assumption is way off base.  Why in the world would you / should you be able to see into anyone else's cart?  That's accessing personal information.

[hartungcards]

I'm befused.  If this stuff was in someone's cart, then how did you get a screenshot of it without knowing it was there?  The only way you could have seen it was if they'd requested an invoice.

[quicksilverdiecast]

When a buyer put items in his cart from my store he wants a combined shipping total, well if I cannot (seller) see what he wants to purchase and be combined that is where the transaction ends, as I cannot calculate a combined shipping total without knowing what I am combining! With over 3000 listings and items from very small to 1/1 car parts, you just cannot wing it. Plus as I said the buyer has put the items in his cart and is waiting for me to give him a combined total...so if ebay does not notify me of the buyer, or what the buyer has in his cart, it makes it pretty hard to do it. So if I do not know the buyer has two options, walk away unhappy, or ebay forces them to pay shipping for each item ADDED together Not combined, which makes a multiple item order expensive (shipping cost wise).  Additionally on International shipping ebay simply blocks you from doing any kind of combined shipping. example: you buy 5 different decals and want all shipped in one parcel combined...well ebay will not let it happen and throws up a red box stating such, so 1 decal has a shipping price of 4.30 (1st class) so ebay will not let anyone combine the order and force the buyer to pay for each of the 5 decals individually so the buyer would end up paying over 20.00 just in shipping, rather than 4.50 for the combined shipping total. Now to add further confusion, I get international orders that somehow have been combined which is contrary to the red box notice saying it cannot be combined, so how can you have it both ways.

It is also NOT a thing of privacy of what is in a buyers cart, as the buyer is expecting a combined shipping order, the only thing that should be visible on my end is the items, QTYS & buyer id. Now if a buyer chooses a number of items from the store but has not paid for them, they show up on my sales board and I can combine the order into 1 parcel and send combined invoice for buyer to pay.

[quicksilverdiecast]

The buyer took the screen shot and sent it to me in an ebay message asking, otherwise I would have never known he had items in his cart or was waiting. If as I said ebay would have (under there tab in the overview under orders there is a "Orders eligible for combined purchases" prompt yet shows none? where it should have shown this buyers order to be combined, but did not.

[hartungcards]

Oh, okay.  Did you suggest to your buyer that they "Request Total"?

[slippinjimmy]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Oh, okay.  Did you suggest to your buyer that they "Request Total"?

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The "request total" function does not exist in the mobile app. Even on the desktop that function is randomly blocked.

[hartungcards]

It's only "randomly blocked" if the seller hasn't deactivated Immediate Payment Required on the listings on which they're offering combined shipping.  If IPR is turned off, then buyers don't even need to request a total when using the mobile app, because then combined shipping will work automatically.

[quicksilverdiecast]

I will revisit that area and see, but when you have 3000+ listings ranging from small plastic parts to Vehicle mufflers. Before the "cart" system, a buyer could select multiple items(not paid for) and would show up on my board, I would then hit the send buyer an invoice and everything he ordered would show up in one group to be combined, (still does sometimes) I would do so and the transactions were completed 99 out 100 times(you always have a few NPB's), no so now, as this buyer had the items he wanted in the cart, and asked me to give him the combined total(he took the screen shot) so if the buyer would have never messaged me, I would have no idea he had items in the cart, nor any other aspect. I have contacted ebay numerous times explaining and showing them in detail the issue and they say they know, but pretty much shrug there shoulders. This is not a one time issue, I get at least 3-4 a week, only because the buyers message me asking. The ones who never message asking are unknown and lost sales.

[dhbookds]

As said, I just put some of your stuff in the cart and there is a button to "request total" from seller......and you seem to be aware of that since you have this in your listings:

Ebay does NOT combine shipping, they ADD which can get expensive, Use the cart provided by ebay and once you have all your items and qtys entered find the "Request a Total From Seller"button (if button is not present contact ebay to fix) this will send the request to me where I can adjust the shipping accordingly.

Screen shot seems to be from a phone, so not sure if the button is there or not, but certainly is on my pc.