If you buy or sell on ebay you should read this

[quicksilverdiecast]

After a 2 year long battle with ebay over the cart and combined shipping here is the problem and why. AND the only way it will change is if you call up and express your feelings and request that it be changed...Now you will have to follow along closely and in the order as presented to begin to understand the hows and whys...

Step 1 . A buyer comes to your store and finds a number of items he wants and put them in the cart...so far so good...but he has finished and is looking for a way to request a combined total, but he either has no button OR if the button is present and he pushes it...it blocks him for requesting the combined shipping! and here is where it goes down hill..Since it has been blocked it automatically does not allow any notices to be sent to the seller!!!!(virtually making this buyer and his items unknown to the seller)..the pop up gives the reason for being blocked as the item(s) offer a discount and cannot be combined....and here is what ebay considers a discount---any item listed with the "make offer" in the listing...any item listed with Bulk qtys offered....and any listing where a buyer may send a message and you send him back a response with an offer lower than the "Buy It Now" price.!!!!. SO stay with me now....now you have a buyer setting there with a cart with a couple hundred dollars(I have this issue right now) and since everything is blocked I as a buyer have no idea the seller exists and is trying to spend money in my store(or your store) SO. the buyer is going to do 1 of 2 things, he will either get tired of waiting for you the buyer to respond(as he assumes you know what is going on in your store...OR he messages you (which would be the 1st time you would know the buyer exists)....He asks me to combine his order, not understanding I cannot see his order. I try to explain to him about the cart, but since it is so screwed up, I am not confident(until today) at telling him the hows and whys as an answer. (when he calls ebay he gets the same old "it is the sellers fault" cow patty....) So this particular buyer and I have went back and forth about a dozen times with screen shots etc. and he has one item that he bought a qty of 2 which being small was about .50 cents cheaper than the buy it now price...Now a rough figure of fees ebay would have collect would be somewhere in the neighbor hood of 30.00+ dollars on the entire order, but ebay feels compelled to cause you to lose a sale (either known or known via his message) and them 30.00 in fees over a .50 cent discount!!!! again call me crazy......so if it is known ebay suggests that you try to convince the buyer to just pay the overcharged shipping(in this case at least 50.00 over what it should be) and that I being the seller should refund him....(would that not be avoiding an ebay "Policy"? which is against "Policy" lol) I have pressed ebay on answering the logic behind this insanity and they have none or one they do not want you know)  I am not that trusting as a buyer to extremely overpay on shipping and HOPES the seller will refund me! Me personally I would simply walk away and laugh thinking the seller tried ripping me off on shipping!

But if I go back and create an entirely new listing with the buy it now price of what the sellers bulk order would have equaled then everything is fine and the sun will shine!  So please tell me the logic if part a sells for 10cents or discounted to 9cents? it is the same part? Yes., does it weigh any more or less because it is a penny cheaper? No....will it fit in a box with the other items he wants? Yes....Does the post office care? No. AND MOST OF ALL is it providing good customer service and a "positive ebay buyer experience" NO...and you the seller will get the blame, bad word of mouth and if by chance does pay for it and turns right around and leaves you a neg feedback and dings your star ratings on reasonable shipping, which over time adds up and causes ebay to...guess what? raise your fees and restrict your account...and NONE of which was your fault nor deserved!   Now some of you are setting there thinking my cart works fine!  No it does not, you just do not know about the buyers who walk away going somewhere else because ebay never indicated to you they existed! I had an ebay team leader create a live cart and proved every aspect I described above, she is also a seller and was unaware of this. So ebay will tell you this is not high on their priority list to do because not a lot of people call and complain about it....well no kidding how does a seller call up to complain about losing a sale he never knew about from the start, unless of course you are Houdini...ebay wrapped that up nice and neat..can't call in and hold their feet to the fire if you do not know about it....well now you know! and now you know what to do...and how to make it a high priority issue. Yes it has taken me 2+ years to piece the bread crumbs together, countless calls to ebay, and since Oct 2023 have over 300 documented cases where buyers were blocked and had to message me. As I set here writing this a thought occurred "If a particular order where no discounts etc were offered or applied...when one combines shipping is that not giving a discount? Anyhow if you want to take the risk out of losing sales and possibly repeat buyers and even a possible negative feedback...call in and call often...or set back and continue to pay ebay to hinder your sales....

[kensgiftshop]

If your buyers want to combine shipping, don't do offers or give discounts.

It's the way it's set up, if they are already getting a discount, why do they need another one?

I do free shipping and never had a problem with buyers being able to buy.

[quicksilverdiecast]

Explain to me what difference the item price makes and how it would affect the ability to combine shipping.  And there is no such things as free shipping....you have to jack up your prices to pad the shipping costs in the item price, and USPS has not declared a ship free holiday......

[quicksilverdiecast]

add this to the "it makes zero sense" column...I just had a buyer who made an offer on 3 different diecast cars, I accepted each offer and in the sold listings it showed 3 uncombined unpaid items and a "send invoice" below the the record number, so I hit the send invoice button and it brought up his 3 items and I combined the shipping and sent it back the the buyer he paid it and it will ship in the morning....so how can you have it both ways?

[twk]

I totally understand what you are saying and have run in to it as a buyer.  To add insult to injury, the total in your cart shows you paying full shipping for each item in the total.  Combined shipping can generally knock 2, 3 and even more off the total shipping costs; sometimes the pieces can be sent in the same box for the same shipping price..

I have also contacted eBay on this but to no avail.

[ittybitnot]

I accepted each offer and in the sold listings it showed 3 uncombined unpaid items and a "send invoice" below the the record number, so I hit the send invoice button and it brought up his 3 items and I combined the shipping and sent it back the the buyer he paid it and it will ship in the morning.

@quicksilverdiecast 

The reason that worked is because you dispensed with the requirement to have the buyer put up a payment source in order to make an offer. Had you not, the buyer would have been auto-billed for each item, full price shipping on each.   There would be no "request total" and no ability for you to send an invoice because they were already paid for.  

What you are describing with the cart is NOTHING NEW.  It has been that way for years, eBay knows, and have insisted for years that all is good and it is "working as intended".  Sellers are told buyers are too stupid to use the cart and that is why all this nonsense is occurring. 

It is to eBay's advantage NOT to have combined shipping for one invoice.  They make more money, have a higher sold count for investors if combined shipping is thwarted.  One item of many in a buyer's cart that is "marked down", or one that is IPR, auction wins combined with fixed price, items of a different shipping class, yada, yada, etc. can cause an error message in the cart.  Mobile users STILL TO THIS DAY cannot request a total since there is no option in the mobile app after YEARS and more YEARS of requesting this. 

I have had occasions where the "request total" button threw an error message for my multiple auction wins from the same seller.   I have purchased from  this same seller for years.  The seller advertises combined shipping for auction wins over five days.  But NOOOOOO...as I buyer I get "THIS SELLER DOES NOT COMBINE SHIPPING".....well, they did yesterday, and they did last week,  and for the last two years...LOL...

As mentioned above the setting to "require a buyer to put up a payment source in order to make an offer, or even to bid" were both combined shipping killers, all in the name of stopping non-payers.  LOL...got rid of a lot of PAYERS as well.  

The plan is now to have all SELLER GENERATED offers be "immediate payment required".   Guess what?  No combined shipping is the result.  

eBay recently had some campaign going on where they were encouraging sellers to offer lower shipping i.e. the ebay discounted price to buyers.  eBay actually had people calling sellers on the phone preaching the (basically non-existent) virtues of this plan.  All along eBay HAS had the opportunity to save buyers on shipping....it is called COMBINED SHIPPING, yet they seem to be doing their best to get rid of it.  They said more than once that their plan was taking longer than expected because they had to "train buyers who were accustomed for 20 years to expect it" or some such......

Follow the money.  Always. 

[steady2304]

@quicksilverdiecast 

How many of these long winded posts are you going to make before you figure out it is a seller setup problem and not a shopping cart problem. You do not have any combined shipping rules set for multiple purchases.

Here is a screenshot from my listings and one from yours also. The 1:43's I have a calculated shipping rule of add all weights and subtract 5 oz from each extra car.  The 1:72 planes I have a flat shipping rule of 1st Plane is $8.00 each extra is $4.00 each.

As you can see if set up properly the cart will display the correct shipping discount. My buyers don't have to contact me to get a proper shipping quote.

Your cart on the top and my cart on the bottom. Big difference.

[sin-n-dex]

@quicksilverdiecast 

You're preaching to the choir. I called eBay about this shopping cart issue in 2015 and was promised in 2015 it would be "fixed soon". They obviously are not going to fix it, if almost 10 years later it's still broken.

It's best to find other solutions to the issue, because eBay isn't going to provide any solutions.

C.

[gamersbaystore]

Combined shipping works perfectly fine for me, I assume you didn't set it up right.

Go to summary, account, shipping preferences, scroll down to combined payments and shipping. Then make sure allow combined shipping is enabled.

Then you need to set up the flat, calculated, or promotional shipping rules within the same dialog box and name each one so you can reference them later.

Then go to your shipping policy in question and under "Apply My Flat Shipping Rule", click the drop down box and select the shipping rule you plan to use with that particular shipping policy. And Voila, it Works!

I have separate rules for various types of products. For instance, I charge a $1 shipping for each additional DVD they purchase.

[ittybitnot]

Combined shipping works perfectly fine for me, I assume you didn't set it up right.

@gamersbaystore 

If you had these items available, I wanted to purchase: 

a sweater

pair of socks

two books

a powder compact

a necklace

and a DVD
(Total weight of product packed is 2 lbs./9 oz.)

What is the shipping rule you would make  that would apply to this order?  

All anyone wants is the ability to put the products in one box, weigh it up, and send the buyer an invoice.  Nobody is insisting it be done automatically, only that the opportunity to do it is not continuously thwarted. Why is that so hard?  If the 'necklace' was on sale, the buyer would be prohibited from requesting, and a combined invoice not allowed. 

[pjcdn2005]

---

@quicksilverdiecast wrote:

add this to the "it makes zero sense" column...I just had a buyer who made an offer on 3 different diecast cars, I accepted each offer and in the sold listings it showed 3 uncombined unpaid items and a "send invoice" below the the record number, so I hit the send invoice button and it brought up his 3 items and I combined the shipping and sent it back the the buyer he paid it and it will ship in the morning....so how can you have it both ways?

---

When he accepted the offer he had committed to buy which is why you you could send the invoice.  When a buyer is able click on request a total in the cart they have also committed to buy so you are able to send an invoice. Unfortunately, buyers are not always able to request a total in the cart.

As others have said, the cart has never worked properly even though eBay says that it is working as intended. They are unlikely to change their mind just because you post about it over and over.  You would be further ahead to work with what we have available and use combined shipping rules or promotional discounts.  

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Being a relatively low volume seller of long tail items, I can generally find a way to make a combined sale even when the system is uncooperative.

Even when the request invoice button is missing by buyers will pay the multiple shipping charges and wait for me to refund the difference, which I do write after I print the label.

As for the situation in which the buyer makes offers on multiple items, I do not advise them to try to combine shipping. I tell them I am definitely going to handle it by refund. I hate when a buyer says I'll give you $xxx for 10 items. Usually I refuse the offer, but sometimes I accept if they are not a cheapskate.

[theteamsetguy]

@ittybitnot ,

My combined shipping rules are set up based on the approximate weight of the item.

I don't usually sell individual item weighing more than 5 pounds.  

I have a different combined shipping rule for each of the following:

1. Items weighing less than 8 ounces

2. Items 8 ounces to 1 pound

3. Items weighing 1 to 2 pounds

4. Items weighing 2 to 3 pounds

5. Items weighing 3 to 4 pounds

6. Items weighing 4 to 5 pounds

I assign the rule to the item when I do the listing.

[broto_64]

Yeh that's way too much for me.

I'm a simple person, you want 1 or 2 or more, Free shipping, no offers, no nonsense, done.

[quicksilverdiecast]

I will be happy to compare stores and sales with you....at which produces sales...

In regards to how many discounts do they need....well that depends on if you are serious at building a good repeat customer base or not...whether they need a discount or not is irrelevant!  and apple to oranges!

They are 2 entirely different aspects of doing business, the first aspect is the item itself and how one does business..

Example: sellers point of view: I have an item, new/used/whatever, and I want to sell it...I know how much I have invested in it, regardless of the "Value", I do my homework and research the item and trends and determine a fair price that most likely generate a sale...again Example: I have item A that I have 5.00 in and research shows on average it will sell in the 12.00 area with most being sold at 15.00...So I list and describe it in detail and place the price at 14.00 or "best offer" plus shipping, with a best offer floor at 11.99. So it is what I will call competitively priced, and I want to move it....a couple days later a buyer makes an offer of 13.00 and I accept it. I now have made 8.00 more than what it cost me. The buyer proceeds to find more items he wants to buy regardless of being a set price or offer...and put all his items into the cart, Now at this point each item he has in his "order" was offered at the price I determined, best offer or buy it now, so I am happy and he is happy. Did you never hear the saying at what a successful sales consists of?  It is where two people come together and determine a fair price between them, there is no other way...and if you being the seller look at the big picture overall you either work that way or your items may end up celebrating birthdays before they sell!  So this is the first aspect of a successfully run business in my experience.

The 2nd aspect: (Of which I place myself in the buyers place) As common sense would dictate, when one purchases a number of items on line, let us say from Amazon, where the buyer is offered a number of combined shipping options, based on when and if you wanted it all shipped as one parcel or numerous parcels which affects to combined shipping total one way or the other.(No I do not expect ebay to work particular way) but I being the buyer, I have the option to choose what suits me best. (So back to ebay's issue)

Being the buyer and as almost anyone would look at logically at saving money on an order with numerous items, I would normally want all shipped at one time...why? #1. to save money overall, rather than paying to have each item ship by itself. #2. Lessens the risk of one or more of the items to be damaged or even stolen or lost or even end up taking USPS scenic route between depots. #3. Less work on the buyers end at keeping track of numerous packaged items. #4. From a "Green" point of view I am sure they could find a way to apply greenhouse gases or carbon footprint on each item being shipped by itself rather than in one parcel..#5. I have NOT noticed any of the carriers costs of shipping decrease(but even they offer a common sense way of combined shipping, it is called a flat rate box...(ebay offers flat rate boxes from USPS except for the fact you can only put 1 item in it! Unlike the Postal service "total" weight limit and if it fits it ships(regardless of how many items)...

So now you have both aspects of providing good common sense Customer Service, where everyone involved wins...I win., ebay wins with fees as well as itself providing good Customer Service for both myself and the buyer by making the transaction easy to accomplish in turn creating a potential return buyer, and most of all the buyer wins and gets a great deal(rather than ebays way of blocking sales due to how one chooses to ship for this reason or another of which no explanation is offered)...especially in this economy where saving as much as possible makes a difference....If you think my way of thinking is cockeyed, step on over to my store and take a look at the feedbacks and sales, which on a good weekend generates anywhere from 40-100 (successfully) sold items and a 27 year average of 99.9% +...I also am NOT complaining about lack of sales (they even went up 9+% in the last 31days) BUT I could be doing a WHOLE lot better (as you could as well) if ebay did not hinder or create unneeded issues....For those who are just starting out or even have been in business an OUTSTANDING book to read is Napoleon Hill's "Laws of Success" which teaches you how to be successful...if you become successful the money will follow.