Once Bitten Twice Shy. How would eBay handle several items/combined shipping if refund wanted ?

[triplecgirl]

Next step in dealing with me... an honest seller worried about scammers. Hypothetical situation below.
I sell 7 items , give combined shipping, ship  in one package, and put  the same tracking number  on the paid and shipped area for each of the 7 items listed there.
The buyer uses whatever reason they want for a refund on all 7 items. What happens?  Am I obligated to send out 7 return shipping labels?  I assume a rock comes back in each box. Do I lose 7 cases and pay the return shipping on 7 items too? 

[mam98031]

Multiple transactions by the same buyer count by the week.  Ebay weeks, I believe are Monday through Sunday.  So if a buyer purchased two items from you on Sunday and two items from you on Monday that would be two transaction.  If the buyer purchased the items all on the same day it counts as One transaction.

If you are printing your shipping labels through Ebay and you combine the shipment into one package, Ebay will know you shipped all items together.  If you are using an outside service to do your shipping, I'm honestly not 100% sure how it gets handled.

But to be safe, ship through Ebay if the price is OK for you. 

[redlinear]

7 items purchased and paid for one at a time.  You ship all in one package if you trust your customer. Ship separately if you don't.  IF you ship them all together though, there could be an issue with you and eBay due to you not uploading 6 tracking numbers on time.  (I've never worried much about that though, and I'm still here and top rated last time I checked).
7 items added to cart, paid for all at once.  You can ship them all together if you want. That's all good.

Returns of 7 rocks?  You can pick the best and worst scenario you can think of, and you'll be sending a refund...one way or another.  Maybe 7 ways....

[pjcdn2005]

I replied to your question on the Canadian board but wanted to mention that when you post on the US board, it is important that you mention that you are in Canada especially if the question relates to returns or shipping.  Otherwise, you will tend to get answers that  probably won't apply to you even though you list on .com. In the US they can issue a return shipping label through ebay if the buyer is also in the US.  Canadians can't do that.

[triplecgirl]

Yes, that is correct.  I have had to send one return  label through Fedex  from Canada to the US. In PDF format, I was able to  upload it to eBay.com's site. Ebay.com did recognize that.  I will state my seller location from now on. Thanks.
It makes sense to me though to limit items going to one buyer if in any doubt at all.  Now I get why eBay  does not offer combined shipping in the cart, and makes buyers ask the seller if they will combine shipping. Gives the seller time to check out the buyer. If the buyer makes me nervous, I just say no combined shipping, or limit items to 2 or 3.

[pjcdn2005]

If you decide that you want combined shipping to show in the cart, you need to set up your listings to offer it.   You can do that on this page. https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf

When your listing on .com and using flat rate shipping you just need to set up calculated shipping rules. You don't have to use it on all of your items. Once you set up your rule you check off that rule on the listing page of the items that you want to use it. You can have more than one rule. I have one for a few items...one rule for Canadians and one for US.

Also make sure that on that page you are allowing combined payments and shipping.

If buyers are using a pc rather than the app, they should see a request total in the cart. Then you can send  them an invoice.  The button doesn't always work though.

There is also a setting that you can allow buyers with a less than x amount of feedback to only buy a certain number of items at time.

[mam98031]

@redlinear 

Why would you not upload tracking on time for 6 of the 7 transactions?

[redlinear]

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@mam98031 wrote:

@redlinear 

Why would you not upload tracking on time for 6 of the 7 transactions?

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If purchased one at a time (and shipped together),  Tracking follows one item only.  You can mark the rest "shipped".  
But if you try to enter that tracking number for any other item, it'll kick it back and let you know it's already being used.
IF, all items were added to cart and purchased at the same time.  They bundle together in your Items Ready for Shipment, and one tracking number follows all of the items.

[mam98031]

That has not been my experience.

[redlinear]

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@mam98031 wrote:

That has not been my experience.

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You  cannot ship one item.  Then enter that tracking number in the "add tracking number" box for a different item.  

[redlinear]

Are you printing labels through eBay and able to combine separate purchases?   
Like I buy something Sat, then something else on Sunday.  You can combine those so that one tracking number shows up on either item?

[mam98031]

I've done both.  Mostly within Ebay, but there has been a few times where I created the shipping label outside of Ebay.

I know some have reported they have a problem with putting the same tracking number on multiple Ebay purchases, I have not had that problem when it is all the same buyer, same ship to address.

[pjcdn2005]

You can add the same tracking number to multiple items as long as the buyer purchased them with the same ID.  If someone purchased as a guest, their ID would be slightly different for each purchase and the same tracking number could NOT be entered.

[mam98031]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

You can add the same tracking number to multiple items as long as the buyer purchased them with the same ID.  If someone purchased as a guest, their ID would be slightly different for each purchase and the same tracking number could NOT be entered.

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It has to have the same ship to address too.

[ma-647837]

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@triplecgirl wrote:

I sell 7 items , give combined shipping, ship  in one package, and put  the same tracking number  on the paid and shipped area for each of the 7 items listed there.

The buyer uses whatever reason they want for a refund on all 7 items.

What happens?  Am I obligated to send out 7 return shipping labels?  [Assume] a rock comes back in each box. Do I lose 7 cases and pay the return shipping on 7 items too? 

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No one answered your questions.

Yes @triplecgirl even though they were all shipped out together whether paid with

-- one payment, or

-- several payments

the buyer has no other option than to start a return request on each item.

Depending on your return policy on each item, you may be issuing return labels for up to all of them, for a US seller-US buyer. And each case will be decided individually for each refund, e.g. a 50% rock TRS, etc.