Payment/Shipping Discrepancies

[word68]

Hello All,

I am totally confused and very upset.

Today I sold two books to the same buyer (first time I've sold more than two separately listed items to the same buyer).  One book sold for $13, the other book sold for $11, yet my total funds are only $11.11.  Please see the following breakdown:

                            What Your Buyer Paid

           Buyer paid $24.00

           Shipping  $9.74 ($4.87 per book--buyer paid for shipping labels)

            Sales tax  $2.36

            Order total  $36.10

Following is the confusing part:

                            What You Earned

             Order total  $36.10

              Ebay collected from buyer:  sales tax  -2.36

                             Selling Costs

              Transaction fees  -5.80

              Shipping label  -16.83

              Order earnings  $11.11

How in the world did eBay come up with -$16.83 for the shipping labels?  I have printed two shipping labels--one for each book--will be shipping them separately.  Under Order Details it shows THREE shipping labels, not two.  Each label has a different tracking number, each label is priced at $5.61 instead of the correct amount of $4.87.  In the original you-made-the-sale notifications from eBay it clearly sates that the buyer had paid $4.87 for each shipping label.  What is going on?  This is crazy.  Why does the cost of shipping labels amount to $16.83 instead of a total $9.74?  And why are my total funds for these two sales only $11.11?

I have tried contacting eBay, to no avail.  It is impossible to get through to them.

The payment of $11.11 is being "processed."  ls it possible that during the processing this mess will automatically get cleared up?  Does that ever happen?

Please, I am respectfully asking for your help/advice.  What recourse do I have?  Thanking you very much in advance.

[wastingtime101]

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@word68 wrote:

Under Order Details it shows THREE shipping labels, not two.  Each label has a different tracking number, each label is priced at $5.61 instead of the correct amount of $4.87.

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Sounds like you accidentally purchased 3 shipping labels instead of 2. You'll need to void the one label you're not using (match up tracking numbers carefully). Void instructions pasted below.

The difference of $4.87 vs $5.61 is the difference between a Media Mail label for a 2lb and a 3lb package. If all the labels cost $5.61 that means you entered a weight of 3 lb before purchasing the labels.

It appears the buyer added the books to their shopping cart and purchased both books with a single payment in a single transaction. That's why your cost breakdown shows values for both books. In that case, eBay's system is probably combining the weight of both books automatically on the label page (two 1.5 lb books adding up to 3 lb) and you did not check or adjust the weight before purchasing your labels.

Honestly, if the books were both on the same transaction with the same order number, there's no reason you shouldn't ship both books in the same package and void the 2 labels you're not using.

To void a shipping label purchased through eBay, go to this page, find the order and select Void from the Actions drop-down. The void option is available for 28 days.

It takes between 2-4 weeks to receive a refund on an unused, voided label. You'll see the refund on your original source of payment (eBay funds, bank, credit card, etc) and the funds will appear in your account without an email notification.

[ebooksdiva]

Looks like you purchased 3 labels instead of 2. Cancel the extra label. It will take USPS 2-3 weeks to refund. 

[baydealz]

Welcome to The Matrix, there is no recourse.  Thanks for playing...are you sure you didn't mistakenly have it as 'free shipping?'  I suspect that it defaults to that in yet another attempt to screw sellers.  More likely, the wrong label was incorrectly purchased, not sure about fixing that for this one transaction.

[buyselljack2016]

@baydealz 

buyer paid shipping as demonstrated by the #'s provided by the OP.

OP purchased too many labels.

Guidance was provided by the 1st 2 responders.

[dreambooks]

and what buyer paid for shipping is rarely the same as you actually have to pay. That is why I always choose free shipping. You could have accidentally bought shipping label for the same order twice.

[carlmarxx]

There is no such  thing as free shipping  !  Shiping is added into the total  cost  price .  OP is a newbie  seller  .   And has learned a hard lesson  by printing 3 labels  . He or she  needs to get a shipping scale .

[word68]

Thank you so much for your very helpful response.  I'm a fairly new seller.  Had no idea that I was supposed to check weight etc. before purchasing a label.  Will definitely do so going forward.  Since I've cancelled two labels, wouldn't the buyer get the refund since she's the one who paid for shipping?  (If I sound naive, that's because I am.)

[toomuchstuffagain35]

No, because the shipping the buyer paid to ebay was then paid to you the seller to buy the label/s.

[word68]

Sounds good.  Many thanks again.  Will be shipping both books in same mailer.  As you said, that makes sense.  I am so relieved now that you've explained everything.

[wastingtime101]

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@word68 wrote:

Thank you so much for your very helpful response.  I'm a fairly new seller.  Had no idea that I was supposed to check weight etc. before purchasing a label. 

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No prob @word68 . Checking weight and dimensions is very important. If your weight and dimensions are wrong, you'll see an additional charge after the fact when the carrier applies a cost adjustment.

Always make sure the weight/dimensions on your listing form are correct so buyers are charged accurate rates when you use calculated shipping, and always make sure they're correct on the label page to avoid cost adjustments after the fact.

Any other shipping questions, post them to the shipping board where experts are always willing to help: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/bd-p/shipping-returns-db

[rmcreativeventures]

@word68's comments are OK but be wary of putting two items in the same package unless it is a combined shipment order. I recently did that and when I went to add the tracking number to the second item ebay blocked it saying the tracking number was assigned to a previous order so I clicked on the drop down that shows item shipped. Because ebay was supposed to verify the buyer received the item on time.I did this three different times then ebay suspended my Best Seller rating because I did not put tracking numbers on three of my shipments. Apparently when a buyer purchases more than one item it is up to them to request combined shipment or wait for the seller to send an invoice. In my case the buyers didn't and paid for the items immediately. 

Robert

[wastingtime101]

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@rmcreativeventures wrote:

@word68's comments are OK but be wary of putting two items in the same package unless it is a combined shipment order. I recently did that and when I went to add the tracking number to the second item ebay blocked it saying the tracking number was assigned to a previous order so I clicked on the drop down that shows item shipped. Because ebay was supposed to verify the buyer received the item on time.I did this three different times then ebay suspended my Best Seller rating because I did not put tracking numbers on three of my shipments. Apparently when a buyer purchases more than one item it is up to them to request combined shipment or wait for the seller to send an invoice. In my case the buyers didn't and paid for the items immediately. 

Robert

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That's not accurate advice. Most likely @rmcreativeventures your buyer used guest checkout and made purchases with different eBay IDs. That's why you were unable to combine. If the buyer had purchased using the same ID (and same shipping address) you would have been able to apply the same tracking number to both orders. Either that or the packages were going through eBay International Shipping, therefore they could not be combined. Both situations are different from the original poster. The original poster's buyer purchased 2 items on the same transaction. One single order, therefore there's nothing to combine. Both items are already on the same order.

Any time you are in doubt about combining or not, use bulk shipping and look for the link to combine orders on the top left. If you are able to combine, that will appear. If the orders cannot be combined, bulk shipping will not give you the option. https://www.ebay.com/gslblui/bulk

[word68]

Well, I've gone ahead and cancelled two of the three shipping labels......will be using just one and packing both items in one mailer.  I hope that won't be a problem.  It just makes sense that two items purchased on the same day by the same person should be mailed together.  Fingers crossed!  I appreciate your response and just hope that I've done the right thing.

[susanb1872]

Was one of the books-Who Killed Society?--because you had that listed as USPS Ground Advantage which means the buyer paid too much in shipping rather than the usual cheaper Media Mail. If you are going to ship both in one box and the total shipping is cheaper than the 2  separate shipping costs, you might want to consider refunding the buyer for the difference.