Question during 12/13 community chat: Request Total link.

[dtexley3]

@dtexley3 wrote:

brian@ebay wrote:

@dtexley3 wrote:

(oh no, not this again...)

Two days ago a member contacted me about shipping on a couple items and I was able to accomodate his request and price under my standard shipping discount, everyone was happy.  The next day he inquired about two more items and asked if I woud give him the same shipping price, the difference wasn't much, so I said yes.  I told him to put the items in his Cart, make sure no other items were in the cart and click "request total from seller".  He msged me back that the link was greyed out and hovering over the link displayed a message "...cannot be requested as discounts have already been applied".  The ONLY discount was the standard shipping discount.

Luckily he was willing to allow me to refund him the difference, but not everyone does resulting in lost sales.  the ONLY reason that the "request total" link should ever be disabled is when the buyer manually selected IPR on their listings.  As a seller I should be able to offer the best customer service possible, which includes BEING ABLE TO GENERATE AN INVOICE.  Why does eBay continue to leave money on the table by not allowing us to negociate prices to a happy ending on multiple items?

I don't need to hear all the reasons the link is disabled and why.  I'm just venting my frustration that eBay's "venue" won't allow me to offer the kind of customer service that I should be able to.

</soapbox>

Hi @dtexley3, we've passed along your feedback. For the benefit of others reading this thread I will include reasons why a buyer won't be able to use the Request total from seller option.

• The seller has set up a discount profile.
• The items are on sale.
• The seller doesn't accept combined payments.
• The item has immediate payment required.
• There is only one item in the cart.
• The item(s) already have free shipping.

The first bullet mentions discount profile, what type of discount profile?  Order discount? Shipping?

Regardless the fact that a discount of any sort is setup in business rule or items have free shipping should we not be still be able to negociate with a customer?  eBay wins because we are able to close a sale that otherwise may fall apart.  The seller gets paid, the buyer gets their item(s).  Everyone is happy.

Dangit running out of time...

Hi @dtexley3, I'm happy to clarify. The purpose of the 'Request total from seller' feature is to allow sellers to discount shipping costs. If shipping is free on the listings then it cannot be discounted, which results in the feature not being available during checkout. Discounts that will remove the option to request a total are Order Discounts and Shipping Discounts created using the Promotions Manager tool. 

==========================================

Hi brian@ebay  I've heard eBay's "reasoning" here more than once, I'm just pointing out that it is unnecessarily limiting the seller and buyer from negociating any additional discounts.  Sometimes all it takes to close the sale is a minimal additional discount, but we can't do it up front because the link is disabled.  

However, in this case there was no order discount or free shipping.  The shipping discount was not created with the promotions manager.  I do have a shipping discount policy setup in my configuration, but it isn't managed using the promotions manager tool.

Just because items have free shipping the link should not be disabled.  The shipping cost is baked into the price but if a buyer wants to order multiple items and asks if there would be a discount, we can't have them Request Total to do so!  There's currently no real support for giving shipping discounts when multiple free shipping items are ordered.  As you know free shipping really isn't free its added to the price, and as sellers we should be able to offer a combined discount if asked.

I can see disabling the link for IPR and if only 1 item is in the cart.  I also understand why it has to be disabled if items from multiple sellers are present. 

All the other reasons don't hold water (in my opinion).    Allowing the buyer and seller to negociate and use the request total to complete the sale is easy and doesn't hurt eBay in any way.  Doing a partial refund is a pain, and puts the seller at risk if some over-zealous, under-trained CSR decides to award a defect because they decide there's no message about the partial discount.

In a retail store the don't tell you "I can offer you 20% off on that item (because it's open, old, dirty, etc), but you have to pay the full price up front and then we'll give you a partial refund."  If they are going to give you a discount on an item they take it off up front, it's part of the "invoice" (ie POS purchase).  On eBay it's backwards and in my opinion, incorrect.

[dtexley3]

Hi brian@ebay  I've heard eBay's "reasoning" here more than once, I'm just pointing out that it is unnecessarily limiting the seller and buyer from negociating any additional discounts.  Sometimes all it takes to close the sale is a minimal additional discount, but we can't do it up front because the link is disabled.  

However, in this case there was no order discount or free shipping.  The shipping discount was not created with the promotions manager.  I do have a shipping discount policy setup in my configuration, but it isn't managed using the promotions manager tool.

Just because items have free shipping the link should not be disabled.  The shipping cost is baked into the price but if a buyer wants to order multiple items and asks if there would be a discount, we can't have them Request Total to do so!  There's currently no real support for giving shipping discounts when multiple free shipping items are ordered.  As you know free shipping really isn't free its added to the price, and as sellers we should be able to offer a combined discount if asked.

I can see disabling the link for IPR and if only 1 item is in the cart.  I also understand why it has to be disabled if items from multiple sellers are present. 

All the other reasons don't hold water (in my opinion).    Allowing the buyer and seller to negociate and use the request total to complete the sale is easy and doesn't hurt eBay in any way.  Doing a partial refund is a pain, and puts the seller at risk if some over-zealous, under-trained CSR decides to award a defect because they decide there's no message about the partial discount.

In a retail store the don't tell you "I can offer you 20% off on that item (because it's open, old, dirty, etc), but you have to pay the full price up front and then we'll give you a partial refund."  If they are going to give you a discount on an item they take it off up front, it's part of the "invoice" (ie POS purchase).  On eBay it's backwards and in my opinion, incorrect.

[dhbookds]

I wish ebay would survey this......  I think most sellers on Ebay understand that buyers here expect combined shipping discounts with or without a sale or promotion.  If the buyers have to give that up, they have to wonder how much the "sale" is actually saving them.

[d-k_treasures]

As usual, whatever ebay comes up with for reasoning is always bassackwards.

[castlemagicmemories]

I ran into this as a buyer.  Wanted to buy two items, listing said request combined shipping.  I could not do that with the cart because the items had IPR added, and the seller did not put the IPR on her listings.  Took a couple of days of back and forth, and I was afraid someone would buy the two items I wanted, they were OOAK, but seller came up with sending me an offer on each of the messages I sent, I accepted, and then she could send an invoice with the combined shipping total for me to pay.  

She did not put the IPR on the listings, which caused the problem, and she could not remove that.

[dtexley3]

brian.t@ebay and today I may have just lost another sale because of these restrictions.  Buyer wants me to offer a discount on 3 items that have free shipping.  No matter what price we agree to I'll have to either end 3 listings to create a combined listing and hope they buy that or ask the buyer to submit  3 best offers with the correct amounts.  

It just doesn't make sense why the Request Invoice is disabled for free shipping or items are on sale.  The buyer and seller should be able to negociate a price and then use the Request Total to create the invoice and complete the sale.

[missjen831]

---

@dtexley3 wrote:

brian.t@ebay and today I may have just lost another sale because of these restrictions.  Buyer wants me to offer a discount on 3 items that have free shipping.  No matter what price we agree to I'll have to either end 3 listings to create a combined listing and hope they buy that or ask the buyer to submit  3 best offers with the correct amounts.  

It just doesn't make sense why the Request Invoice is disabled for free shipping or items are on sale.  The buyer and seller should be able to negociate a price and then use the Request Total to create the invoice and complete the sale.

---

How would you give a discount in this situation though? Has something changed? I thought the only way to give a discount on the listing is by lowering the shipping cost. You can't lower free shipping. 

[moo*cow*corner]

@dtexley3

I've been told that setting up an order size promo will work. Say an extra 10% off when you buy all 3....the risk being that someone else would come along and scoop up the items if your buyer waffles too long. I haven't tried it yet, but probably will if I get a discount request.

Have the buyer send you an ebay message about shipping cost to each listing they'd like to buy. Then you simply reply to their messages with offers (with the discounts applied) through the messages. Those offers stay private. Then they can put all 3 items in the cart and pay for all with one payment (I think).

A patial refund for postage overpayment is another option.

It's terribly clunky to do any kind of multiple order discount with free shipping. I've been asking forever too. But ebay's not going to change it. They want the extra fees. Period.

[moo*cow*corner]

They say we get a search bump by offering free shipping. They say buyers WANT free shipping. Well, all that is fine.

Free shipping assumes that each item will ship in it's own box, and price reflects postage costs for that item ONLY. Obviously, to ship multiple items in the same box would be cheaper then shipping each item separately. We free shipping sellers would like an easier way to pass on those savings to our customers, that's all.

In my category, I believe that sellers who offer a combined shipping discount have a definite advantage if a buyers wants to buy multiple listings at the same time.

[brian@ebay]

---

@dtexley3 wrote:

@dtexley3 wrote:

brian@ebay wrote:

@dtexley3 wrote:

(oh no, not this again...)

Two days ago a member contacted me about shipping on a couple items and I was able to accomodate his request and price under my standard shipping discount, everyone was happy.  The next day he inquired about two more items and asked if I woud give him the same shipping price, the difference wasn't much, so I said yes.  I told him to put the items in his Cart, make sure no other items were in the cart and click "request total from seller".  He msged me back that the link was greyed out and hovering over the link displayed a message "...cannot be requested as discounts have already been applied".  The ONLY discount was the standard shipping discount.

Luckily he was willing to allow me to refund him the difference, but not everyone does resulting in lost sales.  the ONLY reason that the "request total" link should ever be disabled is when the buyer manually selected IPR on their listings.  As a seller I should be able to offer the best customer service possible, which includes BEING ABLE TO GENERATE AN INVOICE.  Why does eBay continue to leave money on the table by not allowing us to negociate prices to a happy ending on multiple items?

I don't need to hear all the reasons the link is disabled and why.  I'm just venting my frustration that eBay's "venue" won't allow me to offer the kind of customer service that I should be able to.

</soapbox>

Hi @dtexley3, we've passed along your feedback. For the benefit of others reading this thread I will include reasons why a buyer won't be able to use the Request total from seller option.

• The seller has set up a discount profile.
• The items are on sale.
• The seller doesn't accept combined payments.
• The item has immediate payment required.
• There is only one item in the cart.
• The item(s) already have free shipping.

The first bullet mentions discount profile, what type of discount profile?  Order discount? Shipping?

Regardless the fact that a discount of any sort is setup in business rule or items have free shipping should we not be still be able to negociate with a customer?  eBay wins because we are able to close a sale that otherwise may fall apart.  The seller gets paid, the buyer gets their item(s).  Everyone is happy.

Dangit running out of time...

Hi @dtexley3, I'm happy to clarify. The purpose of the 'Request total from seller' feature is to allow sellers to discount shipping costs. If shipping is free on the listings then it cannot be discounted, which results in the feature not being available during checkout. Discounts that will remove the option to request a total are Order Discounts and Shipping Discounts created using the Promotions Manager tool. 

==========================================

Hi brian@ebay  I've heard eBay's "reasoning" here more than once, I'm just pointing out that it is unnecessarily limiting the seller and buyer from negociating any additional discounts.  Sometimes all it takes to close the sale is a minimal additional discount, but we can't do it up front because the link is disabled.  

However, in this case there was no order discount or free shipping.  The shipping discount was not created with the promotions manager.  I do have a shipping discount policy setup in my configuration, but it isn't managed using the promotions manager tool.

Just because items have free shipping the link should not be disabled.  The shipping cost is baked into the price but if a buyer wants to order multiple items and asks if there would be a discount, we can't have them Request Total to do so!  There's currently no real support for giving shipping discounts when multiple free shipping items are ordered.  As you know free shipping really isn't free its added to the price, and as sellers we should be able to offer a combined discount if asked.

I can see disabling the link for IPR and if only 1 item is in the cart.  I also understand why it has to be disabled if items from multiple sellers are present. 

All the other reasons don't hold water (in my opinion).    Allowing the buyer and seller to negociate and use the request total to complete the sale is easy and doesn't hurt eBay in any way.  Doing a partial refund is a pain, and puts the seller at risk if some over-zealous, under-trained CSR decides to award a defect because they decide there's no message about the partial discount.

In a retail store the don't tell you "I can offer you 20% off on that item (because it's open, old, dirty, etc), but you have to pay the full price up front and then we'll give you a partial refund."  If they are going to give you a discount on an item they take it off up front, it's part of the "invoice" (ie POS purchase).  On eBay it's backwards and in my opinion, incorrect.

---

Hi @dtexley3, when you have free shipping on items and a buyer requests a discount, you can consider creating a codeless coupon to discount the items. Only buyers that you give the coupon URL to will be able to take advantage of the discount.

Currently invoice discounts can only be offered on items if the previously mentioned circumstances aren't present. I'm happy to take your feedback and pass it along though. 

[brian@ebay]

Hi brian@ebay  I've heard eBay's "reasoning" here more than once, I'm just pointing out that it is unnecessarily limiting the seller and buyer from negociating any additional discounts.  Sometimes all it takes to close the sale is a minimal additional discount, but we can't do it up front because the link is disabled.  

However, in this case there was no order discount or free shipping.  The shipping discount was not created with the promotions manager.  I do have a shipping discount policy setup in my configuration, but it isn't managed using the promotions manager tool.

Just because items have free shipping the link should not be disabled.  The shipping cost is baked into the price but if a buyer wants to order multiple items and asks if there would be a discount, we can't have them Request Total to do so!  There's currently no real support for giving shipping discounts when multiple free shipping items are ordered.  As you know free shipping really isn't free its added to the price, and as sellers we should be able to offer a combined discount if asked.

I can see disabling the link for IPR and if only 1 item is in the cart.  I also understand why it has to be disabled if items from multiple sellers are present. 

All the other reasons don't hold water (in my opinion).    Allowing the buyer and seller to negociate and use the request total to complete the sale is easy and doesn't hurt eBay in any way.  Doing a partial refund is a pain, and puts the seller at risk if some over-zealous, under-trained CSR decides to award a defect because they decide there's no message about the partial discount.

In a retail store the don't tell you "I can offer you 20% off on that item (because it's open, old, dirty, etc), but you have to pay the full price up front and then we'll give you a partial refund."  If they are going to give you a discount on an item they take it off up front, it's part of the "invoice" (ie POS purchase).  On eBay it's backwards and in my opinion, incorrect.

[dtexley3]

---

brian@ebay wrote:

---

---

Hi @dtexley3, when you have free shipping on items and a buyer requests a discount, you can consider creating a codeless coupon to discount the items. Only buyers that you give the coupon URL to will be able to take advantage of the discount.

Currently invoice discounts can only be offered on items if the previously mentioned circumstances aren't present. I'm happy to take your feedback and pass it along though. 

---

Thanks Brian, I'll have to remember the codeless coupon for the future.

However, that only addresses those people that actually contact the seller.  I think that many give up in frustration and purchase elsewhere.  Please consider how bricks and mortar operations handle this, it's an accepted business practice most everywhere but here.