'Request Invoice' option blocked to buyer...lost a sale.

[racestuff4sale]

Ebay's own page (pictured) makes no mention of this option being blocked if there are sale items involved. And it should NOT matter if there is, or isn't. It's my store, my stock, my decision, not eBay's. And it's not a further discount on the item(s), it's an expected reduction in shipping costs to the buyer for making multiple purchases. Every one of my listings explains that I will combine shipping and for the buyer to simply 'request invoice' before paying. But no, eBay blocks this (pictured) and I just lost a $40 sale, as the buyer went through a different seller. I've also had a huge drop in the number of multiple listing sales and now it all makes sense, as this is the first time a buyer has actually sent me a screenshot of what the cart displays when trying to request an updated invoice.

Anyone know if this is something eBay is working on to resolve? Or, are they just being greedy as usual on their grabbing a percentage of buyers making multiple shipping payments (which they don't refund but buyers expect sellers to eat)?

[racestuff4sale]

I remember years ago on the old forum, a question like this would have tons of views and quite a few responses, even someone from eBay. Now? Not much action or concern. So much for this awesome Seller Hub.

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

I've had this happen to me before too. I had no idea eBay was doing this until I tried to talk a customer thru on how to request an invoice only to discover they couldn't.  Very frustrating. 

I put about 20% of my items on sale each month in addition to running a promotion. 

Anyone have any ideas on how to get eBay to stop this? I want ALL of my customers to have the option of 'requesting an invoice'. 

[lookng2015]

Nope. I've brought it up with blues and they think it's just fine as is.

They can't seem to wrap their heads around a seller may be willing to discount the shipping on items where the price has already been discounted

[lookng2015]

I usually end up making it work for both buyer & seller someway/somehow, but can only do that if the buyer actually contacts me about the issue.

I'm sure there are some who just give up in disgust and go shop elsewhere.

[racestuff4sale]

Glad to see I'm not the only one but sad to see that it's happening.

[racestuff4sale]

We're not actually discounting the shipping, simply combining items into one shipment. In this case it was 10 listings at $5.50 each. I quoted them $7.25 for Padded Priority Envelope. The customer got frustrated and went elsewhere. At least they didn't pay the $55.50 in 10 separate shipping fees, or eBay would have scored with their 9% junk on each. I bet a lot of sellers have no idea that that fee disappears into eBay's did-nothing-for-millions pool.

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

Set up the fixed price discount when you create the listing.  Problem solved.

~~C~~

[racestuff4sale]

Feedback is another issue that eBay has managed to screw up over the years. I should have well over 10,000 feedback but have 3,800+. I just checked and only 19 of the last 50 buyers have left feedback. If eBay puts such am emphasis on our feedback rating, then they should set it up so that after 60 days times out, an automated feedback would be applied if the buyer doesn't do it themselves. I've watched this steadily decline over the years and its gotten ridiculous. As soon as I can afford the time and the template I've found, I'll be launching an eCommerce site of my own. Ebay has pushed me enough to make me finally look into it. Just hate the time I've invested into eBay, only to see they don't give a rats **bleep** about long time sellers.

[racestuff4sale]

It's not a one-size-fits-all solution. I've tried to figure out a simpler way but it won't work without gouging my buyers, or me risking losing on shipping, depending on what's ordered. You only have 16 items listed and I noticed you don't use it yourself?


"Seller's payment instructions
At the close of the auction, I will send you a personal e-mail containing all the information you will need to complete this transaction. Purchasing 2 or more paper items? To get a combined shipping discount, please add them to your Shopping Cart and request a revised invoice. Thank you! Thank you!"

[nancysjewelsandsupplies]

Exactly! I sell a lot of items that are in the 1-4 ounce range. This makes it harder to set up an exact shipping charge when you sell multiple items. I have my combined shipping discounts set up but I am always willing to take a look to see if I can lower the shipping cost for the buyer. That's why buyers should have the option to 'request total' on all purchases regardless if any are on sale. 

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Most of us do not agree with Ebay creating fake feedback and this has nothing to do with this thread. If buyers know their feedback will be faked they will leave more non positives.

What more do you think you could do with 10K feedback? Even Ebay doesn't use feedback to evaluate sellers any more.

[city*satins]

---

wrote:

I remember years ago on the old forum, a question like this would have tons of views and quite a few responses, even someone from eBay. Now? Not much action or concern. So much for this awesome Seller Hub.

---

Posts in the wee hours of the morning tend not to get responses for quite a few hours.

eBay employees are a very low probability to respond at any time of day although it happens occasionally.

[city*satins]

 If eBay puts such am emphasis on our feedback rating, then they should set it up so that after 60 days times out, an automated feedback would be applied if the buyer doesn't do it themselves.

eBay doesn't put an emphasis on feedback any more.  You can have plenty of red in your profile and while that might matter to buyers, eBay won't notice it unless those red marks are accompanied by unresolved Money Back Guarantee cases.

Also, there is absolutely nothing that eBay will do for a seller with 10,000 vs 3,000 except put cartoon swooshies on his new color feedback star. Apart from that, it means zip.

As for the idea of automated positives if a buyer doesn't leave feedback....the likely effect of that is to increase the number of negs.  Buyers who were prepared to muzzle themselves and not leave a neutral or neg may feel differently if they see that eBay will leave a positive on their behalf even for sales where they were dissatisfied.

[chicboutique31]

this has also happened to me, i lost a few sales because i have a promotion on my listings, Ebay doesnt allow the combined shipping discount option. If you take away the promotion, you can combine the shipping. I have called customer service about this 3 months ago and they said that they agreed it was wrong and said the department is looking into it. They still havent made the change so they were just blowing smoke. Customers are not happy about this even if i tell them i will refund the difference immediately into their paypal. I had a lady reem me out, telling me i dont know how to be a seller and she said she was purchasing elsewhere...Not my fault...