Sending Invoices

[paytonrules2003]

Ebay now no longer trusts sellers to send invoices unless we need to make alterations in the shipping costs. I guess this is punishment for those of us who chose not to require immediate payment. To make this new policy even more laughable is the new message in red that appears when you try to send your own invoice:

Send an invoice only if shipping adjustments are needed. We will SPEND payment reminders to the buyer on your behalf.

The idiots who don't trust us to send our own invoices can't even be trusted themselves to use the correct English word when admonishing us! I suggest they try to SEND those payment reminders instead of SPENDing them! OR perhaps simply leave us alone in the first place!

[ebooksdiva]

It isn’t necessary to send an invoice if you’re not making adjustments like combining shipping. eBay already sends an initial invoice to buyers plus buyers already know what they need to pay by looking in their purchase history for orders waiting for payment. Sending additional invoices is redundant.

Sending invoices changes the date of sale, thus changing the amount of time the buyer is allowed to pay and for sellers to cancel for nonpayment.

[fern*wood]

You have been sending invoices?

[starrynightrecords]

Looks like the proof readers were out to lunch 🤣. This is so confusing because large scale sellers have single items and then combined items for postage. 

[wastingtime101]

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@starrynightrecords wrote:

Looks like the proof readers were out to lunch 🤣. This is so confusing because large scale sellers have single items and then combined items for postage. 

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Combining shipping is exactly the reason to send the invoice (or adding another ship method). That's the point. Sellers are blocked from sending invoices unless they are adjusting shipping. So those large sellers combining shipping that you mentioned won't be affected by this.

I think it's a good change, despite the embarrassing typo on the banner.

Avoids buyers being spammed with too many reminders to pay (because eBay already sends them, so no need for seller to send another reminder). Avoids sellers complaining that they can't file an unpaid item cancellation after 4 days because they unintentionally reset the clock when sending an invoice. Avoids sellers complaining buyers were undercharged for shipping because the buyer changed their address at checkout but the seller unintentionally locked in the ship cost when sending an invoice.

[lakefor94]

Noticed the same today. Kind of surprised me.

On to tomorrow......

[paytonrules2003]

There is a certain way to do business and a good salesperson should send out their own invoice with the deadline for payment and any other message they wish to include in it. I don't need or want the faceless corporation to do that for me when I accept an offer. I can take the 30 seconds it takes to send the invoice with my personal message myself. The fact that they keep doing this kind of garbage without letting us know and also without even proofreading their own messages simply makes my point that we can do these things much better than they can.

[lights-camera-actionuk]

 I have sent a personal thank you message on my invoices  with the customers name  of the winning items i now cannot its  bl**dy stupid E bay !! my feedback is excellent in the 23yers ive sold on e bay no negatives so much for customer service

[lights-camera-actionuk]

HEAR HEAR  WHY  can i not send MY customers a message from me for MY sale with there name personally rarther than a stupid generic e bay message ive done this myself for 23yrs and my feedback is 100% excellent  no negatives so much for e bay and its customer service

[wastingtime101]

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@lights-camera-actionuk wrote:

HEAR HEAR  WHY  can i not send MY customers a message from me for MY sale with there name personally rarther than a stupid generic e bay message ive done this myself for 23yrs and my feedback is 100% excellent  no negatives so much for e bay and its customer service

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Sure you can. Use eBay messages to send messages instead of using invoices where the message gets buried at the bottom and the buyer may never see it.

[paytonrules2003]

They did take my suggestion and fix their message wording (Changing spend to send) so at least I feel that someone is listening. I'll take very small victories when they occur.

[slippinjimmy]

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@paytonrules2003 wrote:

There is a certain way to do business and a good salesperson should send out their own invoice with the deadline for payment and any other message they wish to include in it. I don't need or want the faceless corporation to do that for me when I accept an offer. I can take the 30 seconds it takes to send the invoice with my personal message myself. The fact that they keep doing this kind of garbage without letting us know and also without even proofreading their own messages simply makes my point that we can do these things much better than they can.

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But eBay is a Marketplace and THEY are the ones that sent the payment notices and the ones that process the payments.

In a traditional business the good salesperson makes the sale and moves on to make another sale. They might send a thank you note to the customer but they don't get involved in the money collection unless receivables are having a hard time getting paid and as a last resort they might ask the salesperson to give one last attempt before transferring the transaction to collections.

[mam98031]

@paytonrules2003 

What?  Why so paranoid?  Why are you feeling it is a "punishment"?  That really doesn't make any sense. 

Ebay has always sent an invoice to a buyer automatically in the initial email sent to the buyer notifying them of their purchase.  The seller has no need to send an invoice unless they need to give the buyer a discount of some sort for some reason and you can do that.  Beyond that, there is really no need to send one.

Besides when a seller sends an invoice to the buyer [which all sellers can send invoices], it restarts the 96 hour clock for using a Cancellation with the reason the buyer didn't pay.  

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@lights-camera-actionuk wrote:

HEAR HEAR  WHY  can i not send MY customers a message from me for MY sale with there name personally rarther than a stupid generic e bay message ive done this myself for 23yrs and my feedback is 100% excellent  no negatives so much for e bay and its customer service

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Sure you can. Use eBay messages to send messages instead of using invoices where the message gets buried at the bottom and the buyer may never see it.

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Completely agree with this wastingtime101. If your goal is to send your special message to a buyer, send it as an EBay message. You sending it as an invoice has a few potential negatives. 1) I used to ignore invoices pretty often. I especially ignored it if there was NO combined shipping because it was 1 item. I know when to pay, I don't need the invoice. The info will show up in my cart. 2) If I even looked at the invoice... I quick went to see the S/H (combined multiple items) and then backed out, I never looked for any special message. So If I was your buyer I would've never seen it. 3) If it's a single item, and you sent me an invoice, you've already P'ed me off. It would iritate me. Pet peeve. Just used to find it annoying as heck. Especially when i got the invoice almost immediately like I didnt pay fast enough.

So sending a message removes the likelihood that a buyer ignores it or never sees the message you intend for them to read and also you remove the potential "negative" a buyer may feel receiving an unnecessary invoice.

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Side notes:

Another pet peeve is getting a direct message from a seller asking when I'm going to pay for the item (worse than getting an invoice) especially when it's been less than 24hrs. Don't pester me for payment. I've never not paid, I'm probably bidding on your other items.

Also, don't tell me "I'm trying to ship everything out right now". If me taking a day or two to pay is such an inconvenience for your shipping schedule, you need to rethink your choice to do business on EBay. If I'm worried about the shipment and receiving the item, I'll pay sooner so you can ship it sooner. I know you can't ship til I pay. If I was concerned, I'd hurry up and pay. Seller needs to realize buyer has 4 days to pay, so they can't expect to be ready to ship every single item the day after the auction as some buyers wont have paid yet.

^^^Some of my most serious pet peeves about transactions as a buyer^^^

[paytonrules2003]

You have to love the haters! 

A few facts for the people who have not been selling on eBay forever:

1. It was always the job of the seller to send an invoice.

2. The automatic 4 day window was not always there. For many years the seller would let the buyer know the time deadline in the item description itself and also in the invoice in case they had not read it.

3. I only send invoices right after I have accepted a best offer, as a courtesy since some newer customers don't realize the sales tax addition and might question it. I always put an explanation in my invoice explaining it. The idea of restarting the 4 day window is therefore BUNK.

4. I also send a message to my customers after they have paid thanking them and telling them exactly what day I am sending the item out to them.

5. Ebay has a way of implementing changes to processes that DO NOT NEED ANY and also NEVER LETS ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THEM. They have continually angered sellers by not communicating properly with them.

6. The fact that they couldn't even be bothered to proofread their own message admonishing sellers for simply doing what had been SOP for 20 years is what prompted me to get on their case about this one.

NOW BACK TO THE HATERS...