Regards,
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@vintageflair2 wrote:If only it were that easy. I’ve been selling on eBay for 22 years. Yes, they’ve always been invoicing customers, but sellers could always send their own invoice. We are prevented from doing that. That option has ended. Sellers are no longer able to invoice their customers. When you try to send an invoice, an eBay message in red pops up stating that the only way we can invoice is if we are changing the shipping price. Sending our own invoices seems to speed up payment. You may not understand how the system has changed as of last week.
You can still send an invoice by adjusting either the Shipping amount or adding a Discount ... the next time you need to send one see if knocking a penny off the shipping cost lets you send it ... I just posted a screen shot of the invoice page up thread ...
@vintageflair2 wrote:If only it were that easy. I’ve been selling on eBay for 22 years. Yes, they’ve always been invoicing customers, but sellers could always send their own invoice. We are prevented from doing that. That option has ended. Sellers are no longer able to invoice their customers. When you try to send an invoice, an eBay message in red pops up stating that the only way we can invoice is if we are changing the shipping price. Sending our own invoices seems to speed up payment. You may not understand how the system has changed as of last week.
But it was never necessary unless the seller needed to adjust something. You are now prevented from doing something you never needed to do in the first place.
Sellers can still invoice their customers if there is something different than was on the original invoice sent by Ebay.
You sending an invoice likely didn't do a thing to speed up payment since the buyer already had an invoice.
I do understand.
If you really feel that you need to touch base with your buyers after a transaction, send them an email and thank them for their purchase.
@chapeau-noir wrote:I still strongly suspect the change was due to complaints from buyers of too much email/notifications. eBay is very anxious to keep buyers.
Similar to Amazon getting complaints of over-packing orders - in response they did supplement box sizes and change some of their materials, and it improved.
Boy that would never be my complaint about Amazon shipping. I get an item in its own box inside of another box 10x the size of the item and no packing material around it to keep it from flying around the box. This has happened a few times to me.
@vintageflair2 wrote:You have a hard time understanding and you’re totally wrong. I’ve already explained why sellers prefer to send their own invoices and I’m correct. Save your convincing for someone else who actually cares about your opinion.
I understand just fine. Because you feel that because I don't agree with you that I don't understand is completely ridiculous.
BTW, it doesn't matter to me if I convince you of anything.
@juki1146 wrote:It seems the frustration stems from eBay's policy change regarding sellers sending invoices, particularly for those not requiring immediate payment. The new policy restricts invoice sending unless shipping adjustments are necessary. The user criticizes this as punitive, possibly due to the choice of not requiring immediate payment. The frustration is accentuated by a perceived grammatical error in eBay's red warning message, adding irony to the situation. The user suggests that if eBay doesn't trust sellers to send invoices, they should at least use correct language in their communications or, alternatively, allow sellers more autonomy.
It hasn't been necessary for a seller to send an invoice for a one off sale for many years. Ebay has done it for us for many years. But some sellers have gotten really use to doing it and it is simply part of their process of selling. Those sellers are having a tough time letting that part of their job duties go. Ebay has actually helped them to save a little time. It doesn't hurt a seller in any way at all. It only changes a procedure that seller has had.
If the seller feels compelled that the much contact every buyer they have, they can still send them an email thanking them for their purchase. Nothing prevents that. So simply remove the sending invoice part from your procedure and replace it with sending a thank you email.
Sellers that have had multiple purchases by one buyer will still be able to send an invoice with combined shipping.
It is highly likely that Ebay made this change because of buyer complaints of too many emails.
Why do you feel it is so important for you to send an invoice when Ebay has already taken care of that?
Ebay does have the right to make whatever changes they want whether we agree or not. They own the site, we don't.
This change is in no way "disastrous" for sellers.
I transitioned to GA quite easily. It was a little bumpy getting all my listings reading the correct info, but other than that, for myself, I transitioned just fine. Could it have been smoother, it likely could have.
You bring up an excellent point about the combination of BIN and Auction purchases from one Buyer. A number of years ago I brought the idea of Sellers having a "Pause" feature on their transactions. In essence it would be useful in your BIN and Auction example where purchases are spread over a few days ... the Pause function would suspend a listing from the Seller metrics (which are already too subjective) and allow a Seller the ability to work something out with a Buyer or Combine items spread over a few days without penalties for late shipping, etc.
I have always been of the opinion that Sellers have little flexibility in constructing their own deals for their own products with their own customers ... notice eBay is not part of that right? eBay has historically been good at juggling one ball and rating Sellers accordingly ... sadly, I think that has influenced how much flexibility sellers are given all for the sake of metrics that in most cases are subjective at best and rely on the honesty or dishonesty of Buyers.
