and the hits just keep on coming and ebay is well aware of this and does nothing

[quicksilverdiecast]

Now before you all chime in about store settings and everything else that may be on my end it is NOT. My store settings have been checked numerous times by high level ebay techs and they find no issues.

I have 87 cases documented of buyers having issues in complete detail SO FAR concerning the cart. Plus the one I do not know about!

It is however ebay.s shopping cart that does not work properly by not allowing buyers to request a new total, either the button is not there(phone apps) or if the button is present it forces buyer to commit and make payment before being able to do anything else, which would make requesting a new total AFTER the fact that the buyer was forced into paying for it and exercise in stupidity. It violates one of ebays other policies that blocks both buyer and seller from making any changes....so tell me ebay how does one give the buyer good customer service AND buyer experience when you throw up road blocks that hinder sales.

Below is the message (much like many I get in this regard)

So lets break this down and take a good look at the issue.

#1 The fact that the buyer actually sent me a message regarding this issue.

Now if the buyer would not have sent me a message I, the seller, would have no idea that a buyer is trying to purchase items from my store, why? Because ebay will not notify sellers, even the button in the overview columns where it says Items eligible for combine shipping, never once have I seen it indicate any yet. but have had 100's of combined orders. Most buyers would see the 105.25 for shipping and run for the hills(amazon does NOT have this issue, nor does any other platform, ONLY ebay) And the way ebay does things always leaves the seller hanging out there to dry by letting the buyer think it is the seller who is gouging them. The bottom line here is that the way ebay's platform works if I have this issue all of you do as well. Taking it a step further since the cart does not work properly AND you the seller are not notified by ebay that you have a buyer trying to purchase items for you, that IF the buyer does not message you and simply thinks you are crazy and walks away to go buy what he needs somewhere else...AND YOU ARE NONE THE WISER that you just lost a sale(s) and chances are that potential buyer most likely never be back to you store...nor recommend you to others~! Wonder why sales are down?! Ebay is shooting itself in the foot here, they fail to realize that by not fixing the cart they are losing sales which mean they get zero fees as well, take it a step farther as a collective whole across the entire platform and just imagine the amount of fees ebay has lost in just one day! I bet enough that they should not have to keep raising fees on the sellers!

Many of you out here may not recall at how shipping worked before the cart...it was almost problem free. Very simple for both buyer and seller. Then some rocket scientist comes along and says I have a better idea to fix something that is not broke....and the rest of the tin foil hats nod in approval and stick the cart in there and have it so screwed up now that even 90% of the phone techs cannot figure it either and just write and IT ticket and send it up to the rocket scientist to figure out and fix and after 2 going on 3 years ZERO has happened, But more and more of you are learning of this and calling in putting pressure where it is needed.

"Hello, I would like to buy 5 items from you. Unfortunately combined shipping does not work in the shopping cart. I can't find a solution either. The 5 items are supposed to cost $37.15, but shipping is a whopping $105.25."

[dbfolks166mt]

     Over the years I have had multiple problems with the shopping card both as a seller and a buyer. It is worse with BIN/IPR listings. On multiple occasions I have had to work with the buyer to cancel all their items per their request and create a special bundle listing for them and coordinate the timing of the posting so they can make the purchase as soon as it is listed. 

     At the present time it is also the only way to handle combined shipping if you are using the EIS program for international sales but they are supposed to be fixing that problem. One of the complexities of that may be the EIS smaller than normal size and weight limits as well as the dollar amount for international sales under EIS. It will be interesting to see how they implement this and work around those nuances. 

[allthingssurplus]

I love it when eBay states the site is working as intended.  However that is eBay speak for we have  programed the site to generate more revenue.  We have the combined shipping issue on many sales.  Had one last week like the OP indicated where the Buyer purchased six power adapters, $12  each and a different four adapters different listing.  So Ground Advantage was $9.85 for the 10 units.  eBay billed $98.50.  Like many sales that are consistent with this sale the Buyer just paid it.  Now eBay collected FVF on the $98.50 or roughly $20.  What eBay was entitled to really was $2 on the $9.85 actual shipping.  We always refund the difference in billed shipping and actual shipping.  So in fact the platform in regard to billed shipping is working as intended, meaning over charge fees of $18 on this one sale.  

This is just one more way, of many, that eBay costs Sellers to waste time in their business.  We have to contact the Buyer and inform them they were overcharged, make the refund and account for the transaction.  Yes the cart has never worked properly as most other platforms we are on do and yes that is by design.  Looks like at some point in time this will be just another law suit eBay will lose.

Having been on the site coming up on 24 years the past 15 by far have been a war between eBay and the Seller.  To date the Seller has been the loser.  However with the eBay business model of short term gain in search of long term pain is not sustainable.  Evidence of that is the mounting legal issues, which they will lose,  i.e. the criminal issue which will be in the multi millions to settle or just pay out.  At some point like the first quarter of this year where eBay sold $1.1 billion in stock of a company they owned completely in order to ensure share holders would be paid for their shares.  With out selling those shares and put those funds to the bottom line eBay would have posted a substantial loss.  This it the company we sell for.  Greed is the primary problem.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

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@tsme35 wrote:

Wondered that too, only been asking for it for over 5 yrs now to be put on the app. No worries ebay's is working on it, yea right.

---

On their last podcast they said it was "on the roadmap" yeah right. When? Next decade maybe?

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Lately I've had buyers sending me screenshots of the error messages they're getting when trying to do the RQT thing in the cart, and not a RQT button to be seen.

[sin-n-dex]

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@spark-chaser1 wrote:

I have actually turned down many purchasing opportunities because I not only want to avoid paying individual shipping for a bulk purchase of multiple items, but I also don’t want the seller to deal with it either.

I had  made several purchases in the past  where the seller refunded me for huge overages, or created a seperate listing so I could purchase-and I felt bad enough to just avoid doing so ever again. 

It may make sense to the bigwigs who create the policy, but to a buyer it is just another brick in the wall ( thanks Pink Floyd).

---

I'd rather have to refund or create the special listing than to have the buyer purchase elsewhere... it's a nuisance to do it (the special listing because then I'm in a hurry to gather all the items), refunding is no big deal, do it all the time. I've gotten lots of complaints about the cart, and I tell them if all else fails I'll refund the overage (and tell them how much shipping is supposed to be), and if the buyer trusts me that I'll do as I said, they'll purchase.

C.

[spark-chaser1]

That is why you are a great seller and are appreciated.  You will do what it takes, pretty much going the extra mile. The very kind of seller I hate to inconvenience. It is a catch-22 : you will work hard to fulfill an order of 5,10, 30 items and go through extra work, and the happy customer returns to make you do it again and again.

It really is a hassle , more for the seller than the buyer perhaps, but it does have the effect of discouraging a buyer who's  trying to be considerate by  avoiding  having their seller  jump through fiery hoops, when a simple change in programming could fix it overnight.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

There are many reasons why Ebay might not be attaching priority to fixing these problems, if the actually exist.

One might be that these have their greatest effect on inexpensive items, and Ebay's cost to process a low priced order is the same as processing a higher priced order. There are many items on the site with dubious profits to the sellers, and inadequate profits for Ebay.

The number of items I do not list because the price is too low is large, and Ebay does not control whether sellers list items which are priced too low.

[quicksilverdiecast]

You have nailed it as well...the way it used to be before the cart fiasco was just as you described above on simply letting the seller do the calculations as I would be pretty sure that the seller knows what he is selling and what it weights as he has to enter it in the metrics! Why anyone would want to "fix" something that did NOT need fixed is beyond me! It is like hey shipping is working just fine...I know we can make it better we will put in a cart and muck things up for sure....their proclaimation of "working as intended" is another way of saying we know it does not work right but we do not care...

[ittybitnot]

Why anyone would want to "fix" something that did NOT need fixed is beyond me! 

@quicksilverdiecast 

Always follow the money.

[buzzapparel]

Nah, having to reconcile these amounts and the time spent isn’t worth it. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

Why anyone would want to "fix" something that did NOT need fixed is beyond me! 

@quicksilverdiecast 

Always follow the money.

---

Because by sheer nature of software web engineering things are in constant flux and been a problem all over the Internet since inception and none of it get's easier.

Back in the day programmers needed worry about browser compatibility, MSIE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Macintosh Browsers such as Safari.  Back then if any care remember Internet sites were pretty static, basically you had to refresh pages to even see say time to auction end in eBays case.

Then a computer language came along called Javascript that is basically built into the browser.  That language has been extended over and over and over again.  Once again, how browsers handle it and compatibility were huge problems more or less TESTING against all platforms.  As Javascript progressed so has something called "Cascading Style Sheets."  The idea behind "CSS" was to move "Styling" of pages outside the actual Web Page Markup or HTML (which you made heard of, Hypertext Markup Language).  That way colors, and borders, fonts on and on and on could be separated from the actual web page(s).  Well along with that comes more compatibility issues and more testing, more quirks, work arounds on and on.  CSS has been extended time and time again as well.

In time "programming libraries" emerged to try and deal with all the quirks with browsers and Javascript and Frameworks (as their deemed) emerged for Cascading Style Sheets to try erase compatibility problems within them.  Many of these have been widely adopted all over the Web and world BUT the problems have been multi-faceted in that of platform change which again goes right back to the start.  Apple or Microsoft or Google on and on do updates and all of sudden libraries dealing with compatibility issues have quirks appear.  Such quirks may not be addressed by the authors of said libraries for months on end as they do a new release of the library or frameworks and there are MANY of these libraries and frameworks in many many websites.

Enterprise level sites have even more of these libraries and frameworks for many reasons, the nature of the distributed network and software architectures.  The nature of international services and SO MUCH More could go on and on.  When you look at eBay from point of view of a buyer or seller it all seems not all that complicated but if you were to look at how eBay actually functions and what makes it function I guarantee you 10,001% you'd say "Holy cow!"

Mobile get's added into the mix and it too is an evolving technology and one with far far more limited screen real-estate.  If anyone care remember the days when mobile ready websites didn't exist it was just torture using the web on a cellphone and all the software engineering of mobile has and is evolving.  Once upon a time all software engineering could do was "Detect" a mobile connection, literally nothing more.  So webs tried using that to be mobile ready, then came "The device will announce itself."  So now at least we know its an iPhone or a Sony, or a Motorola etc.  Now webs had to use that data to try refine to the actual device.  Its all evolved and in todays world not even recognize "What was" when Mobile took off.

Standardization and making it work across varieties of devices and the subsequent other side, serving pages up to devices has been a problem since day one of the World Wide Web.  HEAPS of places rather than try cope with browsers/devices instead went the way of APPS.  Software loaded unto the mobile device specializing focus for the given web venue.  Problems there too, now a company needs to maintain multiple platforms!  The web, the iPhone App, the Android App at a minimum and this allows for even more problems to enter in as the software(s) that DRIVE the venue(s) just became much more complex having to drive a web platform, APP platforms.

Some venues online did complete re-engineering of the web venues to be APPcentric per se and others try and NOT be APPcentric, in others words, yes, they've an APP but it is essentially nothing but a web browser metered down per se and obviously MOST APP's dealing with online webs ARE APP Web Browser based at their core as accessing the web (Versus say a video game) is what they are charged with doing.

Place like eBay, well known brand around the globe has its web and APP's yet for APP to be best experience A. Must have people download it and B. The entire format need be extremely different than the Web (say PC) experience due to real-estate.  You can see the problem and that problem is BOTH the APP(s) AND the WEB BROWSER experience need be handled, cant count on buyers nor sellers downloading an APP.  This makes matters very very complex and further more the sheer amount of data that is eBay very much complicates things.

Imagine for a moment say Mercari with the same amount of data, sellers and buyers that eBay has.  Impossible.  The engineering is no where near capable of doing ANY of it right at this point in time.

eBay is a site that for over 20+ years and continues to be a list based format and that just doesn't work very well with Mobile Real-Estate.  Changes to try keep all three platforms (web, apple, android) properly working whilst attempting to evolve the venue, an enterprise global venue thats some really really difficult work to do ESPECIALLY when millions of sellers, millions of buyers and the company itself LIVES on PRODUCT sales revenues competing with everyplace under the sun NOW.

That all said... As an engineer myself I understand the culture, corporate, marketing on and on and VERY SELDOM do ANY of those entities have shall we say "A Full Stack."  No, I don't mean they are not experts in their fields of charge, what I mean is most folks in corporate are not marketing experts, the folks in marketing are the experts.  The folks in engineering are not marketers on and on...  Facets by NATURE of disconnect in the variety of disciplines results in anomalies.  One day engineering is working on this and that and the next, direction changes be it for right, wrong or concept and all that engineering now sits in a flux that can impact site operability.

Amazon saw this happening early one and is one big reason WHY they spun off the engineering division into whats now Amazon Web Services.  AWS in its early beginnings was a separation of engineering upon the point of sale venue.  Since then, AWS services have evolved in ENORMOUS fashion... Revenues from AWS ALONE in 2022 were a WHOPPING 80 Billion dollars.  For Amazon back in the day that separation made complete sense given their a retailer and 3P venue back then.  For eBay, such a separation make no sense as why would be their be "vision" to service external entities with a complete auction based 3P platform?  Target's online web is powered by Amazon for example.

Point all being is just as with say the History of Israel or that of the Ukraine evolving in time, changing in time to suit needs and more same same with much of the enterprise web.  Temu is example that somewhat mimics China.  Temu has come unto the scene NEW to the Web and as such does not need deal with ANYTHING legacy and as such come up with new ways using the latest in tech.  Just as China emerged late into the modern world and has leveraged what was learned by nations before hand to outcompete competitors.

Folks wonder perhaps why Customer Service isn't what might be expected yet consider that job at a place like eBay.  Have to partition support mechanisms on a scale that is near incomprehensible in scale or scope to consider and that requires training.  Invest in training for very high stress job(s) only to have people leave and that's exactly what folks do, I'd leave.  What are they gonna pay me $50+ an hour along with hundreds of others at a minimum to try retain them?  Phone service providers support are amongst the highest turn over service jobs that exist.  $15-$22 an hour basically to have people call having service, phone, billing, APP on and on problems and most of the time ANGRY and the providers gave ya' all of 3 months of training which seemed great!  But guess what, IT NEVER STOPS.

I guess I'll just leave it there.

[cine-montage]

Get with it people,AI ROBOT is controlling the whole platform, you would think a billion dollar company, could hire hi tech people to fix all the issues ebay is dealing with, if this is the future I'm out of here, these big company's have to range and power to do what they want, even when you can prove they are corrupt, in black and white, they pay a small fine,and give up a underling, with a golden parachute, this is the reason we have unions,to protect people from these power mad company's, people need a bill of rights to protect people, this is madness,

Ct