eBay Board Members- eBay cellphone "Request Total" button is long over do!

[subtlethinker]

This is for the following individuals-

Paul S. Pressler, Chair of the Board

Adriane M. Brown, Chair of Compensation and Human Capital Committee

Logan D. Green, Board Member

E. Carol Hayles, Chair of Audit Committee

Jamie Iannone, Board Member

Kathleen Mitic, Chair of Corporate Governance & Nominating Committee

For atleast 7 years now, this ongoing problem with the eBay cellphone app not having a request total button is over due for change. It has been admitted by eBay that the use of cellphones to make purchases has increased throughout the years, and continues to rise. Why this has not been taken care of is beyond me and other sellers and buyers alike!

If you can imagine what the rest of us are thinking, when eBay advocates "Combined Shipping", and they do not provide this essential tool how much this can be irritating for us. Paul, Logan, Kathleen, Robert and Perry, this in on YOU folks most of all! You have the highest seniority as eBay board members and I am not sure if this has not gone underneath your radar, but it should no longer be as such, and it should be fixed.

Lastly I remember a few years ago, the eBay team was more concerned about cellphone picture quality than a much needed tool as a "Request Total" button.  Can I ask you board members this? What good is a fresh paint job on a car, if there is no breaks to stop it? That logic is quite backwards isn't it? This is what our buyers go through. Imagine their eBay account as a car. Since their breaks are out(meaning their payment method), they must creep slowly to stop light before continuing, as not to crash their vehicle. Think about the metaphorical analogy behind this. Put yourselves in the driver seat of the buyer about to make several purchases, with only $50 to spend. Your purchases come to $30, but without the "Request Total" button. They also now have a $30 bill in shipping, when they are only honored to pay $5 for the items combined by the seller's own policy.

Sometimes the buyer reaches out to the seller hoping for resolution. Many decent sellers such as myself, will work with the buyer to make sure they get what they want minimalizing the headache created by eBay's cell app. That is fine, but it should not even be necessary. The only time this ever works is if they're items of a variation listing. Now, we all know, with different categories of items, we simply cannot put everything in one listing. This lack of a "Request Total" button can be a deal killer for international buyers. To give you an insight, imagine having to pay for each items shipping at an average of $17 USD. With 3 items only, they international buyer ends up forking out $51 in shipping, when once again, they should only have to pay $17(imagine the weight of the items weighing under 7 oz. combined). 

When it comes to the cellphone app, and the advocation of combined shipping, to say the least, this is backwards and borderline hypocritical. It is time to fix this! I took a long hiatus from eBay trying to find other platforms to sell on as eBay has done things in past few years that has been irritating. Managed Payments I finally got over, despite the fact that the timing for it in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic was the worst and most inconvenient time to start such as system, but I got over it. Alot of us sellers got over it, even though many of us still hate this managed payment system. There are other things that I got over as well, coming back to eBay like a prodigal son.

But this request total button must happen. It is time and long over due. eBay and its board members, you are in the middle of Silicone Valley. Surely, you can find enough "tech wizards" there to get this done. The excuses for not fixing this needs to be put up on a shelf. I can only imagine, how many sales I have forfeited, even without my knowledge because of the excessive shipping my buyers have to pay all at once.  Remember eBay, when our sales are forfeited, you forfeit your commissions! If looking out after your sellers and buyers are not enough, I would hope your commissions and profits would be motivation enough to fix this age old problem. On behalf of myself and other eBay sellers and buyers from all across the world, we beg of you -"PLEASE! PLEASE! Give us a "Request Total" button on the cellphone app! We sellers pay good money to sell on eBay, and adding a "Request Total" button to the cellphone app will only benefit everyone from the buyer, to the seller, to eBay corporate in the end. 

Thank you,

-subtlethinker

[spark-chaser1 · Accepted solution]

+1 - thanks for posting this, subtlethinker!

   There have been SO many times I reply to survey requests, and take valuable time out of my day to do the favor I'm asked to do to help " make suggestions to  improve my experience " to the site. But for years, this particular issue has persisted, and instead of working on this,  I've seen any and all fixes or improvements BUT those so many people have asked  for are made.  Some of these changes have actually BROKEN what was fixed.

   It has been fortunate for me that I've found sellers who are willing to go the extra mile to help me and work through having to create a new listing to compensate for bulk shipping, or hold a purchase until I can get onto an actual terminal HOWEVER - I feel its unfair ( and I feel terrible) to put this burden on them when a simple across- the - board fix can be made by corporate to fix this issue once and for all time. I do EVERYTHING from my phone, and so do thousands of others. 

   Please, help us to help you ( as I'm asked to do in all of those surveys that seem to be echoing down an empty hallway) by fixing this. I love to do business here, but would like to think that the feeling is mutual.

[soh.maryl]

You do realize that it's unlikely that anyone from eBay, especially those you have addressed here, will be reading your message, right?  

[terrycece62]

Unfortunately posting your idea for change on 'member-to-member board 'will not very likely be seen by the 'top executives at' eBay try corporate head office' staff members who can make the policy change/addition

deem necessary.

Good luck to you

[spark-chaser1]

Sure, perhaps this won't be seen by corporate, their spouses or even other users, for that matter. But, if nothing else, we can always hope. And at the very least, even unleashing a primal scream into the empty desert can make one feel better...

[dnasilver]

Not necessarily the case. No on here knows how much from these boards are read or passed on to higher ups. Large corporations monitor more than what they would ever tell you. 

[theteamsetguy]

You realize you can create business policies for shipping? Since it looks like you sell similar items and have flat $5.00 shipping charge for one item orders. I presume when you combine shipping you add flat dollar amount for each additional item bought?

If that is the case you can easily create a shipping policy $5.00 for the first item and $2.00 for each additional item for example. You could have several different policies for other items like I do. You just have to update your listings or attach the policy you want for them when you create the listing. 

By doing this when your buyer add the items to their shopping cart and check out they will automatically get updated total. No need for buyer to ”Request Total”. This eliminates the need for a “Request Total” button. In my example above if a buyer purchases 3 items eBay will automatically add $7.00 for shipping instead of $15.00 when purchased and paid for together.

[biggymoe]

A (frickin') MEN !!

I've been beating this drum for years, with little hope of ever seeing it happen.

[theteamsetguy]

See my post above. In your case you can create a shipping policy for single cards like $1.00 for the first card and 25 cents for each additional card. $15.95 larger sets and $8.00 for each additional larger or $5.00 for each additional smaller. When you use shipping policies eBay always charges the highest amount for shipping the first item and lower amounts for each additional item. For example if the buy a set and single together in the above examples the buyer would get charged $16.20.

No need for request total button.

[hotrod168]

I made an honest attempt last Nov. to thoroughly explain why 'Request Total' needed be implemented on mobile and the app, but it just seems to fall on deaf ears. The eBay community representative acknowledged the apparent frustrations caused by not including it, but ultimately responded that, "it's [still] not something the mobile team is looking to implement at this time."

Making matters worse, the grief and confusion this deficiency constantly results in relates to the shipping on potentially *any* order our customers place (not just combined shipments). We primarily sell large tires and wheels — bulkier items that typically require LTL truck freight to ship to the end-user. Due to the potential for extreme price disparities when not quoted properly, and to prevent the ‘sticker-shock’ that would otherwise occur if we left it to eBay’s own LTL quoting system, the most feasible solution for providing our customers with cost-effective shipping rates is to quote it manually on a case-by-case basis. As time consuming as that may sound, it undeniably saves our customers money in the long run.

For anyone not familiar with this type of selling (or technically shipping) format, it requires the Seller to manually send the Buyer an updated invoice with the custom shipping rate factored in before the Buyer can pay. However, we can only do so once a Buyer has committed to a purchase, which is generally accomplished by either clicking the 'Buy It Now' button, or by adding the items to the cart... and clicking 'Request Total'.

For the record, that last one is currently the *only* way a Buyer can initiate an order directly from their cart for listings with shipping formatted this way. As a consequence, 'Add To Cart' has been a useless, literal dead-end for any mobile users attempting to place an order with us — and it's been like this for years.

But even better, look at the actual wording of the error message eBay displays when the Buyer tries to checkout anyway:

Spoiler

"This item requires freight shipping. Please contact the seller to request order total and ask for freight shipping costs."

Imagine the frustration of having to deal with the resulting fallout of this massive oversight on a daily basis, only for eBay to repeatedly express, year after year, that they still have no intention or plan to formally address it. I get that we're part of a unique niche that only makes up a small portion of the Seller community, but seriously? Ecommerce analytics often include in their evaluations cart abandonment rates as a metric worth tracking and analyzing... why wouldn't you even attempt to fix something that literally guarantees that as the only outcome?

[csbbct]

Years ago I gave up pleading with eBay to make Request Total available on the Mobile App AND for when items are already on sale, but I'll try again. 

What difference does it make if one of the items is already on sale?  It is needed so we can properly calculate combined shipping costs!  I am not able to develop combined shipping rules when most shipping prices today depend on the SIZE of the box.  I sell dinnerware and they could be picking any number of different sized items so I must determine the size of the box that will be needed in order to calculate the correct price.

The way I need to do it now is to ask the buyer to trust that I will refund the overpayment or give instructions for a work-around that is so convoluted it's embarrassing.  It's eBay's embarrassment, not mine, but it ends up being my problem because I'm sure I have lost sales because of this!  

[subtlethinker]

Yes, unfortunately I do realize that. 😖

[subtlethinker]

Hi there! I haven't checked this in a long time. Yes, I realize what you're getting at, but I am trying to charge just one rate- was $5.00 now just $5.50. It is my US buyer deal to give them one shipping price for single or combined items. I tried shipping tables, and that only set my shipping preferences to "free shipping", which is now going to cost me to get rid of the item for free, and also cost me just to get rid of them. The suggestion you referred to does not work with different item numbers- only variations. For instance, your suggestion works with item number "i.e. 000009444323" that has  variations to it, but it does not work when you combine "i.e. 000009444323" with "i.e. 000009444231". It will still charge $11.00 for shipping. Trust me on this! I have tried this and that. Thanks for your help though, but I have also tried your suggestion.

[subtlethinker]

Next question- How many sellers does it take to tell me "The executives will probably never read this." ? 🙄

[psfhobbies]

I agree I have to email people all the time about iPhones not having a request total function when they want to buy more than one item and I LOSE MANY SALES because of this..PLEEESE do something about it soon.