Ebay no longer permits combined shipping.

[quicksilverdiecast]

Here is a sample of the messages I have been getting from buyers, at least 10 so far this week...

Now since ebay has it so screwed up I have no real answer at how to complete the transaction, I know back before the cart and when problems cropped up sellers could still use PP to salvage a sale.

I also have all the shipping preferences set up correctly.

Anyone have a work around or tool to disable the cart, that way sales will begin to increase, I read thru the forums of everyone who is disappointed in lack of sales...a big part of that is ebay.

(Ebay buyer)

"Hi, I am interested in doing "Buy It Now" (BIN) on 3 of your 1965 El Camino items and I would like to have them shipped in one package to save on shipping cost. How do I go about doing this? How do I avoid paying the upfront shipping cost when I try to do a BIN for each item? Also, doing the "cart" thing doesn't seem to help much in this matter. I'll await your response. Thanks, Greg."

I have gotten messages from buyers saying they have stuff in the cart and need a combine total, yet ebay does not let sellers see what is in the cart! 

[quicksilverdiecast]

Yes it does not work, now this is on the ebay motors side, as I also sell model car parts which is NOT in ebay motors, and just tonite had a sale of 3 items(model car parts) by the same buyer and guess what shipping was right on the money, I did not combine it nor did the buyer...so this issue is on the ebay motors side and I have a suspicion as to why....since ebay motors is starting another problem of which they know NOTHING about is the guaranteed fitment program....so say a buyer wants to purchase a number of different items for different vehicles at the same time...I can see more issues crop up there, which part is "guaranteed" to fit which car and will buyers be boxed in with parts for a single specific car and anything else will not be able to be combined?

Ebay Motors you will need to contact ebay to fix your shopping cart....

[quicksilverdiecast]

and another one where the buyer bought 4 decals = <4oz USPS = 4-5.00 but ebay charged him 22.04! a 17.00 overcharge! If ebay is going to keep this up they can begin refunding these as it is 100% ebays faulty system that is driving away buyers...ALSO since ebay cannot get shipping right I am requesting on the feedback dashboard where buyers rate sellers on "reasonable shipping costs" that that specific be removed as it does not present a fair nor accurate representation of the sellers performance again due to ebays faulty system. 

Item subtotal (4)

$24.15

Shipping

$22.04

Sales tax*

$3.17

Order total

$49.36

[blingfling123]

eBay does not handle the combined shipping gracefully. 

If you have two items that each weigh 2lbs and your dimensions in the shipping area are each 10x10x10 in size, when the orders are combined by eBay, it sees both items as the same size and charges the buyer for 4lbs in a 10x10x10 box which is physically impossible. 

eBay looks at the dimensions of the listings, uses the highest dimension box size and then just increases the weight without taking multiple large sizes into account.  This does not work very well if you have large items. They also do not take into account additional lighter items not all needed a box or padded envelope. 

When buyers ask if I combine, I ask them for the items and then create a new listing with the correct new dimensions or explain why it is actually cheaper to send the two larger items separately. 

[theteamsetguy]

@quicksilverdiecast ,

You can have more than combined shipping rule. When you have multiple shipping rules you the option to assigning the one you want to each individual item. I have about a dozen different rules I use from time to time depending on items I have listed.

[conservitvs]

If this has already been noted, ignore... but scanning all the posts, I did not notice it.

If you have IPR (Immediate Payment Required) on your BIN (Buy It Now) listings, the eBay cart will not allow combined shipping under any circumstance. Buyers are forced to pay separate shipping for every item in the cart.

Hitting "Request New Total" results in the message: "This seller does not offer combined shipping discounts" (or something similar), even if the seller actually does offer combined shipping. I have encountered this both as a buyer and seller.

It has been this way for at least the last two or three years.

Hope this helps a bit.

[quicksilverdiecast]

Here is another happy buyer....

"Hi,

I'm interested in purchasing 8 different items from your store, and was wondering if you are able to group shipping costs? Right now, ebay is charging shipping cost for each individual item.


Thanks,

Mike"

[quicksilverdiecast]

and more while ebay want to raise fees while they lose 10's of 1000's of dollars with a shopping cart that does not function

ebay buyer message

"I would like to purchase both '69 Charger Muscle Machines you have if you can find a way to combine the shipping."

response

"Yes I do however ebay has things so screwed now with that stupid shopping cart it may not work due their end, let me know"

(ebay buyer response)

"It won't give me the option to combine shipping."

SOONER OR LATER EBAY THE LIGHT BULB WILL GO ON!

1.IT is NOT on my end

2. IT is NOT any kind of shipping rule

3. IT IS EBAY's Mess as I have had a High level tech admit it!!!!

[quicksilverdiecast]

Still no luck at salvaging a sale due to ebay, I tried go around the absurdity, and thought I will just have the buyer inquire on each piece and then I will respond with the "Send An Offer" button then once he accepts both offers NOT paid for yet, I can then combine items properly...this should work..but nope eBay gets in the way again to hinder sales! I enter the price and a red window pops up and state amount is too large...YET no where does it state on the send an offer action what price I must offer to buyer! So I continue to change price...nope...so Ebay please reimburse me for 7.98 for the lost sale that you are directly responsible for causing! I signed up in 1995 to list and sell my items to buyers I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR YOU TO HINDER SALES TO BUYERS WITH CASH IN HAND WANTING TO BUY ITEMS.

[quicksilverdiecast]

 After ebay ripping off another buyer on shipping, called in again and spent almost 1/2 on phone with tech, on this issue WE ALL HAVE with the shopping cart...and he is the result...was told it works and I then asked what about those using the phone app....to which he answered it does NOT work (there is NO request total button). If you remember back when they first brought the phone app in they pushed hard and fast to keep up with the Big A and other platforms....well they were in such a hurry that this is the result anyone who uses a phone app to make a purchase cannot request a new total on multiple items, nor can the seller see what the buyer has in the cart, nor does ebay notify the seller (this is because they know it does not work)! So I stopped the tech and said wait a minute you keep saying the cart works, but the you say it does not work for phone app purchases....!!! I said you cannot have it both ways...it either works for EVERYONE or it does NOT work for everyone....He said I understand your frustration(no he doesnot!) I then said who in their right mind would develop a program(Cart) that replaced a system that worked fine, and never bothered to beta test it to see if it worked on all intended applications and just threw it on the wall and hoped it sticks!

I also told him it also affect the fees that ebay charges sellers...the feedback dashboard...if a buyer feels compelled to leave negative feedback due to assuming it is the seller who ripped him on shipping that #1 affects our income getting a bad rep PLUS ebay has these wonderful 5 star point system one which says reasonable shipping! Well If I put myself in place of the buyer and felt I was ripped off on shipping I would leave 1 star...now both the feedback and star bars are both a buyers and ebays way of judging a seller performance, in the buyers case, he never returns and bad word of mouth, in ebays case a way of squeezing more fees from sellers....

Then he said just have your buyer call us and we will see if we can help....I almost fell off the chair....I said ok what number do you want them to call and who do they talk to!(since we know there is no customer service anymore to call) 

Now this has been going on since they stuck us with the flat tired cart....and yet have done nothing...other than hinder sales, loses income for sellers, loses fees for ebay, and give the customer (which is in this case both buyers and sellers) a BAD ebay experience...

So again for all the sellers on here unless you speak up and put pressure on YOU will continue to lose sales(some you never knew you had a customer waiting) and ultimately be paying more in fees....Either fix the cart so it works FOR EVERYONE or DUMP IT...  I even went in detail with the techs at exactly how to fix the cart SIMPLY ,and without causing any confusion, by adding a pop up window with a YES or NO button which I described in an earlier post here.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@quicksilverdiecast wrote:

 After ebay ripping off another buyer on shipping, called in again and spent almost 1/2 on phone with tech, on this issue WE ALL HAVE with the shopping cart...and he is the result...was told it works and I then asked what about those using the phone app....to which he answered it does NOT work (there is NO request total button). If you remember back when they first brought the phone app in they pushed hard and fast to keep up with the Big A and other platforms....well they were in such a hurry that this is the result anyone who uses a phone app to make a purchase cannot request a new total on multiple items, nor can the seller see what the buyer has in the cart, nor does ebay notify the seller (this is because they know it does not work)! So I stopped the tech and said wait a minute you keep saying the cart works, but the you say it does not work for phone app purchases....!!! I said you cannot have it both ways...it either works for EVERYONE or it does NOT work for everyone....He said I understand your frustration(no he doesnot!) I then said who in their right mind would develop a program(Cart) that replaced a system that worked fine, and never bothered to beta test it to see if it worked on all intended applications and just threw it on the wall and hoped it sticks!

I also told him it also affect the fees that ebay charges sellers...the feedback dashboard...if a buyer feels compelled to leave negative feedback due to assuming it is the seller who ripped him on shipping that #1 affects our income getting a bad rep PLUS ebay has these wonderful 5 star point system one which says reasonable shipping! Well If I put myself in place of the buyer and felt I was ripped off on shipping I would leave 1 star...now both the feedback and star bars are both a buyers and ebays way of judging a seller performance, in the buyers case, he never returns and bad word of mouth, in ebays case a way of squeezing more fees from sellers....

Then he said just have your buyer call us and we will see if we can help....I almost fell off the chair....I said ok what number do you want them to call and who do they talk to!(since we know there is no customer service anymore to call) 

Now this has been going on since they stuck us with the flat tired cart....and yet have done nothing...other than hinder sales, loses income for sellers, loses fees for ebay, and give the customer (which is in this case both buyers and sellers) a BAD ebay experience...

So again for all the sellers on here unless you speak up and put pressure on YOU will continue to lose sales(some you never knew you had a customer waiting) and ultimately be paying more in fees....Either fix the cart so it works FOR EVERYONE or DUMP IT...  I even went in detail with the techs at exactly how to fix the cart SIMPLY ,and without causing any confusion, by adding a pop up window with a YES or NO button which I described in an earlier post here.

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@quicksilverdiecast 

On dot ca we complain routinely about how bad the cart works....sorry. Doesn't work. They refuse to admit it is an issue. They expect the buyer to pay the full amount and the seller to refund. Request invoice works in some situations but sadly not all. Same goes for sending. Gets more messed up if customer pays as 2 payments. Then it makes it difficult to combine the shipping. More work involved. Throw in immediate payment attached or best offers, app vs pc etc it's a big mess. Lastly on a pc there is no continue shopping. I have that everywhere I shop on online except eBay. Makes no sense.

Did you want me to start on calculated shipping too? Calculator thinks for each additional item a new box is required. So when the buyer checks it inflates the shipping they see. Scares away many a buyer. Canada even has a nice little glitch(been around for years). Listing system recognizes if measurements are too large for a service but not if they are too small. So you have no choice but to inflate the measurements to get the services you want to use to work...which in turn inflates shipping. Then if/when a customer buys the postal service will let you fill in the actual honest smaller measurements. Have I given you a headache yet? Gives me 1 daily. 

Until they can admit their system is messed up it will cost sellers buyers and sales.

-Lotz

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I also used to use the "send buyer an offer" function to be able to combine shipping. but sometime a few months ago (in the middle of the night with no notice)+ ebay summarily decides that sellers can't send an offer that's not at least 5% lower than the listed item price. Why? No idea. Doesn't make sense to me. They certainly don't seem to restrict the stupid amounts lowballing buyers can make an offer for do they?

What I've found is to tell the buyers I will offer a small discount off the item price plus a further discount on the shipping (then I work out the shipping discount taking into account the lowered price per item).

For some reason (probably that they have 3rd party developers doing the app) ebay has flatly refused to allow the Request a Total function on the app. I've lost count of how many sales have been lost over this.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Fwiw, the reason the seller can't see what's in the cart actually makes sense. We can't see what's in the cart unless they've committed to buy it (which of course on the app they can't do because there's no freaking RQT button).

[toomuchstuffagain35]

One of the reasons the "cart doesn't work" is ebay's stubborn refusal to consider that just because an item in the cart may be discounted or be on sale does NOT mean the seller shouldn't be able to offer a SHIPPING discount.

Just one of the many many many things ebay refuses to "fix".

[quicksilverdiecast]

Ok ebay I will show you how to fix the flat tires on you shopping cart so it works for EVERYONE and does NOT take a rocket scientist to figure out

This window would pop up once a buyer puts the 1st item in the cart, regardless if he wants to add another item or not, if the buyer would choose NO then the buyer could complete the transaction and make payment.   If he chooses YES the pop up would take the buyer back to the store to choose the next item, once chosen the pop up window would repeat the question....once the buyer has finished picking the items he wants from the store and hits the NO button, it would trigger a second pop up window that would state "Continue" or "Cancel", a statement saying your items will be sent to the seller for a combined shipping total which will then be sent back to the buyer with a Make Payment or Cancel button, choosing Make Payment would then follow the system in place....

Short Simple EASY to understand! and works for everyone and will eliminate a much larger percentage of lost sale & ebay fees, providing a "Good Buyer Experience on ebay".....

[heirloomangel]

That works, but when you want to add insurance, it won't add it all up. I am actually going to go off-site for the shipping and just upload the tracking number.

They make it so difficult...