When does 1oz + 1oz = 5+oz.? On ebay of course....

[quicksilverdiecast]

Just had another positive experience with ebay shipping....I am the seller...the items in question here have the following values(both) these are 2 small vehicle decals, which both are 1 oz or less and both in a 2 6 9 shipper envelope (padded). And none of my store items are set for pay it now nor flat rate.  Now using THEIR calculations 1oz parcel sent Ground Advantage(priority was not offered on either item) will be 4.-5.00 depending on zip code. So if the buyer purchases these 2 different decals in 1 order thru the cart the cart charged him 10.10!!! whereas it should have been no more than 5.00...so the cart ignored the 1oz weight listed and pulled the 10.10 figure out of thin air....2 decals at 1oz each = 2 oz which still falls under the ground advantage 1-4oz before the next level of prices kick in....OK. Now most buyers do not even like paying the 4.-5.00 for decals and I get requests all the time to "just put them in an envelope with a stamp on it" so you can only imagine a buyer being asked to pay 10.10 in shipping for 2 small decals....and to top it of who do you think the buyer blames for getting ripped off on shipping....NOT ebay....

[nobody*s_perfect]

You can set your combined shipping rules so that buyers are charged for the combined weight. For your products which actually weigh almost nothing, you might want to set up a flat rate so they are not charged anything for each additional item, so if they purchase 5 stickers they don't have to pay the postage for the 5-8 ounce bracket.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/shipping-rates/offering-combined-shipping?id=4169 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/posting-items/postage-rates/postage-discounts?id=4168

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@quicksilverdiecast,

There are a couple of possible reasons why the shipping calculations are wrong.

If a buyer places multiple items in the cart and does not use the request total button so you can send a combined shipping invoice, They will be charged twice for shipping.  You can always refund the overage from their payment.

You may not know that ebay has Opted you into immediate payments.  Go to your Buyer management/requirement page.  Below the usual blocks for unpaid items and shipping locations is

Buyer Payment Requirements: 

Which ebay has pre-checked for you to have immediate payments,  those settings will not allow buyers to request a total so you can send a combined shipping invoice once they commit to buy before requesting a total. 

You should add a blurb to your listings about combined shipping, telling buyers not to pay until they request a combined shipping total and receive a combined shipping invoice.

If you sell enough decals you should set up a combined shipping rule and add it to each of your decal listings Example: Buy 1 pay $4.50.  Each additional decal up to 10 ships at no extra charge or for .25cents more.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@quicksilverdiecast wrote: ... using THEIR calculations 1oz parcel sent Ground Advantage(priority was not offered on either item) will be 4.-5.00 depending on zip code. So if the buyer purchases these 2 different decals in 1 order thru the cart the cart charged him 10.10!!! whereas it should have been no more than 5.00...so the cart ignored the 1oz weight listed and pulled the 10.10 figure out of thin air.......

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Just one small point of clarification: Your buyer wasn't charged for 5 ounces and the $10.10 wasn't pulled "out of thin air."  Your buyer was charged for two separate 1-ounce packages.  The retail postage cost to ship 1 ounce to Zone 5 is $5.05; the cost to ship 5 ounces would be $5.65, not $10.10.

[quicksilverdiecast]

Will give that one a try....it is amazing that for over 2 years and hours of time on the phone with ebay, as high as level of tech possible and NONE having even remotely suggested and/or checked that.

On a side note after spending more time yesterday with "Alex" ebay tech and showing him example after example I have filed away....he as well realized there was a problem.....so later a buyer has been messaging about not being able to use the cart(imagine that) and had stuff in it and wanted combined and to check out. I explained to him that other than his messages, ebay does not even advise me you exist, no indication (there is a line on one of the overview columns that states "order eligible for combined shipping" which is SUPPOSED to show a buyer is waiting for a total.....While those who are lucky to get the items onto my sold seller hub to be combined that line in that column has NEVER ONCE ever shown an order....eligible.

So the guy I had been messaging with back and forth I told him that he will have to call ebay and have them fix his account...which he did and the items showed up on the sold chart unpaid waiting to be combined(the notice never indicated again and eligible order but there it was....so I do the normal routine see what he had and figure out a combined shipping total entered the values and it showed it was properly combined and totaled and hit send which showed up on my sold chart as 1 combined order waiting for payment...I just checked it this morning(still unpaid) so I open it up and all the values that were entered are gone with the only value showing is the cost of the items themselves as a combined total, the shipping values are gone as well as the grand total, it also says send invoice, yet won't nor will it let me input the values....basically ebay just tossed it into limbo.....Again more proof that too many fingers are in the pie changing("fixing") too many  things for too long instead of leaving things alone that worked to begin with, and when they change something having no grasp at what all it may affect once the change is applied. 

So back to the tech "Alex" that once I showed him the cases and issue at how it failed to provide "ebay positive experience for buyers" not being able to use or figure out the cart and how it screws up combined shipping...I explained that he does realize that sales are being lost due to this mess, which meant ebay gets zero fees...to think about that a minute...if it happens to me it is happening across the platform and ask him how much in fees does he think ebay has lost in the course of just one day! He was quiet for a minute and said "ALOT" to which I laughed and said yet ebay still cries poor and wants to increase fees, well if they fixed and made things simple they would not have to increase fees on sellers, I know one other entity that has a very similar problem that rather than fixing its own issues to begin with it is far easier just to go back and hit the people up for more money