Combined Shipping Question

[northstar3184]

Yesterday, I bought a couple ponies from a seller who offered combined shipping. In the seller's listing it said to wait for an invoice for combined shipping before paying if buying multiple items. Both items were BIN, and when I hit the "Buy It Now" button the only option that displayed was a single button that said "Confirm and Pay". There was no option to confirm the order but pay at a later time. I don't recall ever having this dilemma before. Has Ebay recently changed its settings/options during the checkout process?

I ended up just hitting the "Confirm and Pay" button because I didn't want to wait and risk having someone else buy the items while I was trying to figure this out. However, it'd be good to know for future reference if there's an option I missed somewhere.

[Stormness_1]

Sometimes sellers set this up without realising. We can't do it on Ebay.com.au without a store, but in other places you definitely can, and some do it due to flaky buyers in the past, and forget to amend their terms to reflect it on their listings. Definitely give your seller a heads up that due to the way the listings were set, you couldn't buy and then wait for an invoice to pay, as per the instructions on the listing. They may refund you the difference in shipping if you're lucky.

[bluerose9978]

Sometimes sellers set this up without realising.

Honestly, I don't know how you set this up without realizing it because when you set it up, it asks whether you require immediate payment or have the option to wait to pay. And if you offer combined shipping, of course you're going to want the wait to pay option. Your seller just may not be eBay-savvy. I'd just contact them and point out that they offer combined shipping and ask them if they'd refund the difference. I offer the combined shipping and I did click the wait to pay option, but I have had people who just BIN and pay each individually and I refund them anyway even though I get hit with higher fees. Even if they don't request the refund I do this because I want to be fair to all of my buyers. Have you checked your paypal just in case she did this for you first?

[northstar3184]

I emailed her and let her know of the issue in case it comes up with future buyers. She's offered to refund the difference, so this is all squared away.

[silverdawn]

When I sell on ebay, I don't require immediate payment on BIN's, however, ebay still forces my buyers to pay immediately.  I've made sure the box is unchecked and even called ebay on this.  They said immediate payment on BIN's is part of their new requirements to decrease non-paying bidders.  It also allows ebay to charge more fees on the excessive shipping.  Even though I always refund my buyers after combining shipping costs for them, ebay still charges me the fees based on the total shipping cost originally paid, no matter what I refund my buyers.  It's infuriating.

The only way I've found around this for myself, is to log into a foreign ebay site (usually German ebay), input the listing number, and then I'm allowed to "commit to buy" without actually paying.  Then I can request a combined total from the seller.  Don't know why.  Lovely ebay.  By doing this, you do give up your ebay bucks though.

[bluerose9978]

When I sell on ebay, I don't require immediate payment on BIN's, however, ebay still forces my buyers to pay immediately.  I've made sure the box is unchecked and even called ebay on this.  They said immediate payment on BIN's is part of their new requirements to decrease non-paying bidders.  It also allows ebay to charge more fees on the excessive shipping.  Even though I always refund my buyers after combining shipping costs for them, ebay still charges me the fees based on the total shipping cost originally paid, no matter what I refund my buyers.  It's infuriating.

That's strange because I've had some other recent buyers get past it and send me a request total with quite a few BIN items in it to combine shipping. I wonder if the commit to buy is still available if you use the shopping cart?

But, yes, I agree the fees are excessive, especially if you are refunding part of the shipping. That's why eBay and PayPal being two separate companies is not helpful to the consumer.

[northstar3184]

When I sell on ebay, I don't require immediate payment on BIN's, however, ebay still forces my buyers to pay immediately.  I've made sure the box is unchecked and even called ebay on this.  They said immediate payment on BIN's is part of their new requirements to decrease non-paying bidders.  It also allows ebay to charge more fees on the excessive shipping.  Even though I always refund my buyers after combining shipping costs for them, ebay still charges me the fees based on the total shipping cost originally paid, no matter what I refund my buyers.  It's infuriating.

That's strange because I've had some other recent buyers get past it and send me a request total with quite a few BIN items in it to combine shipping. I wonder if the commit to buy is still available if you use the shopping cart?

The seller mentioned in her response to me that she thinks using the shopping cart will allow the buyer to bypass this issue. I'm curious if others have tried that and had luck with it.

Silverdawn: I figured Ebay must have made some changes. I'm glad to have that suspicion confirmed. They must be very recent changes because I've never run into this issue before.

[Haruna]

When I sell on ebay, I don't require immediate payment on BIN's, however, ebay still forces my buyers to pay immediately.  I've made sure the box is unchecked and even called ebay on this.  They said immediate payment on BIN's is part of their new requirements to decrease non-paying bidders.  It also allows ebay to charge more fees on the excessive shipping.  Even though I always refund my buyers after combining shipping costs for them, ebay still charges me the fees based on the total shipping cost originally paid, no matter what I refund my buyers.  It's infuriating.

Ah, I've wondered about this, too, and whether my buyers are simply unable to wait to pay if they use buy-it-now, since more than one has bought and paid for multiple items without waiting for an invoice. I appreciate immediate payment, lol, but I feel bad when they have to pay high shipping amounts. I've had some buyers successfully buy items now and wait to pay, I think, but I wasn't sure how; they're probably using the shopping cart, but I would assume that someone could buy the item out from under them if they use that, which wouldn't appeal to me as a buyer. A lot of my auctions end as simple auctions, though, which obviously don't have the buy-it-now problem, so I haven't run into too much of the combined shipping problem.

[Duenia]

Once you request an invoice for items placed in your shopping cart you are agreeing to buy them and they are yours. Someone cannot buy them out from under you. I've actually used this quite a few times to buy and it's a warning you get when you try to request the invoice.

[bluerose9978]

Once you request an invoice for items placed in your shopping cart you are agreeing to buy them and they are yours. Someone cannot buy them out from under you. I've actually used this quite a few times to buy and it's a warning you get when you try to request the invoice.

But people can buy items out from under you before you hit that request invoice after you have placed something in your cart, right? I think that is the only drawback to the shopping cart.

[Taffeta]

There is also sometimes a glitch with the cart where it won't let you ask for combined shipping. I have had it happen a couple of times with sellers who do combine and ultimately refund the extra back to me. They've checked their settings and can't find out why it does it, but sometimes an item glitches and it prevents the whole invoice the shopping cart thing.

It's annoying. Ebay need to get it smoothed out.

[silverdawn]

What Taffeta said!  There's two sellers I buy from all the time who always give combined shipping, and now, for whatever reason, ebay won't allow me to request combined totals anymore.  Thankfully they're honest and always refund.  Ebay's definitely not motivated to fix this glitch though.  They get more fees from sellers by forcing buyers to pay inflated shipping costs up front.  Just another way ebay can screw their sellers.

[Duenia]

Once you request an invoice for items placed in your shopping cart you are agreeing to buy them and they are yours. Someone cannot buy them out from under you. I've actually used this quite a few times to buy and it's a warning you get when you try to request the invoice.

But people can buy items out from under you before you hit that request invoice after you have placed something in your cart, right? I think that is the only drawback to the shopping cart.

Yeah, that would be a drawback. Putting it in your cart doesn't hold it for you until you request the invoice.