Seller doesn't offer combined postage Banner, AGAIN!!

[prescott9376]

Like many others I had this problem for several months last year. I dont know how many buyers it put off from completing, but for those that messaged me I had to give refunds  or make seperate listings, Bundling up the items they wanted.

Now it seems to be happening again.

This last week I have had several buyers contacting me to say when they "Request Total"  They get the big red banner saying I dont offer combined postage.

It will probabley take another 6 months to fix again, if at all.

Anybody else getting it again,

[tommystrezures]

We haven't had it personally, but on a couple of items we recently purchased had exactly the same experience. We let the seller know in the hope they would resolve the matter or make good the postage difference, they did neither.

Anyway all I can think of at this time have you checked your postage preferences, to see if something untoward hasn't happened there? Go to account settings, then postage preferences (have pictured below) find the combined payments about 2/3 down screen click edit and you should then be able to state the length of time you want to allow it on purchases.

Hopefully that will help.

[prescott9376]

There are ways round it when a customer contacts you but they are time consuming and its the customers who dont contact where sales are lost.

As last time My settings & Prefrences are all in order and it doesn't happen with every order, I have had some requests for totals.

Explaing to customers that it is a glitch and I will refund, especially new customers, sometimes seems to raise their suspicions as if I am trying to cheat them.

As last time my preferences & settings are correct, there is nothing I can do or not do to put the situation right. This is a recurring Ebay fault that has been going on and off for perhaps 2 years.

[tommystrezures]

I agree there are ways around it, but as you say its a pain and yes time consuming. Is it a country related thing possibly? Or do you only sell say within the UK? I know with certain places such as New Zealand ebay seems to think that the country doesn't exist and this also can be problematic then sending combined invoices/requesting totals etc.

I am going to tag in one of the ebay guys to see if they can help shed some light on it for you. marco@ebay 

[marco@ebay]

Hi prescott9376, thanks for your post. 

Would you be able to confirm the item numbers for the items you were contacted about by your buyers stating that this was happening to them, so I can take a further look for you? Thank you.

Thanks for tagging me here, tommystrezures.

Marco

[tommystrezures]

Marco afternoon

There I am in post 2 saying I have never had this issue "blow me down" last night it happened!!!

I am pasting the message I got from the buyer here (redacting any personal info) last night. Obviously sorted but its not previously happened. One item was won on Sunday the other last night (monday)

"I won two auctions, 325951140862 last night and 325951140862 now.
I want to make the payment. When I access "
Request combined shipping" I receive the following message:
"The seller doesn't offer combined postage discounts. Either the seller has disallowed combined payments and postage discounts, or the time period specified by the seller for combined payments has expired. Please proceed to checkout to complete your purchase."

[vinylscot]

The worst thing about this glitch is not that it happens; it's that eBay explicitly lies and blames the seller. When this was rife last year, I lost a couple of good regular customers, and at least several hundred pounds of orders, as buyers do tend to believe a large organisation such as eBay, rather than a small seller they may have never previously encountered. Obviously, you don't hear about all the potential buyers who just back out when the lying banner is displayed.

Please eBay, if this is happening again, sort it properly this time.

[marco@ebay]

Thanks for your reply, tommystrezures.

I was checking there, and I can see that the item number is the same, but I imagine that you guys are referring to the items 325951140862 and 325948634587. If so, I can see that both items were included in the same transaction and there is only one charge for postage for both items.

Did it fix it by itself since you last lest your reply here, or the buyer just got the error but you still manage to combine the postage for both items despite this error?

Thank you,

Marco

[tommystrezures]

Hi Marco, 

It didn't fix itself at all, I obviously sent a manual invoice to the customer last night and posted it earlier today.

However its the fact that the buyer got this error message in the first place. We usually get the generic ebay email saying words to the effect of "your buyer has requested an invoice total" That obviously didn't happen due to the message the buyer received, and the fact they were kind enough to alert us of the problem.

[vinylscot]

marco@ebay I have also now received my first recent report from a potential buyer claiming he can not request a combined postage figure.

I can only give you one item no - 296019808871 - as he has not replied to my request for further info. More than likely that's another lost customer.

This really needs sorted. It badly affected my sales for a month or two last year, and I really can't afford this to happen again this year due to your company's ineptitude, not to mention the bald lie in the banner customers are shown..

[marco@ebay]

Thanks for confirming, tommystrezures and vinylscot.

I will review this for you, and get back to you with an update as soon as I can.

Thank you,

Marco

[marco@ebay]

Hi guys,

I have an update for you on this, it looks like you don't have a flat postage rule set up in your postage preferences. This is why your buyers are unable to request a total from you, in order to prevent this from happening again you'd need to set up one and that will sort that out for you. Once you set this up, your buyers should be able to request total from you with no problem. (I attached a couple of screenshots for better visibility)

Enjoy the weekend ahead,

Marco

[vinylscot]

marco@ebay Sometimes I genuinely despair. Your most recent post is 100% incorrect, unless there has been a major change to ebay procedures recently, which has not been communicated to sellers.

If you think about it for a moment, if I had a flat rate enabled, the buyer would never need to click on "request total", yet that link has been available on the basket page for many many years. I have been selling on this business account for a number of years now, and 99% of the time, buyers can request a total. That option is now (often) either not appearing, or being refused, with the buyer being told wrongly that the seller does not offer combined postage. (Yet, most of the time, it works perfectly well, and it wouldn't, if your post was correct.)

So, please, try and find out what the real reason is, and ensure that the problem is rectified.

[tommystrezures]

marco@ebay 

I am with @vinylscot  on this one. Your reply in trying to help us is completely wrong. Unless as mentioned this is another hashed ebay change which they have forgotten to tell anyone about (thats another subject not for this thread)

We have always had the little red banner allowing buyers to request a total. Due to the nature of the lots we auction in sizes/weights etc its impossible to offer flat rate rules. (I am sure with @vinylscot  there will be similar scenarios of albums v double albums etc where weights and sizes are different) Our lotting templates are are set out by weight, and if you put this in to your listings you are not allowed then to use flat postage rules. I attach here the combined postage rates help page:

It clearly states in bold second line down that the buyer can request a total from the seller in their basket. IT IS THIS THAT IS NOT FUNCTIONING CORRECTLY.

@vinylscot  - Sorry for the length of this post, can I ask you though, in the the example we gave higher up in this thread it was for an overseas European transaction (within EU). Was your request an overseas one or a UK one? Perhaps if we can get these basics ascertained it may help pinpoint where this glitch is lying. if you will. My other thought is if I was to put two of your items in my basket and request a total to see if we could replicate the issue between us (although you have to understand I don't want to actually purchase anything!) is that something you would allow me to do?

[vinylscot]

The most recent one I have had was a UK buyer. He eventually came back and bought only one item. He obviously wasn't confident in my "workarounds". I can understand that.

I'm quite happy to be a guinea pig, and will certainly cancel any transactions, if you want to try that. I will be away from home until late afternoon, so don't do anything before then if you want a quick response.

I did ask a friend to go as far as putting a couple of items into my basket, and the "request total" option was clearly there. He didn't go any further, so I don't know if he would have got the "buyer does not offer...." banner. However, I did receive a total request for a genuine sale comprising eight listings early this morning, and that all went as it should - I sent an invoice with combined postage and he paid. This was a repeat buyer in South Korea, although the package is going to a UK address (freight forwarder).

It is obviously only an intermittent problem, which makes it very difficult to diagnose/replicate. I suspect that whoever marco@ebay asked for clarity has missed the point of his enquiry, as his response was so obviously wrong.

[tommystrezures]

Evening @vinylscot I have just put a couple of items in a basket and sent you a total request, which appears to have gone through ok from this end. 

I had had another thought but doing this dispelled it, in that the issue we had the other evening was a new customer and not a repeat one following your comment earlier re your Korean customer.

[vinylscot]

Yes, that came through fine at this end too. I didn't realise it was you at first, so sent the invoice, but its all cancelled now. Sorry.

[tommystrezures]

Dont worry, I did put a note in the invoice to say it was a test!! - That would have been an eclectic selection heavy metal and disco! - I right royal mash!!! - You have some cracking stuff there, will have to get my Dad's old turntable up and running me thinks.

[vinylscot]

Another instance last night/this morning.

A new buyer, in Italy, won three of my auction listings, and I sent a combined invoice as usual. However, he has put two more items into his basket, and insists there is no "request total" link.

I'm pretty sure nothing is being lost in translation, (I have some basic Italian, and have checked with Google translate) and I have asked him for details of the other two, so I can let Marco know. 

Having said that, the language barrier is posing an extra problem, and I doubt if I'll get payment, even for the three auction items. I have offered the workarounds, but again, I really can't blame the buyer - it's obviously eBay's fault.

[tommystrezures]

Well to muddy the waters further we had two requests last night on our auction, both UK based, one new one repeat customer and both worked ok we received the generic email in both cases.

Has all of this started since ebay hashed through the changes on BIN's where automatic payments were/are required last year? or was it an issue before?

You are right though your customer should be able to bolt on two BINs to their invoice already we do this regularly. What is the length of time you have set on your postage preferences/ allow combined postage. I changed ours again the other day to see if the anomoly was stemming from that, its now set at 19 days or something similar, and made sure it saved etc. and it obviously worked last night, but thats not to say its not going to 'fall' over again soon.