Cant see the forest cause the trees are in the way
Summary: trade-price-stamps-2015 expresses frustration over the inability to send combined invoices, leading to increased transaction fees and potentially lost sales due to buyers abandoning purchases over multiple postage costs. wycombe1 and gjalp share similar experiences, noting the challenges of managing multiple orders and the difficulty with eBay's invoicing and payment systems. vinylscot highlights the broader issue, mentioning lost orders and buyers' misunderstandings, as well as the inadequate solutions offered by eBay. The discussion reflects a shared sentiment that eBay's current system is problematic for sellers and suggestions for improvement are voiced without much hope for immediate change.
just a thought, its now been a year and a half since i have not been able to send combined invoices, some people manage to but for 90% of sales it wont work, this could be fixed but is not being addressed, a few days ago i packed 12 separate orders which could have combined on to one order, a bit bad for me as the transaction order fee of 30 pence meant an extra £3.60 out of my money, although very good for Ebay, yes even more money going their way. But has anybody stopped to think of the down side for Ebay, deserted carts where buyers see the multiple postage costs and are not prepared to accept that the seller will refund the excess so they ditch the sale, these buyers are going they are leaving, they cant understand why they cant just buy things normally like everywhere else on the planet, the buying experience needs to stay simple and with absolute clarity if you want to keep them coming back, this avenue we have all gone down, is the wrong way, open your eyes to the decay we are seeing, its the wrong way. the extra money on the transaction order fees will slowly dry up and this golden goose extra income for Ebay wont have been worth all that has been sacrificed by the sellers, the buyers and eventually Ebay. It is suffocating OUR marketplace.
trade-price-stamps-2015
OP3 weeks agoWell thanks for the replies, yes every other outlet in the entire world can combine an invoice except this one, it did used to for many years but now no, i cant help thinking this was not planned but came about as a result of the meddling fingers that wont stay still where they keep changing things and do not think of the consequences. However i does not take a lot of brains to work out that all the extra 30 pence per transaction adds up, for me it is 10's of pounds a week so how many sellers how many pounds. There has not been any real competition for many years which has always left me a bit baffled but i do notice in recent times that this is changing, other markets are emerging with new approaches and ideas and with all the new fast moving tech we are using, i think there will be more and better choices, one thing for sure, this site will never get any better for sellers, its been constantly blinkered where sellers are concerned.
technthread
·3 weeks agoI think most here would agree with the sentiments about eBay.
I have tried lots of different postage / invoicing strategies here, in the end on my business account I just went with free postage.
I hoped buyers of multiple items checked out at once to save me the 10p or 30p fixed fee per order, freeing up my settings to make sure they didn’t have to add card details to bid on auctions etc and it was still very hit and miss. Having free postage meant I still had a lot of buyers paying quickly on each auction once it ended one by one as there was no discount to wait for and I guess it was a mix of wanting to be a fast payer and making sure the seller was less inclined to cancel.
One option I liked the look of was the combined postage rule wrapped into a business policy to automate combined postage costs and try to avoid any re-invoicing at all. The only thing was I had multiple business policies for different weight parcels and it won’t merge the adjustments at checkout.
When buying honestly it is a nightmare. You can’t see who has enabled buyers to request invoices in their postage preferences, there’s sellers who flat out ghost any questions about re-invoicing because they are scalping or just don’t have a clue how to deal with it. There’s private sellers with simple delivery and custom postage split inexplicably across similar listings, simple delivery not combining when it should do, sellers who flap at the thought of sending a box bigger than they planned on doing and cancelling orders, it’s just a big mess.
vinylscot
·3 weeks ago · EditedI think you are preaching to the converted on the boards; eBay are unlikely to take any notice, as it has been brought up probably well over a hundred times before.
I too have lost orders totalling many hundreds of pounds (and that's just the ones I know about), because buyers, understandably, don't trust someone they don't know to refund the extra. Often the total, with the full postage amount, is just beyond what the buyer can afford, so they can't go forward.
The problem I find is that potential buyers blame me. They can't believe that a huge, supposedly professional outfit such as eBay would not have a simple, foolproof way to combine postage, whenever appropriate.
I have instructions on my listings, asking buyers to use their basket, if buying multiple items, but, of course, buyers don't read such things, and, in any case, it doesn't work on the pathetic excuse of an app.
If eBay is going to allow combined postage, and it seems they do, they really should have a decent process in place. It really shouldn't be too difficult.
gjalp
·Jul 12, 2026 at 8:02 PMFor the most part, I find it occurs when buyers use the 'Buy Now' button rather than 'add to basket'. When they use the buy now button, ebay has this awful habit of taking immediate payment even if you have it set up in settings to say its not required. Ebay do it anyway. When everything is added to basket, so long as you have your postage rules set up (I have), buyers are able to check out and any discount on postage is automatic.
I know for a fact I have lost a lot of customers due to this issue. I have even received negative feedback for it too and yet it is beyond my control.
I have my own automated system and its just not possible for me to group all these separate orders together, send together and then refund excess postage. I would end up snowed under a huge mess of labels, envelopes and packing slips.
I have complained until Im blue in the face. Taken it to a higher level then someone leaves/goes on holiday and it is all simply forgotten. Fixing this issue is just not important to ebay.
wycombe1
·Jul 12, 2026 at 5:02 PMThis is a daily occurrence for me and I find it a tiresome chore ploughing through multiple invoices refunding overpaid postage because many of my customers are unable to request a combined invoice. Surely it is not rocket science to correct this? I dread to think how many orders I lose because of this awful invoicing system.