Additional eBay Stealth fee? Clarification needed please!

[brickdragon]

I offer a 'Buy one - get one at 10%' off discount on nearly all the items in my store.

This discount is very popular and several buyers will buy 2 or more  items from my store at the same time.

However, whilst customers benefit from the discount when they purchase 2 items at the same time, eBay are charging me a final Value fee of 30p plus VAT on EACH item even though they've been purchased together as one order and the multiple purchase discount has been applied

Also, when this happens, all the items in the order  have a different order number even though they've been purchased together, benefited from the multiple purchase discount,  and are being posted to the same address.

This is a random issue and doesn't seem to be happening to all multiple purchase orders but has happened multiple times over the last few months and the final value fees have racked up as a result.

Can anyone clarify why this happens?

Is it a glitch or is there a valid reason for this? 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[jonatjonatjonat]

Are the orders it occurs on either international GSP orders or click and collect?

[brickdragon]

No, I rarely sell via GSP and the orders in question are not click and collect either.

I've noticed the odd anomaly where a customer has purchased 2 items and accidentally chose home address delivery for one item and click and collect for another which generates 2 separate orders which I can understand but the orders I'm currently reviewing are ones where the final value fee has been charged to each item even though they have been purchased together, are being sent to the same address, and the customer has received a multi-buy discount.

[storage.boutique]

I havent seen the different order number issue before, might be worth asking seller support.

The multi buyer discount allows you to send multiple items in one parcel, thus saving you rather a lot of money off the mainly fixed postage fee. On that basis, you should calculate your discount. You are correct, a FVF is applied to each item. This is not a stealth tax as it has always been thus. It is well worth offering the discount however as you will see a marked increase in your sales. eBay customers are particularly price elastic weheras those buying through Prime are not. Horses for courses!

[brickdragon]

Thanks for your reply.

I intend to contact seller support next week to query. I thought I'd mention it on the forum first to see if anyone else has noticed the same problem.

My issue is that the final value fee application is completely inconsistent in multiple purchases. Sometimes the items in a multiple purchase are grouped together with a single FVF but on other occasions each item is classed as a separate order with its own FVF even though they have been purchased together.

Could just be a glitch but hopefully seller support may be able to shed some light on it

[the-nutwood-collection]

I have experienced an intermittent issue with multi-buy.  I receive two, or three, separate orders, each with a 30p +VAT transaction fee, but the price charged to the buyer is the multi-buy price. 

I don't know whether the buyer placed separate orders, or whether the items were ordered together and split into multiple orders by eBay.  What I do know is that I lose 36p on each order after the first, and the buyer gets the benefit of the multi-buy price.

I've never called CS about this because I feel it would be a fruitless exercise.  Even if the agent agreed that it was wrong and refunded the overcharged transaction fees, my monetary gain would not compensate for the time and aggravation of making the call.

[patchers]

I've observed this happening sometimes on my orders, consisting of products which have differing postage services on the item listing.

[rainbowtrax]

Yes, I have had exactly this issue on random orders. As you say, it then costs morre in fees but like @the-nutwood-collection I decided I just couldn't face the hassle of contacting CS and trying to get them to understand, no doubt unsuccessfully.

[brickdragon]

As this issue is clearly not and isolated case and happening to other buyers, I contacted eBay Support today to query the problem. I spoke to Tess who was very helpful and friendly but she hadn't come across this problem before.

I've showed her an example of the problem - a multiple purchase from the same buyer - all purchased at the same time - where each single item within the order has generated its own order number and final value fee as well as a 'successful' multiple purchase order from a different buyer where all the items have checked out as one order with just a single final value fee.

Tess has forwarded these cases to IT to review and come up with some answers as to why this happens.

I estimated that this issue has already cost me over £50 in additional fees this year so far but has been going on for much longer. 

I'll post an update once I receive a response from eBay IT.  

The answer better be good as I'm not prepared to get fobbed off with some random excuse now that I've invested time to review this issue.

[lord_and_lady_m]

Check each order number to see what postage they choose for each item. I've had this happen when they've chosen 2 different options.

[brickdragon]

Thanks very much for your reply.

I have spotted a handful of historic orders where this has indeed been the case with customers choosing different shipping methods or click and collect on different items within the same order which understandably generates separate order numbers, but, in the majority of historic orders that I've reviewed, there are no postage method differences showing for each item within the order which is why I'm puzzled.

[don.g.ovany]

It's a very old problem. I remember contacting both eBay and PayPal who both blamed each other's software. Now PayPal has been out of the equation for several yeas, it's clearly an eBay issue. 

One thing that seems to affect it is if the sold listings have any different business policies. Having said that, it can occur at any time. 

[brickdragon]

Thanks for your reply.

I must admit that I haven't looked at different business policies within the individual listings included in the multiple purchase orders in question. Hopefully, the eBay IT team will be able to clarify when they respond.

I dread to think how much profit eBay has made from this FVF 'glitch' from all the sellers affected over the years!

[the-nutwood-collection]

It is an old problem.  I first noticed it two or three years ago, and the transactions would have been via managed payments - so PayPal's not to blame.

My multi-buy listings all have the same business policies and they're all freepost - so that's not to blame.

I had the same thought as @brickdragon - lots of little 30p add up to a load of extra dosh for eBay and, when an issue is small and intermittent, how many sellers are like me and can't be bothered to call CS?  Quite a lot I expect.

I'll be very interested to hear what tech have to say.  'Can't reproduce the issue' is my guess.