Option to send invoices disappeared

[s2000king_123]

Option on sold listings to ‘send payment details’ has disappeared and I’m unable to send people invoices for combined orders like I normally do. I did a live chat with customer service, but I don’t really think they knew what I was talking about.

I have buyers waiting to pay, but are reluctant to pay for the entire postage cost in one go and have me refund due to the amount of money they would have in limbo. 

anybody else having the same problem? Anyone at eBay able to confirm it’s being looked into so I can tell my buyers? 

[michael1908]

First time this has happened with me. Trying to combine 8 sales to one buyer yesterday evening. Still no joy this morning, so when I googled I found out that this is a widespread issue. What with the constant changes to the fee structure and arbitrary VAT and other fees with eBay International Shipping shambles, I am definitely looking at stopping selling after almost 20 years. Not too keen on the buyer fee, either!

[inverdivit08]

My account is impacted.   It is really damaging for someone who sells collectables such as postcards etc.  Low cost items, frequently sell 15+ in one order, and postage for 15 costs little more than postage for 1 item.  Buyers refusing to pay these sums up front.   Seems to be taking a long time to fix this issue.

[drainie]

I’m in the same position; all we need is the return of Request Payment with the option to group items and charge a revised (lower?) postage cost. The suggestion of a later refund will not work; why should buyers have to trust sellers will (eventually) refund the excess.

[cookcookingbooks]

Seems you have to chat to an agent, then they put you on the priority list.

I'm not convinced, but it's worth a try.

I was offered a solution to

1. Send a Paypal invoice (that incurs extra fees for a seller)

2. Cancel the order and relist again (Seriously)

[andha-21]

@cookcookingbooks 

Oh wow.

They are finally saying what I've been saying from the start.

At least it isn't the Simple Delivery and they'll send the invoice BS some CS agents were saying yesterday.

2. Is your only realistic and safest way as it has actually been okayed by an eBay community helper.

Progress.

[roberth5777]

This has been the case for me for 3 to 4 weeks with no care and no fix in sight from ebay.

I spoke to at least 5 agents on the phone and all were totally clueless and unhelpful.

[roberth5777]

This is not solved and this is not a solution.

[tim_arcadia]

I’m also impacted by this defect.

I suspect that it’s caused by the new buyer protection “feature” not working correctly when sending combined sale invoices.

I can send invoices to buyers overseas, but I can’t send invoices to UK buyers where the new buyer protection fee kicks in.

Hoping it’s fixed soon.

[oldgeezer3345]

Great!! Thank you for replying.

[*vyolla*]

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@cookcookingbooks wrote:

Seems you have to chat to an agent, then they put you on the priority list.

I'm not convinced, but it's worth a try.

I was offered a solution to

1. Send a Paypal invoice (that incurs extra fees for a seller)

2. Cancel the order and relist again (Seriously)

---

I can't believe an eBay agent told you to do that!

First off, to send a PayPal invoice you need the buyer's email address. Contact details aren't allowed to be exchanged until payment has been made, else eBay will view it as an 'off eBay' deal and will sanction your account.

It is an 'off eBay' deal. The item is not being bought via eBay, it's being negotiated and bought outside of eBay.

I would strongly advise against doing this. 

This is a technical issue, the usual introduce-something-new-without-looking-at-the-big-picture-first scenario. All sellers can do, if they need to send an invoice (and there should only be rare cases when you need to do this) is to make a partial refund after the buyer pays. 

[andha-21]

@*vyolla* 

I know why you're saying about partial refunds but the last time I did that the only option was to take money off the total.

You couldn't select a specific component from that total.

After that you got to select a reason.

& then you saw the refund breakdown. Off memory that was split between item and postage.

There's a potential hidden problem in that specifically with (partial) refunds as the item value has officially already changed.

It's why the relist route has always been the safest. As you can put the exact postage amount you want to charge for it and the rest is split between the items.

[a45heaven]

All sellers can do, if they need to send an invoice (and there should only be rare cases when you need to do this) is to make a partial refund after the buyer pays. 

I beg to differ - 50% of my auctions result in multiple wins for bidders, hence the need for an invoice.

There are times when Free shipping  is used as a kinda 'thank you' to buyers - Invoice required.

Despite ebays best efforts to stop the practice, i am always looking at encouraging bidders to build up multiple lots and as such a combined invoice is required. My items lend them selves to combining packages.

Are ebay freezing their 4 day to pay rule, whilst ebay solve the invoice issue?

As a buyer i have a loathing to pay multiple postage, even though the seller tells me they will refund, as ebay prefer the seller to refund.

The buyer is putting a lot of faith in the seller to make the refund, where as ebay do not trust the seller to mail the items with the new set up, and as such ebay withhold the funds until delivered.

[eastern-lights]

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@a45heaven wrote:

Are ebay freezing their 4 day to pay rule, whilst ebay solve the invoice issue?

---

You can control it. The four days "rule" is that is how long you have to leave unpaid sales before you can use "did not pay" as a reason to cancel a sale, which results in the non-payer receiving a strike. You can leave it longer if you like, provided you are doing it manually.

If you have it set up to automatically happen then I image it will still happen after four days.

It might be an idea to ensure "automatically cancel unpaid items" is deselected while this is going on, and do any necessary cancelations manually.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/Cancel/Preference/UnpaidPurchase

[sunor-95]

I have the same problem, the option to send an invoice to reduce postage etc has disappeared. I tried doing online help but it was useless

[*vyolla*]

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@a45heaven wrote:

All sellers can do, if they need to send an invoice (and there should only be rare cases when you need to do this) is to make a partial refund after the buyer pays. 

I beg to differ - 50% of my auctions result in multiple wins for bidders, hence the need for an invoice.

---

Why would you not create a combined postage discount rule so there's no need to send an invoice?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/ship-track/ship-track-selling/ebay-postage-discounts?id=4168

[eastern-lights]

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@cookcookingbooks wrote:

Seems you have to chat to an agent, then they put you on the priority list.

I'm not convinced, but it's worth a try.

---

I'm fascinated by the idea of a priority list. I picture the programmers going into each of the fifteen million UK Ebay accounts individually to fix it (or perhaps they come to your house?); if you are on the priority list I guess they put you to the top of the list.

And there was I assuming that one fix will fix everyone. All in one go.

😁

[lucy_farmer]

'I can't believe an eBay agent told you to do that!

First off, to send a PayPal invoice you need the buyer's email address. Contact details aren't allowed to be exchanged until payment has been made, else eBay will view it as an 'off eBay' deal and will sanction your account.'

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I find myself getting more and more gobsmacked by the complete bull that CS are seemingly allowed to say.😮

  (If it was frowned upon it'd get less and less common. But the things they say seem to be getting sillier and sillier, and more and more frequent..)

Ebay is a Global Tech Company. Customers shouldn't have to put up with being flat-out lied to.

[andha-21]

@eastern-lights 

Yesterday they told at least 2 users that because of Simple Delivery eBay will send the invoices on their behalf, so they didn't have to worry ...

Umm, yes, right. A third party that can't have any possible idea how much I planned to discount taking charge of that very thing.

Umm...

Yes ..

[eastern-lights]

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@*vyolla* wrote:

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@a45heaven wrote:

All sellers can do, if they need to send an invoice (and there should only be rare cases when you need to do this) is to make a partial refund after the buyer pays. 

I beg to differ - 50% of my auctions result in multiple wins for bidders, hence the need for an invoice.

---

Why would you not create a combined postage discount rule so there's no need to send an invoice?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/ship-track/ship-track-selling/ebay-postage-discounts?id=4168

---

Thank you for that. I didn't know it existed. I suspect a lot of people don't.

Gonna have to to look at that.

[andha-21]

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@*vyolla* wrote:

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@a45heaven wrote:

All sellers can do, if they need to send an invoice (and there should only be rare cases when you need to do this) is to make a partial refund after the buyer pays. 

I beg to differ - 50% of my auctions result in multiple wins for bidders, hence the need for an invoice.

---

Why would you not create a combined postage discount rule so there's no need to send an invoice?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/ship-track/ship-track-selling/ebay-postage-discounts?id=4168

---

Oh wow.

I clean forgot about that.

Never used it myself but do any of you know how the final invoice comes out?

Do all the items get added together into one long list?

If so, well done @*vyolla* 

You may have just found the next thing they have to kill.