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? 

[craftychickfrances]

Yes the remaining listing allowance surely that's false advertising or am I wrong in saying that
If you go into help and read the articles that ebay have got up some of them are not applicable any more
To a new ebay seller or buyer that joins would think that the articles are the case when actually there not

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[zax93]

Just had a real mess with Simple Delivery - I had checked all my listings and swore that when they were auto relisted they all had kept their custom postage however on checking out a few sales one item had mysteriously crossed over to Simple Delivery - luckily the buyer had not paid so I was able to cancel it in time as he had won other items.

Checking as the items auto relisted another couple were showing now as Simple Delivery - what is weirder is that every one of them had different prices for the postage - one was £2.45 another was £3.90 and another was £7 or thereabouts - all the items were the same shape and weight - *bleep*

[andha-21]

Just an out of the box idea. When you listing take a screenshot of the listing as you want it, price, postage price etc, then include that in the listing photos.

That way if eBay change anything after you've listed it becomes easier to prove to a buyer.

[edwardian-dreams]

That’s  funny 

lol

[s2000king_123]

From db565 who couldn’t post for some reason:-

Hi, appolgies for bothering you but for some reason the community forum web page 'Option to send invoices disappeared' does not accept my attempts to load info- no idea why.

I wondered if you might load it as it may help in showing historical precedent in November 2023, found on google under- eBay Backtracks On Invoices Changes After Seller Pushback

Liz Morton
Published: Nov 15 2023 Updated: Nov 15 2023

The content I have been trying to load is:

EBAY is reversing course on sellers' ability to send invoices after major backlash.

NOVEMBER 2023 USA

After numerous customer complaints, EBAY reverce policy and allow combined postage after 2 weeks.

Since Ebay are now trying the same policy in UK and elsewher to see if they can get it to stick.

Depends on how many customers in the uk etc complain

[001uk]

INVOICE REMOVAL

Latest eBay gobbledygook answer from question via “X”

"At this time our IT team is working on making some site wide changes, which means you will be unable to send an invoice until they have adjusted this function to work as intended. They have not provided an ETA for this function to be usable again at this time, but if you need to combine any postage discounts we advise refunding the postage difference to your buyer after the purchase. Thanks for understanding!*"

*NB I have absolutely ZERO "understanding"!

The only thing I understand is the invoice option won't be coming back & eBay's intention is to wean all Private Sellers onto "Simple Delivery"

[andha-21]

I forget where, but that has been mentioned at least once here before.

Without knowing the exact USA circumstances I think the difference could be in how it's happened.

I don't think, please correct me if I'm wrong, the USA have BPF or Simple Delivery.

From the outset it was obvious Simple Delivery would kill invoicing anyway. No way it could work with the way they were advertising it.

I think the BPF part caused an unexpected consequence and they realised it would simply be easier to switch it off than try to find a temporary fix that would be nullified ax soon as Simple Delivery is mandatory.

I'm all for complaining, but complaining about no invoices is akin to complaining about a symptom not the cause. The cause is the BPF. So if you want to complain it makes more sense to target the thing that caused the problem.

Have a read of Trading Standards. See what there warning signs for fraudulent activity are. The last one on their list is about "when you feel pressured into buying something you don't want".

The BPF isn't so much pressure, as no choice at all. 

I don't want it.

I don't need it. The MBG is still active on every listing I've checked and whether eBay choose to include that for free is irrelevant. The fact is they contractually give us free protection on purchases. So selling a second unnecessary system is almost certainly fraud.

I also have full protection from my payment providers, Curve and PayPal.

So again, I don't need/want it.

Some may argue that we can buy elsewhere and that's the choice we have, but that isn't the intention of the regulations. If it was Trading Standards and the Ombudsman wouldn't have been able to go after all the other groups they have successfully.

The simple fact is they aren't allowed to do this under UK law and as they wish to trade with habitual UK residents, UK law applies.

[natandy80]

Hi

Sorry if I’m a bit late to the party but is the option to send invoices still unavailable since February or is it a new problem? Unable to combine postage and send invoices now, at the end of March? Any updates on this, if it has been an ongoing issue? 

Thank you. 

[mals-marvellous-motors-2]

So how do we challenge them?

[abrahamtoast]

Once again, eBay has shot themselves in the foot with this.

I had a buyer contact me yesterday, unable to request a combined invoice, and unwilling to pay postage six times, and trust me to refund, as we had had no prior dealings.

I must emphasise, he was NOT looking for a reduction of BPF; he simply wanted a realistic postage price.

So, I ended all six listings, and re-listed the six as a bundle for him, with a sensible postage price, and a slight discount on the total. He will be charged the BPF of 4% as he would have anyway, but he will only be charged one lot of 72p, instead of six. So eBay loses out on £3.60 income.

It's not like eBay to let a problem fester when it's costing them money, so I'm a little surprised they haven't done anything about the invoicing situation, particularly as they seem to have been through something similar in USA.

[mals-marvellous-motors-2]

I think the way forward is to complain en masse to eBay. Based on andha-21's post above it would seem that eBay may be in breach of UK trading standards. I suggest we bombard them with complaints. You can write to them at:

eBay Commerce UK Ltd.
1 More London Place
London, SE1, 2AF, United Kingdom

In the meantime I'm going to be registering some complaints with them by phone and chat. Chat's good because you can keep a record of it more easily. 

[yoganutvmw]

Done that still no replys

[andha-21]

@mals-marvellous-motors-2 

Sure, you can try to challenge eBay directly but the way mega corps usually work is that they deflect within departments. So they'll send you to x, who sends you to y, who sends you to z and they send you back to a. 

They can do this for as long as they want and simply waste your time. They do not have to answer to you as you are not a regulating body.

But if enough people make the same kind of complaints to Trading Standards and they decide to have a sniff, just point them to eBay community and they're going to see a whole lot of stuff they don't like the look of.

Alot of the stuff I'm seeing here is suggestive that eBay are operating a business model of simply not being caught. Being caught by me or you isn't the same as being caught by a sovereign legal regulating body and the consequences of that are completely different.

Recently loads more examples are appearing where eBay are changing listings. Considering they try and tell everyone they aren't part of the sales process that is a whole lot of naughty.

When a seller decides to refund a buyer for postage and selects that as the reason, eBay split the refund between item(s) and postage. That looks naughty too.

The BPF is advertised as a Buyer Protection Fee. So why is one buyer paying multiple fees for multiple items at checkout?

You only have to buy from different dealers at the same time to get that.

That makes it look like an ITEM Protection Fee instead. But they already contractually included the MBG on every listing, so that is an ITEM Protection Fee and if they are trying to pass BPF off for the same function that's almost certainly fraud.

There are so many things happening here all that really needs to happen is for the authorities to be pointed in the right direction and right now, that's as easy as right here.

The examples are here in black and white with lovely screenshots.

[yoganutvmw]

All way slow to respond when it comes to customers

[oldgeezer3345]

I do the same. Also, I agree that supporting my local Post Office is important.

[yoganutvmw]

Yes on going tell customers ebay problem and say ebays best fix is pay in full then you refund the postage difference not good but works

[oldgreypunk66]

@andha-21 

Yes, this is the same as other well known mis-selling cases - PPI, car finance, where an extra cost was hidden from the buyer. The BPF is not being made clear to buyers so they are in effect paying 75p + 4% on every purchase for an extra element which they are unaware of (and I've double-checked multiple private listings now across numerous categories and it does not state that the price shown includes a BPF anywhere - following the MBG link on every listing does not mention the BPF). All of us should be doing two things - making Trading Standards aware of this, and trading elsewhere until eBay is again a usable platform for private sellers.

[yoganutvmw]

Sent info to media programs bbc itv .. ect

[yoganutvmw]

hi i think its showing under the total price when item sold look under amount says includes buyer protection fee if i am wrong . sorry

[yoganutvmw]

Lot to take in but makes sense also covered with postal providers also