'seller Does Not Offer Combined Shipping'

I have often gotten this message when buying multiple lots from a seller who had entered the lots via one of ebay's foreign sites, such as ebay.de or ebay.co.uk.

I found found that if I log into that site instead of ebay.com and ask for a shipping total there, the request often goes through without this message. And they generally reply with a reduced combined shipping charge.

So it is often not the result of the seller's action or inaction, but rather yet another ebay glitch.

Well it gets better. As of today there is no indication that he has mailed my lots so I sent him a short polite query. This is what he said in return:

'No, I am sorry, but I have little delay. ( to much orders, I dont want make mistake in componate lots, and I have also normal work) I will send it in Monday.'

I'd say if this guy is so busy he ought not be trying to do ebay. Wonder how many other buyers he has waiting currently?

eBay's invoicing has gotten starnge recently - sometimes it calculates reduced combined shipping correctly, sometimes not (not happening more frequently recently).

The problem is not recent. Combined shipping on invoices to international buyers is always wrong if the second item is included at no cost, unless corrected manually before sending the invoice. If the invoice is sent by a third party application like SixBit buyers cannot pay until an ebay invoice is created because the correct shipping amount and the ebay amounts don't match.

It is about time that ebay brought its pathetic software development operation back to the United States. Low priced offshore software developers may be less expensive but the higher costs associated with poor quality code more than make up the difference. While ebay wants to collect more from sellers, they want to keep paying less to their employees and contractors, except of course "top" managers who continue to get more and more.

That's pretty typical of pretty much every going business concern these days. I've always been amazed when companies I work for try to "trim the fat" and end up cutting down to the bone, costing them more than they save in the long run. Gotta please those shareholders first, customers and rank-and-file employees are far behind.

Amen to that, and it gets worse when it applies to health care. I use DaVita for my dialysis. They billed out $33 billion dollars last year, yet one of the dialysis techs at my facility (with 17 years seniority) is being paid $28k per year. The techs are the people who we put our lives in their hands 3 times a week. To make matters worse, DaVita has paid out over $1 billion in fines and penalties in the last 5 years (Medicare fraud). Health care corporations never let patient care get in the way of their fiduciary responsibilities.

ebay Board of Directors, like all BODs, are legally responsible for making decisions that are in favor of the shareholders. If this coincides with anything that benefits sellers or buyers than that is fine, but the shareholders are their first responsibility. I recommend that buying some ebay stock if you can handle the ethical overhead.
Don
APS #094826

Not to make this a spittin' match; but, in my case, the seller clearly knew who he was dealing with from my initial message to him after I won the bids.
I repeat: we had known each other for a few years, he lives 300 metres from me, he had been to my house, I had been to his house, we are members of the same stamp club.
He collected shipping fees for several items; but, shipped all in one envelope with a stamp for regular postage.
Despite the long list of Paypal rules, there are legal and ethical ways around them as I have found out from dealings with other more intelligent sellers.
This was a classic case of greed over friendship, ethics, just plain common sense and most of all: forgetting that what goes around comes around.

I sell on ebay a lot--I always combine my lots..within reason--

I dont understand two things.
First, I dont understand buyers who buy something before read shipping rules/combined shipping rules. If nothing mentioned they should contact seller before the purchase. Yes I know its better to press bid button when You see some interesting material. And interesting material is like a drug for stamps collectors.
Second, I dont understand sellers that not offer combined shipping.

I have found some sellers outside the US will advertise on the US ebay site in English but have payment and shipping information in a language other than English. Unless you speak and read that language perfectly, you often can be caught in translation traps. Goggle and other translation sites often can not help translate "Philatelic Terms" with any accuracy.

ebay can stop this by requiring the entire auction listing be in the same language NOT multiple languages.

READ THE TERMS ,before you bid or ask before you bid . What is so hard to understand. I never discuss price adjustments after I do the work {Asphalt business 23 years}.
When you start a stamp auction at 99 cents and hope it goes higher , but if it doesn't somewhere in the shipping is a small profit .

Agree 100 %. Yap, good advice for the buyers. "READ THE TERMS"
But, there can be good profit from shipping if You sell gigantic amounts of something that is worth near worthless .