Seller Not Offering Combined Shipping On Ebay - Policy Question

I won 4 covers in an auction on ebay recently and asked the seller to send me an invoice with updated shipping charges. Well, I got the invoice with a $9.50 shipping charge (ie. no discount at all 3 @ $2.50 and one cover at $2). Is this a policy violation on ebay or is this allowed? Its the first time this has happened so I wanted to get some feedback from the community before I took it up with the seller.

As a side note, I have won a few more items from this seller today. If this no discount invoicing is allowed I will pay each item separately for today winnings since there is no advantage to me (no shipping discount) and this will cost the seller more in fees (I think?) as my only possible Tosha before I blackball this seller for life given his billing policy on shipping charges.

thx

I am not aware of any shipping consolidation requirement by ebay. It just makes good business sense to combine shipping for sales. I promote it heavily on my listings. I have been forced to bump the USPS rate by the 10% to partially compensate the commission ebay charges though. IE: Latest price for an envelope is .55¢ so I now charge .60¢ and still lose .01¢ on every mailing.

This is something that should be resolved with the seller before the sale is made, i.e. "Ask the seller a question." It violates no ebay policy that I am aware of. I personally would never not combine shipping, and consider it, in theory, low rent to not do it.

Perhaps you should consider it a lesson learned?!

p.s. I always offer free shipping, but I have been in your position as a buyer, and can feel your pain...

John

Not combining shipping seems to be a sales strategy in most cases. My buying strategy is to avoid such sellers, unless the item + shipping still makes it a worthwhile purchase...which it usually does not.

One seller did that to me. I never bought another thing from him. Caveat emptor.

Along the same thought as the non-combined shipping amount, one of my own pet peeves is those sellers that offer a "discounted" shipping amount for each item, say only 50 cents for each additional stamp bought at the same time, instead of the regular $3.50 (or whatever) shipping price.

My reaction is along the lines of, "really? the additional weight of one single stamp requires that much more in postage? are you serious?"

Jim

Thank for all the feedback. Lesson learned again! This hobby is full of lessons.

I had thought based on multiple combined discount shipping all other multi purchase s there was an expressed policy. I also thought a seller was not to "profit" from shipping.? I will pay my 9.50 plus settle my wins one by one tonight. How painful!

Redtail,

If it brings any comfort to you, your seller must pay ebay fees on his shipping charges, too. I would definitely pay for the items separately, as well, as this will result in additional PayPal fees...

John

When I've sold on ebay, I usually list shipping at $1.00 to cover the cost of the envelope and stamp.

If someone purchased another stamp or two, there would be a combined shipping charge of $1.00 for all three.

If it was covers, that was a different story. I'd charge $1.50 shipping and .25 cents for each additional cover up to 10 covers (which was what fit safely in an envelope). Why? The increased weight and the cost of the plastic sleeves (I always use new materials, i.e. glassines, cover sleeves, etc.).

I never had any complaints about that.

Another consideration is to thump the seller on the feedback rating for each "Shipping Cost". These impact the fees they pay to ebay...

Cue the " ebay ratings are a farce" comments...

Why not email the vendor, very politely, and seek consideration for a discount first.
"Could you see your way to offering me a discount...blah blah"

Lets see the response, if a negative, continue on with your suggested route.
It costs nothing to ask, he/she may just be "trying it on" or simply ignorant of the usual combined shipping.

Check again with the seller. It is well known that ebay may fail to correctly calculate combined shipping if the seller has not had time to combine sales into an order. I have never seen ebay calculate combined shipping on international orders if the buyer pays before an invoice is generated on ebay or orders are combined from a third party application.

It is better to assume that ebay is at fault unless proven otherwise.

As a seller on E-bay, it now costs me $3.06 to ship an item, and that is assuming it sells domestically. E-bay requires tracking, and you don't get that on a first class letter, it needs to be a parcel. I don't sell individual stamps, I sell mostly sets of sheets or some covers. Adding additional lots often adds to the shipping costs. To avoid the problem mentioned here, I just offer free shipping, but I set a minimum price of $4.99 to cover shipping. I often have people offer $1 or $2 for an item, but I have to decline, because at that point, I am losing money on the sale, and it would be better for me to just throw the item away..

I was just wondering if an ebay seller can charge shipping individually on let's say 3 items you bought and send it to you under combined shipping to save themselves cost and hassle. This seems unethical to me.

Is there a reason not to clarify what the situation is before bidding or buying? There are more things than this that are up to interpretation. And going back again when you don't like the seller's policy?

Agree with HY-BRASIL , clarify the situation before bidding or buying ,You are entering a contract, don't change the terms after you buy .