Mark/Gazza. Please, pretty please fix this up...

[Idealproductsales]

How do I invoice my buyer properly when I want to combine two items into one invoice? To charge them the shipping as the system calculates it (as shown in photo), is completely ridiculous! Please make shipping editable- forget about the shipping discount just list the items selling prices and let the seller select their OWN shipping options to offer and allow to set price?!

The upshot of it is, I sent the buyer two separate invoices, one with 100% shipping discount and the other with the $3.50 for media mail.

Invoicing when multiple sales are made is horribly kludgy, and as a seller, it is a terrible waste of time to have to go figure all of this out..

Honestly.. this is my first experience as a seller, and I have to say, it has suddenly become my #1 gripe, and now I'm not even sure I look forward to making lots of sales here..

So far this seems to be a huge limitation in how I wish to run my business.. if I cannot simply combine two auction sales into one and calculate shipping on the combined two items, I am not sure I even want to make sales.. For the amount of time I just spent trying to find some way to send the buyer a proper invoice with correct shipping and a correct final total, I could have done 20 listings, or cooked my dinner, or a dozen other things..

For a seller, especially a seller who plans/intends to sell a *lot* (and obviously. boost FVF income for Ebid) it is just too time-consuming and confusing to bother sending a combined invoice, and looks silly and unprofessional to the buyer..

This combined invoicing system seriously needs to change... I would imagine a seller coming in and trying to offer a professional business presence when sending an invoice to their buyer, is not going to be very pleased at being forced into sending a rather amateurish looking invoice..

I'd just as soon write my own invoicing script to send from my own website, it would sure look a lot better, and be much easier for the buyer to understand..

It's a very simple change-

When combining auctions, first, combine the auctions into one invoice, with the final price of each, and then allow the seller to choose shipping options (yes, AGAIN, after the auction is over!) and allow them to adjust or set the shipping price they want to set.
If a seller does not offer combined shipping, they simply hit "send invoice" and done.. if they do offer combined shipping, they NEED to be able to adjust the shipping charges and options (what if combined weight of two items actually makes more sensse to ship UPS, for example, and seller needs to INCREASE shipping price by , say , 30 cents to cover cost... Shipping discount does not work for that) and allow for seller to offer more than one option - Example I normally ship a book+dvd via media mail for $3.50, but I want to offer priority mail, which might go for $5.75 , in addition, so the buyer can choose.. or Perhaps the Buyer does not want delivery via USPS (some people HATE USPS for packages.. always having problems, and would gladly pay much higher rate to have it shipped via UPS or FedEx) How can I do that with the current combined invoicing? - I can find no way around editing the shipping charges beyond the shipping discount..- and no way to change shipping method based on buyer preference.

Forgive my rant, but This is, to me, a very serious issue, and reflects badly on the image of the seller, as well as Ebid, when a buyer gets an invoice that looks like the one I sent.. (and subsequently deleted because I could not get the shipping set properly!... as I said, I ended up sending 2 separate invoices)

Please, this needs to be corrected, some day soon.. not only for ebid's "image" but for the ever-growing seller base of people that are doing this for a living, as a business...

Oh yeah- allowing a seller to set their own customized personal Invoice Templates would be awesomely cool! (but, I could care less for the moment, as long as invoicing got fixed to at least work in a way that makes some sort of sense)

[FBNeNotes]

My buyers Keep On Paying for individual items.. when they have won multiple items, ouch.
The winning confirming email sent to winners by eBid.. should NOT have active link to PayPal... Kill that active link, so the seller can send invoice to buyer. This is very maddening here with the winning email and combined postage.... it is out of sellers hands, the way the setup now stands.
Gazza had said 4 weeks ago they he would add notice to the winners email... Not to pay if multple auctions were won, wait for sellers Invoice.
So combined postage would be correct and Not have seller pay double-triple amount fees to PayPal.
Why?? is this so hard to understand.

[waynemanor1953]

Good to hear I'm not the only one having problems with this. Haven't made very made sales yet but had a buyer last week won two items and, even though I wanted to offer combined postage, couldn't find a way to provide it. Really puts bidders off especially when buying small/light items such as postcards to find they have to be sent separately.
Tommy
P.S. Buyer turned out to a non payer in the end. Grrrr!!!

[ruth900]

Hi there, afraid I agree, the combined invoicing is confusing (well it confused me) both as a buyer and a seller. It really does need to be reviewed please. A simple list of items bought/sold with one line for p&p that the seller can amend would be wonderful!

[gazza]

At the moment you have ...

a total cost for the auctions and an option to add a discount if you want
a total cost for shipping and an option to add a discount if you want

The only way we can make it more basic than that is to only have 1 discount option instead of the 2, Will this help?

Gazza

[iwiw60]

Please make shipping editable- forget about the shipping discount just list the items selling prices and let the seller select their OWN shipping options to offer and allow to set price?!

I couldn't agree with you MORE, idealproducts!!!

The invoices that buyers receive leave much to be desired I'm afraid. I would add, however, that in the invoice that is sent to the buyer that the shipping charges that are quoted in the seller's listing should be what is stated in the invoice...nothing more...NO "options"!!!! That's like giving a kid in a candy store free-range to make that decision...aaaaaaack!!!

Hopefully Gazza/Mark will see this thread (and many others from the past) and realize that we sellers need this to be changed....

[ruth900]

but you've got to have the option to change the p&p from that listed - for combined shipping or the customer asking for a different delivery method.

[gazza]

but you've got to have the option to change the p&p from that listed - for combined shipping or the customer asking for a different delivery method.

To change the p&p from that listed you can add an amount into the shipping discount box.

eg.

you have 2 auctions and you want to charge the buyer 3.00 for shipping

auction 1 shipping = 2.00
auction 2 shipping = 2.00
-------------------------------
shipping = 4.00
-------------------------------
add a shipping discount = 1.00
-------------------------------
shipping total = 3.00
-------------------------------

This seems to be causing a bit of discomfort at the moment so let's get this one sorted quick.

Gazza

[Aviation_Nostalgia]

Hi Gazza,

The other problem that I see is, when you have finished with the discount and get the total shipping cost that you want, the invoice that the buyer receives has no shipping cost visible. The buyer has to click on a link to get the shipping options. Surely once the seller has put the final shipping cost in, it should show on the invoice, with a total cost to be paid. At the moment it is too easy for a buyer to pay without adding the shipping cost on.

[gazza]

Hi Gazza,

The other problem that I see is, when you have finished with the discount and get the total shipping cost that you want, the invoice that the buyer receives has no shipping cost visible. The buyer has to click on a link to get the shipping options. Surely once the seller has put the final shipping cost in, it should show on the invoice, with a total cost to be paid. At the moment it is too easy for a buyer to pay without adding the shipping cost on.

If this is the case then there is an error occuring that we do not know about.

At the moment when the buyer views the invoice they SHOULD see the shipping options and costs. They then click the Preview and Pay button that will send them to the finalised invoice whenre they can click the PayPal/PPPay/GCO buttons.