Combined Shipping + Handling Charges Buyer + Sellers
admin July 4th, 2008
“Combined Shipping & Handling“ can involve different terms to individual sellers and buyers. It’s important to know exactly how your seller handles this issue.
Many shoppers just assume that every seller combines shipping and handling, which isn’t the case. Some ebayers may even think that sellers are required to give a discount with additional purchases. Sellers don’t have to combine anything, unless combined shipping is listed in the auction that you bid on.
Some sellers offer combined shipping on similiar items only. Some items are odd shaped - or have some other reason that they can’t be combined. For example - we won’t combine something smelly with our Bakery Items. We won’t ship candles, perfume, bath products, etc with edible items.
So - don’t assume that if a seller combines for one item, that all of the other products listed are equally combinable.
Some dirty tricks to look out for:
1. Seller advertises “Combined shipping” or “We combine shipping for multiple purchases“
The Dirty Trick: The seller combines the shipping, as in, they put your items all in the same box, + then they mail them together, but you still pay the full listed shipping & handling for each item. Because they only combine the PHYSICAL shipping, they didn’t put in their auction “We combine shipping CHARGES”
If this ever happens to you, (which, you shouldn’t let it happen, by checking on these issues BEFORE you bid) but if this does happen, and you are paying with paypal (which, by the way, you should be paying with paypal), you should make sure that you pay for all of your purchases with this seller SEPARATELY. Why pay separately? Well, then the seller will be forced to ship your item separately, in order to prove to paypal that your items were shipped. Why should the seller enjoy a shipping discount, at your expense?
Don’t discuss this with your seller, after all, they have the right to their selling policies. Don’t email them and argue about it. As per Ebay policy, you are obligated to pay for the items and the listed shipping, because you bid on the auctions and won. You do have to pay, but you also have the right to pay for your items separately.
Your seller may even just go ahead and combine your parcel, and save himself some shipping money. In that case, the seller will only have ONE delivery confirmation number, leaving them open to paypal complaints of item non-receipt for the other items in your package. If you were to file paypal complaints, the seller must have a delivery confirmation number that shows delivery for each separate payment that you make.
2. Seller advertises “We combine shipping charges”
The Dirty Trick: You win 4 rings from a seller, each has S&H charge of $5 listed. Rings are light, so you assume that shipping will be close to $5 to $7 dollars for 4 rings. Seller sends you an invoice which states $19.25 shipping and handling charges.
Has this seller combined charges, as advertised in their listing? Yes. They charged you $5 S&H for the 1st ring, and $4.75 each for the additional rings, giving you a 25 cent discount per additional item. This may not be a nice thing to do, but it is, technically, combining shipping charges. You were given a shipping discount, true, it was a very small discount, but still qualifies as “Combining Shipping”
3. Seller advertises ”We are happy to combine shipping charges!” or “Shipping for each additional item is $1.00″
The Dirty Trick: You win 5 pairs of earrings. Shipping and Handling is listed at $3.00. You assume that your total S&H charge for all 5 sets of earrings will total $7.00. ($3 for the first item, and $1 shipping for each of the 4 additional items) You think that $7.00 is a little bit on the high side, but you like the earrings, so you go ahead and bid.
Seller sends you an invoice, with S&H listed at $11.00. Why? Because SHIPPING is $1.00 for each item, and HANDLING is $2.00 for each item. Some sellers charge handling for each item, even when combining shipping.
What can you do to protect yourself from this? Well, you should always try to purchase items that have the information listed clearly on the auction page. For example: Shipping and Handling is $5 for the first item and $2.50 for each additional item.
If S&H is not listed clearly enough, email the seller, and ask this question: “How much is shipping, handling, and any required insurance for 3 of this item shipped to zipcode 00000?” (Insert your zipcode into the sentence) If you do not get an email answer, do not bid. If you do get an email response KEEP the email in case you need it later, sometimes sellers change their minds about shipping quotes.
If you don’t get an email response, and you really want the item…. and you don’t mind the listed S&H for one of the items, you could bid on ONE of the items. After you win the item, you could then email the seller and ask them how much more would it cost for S&H if you bid on another item. Often, the idea of an add-on sale will get the seller to answer you, and may incourage the seller to offer a better discount. These are just a few examples of what can happen with combined shipping.
BUYERS: You shouldn’t expect to get your items shipped for free or even close to free. Sellers have to pay the shipping companies, and they are allowed to charge a handling fee. It’s important to realize exactly what you are bidding on, and to insure that you are going to be happy about the total amount of money the purchase is going to cost you.
Please don’t bid too much, and then email the seller and say “You should be shipping this for free, considering how much I bid” because sellers have no control over how much you bid.
I imagine that I will get some negative votes from the sellers who like to run their auctions using these costly combined shipping techniques…….. If you are one of those sellers, you should consider that your negative feedback comments about combined shipping could be costing you sales.
This is the first draft of Combined Shipping + Handling, may be altered in future additions.
Reference Source : http://reviews.ebay.com/Combined-Shipping-Handling-Charges-Buyer-Sellers_W0QQugidZ10000000000054134
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