Buyer paid separately..

chemical.galaxy

You are right, it seems that it does not matter whether payment was made at once or not for feedback purposes - I have learned something today

Crowqueen

Feedback only counts as one score from the same buyer when multiple purchases are made in the same week. Purchases made a week apart - I think it's done on a calendar basis - would count for more than one feedback score.

In practice so long as everything is OK I wouldn't be worrying about poor feedback from this person.

steveE2

TAG wrote: »

I know Valli which is why I wondered if I could 'start again' for her.

I've waited 4 days for payment as it is. I think I'll just send them all separately.

She's already paid !! You have not been waiting for payment.

Why do you want to ?

I wondered if I could 'start again' for her.

You have already paid paypal fees on the payments she has made,if you refund and she pays again you will still pay paypal again.
It's up to you if you send purchases as one or combined,but i would do as sgh1976 says and refund any excess postage.

Valli

steveE2 wrote: »

She's already paid !! You have not been waiting for payment.

Why do you want to ?You have already paid paypal fees on the payments she has made,if you refund and she pays again you will still pay paypal again.
It's up to you if you send purchases as one or combined,but i would do as sgh1976 says and refund any excess postage.

OP said, in her opening post, that the buyer had 'just paid' and that she's been waiting for her to pay for four days.

Pay pal charge 3.5% plus 20p per transaction. So three separate payments will have lost Tag 40p because Tag has to pay 20p 3 times; had the buyer paid in one payment only 1 x 20p would have to be paid, in addition to the 3.4%

While 40p isn't much if Tag lists 99p items (like I do) which sell for 99p it's quite a chunk out of her 'profits'. Because it took the buyer four days to pay Tag is reluctant, it would appear, to refund the money and ask for a combined payment, especially as the buyer is new to ebay and, it would appear, unfamiliar with the system.

Crowqueen

OK, send the items separately and have done with it.

Otherwise you are losing time, and if you mess about any more you will lose more money on the deal, not to mention upset the buyer. 4 days to pay is a little on the long side, and it's frustrating when it happens, but if you refund and she doesn't pay again you will have problems trying to open any kind of dispute.

Timewasters are frustrating, but you are in a double bind here so you might as well just send everything separately. If something is not profitable to sell individually then I wouldn't sell it.

I know what frustrates me as a buyer about the combined invoice stuff and that is that there is virtually no notification a seller has sent a new invoice unless you constantly check 'Pay Now' to see. I've waited a week for a seller to send a combined invoice, then paid up for the items separately. They came in one package, natch, thus saving the seller several pounds on postage but he didn't refund me the extra even though he advertised that he would give a decent discount at POS if the buyer waited for a combined invoice - and it's not like he could have forgotten; the items are such that it would be very surprising were buyers to only buy one at a time. A waste of both time and money from a buyer's POV.

I agree this situation above is largely the buyer's fault, but some blame should be put on eBay for not signposting combined invoices for buyers. But trying to get someone who is not in direct contact to operate an already confusing system is not worth your time or effort in this case.

If this is unprofitable for you, try rearranging your systems to offer e.g. batches or bulk lots of similar items to try and reduce the number of individual purchases people have to make. I know some items like single trading cards are going to be hand-picked by buyers in the combination they want. But if you are selling, e.g., beads, then make up packets of varieties commonly bought together and make it easy for first time buyers to find what they want. Keep an eye on what people buy together - another example is stamps - when I was selling an accumulated collection, I used to sort into country lots, thematic lots, etc. rather than sell off large bulk packets or just individual stamps.

Try and gear your selling to your customers - should be a no-brainer that - and also look into a Paypal micropayments account if you have a lot of individual purchases of cheap items. There is a smaller flat fee but a higher percentage - think it is something like 5p + 5% rather than 20p + 3.x% - so that on 99p sales they don't take as much proportionate to the income you receive.

steveE2

Valli wrote: »

OP said, in her opening post, that the buyer had 'just paid' and that she's been waiting for her to pay for four days.

Pay pal charge 3.5% plus 20p per transaction. So three separate payments will have lost Tag 40p because Tag has to pay 20p 3 times; had the buyer paid in one payment only 1 x 20p would have to be paid, in addition to the 3.4%

While 40p isn't much if Tag lists 99p items (like I do) which sell for 99p it's quite a chunk out of her 'profits'. Because it took the buyer four days to pay Tag is reluctant, it would appear, to refund the money and ask for a combined payment, especially as the buyer is new to ebay and, it would appear, unfamiliar with the system.

No in the opening post OP said

TAG wrote: »

I've just had a newbie buyer pay for 3 items separately.

I did send her a combined invoice but she says she didn't get it!

If I refund her (Paypal) will I be able to send another combined invoice?

It's not until post #4 OP says

I've waited 4 days for payment as it is. I think I'll just send them all separately.

You seem to think that the additional 20p charges by paypal,will be refunded,they will not.
If OP sends a new invoice the existing paypal 20p charges will still stand + a new 20p charge for the new combined invoice.

steveE2

I agree with Crowqueen in the above post
BUT the OP hasn't stated a value they may/not have been 99p items
A combined invoice may be for the sellers benefit in reduced paypal charges as opposed to reduced postage which may/not be viable sending combined.
Unless we knew the selling price and postage charged its all opinion.

Anyway to TAG, yes you can send a refund and a revised invoice but you will still pay the paypal fees due on the new invoice.
Presumably the buyer paid for the 3 items inc postage separately in which case either send separately or combine and refund the difference in postage.

TAG

Thanks for all the replies.

My intention was to try and save the buyer some money on postage, IF there was an easy way to refund and resend. But obviously there's not.

I've never bought multiple items from one seller, so I just assumed that the buyer sees a 'combined invoice' as I do when I send it?

Paypal fees wasn't an issue. I just wanted to try and help her so she doesn't continually pay over the odds on multiple purchases in the future.

I decided not long after I'd posted on here, that I'd just send them anyway, in view of the fact I'd already waited 4 days for payment.

I've just treated them as individual purchases and sent them separately this afternoon, so job done.

Thanks for you long post crowqueen Is it easy to swap to a micro account or would I have to open a new one?

Crowqueen

Great stuff.

You would have to open a new account but you are permitted one of each kind (personal, Premier/Business, micropayments) in your own name - so you would need another email address at least. The break-even point where a MP account becomes less viable, given the larger variable fee, than a Business account is around £9 per transaction.

Combined postage isn't automatic - you need to manually adjust the invoice or set up a postage macro to automatically charge a flat rate or make a deduction per additional item:

Say you are selling trading cards at 99p + £1 postage each (which is reasonable as you would pay 60p first class, plus envelope, plus sleeve for the card).

Buyer 1 buys one - simple, you charge 1.99.

Buyer 2 buys two - you charge £1.98 plus £2 postage - that is not so viable as you don't need two envelopes.

You would maybe advertise a flat rate of 10p per additional item, so instead of charging £3.98 for the second sale you would charge £1.98, plus £1 initial postage, plus 10p for the additional item = £3.08.

You would do this either by adjusting every multiple purchase as the invoice comes in, or there is a way of setting up rates under site preferences -> 'Posting and Packing Preferences' - which should give you a way to automate the process.

chemical.galaxy

Crowqueen wrote: »

I know what frustrates me as a buyer about the combined invoice stuff and that is that there is virtually no notification a seller has sent a new invoice unless you constantly check 'Pay Now' to see.

Ah now that is interesting - I did not realise this.
Perhaps this is why my buyer whom I sent a combined invoice to twice in the last 5 days is cross because she thinks I did not send one and I opened a NPB on her today.
I am pretty sure my stars will suffer