[ARC5] A New eBay Screing

[swkb4dmf at windstream.net]

---- "J. Forster" <jfor at quikus.com> wrote: 
> About a week ago, I bought a connector for $1.50 from a profific eBay
> seller. I've known the guy for some time, and emailed him directly,
> telling him I as interested in another lot, closing tis evening.
> 
> Well, I sniped it at about T-20 seconds and eBay locked my bid out, saying
> I have to pay for the items in my 'cart' before being able to bid on this
> seller's items.

Jay,

It is a new rule they came up with that took effect for 2014. Not sure how it works exactly but they have had messages pop up when you list items stating that it was coming. From those messages, I have gotten the impression that they were going to force the buyer to complete each purchase, one at a time, unless you use the cart. 

>From a seller standpoint, and if it does actually work, it may help with a problem that sellers have been having for a long time now. The problem is that a great multitude of buyers don't understand how to buy from more than one listing from the same seller. (eBay's fault entirely) They complete each purchase, paying shipping on each item, and don't wait for a combined invoice which reflects the combined shipping cost. (In spite of how you plaster it all over your store pages and descriptions)

Now, all this hinges on how well ebay communicates the new procedures. If history repeats, they will mess it up or just plain not say anything and leave everyone to figure it out the hard way. The latter seems to be their preferred way. I have had several heated phone calls with them about this topic and so have many others. If I didn't have a conscience I could just keep the extra money they send and not refund it, but I can't seem to do that. Seriously, there have been many instances where people have actually paid me $100 or more in shipping cost for a package that would ship for $6 to $12 combined.

Hopefully this solves the mystery.

Steve
KC4WN
aka kb4dmf