I noticed this today as I was prepping some packages to ship out. The first issue has been around for at least a week but its the first time I have seen the second issue.

The first thing is that combined shipping invoices are displaying the shipping as FREE when the shipping was charged on the original item. Now, this appears to only be a display issue but that doesn’t stop me from panicking each time I see this, thinking the buyer somehow didn’t pay shipping. If you look below on this screenshot, you will see at the bottom that the buyer did actually pay shipping. Take a look at this example (I picked a two item one as a sample since I could fit the whole thing on one screen, but its happening with all my combined shipping items, no matter how many):

Click any of these screenshots to see them larger in a new window. My first and most pressing question is, do buyers see this? I am just imagining a buyer looking back after the package arrives deciding what feedback to leave and saying to themselves, “Shipping was supposed to be free? But they billed me! No high DSRs for them!” If any of you have bought multiple non-free shipping items on eBay recently with combined shipping can confirm or deny that buyers see this, that would go a long way to easing my mind. These were both auctions if this helps.

Secondly, what happens if this is happening on a checkout level? Is there a chance the eBay checkout could bill nothing for shipping in this case? I don’t like the idea of that one bit.

Now, at the moment, this just seems to be a display issue so there is nothing to get too worried about yet. However, check out this next example:

At first glance, there is nothing wrong here. Buyer bought an item, paid for USPS First Class Mail International. What’s the issue?

Look closer. Buyer was billed for First Clas International but the buyer is in the USA, Las Vegas to be specific. Unlike the previous example, this one is not just a display issue. The buyer actually paid the amount for international shipping while they were in the US which is obviously a much higher rate than actual US shipping would be. I double checked the original listing and everything is fine with it. They should have been billed for regular domestic US first class as that is what the shipping calculator is set up to offer US buyers for this item.

Now, I am not willing to rule out that the buyer didn’t do something weird on their end to cause this but something like this shouldn’t be able to happen and is going to kill our DSRs.

I don’t have a solution to any of those but I wanted to warn the rest of you, look closly at the shipping you are paid versus what you charged. Something weird is going on over there.