Question
After my auctions end I have always sent out a personal email listing the items won, shipping, total owed, etc. I have been doing that since I started on ebay and since I rarely have more than 20 auctions ending at one time it doesn't take much time at all since I copy & paste.
I do have checkout enabled and many bidders zip right over to Paypal and pay right away.
Just lately I have started encountering problems with bidders not being able to figure out how to use Paypal without my sending an actual invoice first. I frequently have bidders who buy more than one item and I combine to save as much as possible on shipping. I also have quite a few international bidders. So when they click on the "pay now" button on the auction page their total is not correct and it's confusing bidders as of late.
So I'm going to try just sending an ebay invoice when the auctions end. Do you mind receiving an ebay invoice instead of a personal email? I guess I'm worried that I'm going to lose the "personal" touch but it seems like it would simplify matters quite a bit. I will still send out my "payment received, item shipped" email.
Answer
I have always been perfectly happy with the eBay invoice. I let eBay send mine out, then if I don't hear from the buyer fairly soon, I send a personal one out. As a buyer, I never expect a personal email unless the seller wants to let me know the item has shipped.
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I used to send out personal e-mail/invoices but recently switched to the eBay invoices. It seems people like that it will prepopulate everything they need in order to pay via PayPal which 98% of my customers use. It's also helpful for those that pay via snail-mail as it spits out a nice 1 page invoice they can attach to their payment.
As much as I regret forgoing the personal touch, it's just a lot easier to do it this way. I do try to personalize a bit in the message I am able to provide within the invoice.
No complaints so far, eBay is a far cry from what it used to be.
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agree with Pam. I don't mind getting an eBay invoice at all. That's the way business is supposed to be handled. Whenever I sell anything, I send an invoice and then await payment. Once payment is received I send out a personal email thanking the customer for their purchase and letting them know when the item is being shipped out.
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I used to do a personal invoice, then switched to doing eBay invoices because it was much faster.
I'm working on getting an auction management web-based system going - but what I'll probably due is only use that for buyers who haven't paid or responded in 3 days after purchase, to make a personal contact.
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I didn't used to use the eBay invoices - I sent out personal emails - but now I do use the eBay invoice system. It seems like the vast majority of buyers want them (they ask for them even after I've sent a personal invoice message), so I gave in.
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yes, and since switching over 6 months ago, my time spent on emial has been cut by two thirds, my npb's are almost non existant and my time spent researching payments with no info has been cut by 95%
a good investment in your business to spend time to get to know it, something eBay actually finally got right.
I also now print off the "view payment status" page so I have the buyers info right there in front of me to compare to the envelope when it comes in.
I list hundreds of items per week.
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I've been using it for a good while now and won't ever go back to the personal emails. It's one of the few things that I DO like about eBay.
Joan
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Aren't you still an employee of Ethical Tech?
If so, how do I know you're not just out here collecting info? Some "Next Generation Aucion Invoice Tool" in the works, maybe?
No. I won't answer your question because I don't want to share with Scott and Company.
Answer
What I don't like about eBay invoices is that I'll never know if the eBay invoice e-mail bounced. Occasionally I've had winners who have had temporary e-mail problems i.e. the first e-mail I send them bounces back but if I wait a day or two, and send again, the e-mail goes through.
What I really like about eBay invoice e-mails is that they are great to send to international winning bidders who may have been bidding on my items from a non-English eBay site. The eBay invoice I send out is in English but is received by the winning bidder in the language of the eBay site where they actually placed their winning bid.