An announcement on eBay Australia has clarified the confusion over the multiple-item shipping clause of the Seller Protection Policy (SPP).

In a nutshell, if the multiple items are paid for in a single PayPal payment, they are covered, but if a buyer pays for items with multiple PayPal payments and the seller ships them all in one package, the seller is not covered.

This may explain recent increases in very experienced buyers (i.e. high existing feedback numbers with long membership of eBay) making numpty-like multiple payments for purchases, even when the purchases are from the same site and in the same currency.  If you notice a buyer doing this, ensure you package and ship each payment’s items seperately, otherwise you may be opening yourself up to fraudulent chargebacks based on being ineligible for the SPP.

The same conditions also apply to the new Enhanced Seller Protection Policy (ESPP) now available for PowerSellers in some countries.

On a similar note - exactly when will Bill Cobb & Rajiv Dutta’s promise (from eBay Live 2007) be made into actuality.  I’m talking of course about the promised function of multi-currency invoicing on eBay and PayPal.  They promised it would be in place before eBay Live 2008.  It’s not here and there’s been no rumour of it on any announcement board. 

With a month left before this year’s event, is it a broken promise, or was it a deliberate lie?

Ed