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If I absolutely wanted to use that seller again (it's just one bad experience after all) I'd just create a new ebay account from an alternate email so that I could continue to use them.

Between my email, my work email, my wife's personal and work email, and our joint email account I could even do it several times if I had to.

beast_gts wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
If the Seller used "Random Shipping Company X" and the company looses the package, that's all on the seller, right?

I used Royal Mail Recorded, and have a tracking number that states it was delivered to the correct address and signed for by the buyer. Buyer says he never received it, Royal Mail are saying they delivered it. I suggested to the buyer that he checks with housemates and neighbours. eBay claim was opened and they sided with the buyer (and didn't reply to my messages).

I can vouch that the US Post Office does sometimes fudge on the signatures.

The local post office recently failed an inspection for that exact reason - many, many, many complaints. (Including two from me. One that was supposed to be signed for was listed as 'Left on Porch' - we didn't have a porch....)

The Auld Grump - a heck of a lot can come down to local staff - our local UPS staff is excellent - goes out of its way to provide service. Our local USPS was... not so excellent. (But has been doing better since the failed inspection)

My local USPS delivery person either can't read or doesn't care. I've had packages karate-chopped in half to wedge into the mailbox, packages thrown into melting snow banks, delivered to the wrong house (same house number) on several occasions, left under my houses gutter's downspout in a rainstorm, and left on the truck in "out for delivery status" for over a week. Many calls to the post office really have done nothing.

As a side note, I found this youtube video on how to protect yourself as a seller on ebay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gK_4eneQcQ

Inverse situation here - I’ve had so many packages from USPS I know my postlady’s name. I can also tell when she’s out for a day because the substitute drops our mail off on the wrong street (same house number, wrong street name).

UPS can’t even get it in the neighborhood on a good day. I’ve had to intercept it at the local office several times so it wouldn’t get lost.

I am an E-Bay buyer and seller. I sell simply to raise money for other things I want. The hobby has to partly pay for itself. I am not a business and my selling is not a regular thing

I am also quite happy to block awkward buyers as one buyer alone can totally devastate the ability for me to sell anything to anybody. Recently sold an item for 99p (Auction starting price) and happily shipped it the next day.Then had the buyer complaining about postage costs. The difference being just 4p on the actual postage costs. I did not charge for packaging which came to 56p.I had rude e-mails sent to me despite refunding on the first e-mail through PayPal. I politely e-mailed the seller explaining all they paid was the stamp price minus packaging. Then they got banned. Saves me dealing with a customer who could cause a lot of problems in the future.

In my 10 years of selling I have banned only 15 customers of which 12 are no longer registered E-Bay members.

Some E-bay buyers know they have all the cards stacked in their favour and will try it on as they know the seller will bend over backwards to save their credibility and ability to continue selling. E-Bay has made this mess. The only defence a seller has is the ability to block. But this unfortunately can only be done after the worse has happened .

Does a nonregistered account mean they're banned? Or can that simply happen also from long inactivity?

I once placed an order for 20 Battle Games in Middle Earth Magazines (which are skinny so weight was hardly an issue). The seller advertised Combined Postage, and the postage was reasonable. I won all of the magazines at the starting bid price (£0.99) so I was expecting £20 plus roughly £5 for postage. I Requested a Total...

And the cheeky fether tried to charge me £30 for postage! (making what should have been £25 into a £60 purchase!) I questioned it and asked why he wasn't offering me Combined Postage like he promised in his listings. He told me that he did combine the postage, he gave me a "£5 discount" off the total cost of the 20 individual postage fees!

I told him in no uncertain terms that I wasn't going to pay it, asked him to cancel, and opened up an Ebay Dispute in response to his personal abuse and attempt to shame me into paying. We had a bit of back and forth, and he eventually admitted that he was unhappy that the Auctions sold at the initial price so decided to recoup what he hoped they would sell for by inflating the postage to reflect what he felt was a "fair price". And he insisted that I was still getting a good deal and I should be grateful.

I reiterated that I was not going to pay the artificially inflated postage, and demanded that he cancel the purchase. Eventually he agreed to do so, and he didn't seek to retaliate by leaving negative feedback so I refrained from leaving any feedback for him and asked Ebay to close the dispute case. I advised him to list his goods at what he feels is a fair price so the true price is reflected clearly and honestly in the listings so he doesn't have repeat incidents like this. A few days later he listed the magazines at £8 each.

Moral of the story is...always double check that a Seller understands the definition of Combined Postage.

I never do combined postage, never ship for free. Postage and handling are a cost, and I pass it on to the buyer. It's much cleaner all around

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I never do combined postage, never ship for free. Postage and handling are a cost, and I pass it on to the buyer. It's much cleaner all around

I don't expect Sellers to post for free. But I DO expect them to honour their promise to combine postage when posting multiple items together as one parcel when their Listings say that is what they will do. When a Seller combines items into one parcel, he makes a saving on postage versus packaging and posting all items individually. When they promise to "Combine Postage", that is a promise to pass on that saving on postage.

Have you seen a Battle Games in Middle Earth Magazine? They're thin. 20 of them is about the same thickness and weight as 5 present day White Dwarf magazines. Postage for a parcel of that size does not cost £30. It should have been about £5. £10 at most.

He wasn't passing on the true postage costs to me, he was artificially inflating it by insisting on charging an individual postage fee on each item, so he could pocket the different as profit when he bound them all together and posted it as one item, with one postage fee (according to weight). He outright admitted to me that he was doing it to recoup his perceived losses on 20 disappointing auctions.

The end result is that the 20 items were listed at a false price, and the true prices were hidden in postage artificially inflated after the caution.

Unless he specifically stated that he would only be charging actual postage, then any discount off full list is a combined discount. You should have requested estimated combined postage charge prior to bidding.

Typically the discount is half of the cheaper items, so you should have expected to pay roughly 20/35, not 5/35.

That is categorically not combined postage. That is discounted postage. Combined postage means physically combining the items together into one parcel and passing on the saving to the buyer. Every other Seller I have dealt with in my 10 years on Ebay has done it that way bar this one Seller. If a Seller does not know what the postage fee will be for one combined parcel, then there are online tools available to calculate the cost prior to posting so an accurate postage fee can be passed on to the buyer.

And again, for the third time, he outright admitted to me in PM's that he was doing it to inflate the total cost because he felt the items were worth more than 99 pence each.

Do you think that is honest and reasonable, to exploit postage to artificially hike the price to compensate for a disappointingly low winning bid? If a Seller is reluctant to sell Items at 99 pence each, then he should list them at what he feels is a fair price (in this sellers case, £8 each). Not hide the price in postage, and break a promise to combine postage.

Dude, it absolutely is. The combined postage discount can be as little as a penny, and it is 109% your fault for not getting a clear quote prior to bidding.

No it isn't. Thats discounting, not combining. These words are not interchangeable. And after that incident, I do check with Sellers that they correctly understand the definition. But every Seller I dealt with before him, and every seller I have dealt with since him, has understood that Combined Postage means combining items into ONE parcel and charging ONE fee. Its something that I thought didn't need clarifying.

Do you seriously believe the guy was going to post all 20 magazines individually, at £2.50 each? No, he was going to tape them all together and post it as one parcel at £5 (I've checked, thats how much Royal Mail charges), so he could pocket the other ~£30 as pure profit. Thats hardly honest or reasonable, its a disingenuous and manipulative way of hiding the true cost of items in postage.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I never do combined postage, never ship for free. Postage and handling are a cost, and I pass it on to the buyer. It's much cleaner all around

If I am buying multiple items from a seller and they refuse to combine the postage, it usually means they are using an inflated postage charge to make their item appear cheaper or they are simply price gouging me.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Long Story Short, A large ebay bits seller has banned me from buying their product because I gave them a valid negative review.


I have purchased dozens of bits orders from this seller over the years. Around Fathers Day ebay had a nice promotional code, combine this with this sellers "buy 10 things, get 10% off" policy and making a very large bits order was very cheap.

Unfortunately, for the first time ever, this seller let me down. After a rather unreasonable delay in shipping some bits were missing. Emails I sent were not returned, so I had to make a paypal claim. Eventually I got a refund, but this was still a negative experience in my book, and marked that one item as a negative on their feedback (with a dozen positives for the correct items). I am now banned from their ebay store.

Has anyone else had this kind of heavy-handed reaction to honest feedback?

Lets play devils advocate.

I am a bitz seller working out of the USA. I buy mostly Getting started sets and starter boxsets, I dont have a storefront yet so I have to buy retail but did a deal with a storefront for bulk. I split down the packages as I can. I sell most as sprue sets of getting started components and split down the rest for bitz. I boost tthe size of my bitz for sale collection by buying job lots of used sprues on ebay, I dont sell much of that just want a bigger storefront,
As is to be expected I make my most sales on marines.

Now two weeks ago someone wanted three plasmna guns and a powerfist. Later it turns out he only got two. Looking at the ordr its not likely to be yet another scammer, becaude this guy only missed a plasma gun and the large number of Tau I also sold him were all present. How did this happen? Maybe I dropped it while filling the envelope, I do so many mistakes can happen.

Anyway I have three jackass scammer cases on the boilright now, all cliaming they didnt receive their post to the same upmarket DesMoines zipcode. They are getting smarmy and spammy and ugly and as you know eBay always sides with the buyer. I had so many sales to do I forgot the request for the plasma gun and missed the rest this buyers messages because twoi arrived on Sunday and the scammers send about 10 emails each. It is just me on my lonesome.

So this dude who is missing his plasma gun goes to ebay for arbitration, feth, just refund it and deal with the three persistent scammers and 50 honest buyers I have on my plate today. But no he gives me a negative strike which hurt my business. gak this is my main income and I dont need this, its just me here working from my spare room upstairs.
As a rule I just ban those who give me negatives, mostly because there are some buyers who will do so as a matter of course. Feedback percentage is important, and people check up thye negatives never the positives. It can really hurt me and this feth fethed my rep over a $1 plasma gun. Best close him off in case it happens again.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
No it isn't.

Yes it is. John's right.

Thats discounting, not combining. These words are not interchangeable. And after that incident, I do check with Sellers that they correctly understand the definition. But every Seller I dealt with before him, and every seller I have dealt with since him, has understood that Combined Postage means combining items into ONE parcel and charging ONE fee. Its something that I thought didn't need clarifying.

Evidently it does, because you don't understand what it means. There is no "definition" on eBay beyond offering a discount on the shipping cost, there's no specification beyond that.

Do you seriously believe the guy was going to post all 20 magazines individually, at £2.50 each? No, he was going to tape them all together and post it as one parcel at £5 (I've checked, thats how much Royal Mail charges), so he could pocket the other ~£30 as pure profit. Thats hardly honest or reasonable, its a disingenuous and manipulative way of hiding the true cost of items in postage.

But it was his right to choose to do so, as was your right to object. Although the reality is you made an assumption based on your own faulty thinking, failed to check in advance and subsequently ended up in that situation. If you'd enquired in advance you'd either have known not to bid or had proof of what he intended to charge.

 Orlanth wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Long Story Short, A large ebay bits seller has banned me from buying their product because I gave them a valid negative review.


I have purchased dozens of bits orders from this seller over the years. Around Fathers Day ebay had a nice promotional code, combine this with this sellers "buy 10 things, get 10% off" policy and making a very large bits order was very cheap.

Unfortunately, for the first time ever, this seller let me down. After a rather unreasonable delay in shipping some bits were missing. Emails I sent were not returned, so I had to make a paypal claim. Eventually I got a refund, but this was still a negative experience in my book, and marked that one item as a negative on their feedback (with a dozen positives for the correct items). I am now banned from their ebay store.

Has anyone else had this kind of heavy-handed reaction to honest feedback?

Lets play devils advocate.

I am a bitz seller working out of the USA. I buy mostly Getting started sets and starter boxsets, I dont have a storefront yet so I have to buy retail but did a deal with a storefront for bulk. I split down the packages as I can. I sell most as sprue sets of getting started components and split down the rest for bitz. I boost tthe size of my bitz for sale collection by buying job lots of used sprues on ebay, I dont sell much of that just want a bigger storefront,
As is to be expected I make my most sales on marines.

Now two weeks ago someone wanted three plasmna guns and a powerfist. Later it turns out he only got two. Looking at the ordr its not likely to be yet another scammer, becaude this guy only missed a plasma gun and the large number of Tau I also sold him were all present. How did this happen? Maybe I dropped it while filling the envelope, I do so many mistakes can happen.

Anyway I have three jackass scammer cases on the boilright now, all cliaming they didnt receive their post to the same upmarket DesMoines zipcode. They are getting smarmy and spammy and ugly and as you know eBay always sides with the buyer. I had so many sales to do I forgot the request for the plasma gun and missed the rest this buyers messages because twoi arrived on Sunday and the scammers send about 10 emails each. It is just me on my lonesome.

So this dude who is missing his plasma gun goes to ebay for arbitration, feth, just refund it and deal with the three persistent scammers and 50 honest buyers I have on my plate today. But no he gives me a negative strike which hurt my business. gak this is my main income and I dont need this, its just me here working from my spare room upstairs.
As a rule I just ban those who give me negatives, mostly because there are some buyers who will do so as a matter of course. Feedback percentage is important, and people check up thye negatives never the positives. It can really hurt me and this feth fethed my rep over a $1 plasma gun. Best close him off in case it happens again.

I feel your pain on bad customers. The bad ones make you look like a fool to some of the good ones, and it can get overwhelming at times. Been there, done that.

However, sometimes your problems are just that, YOUR problems. Yes, you've had a bad day or week. But the customer doesn't know this. From his perspective, all he knows is that he didn't receive his item, and you didn't respond. What are his options? File a grievance or eat the cost? As for his review, it's not dishonest.

In the end it is your choice to serve whoever you want.

Just be nice and honest, you will have to deal with scammers but if you remain calm, professional and play it by the book, ebay will help you out.

 cuda1179 wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Long Story Short, A large ebay bits seller has banned me from buying their product because I gave them a valid negative review.


I have purchased dozens of bits orders from this seller over the years. Around Fathers Day ebay had a nice promotional code, combine this with this sellers "buy 10 things, get 10% off" policy and making a very large bits order was very cheap.

Unfortunately, for the first time ever, this seller let me down. After a rather unreasonable delay in shipping some bits were missing. Emails I sent were not returned, so I had to make a paypal claim. Eventually I got a refund, but this was still a negative experience in my book, and marked that one item as a negative on their feedback (with a dozen positives for the correct items). I am now banned from their ebay store.

Has anyone else had this kind of heavy-handed reaction to honest feedback?

Lets play devils advocate.

I am a bitz seller working out of the USA. I buy mostly Getting started sets and starter boxsets, I dont have a storefront yet so I have to buy retail but did a deal with a storefront for bulk. I split down the packages as I can. I sell most as sprue sets of getting started components and split down the rest for bitz. I boost tthe size of my bitz for sale collection by buying job lots of used sprues on ebay, I dont sell much of that just want a bigger storefront,
As is to be expected I make my most sales on marines.

Now two weeks ago someone wanted three plasmna guns and a powerfist. Later it turns out he only got two. Looking at the ordr its not likely to be yet another scammer, becaude this guy only missed a plasma gun and the large number of Tau I also sold him were all present. How did this happen? Maybe I dropped it while filling the envelope, I do so many mistakes can happen.

Anyway I have three jackass scammer cases on the boilright now, all cliaming they didnt receive their post to the same upmarket DesMoines zipcode. They are getting smarmy and spammy and ugly and as you know eBay always sides with the buyer. I had so many sales to do I forgot the request for the plasma gun and missed the rest this buyers messages because twoi arrived on Sunday and the scammers send about 10 emails each. It is just me on my lonesome.

So this dude who is missing his plasma gun goes to ebay for arbitration, feth, just refund it and deal with the three persistent scammers and 50 honest buyers I have on my plate today. But no he gives me a negative strike which hurt my business. gak this is my main income and I dont need this, its just me here working from my spare room upstairs.
As a rule I just ban those who give me negatives, mostly because there are some buyers who will do so as a matter of course. Feedback percentage is important, and people check up thye negatives never the positives. It can really hurt me and this feth fethed my rep over a $1 plasma gun. Best close him off in case it happens again.

I feel your pain on bad customers. The bad ones make you look like a fool to some of the good ones, and it can get overwhelming at times. Been there, done that.

However, sometimes your problems are just that, YOUR problems. Yes, you've had a bad day or week. But the customer doesn't know this. From his perspective, all he knows is that he didn't receive his item, and you didn't respond. What are his options? File a grievance or eat the cost? As for his review, it's not dishonest.

In the end it is your choice to serve whoever you want.

Hypothetical story based on some sellers alleged experiences by the way.

 Rayvon wrote:
if you remain calm, professional and play it by the book, ebay will help you out.

This, so much. eBay is business. Act like one, and get treated like one.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 Rayvon wrote:
if you remain calm, professional and play it by the book, ebay will help you out.

This, so much. eBay is business. Act like one, and get treated like one.

If only this was true.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/may/21/ebay-accused-failing-sellers-buyers-manipulate-system-protection

Aus Askar wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I never do combined postage, never ship for free. Postage and handling are a cost, and I pass it on to the buyer. It's much cleaner all around

If I am buying multiple items from a seller and they refuse to combine the postage, it usually means they are using an inflated postage charge to make their item appear cheaper or they are simply price gouging me.

That's exactly what happened in my case. He outright admitted to me in dms that he felt the items I had won at auction for £1 each were worth at least £8.99 each, so he felt it was fair and reasonable to inflate the postage to compensate for the disappointing auctions.

When I refused to pay the inflated postage and asked him to.cancel, he followed my advice and relisted the items at the actual price that he wanted a couple days later.

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
No it isn't.

Yes it is. John's right.

Thats discounting, not combining. These words are not interchangeable. And after that incident, I do check with Sellers that they correctly understand the definition. But every Seller I dealt with before him, and every seller I have dealt with since him, has understood that Combined Postage means combining items into ONE parcel and charging ONE fee. Its something that I thought didn't need clarifying.

Evidently it does, because you don't understand what it means. There is no "definition" on eBay beyond offering a discount on the shipping cost, there's no specification beyond that.

Do you seriously believe the guy was going to post all 20 magazines individually, at £2.50 each? No, he was going to tape them all together and post it as one parcel at £5 (I've checked, thats how much Royal Mail charges), so he could pocket the other ~£30 as pure profit. Thats hardly honest or reasonable, its a disingenuous and manipulative way of hiding the true cost of items in postage.

But it was his right to choose to do so, as was your right to object. Although the reality is you made an assumption based on your own faulty thinking, failed to check in advance and subsequently ended up in that situation. If you'd enquired in advance you'd either have known not to bid or had proof of what he intended to charge.

I have been a member of Ebay for over 16 years, I can assure you that combined shipping and discount shipping mean *very* different things on E-bay, and by the definition of the words in the English language. You are free to have a different opinion but that does not make you right. On E-Bay the generally accepted meaning of combined shipping is to take all items eligible for it that you purchased in X amount of time from a seller (time is totally up to the seller) and to calculate shipping (to include packaging costs that may change due to needing a larger box) according to the group of products, rather than the cost of shipping them individually. Discounted shipping is when the seller will give you some percentage off their listed cost of shipping for the purchase of multiple items within X amount of time. This often ends up being similar to combined shipping in that the seller generally ships everything in one package but tends to provide a bit of extra profit to them as shipping one larger heavier box is virtually always cheaper than shipping a bunch of smaller lighter boxes. (Usually shipping discounts are offered for the time savings that occur from only having to ship to one person) Having said all of that, if the seller does not spell out *clearly* what the results of combined or discounted shipping is, you need to ask. After all you know what they say about assuming...

Generally speaking I would avoid any auction that does not clearly state how their shipping works. Whether it's a flat fee or calculated on locations with X amount built in for shipping if someone doesn't clearly lay it out you're just asking for trouble.

None of which materially changes the discussion.

"Combined" literally means to take multiples and make them into one. There is no inherent implication of discount, it is, as you say, an accepted meaning. If you can find a specification in eBay's terms and conditions as to what consititutes combined shipping then by all means put it forward, but I (admittedly briefly) looked and could find no stipulation.

So ultimately we're still left with a situation that could have been avoided with some simple communication in advance rather than an assumption. eBay is littered with sellers charging odd shipping fees for various reasons, and I agree if it's not clearly spelled out in a listing then making assumptions is just asking to get bitten.

Nowhere does "combined shipping" specify how much discount needs to be passed back to the Buyer. You were of the 100% mistaken impression that the Seller would pass ALL of the savings back to you, when there was no obligation to do so. There was no agreement, so you should have been happy with whatever was offered. If you failed to get a shipping quote prior to bidding, that's entirely on you. One penny per item would have fulfilled the contract terms, and the Seller would have been completely within their rights to have strikes placed on your account for each and every item.

I had an awkward buyer a few days ago. Demanding combined postage on two small items. Not usually a problem on high value items. But low value items it can be a different matter.

If I posted as singles they came to 79p each as large letters stamp price say 99p each with packaging materials. But combined postage and packed together as seller wanted pushed the order into a small parcel bracket and postage stamp price pushed up to £2.80. I contacted buyer to explain it would be cheaper to post as single items but the buyer obviously could not see why the postage jumped so high and still expected a refund on postage as the order was combined. Sorry buyer I have no control over Post office postage prices. Here in the UK postage priced go by weight and also thickness of the package to be sent.1mm too thick and it jumps to parcel status.

Often combining postage on items can come to more then posting as single items. No savings for the buyer and often I would of been better not listing at all. Often the buyer expects me the seller to swallow the extra cost for postage and often I do. I tend to sell low value items for play money. The items I sold were ancient aeromodeller magazines from the 40's and early 50's.

I do agree about E-Bay being littered with sellers with odd and silly inflated postage fees. If I want two or more items from a seller I always contact a seller first to see if they will combine postage and find out what the postage costs will be before bidding. It is common sense to do so. If they cannot tell me before the auction ends or If I don't agree with their postage prices and feel they are too high then I move on and buy from somebody else.

I've been on eBay for...maybe 15+ years, and while I benefit enough from using them, as a company they've been complete gak the past 5-7 years compared to previous. I do 90% selling and maybe 10% buying, and they definitely make it as hard as possible to defend yourself as a seller.

For this reason, and this reason only I absolutely understand sellers blocking buyers - even if a resolution was found on a previous item. The hassle is not worth the time, the time not being worth the money of that person's business.

If there was an alternative with equal presence on the market I'd be gone in a heartbeat. As such, I've learned to never sell anything expensive or valuable. I stick to things that won't bankrupt me etc. if things go south with an asshat. eBay is just playing the numbers. They know they benefit more financially from supporting buyers 100% and leaving sellers in the wind most of the time.

I basically plan on being screwed over by eBay once or twice a year.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Nowhere does "combined shipping" specify how much discount needs to be passed back to the Buyer. You were of the 100% mistaken impression that the Seller would pass ALL of the savings back to you, when there was no obligation to do so. There was no agreement, so you should have been happy with whatever was offered. If you failed to get a shipping quote prior to bidding, that's entirely on you. One penny per item would have fulfilled the contract terms, and the Seller would have been completely within their rights to have strikes placed on your account for each and every item.

If I bid, I assume I'm paying full shipping on everything, and then I'll pay whatever it is when the bill comes. And if your auction said it had combined shipping, and you didn't give me any reasonable discount, I'll ask for one once the items are in my hands. And then, just as it's the seller's choice to decide on shipping charges, it's my choice as a buyer to decide what feedback to give. Go ahead and ban me afterwards. I don't want to accidentally bid again on somebody who doesn't reasonably combine shipping.

I only buy on ebay, never sell, but when i place a bid it is with full understanding that i am responsible for the shipping listed, I have no expectation of any type of bundling or any discounts. That said, I also find it potentially very dishonest to simply ban a buyer if the seller was in the wrong, IT makes me think fair or unfair that it is a shady seller. negative feedback is not a red flag for me unless it is what i would consider too risky, 1 or 2 out of 100 or so sales is not a problem and to be honest, I would be more comfortable with a seller who has some negatives as no one can please everyone all the time. Some buyers are very "FoS" and it shows in their complaints.

Pink Horror wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Nowhere does "combined shipping" specify how much discount needs to be passed back to the Buyer. You were of the 100% mistaken impression that the Seller would pass ALL of the savings back to you, when there was no obligation to do so. There was no agreement, so you should have been happy with whatever was offered. If you failed to get a shipping quote prior to bidding, that's entirely on you. One penny per item would have fulfilled the contract terms, and the Seller would have been completely within their rights to have strikes placed on your account for each and every item.

If I bid, I assume I'm paying full shipping on everything, and then I'll pay whatever it is when the bill comes. And if your auction said it had combined shipping, and you didn't give me any reasonable discount, I'll ask for one once the items are in my hands. And then, just as it's the seller's choice to decide on shipping charges, it's my choice as a buyer to decide what feedback to give. Go ahead and ban me afterwards. I don't want to accidentally bid again on somebody who doesn't reasonably combine shipping.

I do believe that might be against eBay's terms of service. If the seller did everything by the book, they can dispute your negative feedback score.