SWHelp:My bidStart - My Account
From StampWantsWiki
My Account
The my account section encompasses all information pertaining to your account on bidStart.com, including email address and physical address. There are also various options for sellers (which will affect their listings) which can be set in this area.
My Messages
The preferred method of communicating with other bidStart members is the bidStart My Messages system. Emails can get lost or filtered as spam, but as soon as a bidStart member logs into their account, any new My Messages will be indicated in the My bidStart area. For example, if you have 1 new message, you'll see My Messages (1 new!) in the My bidStart sidebar. Simply click this link to go to your My Messages area.
Account Details
This is the most important part of the My bidStart - My Account area. The My Account page is categorized as follows:
Account Balance and Payment Options
Once your account balance is over $5.00, we'll send you an invoice on the 1st of the month for you to pay. When you click to pay you'll be brought to this section of the Account Details area, where you can click to pay your account balance online with one of our available payment methods. Additionally, you can come here to make a payment anytime your account balance is over $5.00.
Personal Information and Shipping Address
It is essential that you keep the information in this section up to date. Your shipping address will be used when you purchase items from sellers, and when buyers purchase items from you. If your address is not correct, it could result in payments not being received, as well as cause various other problems.
Other personal information, such as your phone number (used for our records only), can also be found and changed in this section.
You can also apply for bidStart ID Verification, or check your ID Verification status in this section.
Email Delivery Preferences
The single most important piece of information on this page is your email address, found in this section. If you need to make a change to your email address, you can do so here. If your email address is not kept up to date you will not receive important system messages, including when you buy or sell items.
You can also set which emails you want to receive from bidStart, including our Newsletter, Outbid Notification, Watched Item Activity, Listing Posted, Closed With No Bids, and Listing Ended Early notifications.
Default Listing Information (Sellers Only)
Here you can set your default PayPal and Google information. Your default PayPal and Google information will appear pre-filled when you create new listings. NOTE: Changing these fields will NOT update your existing listings, if you need to do that, it can be done from the 'Bulk Changes' page of the Items I'm Selling section of the My bidStart area.
You can also set/change your End of Auction message on this page. bidStart automatically sends an email to the winners of your auctions. This email includes the item number, payments accepted, and shipping costs, as specified in your listing. You can enter a custom message below to be included in this end of auction email. You may want to include more specific payment instructions, such as where to send checks. You can also include a greeting, or any other information you may wish to give the winners of your auctions. This Message is also displayed on the checkout page when users pay for their auctions.
Combined Shipping Preferences (Sellers Only)
On this page you can set the following options:
Shipping Total Editable - This option allows users to make changes to the shipping charge total when checking out. You many want to use this if you offer shipping discounts besides just standard combined shipping and want to allow the user to change what the total shipping is when checking out. If you do not use this option or the combined shipping option then users will have to pay every shipping charge in full even if they are combining payment. Note: This is separate than insurance or other costs which the buyer can always add to their total to reflect any insurance or extra services you may offer.
Combined Shipping Discount - This option allows the winners of your auctions who are making payment for more than one item to combine shipping costs. They will be charged the highest shipping cost among all of the items they are paying for once, and then for each additional item they will be charged the additional shipping cost as specified by the Additional Shipping Cost value.
Additional Item Shipping Cost - This is the cost to ship each additional item after the first in dollars when the Combined Shipping Discount is turned on. If the Combined Shipping Discount is off this value will not be used and the winners of your auctions will be charged the full shipping amount for every item they win.
Table Rate Shipping and Insurance Rates (Sellers Only)
When a buyer checks out, they are presented with an invoice for all of their purchases, with applicable shipping and handling, as well as insurance. If you choose to add Table Rate Shipping and Insurance to the total, you can add shipping and insurance charges to the buyer's invoice based on their total. You can also use Table Rate Shipping exclusively by setting your item's individual shipping costs to $7.00, and $0.01 per each additional item. (See the My bidStart - My Account - Account Details page for an example).
Best Offer Preferences (Sellers Only)
As a seller, you can choose to accept Best Offers on your fixed price and store listings. In this section you can choose if you want Best Offers only to be accepted on those items you specify, or if instead you want Best Offers to be accepted on all of your fixed price and store listings.
Change Your Current Password
Here you can change your password. If you do not want to change your password, but are making other changes on this page, be sure to leave both the password and re-type password fields blank. If you need to change your username, please contact us.
My Feedback
Clicking on this section in the My bidStart Sidebar will show you your Feedback. To leave feedback for others, please go to the My bidStart - Buying - Items I've Won page or the My bidStart - Selling - Items I've Sold page.
