Unpaid Item

[seller_update@ebay]

We’re testing a new feature that requires buyers to add a payment method on file before making offers on Best Offer listings. After you accept the offer, eBay will collect payment from the buyer’s payment method automatically and buyers won’t have to return to eBay to complete the purchase.  We will continue to roll out this feature to most Best Offer listings over the coming weeks.

Once launched, these changes will apply to most buyer offers, so you won't need to update or make changes to your Best Offer listings. We’re also working on adapting this feature for seller-initiated offers and counteroffers.

Please ensure that all questions and comments remain on topic. Any off topic posts will be moved to the appropriate board, so they can be answered by Community Members. 

Please allow us 24-48 hours to provide an answer to your question. 

[valueaddedresource]

Changes to Buy It Now purchases
When purchasing a Buy It Now item, buyers will be taken directly to check out, where they’re required to provide a payment method in order to secure the item.

Does that mean eBay is going to force immediate payment on Buy It Now items and remove the ability for sellers to make that choice themselves?

If so, how will sellers be able to combine items and invoice buyers before payment on BIN items?

[ms.rodriguez*]

You can go to PREFERENCES and uncheck a box there to get out of the program. I did.  Every once in a while check to make sure that ebay did not put in the program again.

[ms.rodriguez*]

You guys need to modify that program to allow a buyer to submit offers on several items and give time to allow the seller to combine and weigh the items and possibly the buyer can save on shipping.  This is the only problem that I see with this program.    

[valueaddedresource]

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@ms.rodriguez* wrote:

You can go to PREFERENCES and uncheck a box there to get out of the program. I did.  Every once in a while check to make sure that ebay did not put in the program again.

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@ms.rodriguez* I believe you may be referencing the immediate payment for offers, my question was about immediate payment for Buy It Now.

IPR for BIN has been an option for sellers for many years that they can set in their payment settings. The wording that I copied above makes it sound like eBay is getting rid of the "optional" aspect and will be forcing immediate payment for all BIN items going forward.

That is what I was seeking clarification from seller_update@ebay about.

[revenue-collector]

As a heavy buyer as well as a seller, I loathe this feature. Since the buyer is automatically charged upon acceptance of offers, there is no way to combine offers to reduce shipment, or to combine an offer item with an outright purchase. No ability to request invoice, etc.

The only way is to manually refund shipping charges, but that is AFTER the fact, so there can be a difference of opinion as to what the combined shipping should be.

Please make this feature OPTIONAL and not mandatory. If you want to make it the default, that's fine, but you MUST allow sellers to opt out of it.

This feature is horrible and poorly thought out.

When I saw that I was opted into the beta testing of this, I immediately disabled it in my seller preferences.

[seller_update@ebay]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

Changes to Buy It Now purchases
When purchasing a Buy It Now item, buyers will be taken directly to check out, where they’re required to provide a payment method in order to secure the item.

Does that mean eBay is going to force immediate payment on Buy It Now items and remove the ability for sellers to make that choice themselves?

If so, how will sellers be able to combine items and invoice buyers before payment on BIN items?

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Hi @valueaddedresource. The option to add an item to the cart is still there - there are no changes to that experience, so buyers will still be able to put multiple items together for a combined invoice

[stacy_1971]

Thank you!   This will free sellers up to accept offers from people they normally would be hesitant to accept offers from.  I have instituted a rule of not accepting offers for people that have a lower than 10 feedback score, because of the massive amount of unpaid items I was getting from that demographic.   

[anneboggs76]

I hadn't thought of combined shipping orders. This is going to be a problem in that regards. There should be an "add to batch" option that holds the items in their cart for maybe 3 hours tops, while customer has a chance to finish adding to their cart and then an request a "Total Batch" invoice. Then automatically remove from cart after the 3 hours (or whatever) is up. But definitely only allow enough time for someone to gather their items into their cart. Not days.

[valueaddedresource]

The Spring 2022 Seller Update specifically said that eBay would be introducing a bundle feature for IPR on Offers that would be available "later this year" (meaning 2022)

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/resources/seller-updates/2022-spring/business 

What’s changing?

Later this year, we’ll start asking buyers to pay when they accept a seller's Offer to Buyer or a counter offer.

We’ll also introduce a new feature that will let buyers request a bundled offer on multiple items. These multi-item offers can be completed in one transaction, saving you time and making it easier for buyers to purchase more of your items.

Next steps

You don’t have to take any action. You’ll see more updates later this year as we roll out the bundled offer feature.

Here we are over a year after that announcement and 6 months past the end of 2022 and we still don't have this capability.

When will eBay allow sellers to bundle/combine items for Offers with Immediate payment?

[shipscript]

@valueaddedresource 

The biggest issue I would see with a 2022 multi-item offer (bundle) is that one of the group could be sold while the offer was  being negotiated, thus making a mess of the grouped offer or causing the whole bundle to unravel and cancel.

[valueaddedresource]

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@shipscript wrote:

@valueaddedresource 

The biggest issue I would see with a 2022 multi-item offer (bundle) is that one of the group could be sold while the offer was  being negotiated, thus making a mess of the grouped offer or causing the whole bundle to unravel and cancel.

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Thanks @shipscript ! I can definitely understand the complexity of this feature causing issues and that maybe eBay ran into a roadblock with it for those reasons.

But you would think they would not have put it in a seller update with a specific (by the end of the 2022) timeline if they hadn't already made significant progress or were fairly confident they could pull it off?

I understand things happen, it would just be nice when/if they do for eBay to acknowledge it directly and provide some transparency with an explicit update that says "this feature we had announced has been put on hold because of x,y,z".

[shipscript]

This is the section that I am waiting for. It would address the biggest complaint we are seeing from buyers. I hope it pans out and doesn't fade away like similar prior forecasts.

Can I still help my buyers who request combined shipping?

We know some of our buyers like to request combined shipping when they make offers on multiple items from the same seller. We are working on developing the right solution that addresses combined shipping without resulting in unpaid items.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Changes to Buy It Now purchases
When purchasing a Buy It Now item, buyers will be taken directly to check out, where they’re required to provide a payment method in order to secure the item.

My question is from the Seller side, not the Buyer side. It is about creating a listing. This seems to imply that any new Buy It Now listing will have immediate payment as a default.

Will the SELLER still have the option in the listing flow of choosing NOT to apply Immediate Payment to a particular Buy It Now item?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I want to add my voice to @valueaddedresource question about bundling offers---given that we were told it would be released last year, and we are now mid way through this year without any sign that even a Beta has been released, what are the prospects for having this up and running BEFORE we enter Q4? 

Or is the anticipated Launch date 2024? 

As I made clear when ebay first mentioned that they were going to go the immediate payment route, if ebay wants to apply immediate payment throughout the site it must solve for two problems: figuring out how to extract the payment from the buyer when the offer is accepted/auction won, AND figuring out how to bundle/ combine items. 

Also, can we get a time frame for when we can expect immediate payment to be applied to auctions? Again, I'm not asking for an exact date, just a time frame: This year? Next year? 2025?