why am I force to pay immediately if I "make an offer"? my credit card was blocked-too many transa

[giron5457]

I buy from Ebay on a daily basis.  I only buy; I do not sell.  Lately, whenever I am going to "make an offer", Ebay forces me to "authorize payment immediately".   I am not giving a chance to choose how to pay if buyer agrees to the price.  Ebay without notifying me, puts the charge through; I am not notified of anything.  I do not receive a message from Ebay nor do I receive an email confirmation.  I made three offers to the same seller.  I received a call from my credit card company notifying my account had been blocked for security  reasons.  There were too many transactions in a row.  The seller could not combine shipping costs and I was charged three times $25.00 for postage ($75.00 in total).  The buyer nor the seller has any choice on either end.  This new rule is not good business practice and I am upset.  I will not buy from Ebay again until this new practice has been corrected.  Ebay keeps pushing sellers and buyers away with its greedy practices.  Ebay is nothing without its sellers and its buyers.  Maybe it is time for Ebay to reconsider how to do business. 

[2013grotz]

This is another good example of some "bad apples" spoiling the whole bunch.  Anyway, some unreputable buyers would shoot offers at multiple sellers, which they would mostly accept.  Then the buyer would choose the cheapest one and then pay for that.  This is a problem for all the sellers that accepted the offers is that that created a binding obligation to the buyer to buy every one of those items.  The buyer would refuse and the whole pile, minus the low offer, would end up being no-pays.  Naturally this creates huge problems across ebay with people doing it enough times.

Hence for the same reasons Immediate Payment Required was instituted (massive numbers of buyers pledging to buy product they did not actually buy) so was putting up the money in advance for any offer.   It's never going to be "corrected" as it were because it's a fix to a massive problem.

As for your original complaint, the answer is pretty simple.  Don't make offers on items that you don't have complete intent to follow through on actually buying should the seller agree to your offer.

[ms.rodriguez*]

You need to notify the credit card  company that you like to buy a lot on ebay and to let the charges go through.  Next, if you see several items from the same seller and want combined shipping, you need to email and ask if they can do it. Now , if they have the setting to immediate payment, they can NOT combine. So you would have to pay twice if it's two items. But if you spoke with the seller prior to buying and he told you that combined shipping will be 30 dollars instead of 50 (my example based on what poster wrote above), the seller can then refund 20.oo back to you .  So you would be paying 30 dollars for the combined shipping. 

Again, you need to see if the seller will combine and you need to know what the amount will be before you buy.  Some sellers can take the immediate payment off the items that you want.    Again, you need to communicate with the seller.

Definitely call the credit card company and let them know your buying habits.

[collectfest]

Agreed. 

[filtration8808]

Please read, and pass on I wrote this up regarding the same concern. 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/I-have-a-proposal-regarding-eBay-s-Automatic-Charge-to-Bids-a...

[zgnisaer]

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@filtration8808 wrote:

Please read, and pass on I wrote this up regarding the same concern. 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/I-have-a-proposal-regarding-eBay-s-Automatic-Charge-to-Bids-a... 

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Sorry @filtration8808 I cannot make my way through that huge block of words, so I don't know what you said.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Sellers decide whether to require payment methods before considering an offer.

Many sellers have been taken advantage of by buyers who place offers and then after they are accepted decide which to pay for.

Either you limit the number of offers you make to those you can and will pay for, or wait for a response before deciding to make another offer. Or you can pay the asking price, which is what Ebay and the sellers would prefer.

Sellers do not want to be abused by buyers who treat Make An Offer as if it were a reverse auction.

Increasingly, sellers are not enabling Make An Offer, and buyers are still making offers, which will require more seller action to reject than the automated actions for Make An Offer.

It is not clear who will miss the buyers who are constantly making offers, if anyone. I will not. But I have not enabled this require payment either.

[filtration8808]

Apparently, that seems to be a common trend so far, people more worried about not have a space between paragraphs...oh well, ignore the issue🤷

[elpbeautysupply]

Thank you for sharing your concerns. To clarify, eBay's immediate authorization of payment when making an offer mirrors the process of a traditional auction. Just like in a physical auction where participants must register and provide a deposit or payment method before bidding on any item, eBay requires immediate authorization to prevent misuse of the Best Offer feature.

Imagine attending an auction in person: before you're allowed to bid on any item, you're required to register and provide a method of payment as a deposit. This ensures that all participants are serious buyers and helps prevent fraudulent activity during the auction.

Similarly, eBay's policy aims to maintain fairness and transparency in the online marketplace. Placing multiple offers and selecting the lowest one after the fact goes against eBay's policies and can lead to unpaid cases and other issues for both buyers and sellers.

We encourage you to review eBay's policies and guidelines to ensure a positive experience for everyone involved.