eBay

lifeofbryan73 · ‎01-14-2023

Auto Pay linked to Best Offers is a terrible idea, and the fact that eBay didn't communicate the change is worse for Buyers and Sellers.

It makes combined shipping more complicated for the seller. If a BUYER wants to buy more than one item of mine, their knowing that combined shipping will be a matter they'll have to bring up with the seller because of the new Auto Pay, they might not bother with buying more from my store. Lost revenue. I recently had to go back-and-forth with a seller on figuring out how to deal with this. They didn't have much experience on issuing refunds, which is fine. We worked it out, but it took time. Some Buyers might not be as patient. And some sellers might not issue refunds on the extra shipping.

This Auto-Pay feature is complicating how Buyers submit an offer. It's a terrible idea. I've been on eBay 17 years, and the previous method of submitting offers worked smoothly: the offer is 1. Rejected; 2. Considered then countered; 3. Accepted, then the Seller and Buyer work out payment and payment scheduling.

Auto-Pay Best Offer submissions also FORCE a buyer to IMMEDIATELY pay for an item, even if a seller doesn't require it. I give my buyers five days to pay. Some sellers give 2-3 days. I've found this PAYMENT WINDOW gives a Buyer less of a sense of urgency, so maybe they'll shop more. Auto-Pay overrides that, so a customer who needs that extra time to pay doesn't have it. Auto-Pay Best Offers are violating are own store payment terms.

We could be losing sales. Losing customers. Ebay is intent on complicating their platform. I don't know why, either. If you and I are losing sales, eBay is losing money.

praetoriansenator · ‎08-14-2023

I am right there with you! My last purchase was just a few minutes ago, and yes, auto pay kicked in! And it wasn't even a best offer! It was a standard auction! What idiot came up with this, and with the upcoming Holiday Season?

Poshmark, Etsy, and Facebook Market Place will be getting my business.

praetoriansenator · ‎08-14-2023

Interesting. Ebay has really stepped in it with this policy.

praetoriansenator · ‎08-14-2023

I had a nice long chat with an eBay rep about this. I got a lot of "Sorry's" but no real help. I am going to miss shopping on the platform, but there are other site to use such as Poshmark, Etsy, and FB Market Place.

paytonrules2003 · ‎08-14-2023

This has evidently been expanded in a big way recently and as a seller it results in a major problem with trying to combine shipping on multiple orders. I was confused when it first started because it only impacted a few of my buyers so I thought the onus was on them to correct their settings. Now I realize that sellers can fix the problem. If you go to the page in your account that deals with buyer requirements you can uncheck the boxes at the very bottom and they will not longer be required to autopay. I hope this helps sellers who wish to continue to be able to combine shipping costs.

paytonrules2003 · ‎08-14-2023

If you are having trouble finding the page:

1. Go to Selling - Selling Preferences

2. Click on Your Buyers - Managing Who Can Buy From You

3. This will bring up the Buyer Management Page and you can go to the bottom and unclick the 2 settings

redmikec · ‎08-15-2023

Boo Hoo to all the users who can't put a payment before hand to make an offer.

As a buyer, I make obo offers all the time for thousands of dollars and I have no problem submitting my credit card or my bank account.

As a seller, it feel **bleep** good to know if I get an offer its going to be paid if I accept it.

Now if they can only make this occur on auctions then all the shilling and non payment can be done with.

To all those combine shipping complainers, make your listing FREE SHIPPING if you don't want to lose sales.

Hopefully ebay just force all sellers to make their listing free shipping (it really doesn't make a difference except psychological) We still pay the same FVF whether shipping is included or not.

Anyway, about time ebay start making buyers pay for their crap and no more empty bids and shill bidders.

soniadelaunay · ‎08-15-2023

That's a great idea.

soniadelaunay · ‎08-15-2023

I've been furiously speaking against this stupid new "improvement" over on the e-commerce blogs. The sellers who are welcoming it don't seem.to.grasp.that us buyers have other options. They seem to.think.they are doing us a favor. I've stopped all offers now and have cut 80% ofy buying. Won't go back. Cheaper and less hassle for all but a few things on other venues.

soniadelaunay · ‎08-15-2023

And maybe you should stop telling buyers who are paying you to manage their money differently. Amazon doesn't tell me to only use one cc and guess what, Amazon ships practically before you hit "buy".

soniadelaunay · ‎08-15-2023

You don't. You just stop bidding or making best offers. Which is the way I handle it.

soniadelaunay · ‎08-15-2023

Ditto. And the more of us who do this, the quick we're they may dump this disaster.

kristinep515 · ‎08-16-2023

The problem with this setup is that it will not resolve the issue they are trying to prevent. The same thing happens with online auctions that are not eBay. What people will end up doing is entering in cards that are not connected to accounts or accounts that have insufficient funds.....sadly, this is the new trend. So, how do you deal with this scenario when this starts happening to across eBay?
For the sellers, it can easily be turned off if you get complaints from buyers. Personally, I turned it off on my account, and as a buyer, it is deterring me from purchasing for many reasons.

I had my first experience with winning an auction today and I was charged automatically. I was not informed by eBay about this change when I received the popup asking for this payment information when I logged into the eBay app a few days ago to bid on an item. I was concerned when I received notification from Papal that I authorized a payment to eBay....I first thought my account was hacked, but a few minutes later I finally received the eBay email saying I won.

To turn off:

If you go to your Account Settings > Selling>Selling Preferences>scroll down to "Your Buyers">Managing who can buy from you>click "edit">scroll down to "Buyer Payment Requirements"....you'll see you have been automatically opted in (at least I have been) to require immediate payment not only for buyer submitted offers (which is not new) but now also for buyer bids.