Auto Pay is just wrong on so many levels, Ebay please fix!

[forkeepers]

Just recently, I've been made aware of Ebay's Auto Pay feature.  Apparently some accounts have been "selected" ? as part of a test group, where buyers instantly pay the minute they win a bid (or have a best offer accepted).  SO... the downside of this is Huge for sellers like me.  I have buyers that like to bid on several items at a time, and they know I'll send a revised invoice with reduced shipping costs.  But with this new feature, the bids they win are instantly paid with "Auto Pay", meaning they just paid for shipping on each and every item!  Buyers are going to think we sellers created this scenario, but NO we didn't.  The buyers are unaware as well.  If you are a buyer, or a seller, please contact ebay to try to get this fixed!

[buyselljack2016]

No argument about that here 😊  Just another eBay policy that just doesn't hit the mark.

[carlmarxx]

OP: you need to turn on your combined shipping  so when your items are placed in the cart ,the buyers can request combined shipping .  I placed  2 of your items in the cart  and   combined  shipping request  doesn't show up.   

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@buyselljack2016 

Hi Jack! I recently made an offer and this happened to me. I had no idea where this offer went or if seller accepted it, tad confusing at 1st until I viewed purchases. It's alright now that I'm aware of it so I have no problem with this.

[reallynicestamps]

I think this is a stupid way to correct something that was not a problem.

EBay will automatically Cancel an Unpaid Item after 96 hours have passed, a two to four day reduction from the previous standard which also required the seller to manually open the UID.

Sellers  get paid on Tuesdays, mostly, so it's not as if this is a huge delay from sale to money in the bank.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Autopay is 100% the best thing since sliced bread!! 

There is NO reason that a 'buyer' should be able to 'buy things' and then NOT PAY for them.

Want 'combined' shipping: Not a problem. Buyer messages Seller and Seller can EASILY refund any 'shipping' portion that Seller deems they need to refund. 

Why is this so hard/difficult?? 

Buyers have been 'playing games' with sellers for YEARS. It's ABOUT time that stopped. You CANNOT go to any 'live auction' and 'make offers' / 'make bids' with FIRST giving the house a Payment type. 

[vintage-camerastuff]

Oh my God!  The buyer has to pay!  What is this world coming to.

[ed8108]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

Autopay is 100% the best thing since sliced bread!! 

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Ebay might disagree, best thing since MP & PL

[lilyswan2]

i think for some maybe it works for now but some buyers are reporting even if seller turns it off it makes no difference...

[campanaelia]

Exactly, one of my regular sellers turned it off plus added me to their exemption list and it still required my payment info if I attempt to make an offer. They finally sent me a special offer so I could pay for all my items together with combined shipping

[ed8108]

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@forkeepers wrote:

 "Auto Pay", meaning they just paid for shipping on each and every item!  Buyers are going to think we sellers created this scenario, 

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Auto pay

Some sellers may enthusically offer buyers a combined shipping discount on multiple item purchases but only refund a very small portion of the auto pay received, after deducting for fees, clerical time expended, an exorbitant handling chg, etc

What is ebay's position ?

When Buyer knowingly authorized payment of the shipping cost specified on each item.

Could Autopay lead to increased buyer NAD returns ?

[stuffygrotto]

Today I made a best offer for 2 of the same item and approved to use the auto-pay. Ebay sent a confirmation message that I'm enrolled in autopay. Ok, yup, no problem!

What's not to like - I wanted the items. Then tonight I made another best offer on something.

Both offers were, within minutes, accepted and I was notified by my CC that a pending payment was made. I found it really convenient. And possibly it helped the sellers decide to accept the offers.

However! there was one thing I thought confusing... I kept waiting for a 'Seller accepted your offer' message within ebay. Never got one, nor through email.  All of the initial offer dialog goes through the ebay messaging, except when the seller approves the offer then I was only notified of the confirmed sale via email from ebay.  (but *not* through ebay messages).  So that seemed inconsistent.

🤷🏻‍ Ebay has gotten pretty impersonal IMO.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

It's NOT convenient for buyers who wish to pay using PayPal Credit, Apple Pay etc.

[dbfolks166mt]

i think for some maybe it works for now but some buyers are reporting even if seller turns it off it makes no difference...

     I find this interesting and it may have something to do with more than just the sellers turning off the option. I am not sure if eBay meant to say sellers rather than buyers but if you click on the information icon associated with the option you get the following. Maybe eBay is applying this to a select group of buyers as well. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     It's not really broken. It is a seller option that eBay came up with in response to so many sellers constantly complaining about non-paying bidders/buyers. It is an option similar to IPR for BIN items which has also been known to have issues in the case of multiple purchases. 

     The mistake eBay made was unilaterally turning on the option for sellers without informing them in advance similar to the way they transitioned a lot of sellers to EIS without advance knowledge. It is an easy option to turn off in your account settings. The setting was turned on for me without my knowledge and I have since disabled it in my account settings. It's located in your account settings under selling preferences, managing who can buy from you.