Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
Why Is eBay Changing Bid/Payment Requirement
Why has eBay changed how you bid on items. Now, when you wish to make a bid on an item, if you have not already selected a payment method in the event you win, eBay pop up window requires you to pre-select a payment method which eBay will automatically charge you should you win the auction. Although, you have an hour to go in to pay selecting a different method to make payment, how does it allow for sellers that offer combined shipment over several days and that you want to make bids on multiple items? Why does eBay think they need to chnage a payment method that works perfectly well?
3 comments
woodland_gnome
·1 year agoeBay had been "experimenting" with requiring pre-authorization of payment for Best Offers for over a year and a half (started prior to Halloween 2021), adding more and more users into the test group required to do so (sellers can opt their listings out of it which some do who depend on attracting buyers by offering a discount for combined shipping). Too many users were making offers and then not paying when it was accepted, and too many of those were scammers who would try to get the seller to text or email them to get their number/email address to send fake payment messages to. In Fall 2023 they made it permanent and all buyers are now required to pre-authorize automatic payment for Best Offers they make on listings for sellers who have not opted out of the program.
They started trying it out on auction bids (with a smaller group of buyers that is growing) in Spring or early Summer 2023 and that is ongoing with more and more (but still not all) auctions and bidders becoming subject to it.
They added the 1 hour window to manually checkout this Spring to cover some issues, though it covers the issue that not all payment methods available at checkout work with pre-authorization a lot better than the issue with combined shipping. In Fall 2024 they started testing allowing 7 days to manually checkout in some circumstances to facilitate combined shipping where the seller has set up something for combined shipping.
Outside the 7 day test, they are still leaving it up to the seller to either opt out of the pre-authorization requirement or do partial refunds or just not combine shipping (which has always been an option so don't assume that the seller will give a discount for combined shipping). Look for sellers who address combined shipping in the description and/or whose items don't require pre-authorization (if you don't get a confirm screen requiring a shipping address and payment method then either that seller has opted out or eBay is not including that auction in the test for some reason only eBay knows). Or message the seller and ask about it--often they have no idea this is an issue because eBay opted ALL sellers into the requirement without much notice.
gosimus
Mentor1 year ago@budharick
< requires you to pre-select a payment method which eBay will automatically charge you >
As eBay grows, and the buyer base grows, so does the number of no-pays. It finally reached the point where eBay had to do something. Requiring payment method before purchase was their solution. As imperfect as one might consider this solution to be, there's no disputing that it's effective. And for the honest buyers who are affected, well, it's no more than a minor inconvenience, if that. I mean, you were going to pay anyway, weren't you.
budharick
OP1 year agoYes. Of course, I intend to pay and realize I have 1 hour to make payment if wish to pay with a different payment method than pre-selected but as I asked in my original post, how do they handle instances where you intend to bid on multiple items that the seller has for auction and offers combined shipping fee discount for winning multiple items. Once you have paid for an item (the 1 hour window before automatically paid on your behalf) you can no longer take advantage of combined shipping discount. Another possible scenario is you wish to take advantage of "Pay In 4" but to reach the minimum $30.00 payment before you can use this payment option, you need to win mutiple items to reach that $30.00 threshold but can't because of the 1 hour to pay policy? is there a workaround for these scenarios?