1 hour delayed autopay
Been an Ebay for 21 years. I pay as I go with Ebay gift cards. I do this to avoid charges to Credit Card. I always pay same day or the following morning if I win an auction the prior evening. 100% rating. Won an auction last night and got clipped with my first 1 hour delay autopay. Spoke with "Mark" from Ebay who claimed this policy has been in effect for years. I challenged him to tell me when it changed / date. Still waiting Marko!! Yes it's now in the current legalese/policy. But I've never had to this before. If they require this, it should be a minimum of 12 to 24 hours. What if there are questions about multiple auctions and combined shipping. Sellers and Buyers time schedules don't always coincide. 1 hour is insufficient time interval. Thumbs down EBay. 👎👎👎
lako808
·5 months agoWell this just happened to me too. I had no idea about this autopay til I bid on an item tonight. If I had known that I would not have placed the bid. I usually do Buy it now. I use Paypals 4 pay plan most of the time. I sometimes work long hrs and actually not allowed to use my phone at work. I guess no more bidding here, just BIN from now on. And other sources for photo gear.
starboardset
·11 months agoAutopay was devised to deal with nonpaying or late bidders, which has been a longtime issue on eBay. The problem is that autopay seems to have been applied indiscriminately to ALL buyers, even if they have spotless payment histories. I've been on eBay for almost as long as you and I have never had a single non or even late payment, but yet, I'm also subject to the "one hour" vs. "7 day" limitations of autopay.
I now run into autopay with pretty much every seller on whose items I'm bidding on for the first time. I always ask beforehand if they combine shipping. They almost always do, but when I ask about combining of items won beyond a 7 day period, which is impossible due to autopay, to a person they don't even know their autopay has been enacted, and that's assuming they even know what autopay is, which they sometimes don't.
I've also had this happen with sellers from whom I've made multiple previous purchases, sometimes spread out up to 30 days, but when I ask them about their autopay policy, they're also unaware that it's been activated.
While autopay may have been a well intentioned solution, again, to a legitimate longtime problem, applying it to most or all buyers instead of merely targeting those who are irresponsible, and additionally keeping the utility "hidden" to a such a degree that many sellers don't know they're using it or even have it, is a very poor method of implementation.
d-k_treasures
·11 months agoIt's total **bleep** on auctions.
And to the seller, "Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid." , does NOT imply that they will be charged when the auction ends. So the seller - new or old - simply might not know.
I DO know that this has caused me to only use this platform about 5% of what I used to.
ittybitnot
·11 months ago......is a very poor method of implementation.
@starboardset
Instead of sanctioning non-payers, eBay implemented this program instead. It makes more money for eBay, and that is what is important to them. It didn't take long for buyers to catch on to what actually happens when they put up that payment source in order to proceed, and as a result discontinue buying from sellers who retained the default "buyer rules" (aka auto-pay).
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
Buyer Rules:
*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.
*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer.
Click submit or save.
Sellers that are not interested in combining shipping or making multiple sales to the same buyer think this plan is good. They may get paid faster, but likely paid less due to the refusal of buyers to participate at all.
Now that eBay sprung this on you the first time mid stream, you should get the "screen" warning now when you go to make a bid first thing, Sellers that have these turned off will display "Save with combined shipping" notice on the front facing listing page.
starboardset
·11 months agoAll good points.
It used to be that way, but most recently, I find that I'm oftentimes encountering the forced choice of either 1 hour or 7 day autopay whether or not the listing displays "Save with combined shipping".
What's also bad is when a seller wants to turn autopay off after it's pointed out to them, and they can't because they don't know how. Even when a seller is willing to work around the autopay issue by refunding the overpayment for combined shipping, it's still an inconvenience due to the extra step, and I think the refund may also count against the seller's annual sales total for tax purposes.
Autopay may weed out some of the deadbeat bidders in the short run, but unless the utility is revamped so that it can be more properly targeted as well as user friendly, it's not likely to accrue to the interests of sellers, responsible buyers and by extension, eBay, in the long haul.
buyselljack2016
·11 months agoand I think the refund may also count against the seller's annual sales total for tax purposes
------------------------------------------
it is a deduction.
one must deduct it when doing their taxes
that amount is included in one of the available reports
starboardset
·11 months agoI was under the impression that everything, including refunds, counted towards the seller's total, no matter what.
Good to know that's not the case.
d-k_treasures
·11 months agoSuch a shame that ebay charged my card for a few hundred then put it right back in 15 minutes because the seller cancelled the sale.
What a joke this place has become - 95% of anything iron are repros, lousy searches, ridiculous fees for the service, etc..
mudshark61369
·11 months ago@dstewart_bucks ,
"Been an Ebay for 21 years. I pay as I go with Ebay gift cards. I do this to avoid charges to Credit Card".
You could do as the last reply suggested or just use a Debit Card from a checking/savings account that you add to your PayPal account and make it the primary payment method.
Buying gift cards to use on ebay or other sites, can be dangerous because there are scams out there that make buying gift cards an iffy proposition. Criminals exploit both gift cards and prepaid cards due to the ease with which they can be manipulated. In some cases, they steal the numbers and security codes off the gift cards in stores and wait for their activation which then goes into their account.
There's more info about the scams in the link below.
https://consumer.ftc.gov/gift-card-scams
Scroll a short way down the page that opens and read the info under the "Check out gift cards before you buy them" header.
roccotacodad54
·11 months agoIf you don't want to use a credit card for whatever reason you coud open a savings account separate from other accounts and use it as your payment source via PayPal.
That's how I have PayPal set up. No fuss No muss. No CC info to hack and only enough money in the account for what I plan to purchas plus a little extra. If it doesn't have the funds for a purchase I just use the automated phone service provided by my bank and transfer funds into it from another account.
ittybitnot
·11 months agoSellers and Buyers time schedules don't always coincide...
@dstewart_bucks
Anytime you are required to put up a payment source in order to bid (or make an offer), you are going to run into this or a similar problem with combined shipping. These are the settings on a seller's account that is causing this situation AKA auto-pay. Even if you don't sell on this account, they are likely on yours as well just in case you decide to sell someday. All new sellers get them in the default set to yes, yet they are never told about it by eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
Buyer Rules:
*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.
*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer.
Click submit or save.
Sellers can turn these off, if they even know they have them and the consequences for keeping them. Being the first round of combined shipping killers is not the only problem. They also, as you found out, limit the payment choices a buyer can use. No Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal balance, PayPal Pay in 4, Paypal Credit, Gift cards, coupons, Spendable Funds, etc. etc. Offers are still "instant". You make offers on ten items that are accepted by the seller, and you are going to see ten individual charges to your card, no invoicing or combined shipping allowed. eBay, however, needs a payment source they can "tap" for auto-pay, so the choices are slim.
Auctions were once "instant" as well. Now you get an hour to change your payment method, and to perhaps get combined shipping (most of us realize that is a silly time frame). Though supposedly these procedures were initiated to cut down on non-paying buyers. However, as buyers figured out the real consequences for putting up a payment source in order to proceed, many just would not bid or make offers for sellers that had the above "buyer rules" set to yes or on. The process turned out to be real effective in discouraging PAYING BUYERS...
Now they are allowing "some" buyers to delay that ONE HOUR up to 5 days. Sellers don't have much of a choice about it, and those that did not want to do combined shipping or sell more than one item to a buyer are unhappy they have to wait so long now.
eBay makes more money with offers or auctions that are billed separately. Sellers pay more, but get paid faster albeit get paid less for all the traffic they turn away.
To make it even more fun, ALL SELLER GENERATED OFFERS AND ACCEPTED COUNTER OFFERS are immediate payment required. These will remain for sale until someone pays for them separately at full shipping cost. Buyers are not limited with payment options.
soh.maryl
·11 months agoWhen I have used an eBay gift card to pay for a purchase, I always just do it when I check out. Have never heard of being able to do it the following day.
dryophelia
·11 months agoThe money used to buy the gift card before purchasing could also be used to pay the credit card. I don’t understand how the extra step makes sense.
Wouldn't using the credit card and paying it off in a timely manner be beneficial to one’s credit score?
gosimus
·11 months ago@dstewart_bucks
Not only that, but using a credit card gives you extra backup protection. Another benefit, you avoid the risk of getting one of those gift cards with a zero balance we read about so often here on the boards.
buyselljack2016
·11 months ago@dstewart_bucks
auto-pay depends upon seller settings.
eBay opted all sellers into that as a "buyer requirement'.
some sellers uncheck the box.
some sellers do not uncheck the box.
some sellers do not even know the "requirement" has been put in place.
eta: when this auto-pay was 1st in place............. it was immediate. The 1-hour delay is a variation.