Buyers - Automatic Payment Method
Lately, I have been reading the message boards more frequently to gain knowledge for selling.
And I have been a buyer and seller on eBay for some time. I have always paid for my orders. Just today I sent an offer to a seller who has enabled the automatic payment option. I followed the links to add payment information not really understanding what I just got myself into. The offer was accepted and paid. I then received the below email from eBay:
“You authorize eBay to link your *****to your eBay account and use it to collect payment from you for items you offer to buy or win at auction on eBay.â€
So now if I want to make an offer, or bid on an item, from a seller who has enabled this option, the payment will be deducted from this source only. I have no choice. To make matters worse, there is no real way to tell which seller uses this option.
I believe this may drive away potential buyers. If the buyers read the fine print, they may be less likely to send an offer or bid on an item without the option to choose another payment method. I do understand eBay's premise to stop unpaid items, but couldn't they have set this up so that at every bid or offer we can choose our payment options for that particular item, rather than the same payment method for every order you place for eternity?
Not to long ago I changed my own sellers account to disable the buyers auto payment options because I understand there may be some buyers who need to use more than one option to pay.
Well thanks for listening... And have a great evening.
ittybitnot
·2 years agoTo make matters worse, there is no real way to tell which seller uses this option.
@catjewels9876
The only way to tell is if you are presented with the "screen" to select a payment option before being allowed to proceed to make an offer or bid. Once you select one, you will not get the presentation again WITH THAT SELLER for that session. You should be allowed to CHANGE the funding source for the next seller and presented the screen again.
Some have reported the original choice you made will "stick" and you will not get the warning if you proceed to another seller, but those reports have not been posted in abundance. If this should happen to you, remove all your payment options before you go to bid or make an offer with another.
If you don't wish to comply, simply move on and don't. Once eBay forces your ID into compliance, there is no getting out of it. All buyer IDs are enrolled for making offers, eBay is continuing to enroll sellers in order to bid. Sellers can remove those buyer requirements. Many don't even know they are there. Some figured it out, but mostly from reading here. When they didn't get offers anymore, and their auctions had minimal bidding results they began to ask questions. Paying eBay to promote was not helping.
Yes, it would be nice if eBay put up some sort of Icon...LOL...."Shop here, limited payment options and no combined shipping.....New smoother checkout for your convenience".
I suppose eBay didn't figure on so many buyers balking at this "New improved enhanced buyer experience" that was nothing of the sort, for they are now in the process of TWEAKING the system.
Sellers that remove the buyer requirements should advertise "Buyer friendly shopping, real combined shipping, no pre-payment information required here!"
Sellers that don't want to encourage multiple sales can leave the preferences in place, or not use auctions, and not use the best offer feature. If they are really serious, they can make all their listings BIN with immediate payment required.
catjewels9876
OP2 years agoThank you for all the information and suggestions. I'll have to check out my settings and add some more language to my auction listings.
We can only hope they "tweak" it so buyers and sellers can be happy.
ed8108
·2 years agoIt appears that Ebay takes a position autopay is a great benefit for both sellers & buyers.
Very sad situation 😢
catjewels9876
OP2 years agoSo true...
reallynicestamps
·2 years ago.......................
mudshark61369
·2 years ago@catjewels9876,
"Fingers crossed the exec's see these as real issues and not just noise".
Considering the very sneaky way they went about instituting the policy, they knew exactly what they were doing. At first only some buyers had to enter the info. Then it became all buyers. Then they added the "option" to sellers Buyer requirements already checked, without notifying them about that. It was Months after they did that, before finally issuing an Announcement outside of the 2 major bi-yearly policy announcements, a few days before the start of the 4th of July weekend. There are still many sellers who do not know they were opted into the Auto pay system.
catjewels9876
OP2 years agoI agree with you 100%! I only found out about all of the changes after reading the message boards. Buyers pay more up front for multiple purchases only to get a return of their combined postage. Not sure if any other platform that does that. I imagine there are a lot of sellers who don't know they are enrolled in the new auto payments as you say.
az93
·2 years agoI was able to opt out of auto pay as a seller, but it doesn't appear to be an option as a buyer. This is a very pushy move on ebay's part. I feel like they don't trust me to pay, and I have always paid,
catjewels9876
OP2 years agoI know, right? At least treat us as trustworthy until we are not.
mudshark61369
·2 years ago@catjewels9876,
You are absolutely right about the Auto Pay system, it is hurting sales, and it may even be causing more unpaid item problems, because buyers cannot request and sellers cannot send combined shipping totals. Buyers see that they have to pay the full shipping cost for each item of a multiple item purchase, and refuse to pay.
There is nothing you can do beyond unchecking the Auto pay option. eBay management has decided this is how they want things done and as far as they are concerned, complaints about the system are just Noise, as one former ebay CEO infamously said in a public interview.
catjewels9876
OP2 years agoYou are so right about the combined shipping issue and automatic payments. From what I am reading when you get a sale for multiple items you have to refund the buyer. This is not very efficient.
Can't imagine the buyer likes paying for something only to then receive a credit, when before they paid and that was it.
Fingers crossed the exec's see these as real issues and not just noise.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoWith auctions and Make an offer this is what it is....wish Amazon did this...LOL...but it doesn't.
We are lucky eBay does auctions and Make an offer since there are not a lot of platforms who do that.