Accepted Counter Offers from Buyers not showing up a Pending Payment
Best Offer Issue
Situation: I regularly send offers, buyers counter...but over the last 7 days, I accepted counter offers and then they go into the ether...they dont show up as Awaiting Payment, Waiting for Payment, etc. they just kind of disappear.
over the labor day weekend I had 4 of these, only 1 person paid. 3 were canceled. which is unusual for us.
on tuesday, we have 2 more. 18 hours in no payment yet.
you cant send an invoice because it does not look like an order.
one of the items still shows I have open offers, even though I accepted.
something is wrong with the software, there is a bug/defect.
I called and told cust svc to open a ticket with their tech support group (I know that wont happen).
how do I get a message to someone at ebay that can actually look into this...it's a problem and frustrating
(in my past life, I led product and ux for major ecomm retailers so I understand how software and tech depts work)
hickorycastle
·1 year agoI get at least 5 counteroffers a day and it's rare that the buyer pays. Why do they bother making an offer?
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year agoHonestly, I don't usually even know whether buyers pay when they send or receive an offer or counter-offer, because it's all handled without my intervention. If it's one of the situations where the item remains active until they pay, it doesn't affect us really at all, and if it does go to Awaiting Payment, we have our settings set to automatically cancel the order if it's not paid (we have a much longer timeframe for that than I would recommend for most sellers, but it's still automatic).
As for why they do it, there could be a lot of different reasons. If I tried to get into my buyer's heads, I'd go even crazier than I am now.
ittybitnot
·1 year ago@sagethreds
Please read this thread. I explained it there in message #4 and don't want to type it again. Will be glad to answer any questions if you need more advice:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Confused-on-how-some-offers-work/m-p/34866666#M2508390
218lovemyfreedom
·1 year agoI JUST had this happen!! Buyer sent a counter offer, lucky for me I took a screen shot. The instant I clicked "accept" this buyer disappeared. Buy had been on ebay since 2016 and had 100% positive feedback.
I contacted ebay, they say, "You will just have to re-list". Very, very odd.
howe1850
·1 year agoAny updates or how to opt out now?
This new system has really impacted my sales negatively by a large margin due to not being able to offer combined shipping.
savinglace
·1 year agois this still happening to people? I have lost 4 in the last 2 weeks. I was able to reach out to one of the sales that was accepted but the buyer said that they never received anything saying that I accepted their counteroffer so they purchased the same item elsewhere. These sales are in pending offers, but not in pending payments. And if they are in pending offers - you can try to contact the party directly to advise they their offer was accepted by messaging them and trying to explain that your acceptance of their counteroffer MAY have come to them as another offer sent......this is literally making my head spin at how stupid this is.
Is there anything that can be done to not go thru this? Has there been any additional updates since these last threads above? I can't find anything on ebay about this and getting someone to talk to you is like pulling teeth. So frustrating. Thanks for any information
machgogogo
·1 year agoSame issue mentioned a couple times now in last 2 months.
1st time, the buyer reported they didn't get a notification of my acceptance of their counteroffer & I ended up cancelling the auction & relisting it at the price we agreed.
It may have just happened again - I accepted counteroffer & I don't find anything notifying me of pending payment or even the auction in any status fields (I can only access the auction by backtracking through the message telling me I received a counteroffer.
I believe ebay should make the counteroffer acceptance visible (or more visible to the buyer) & the auction status easily visible to the seller (the actual auction pending payment from the buyer is actually not even visible in my active auctions so I'm not sure the "potential higher price" mentioned above in comments even is true for me...
sellsrocks4less
·1 year agoThank you so much for responding. I have been having the same problem with accepting best offer orcounter offer and it disappearing. I agree with you 100% that many of the changes eBay has made are making it harder to buy and sell. Been selling here for 16 years
paleadhead
·1 year agoWe had the same issue. We called and they said the item for sale stay live because the buyer does not posses and form of payment recognized by Ebay. They keep the item posted until the buyer pays in hope of getting a higher price to get more fees from the seller. Ebay revenue is down and instead of making it easier for people to purchase stuff they try these lame brain ideas to create more revenue. The bottom line is they are ruining Ebay by their constant unneeded changes. They are making it hard to purchase and to even find items. People want ease not this confusing cluster they are creating. We need a Starbucks moment just saying. 26 years of selling and it's come to this. Please change this horrible anti business model they are trying to create.
sagethreds
OP1 year agoGuess I am turning off counteroffers on selling offers. Had 2 more today. Seemed to coincide with the cancelation updates made last week. Never had this happen at this rate before.
maybe someone at eBay will see this thread and see our frustration
ittybitnot
·1 year agoGuess I am turning off counteroffers on selling offers.
@sagethreds
All offers you send are going to be "immediate payment required". Buyers can no longer "accept" them, or accept more than one for combined shipping/invoicing as all these have to be paid individually. If a buyer should send YOU an offer and you "accept" they will be auto billed because you still retain the buyer rules mentioned in message #5. Turn off the buyer rules, and buyers can make offers on multiple items of yours, and request an invoice with combine shipping for all those that you accept. This will cost you less, and the buyer as well. Not much sense in making multiple offers otherwise. Any saving made on the offer will be likely counteracted by having to pay the full shipping price on each. This you can control.
If YOU make a counter offer, or if you "accept" a counter offer it will result in a listing that will require immediate payment and/or will remain for sale until someone buys it, just like offers you send. These scenarios are NOT in your control and is an intended change instituted by eBay.
218lovemyfreedom
·1 year agoWhen I spoke with an Ebay service person on the phone they acted like they had never heard of this happening before!!! Then I came in here an dread all this!! AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!
ittybitnot
·1 year ago@218lovemyfreedom
For you as well. See message #4
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Confused-on-how-some-offers-work/m-p/34866666#M2508390
FWIW
bonanza125
·1 year agoI had that same issue. It's a glitch which Ebay needs to correct. Buyers might be having the same issue with issues of paying manually.
ittybitnot
·1 year agosomething is wrong with the software, there is a bug/defect.
@sagethreds
Actually, this is an intended change on the part of eBay. When you "accept" a counter offer from a buyer it is changed on your end to "you sent an offer". Of course, you didn't (you accepted), the buyer is not told you accepted. Rather they get "sent an offer" instead and are unaware that you accepted their offer unless they happen to see it, or you tell them. . eBay has made all seller generated offers, AND these accepted counter offers "Immediate Payment Required". The listing will remain active until someone pays for it.
Though supposedly intended to cut down on non-paying buyers, with this scenario the buyer with the "accepted offer" doesn't have to pay at all, and will not get an unpaid item strike for ignoring this. If they should receive more than one from you that you accepted, they have to be paid individually, with no option to combine shipping/request an invoice.
This is going to happen regardless whether or not you turn off the other combined shipping killers "buyer rules" that you have in effect. It just adds to to the opportunities to removed combined shipping from your listings because it requires a buyer to provide a payment source in order to make an offer or bid on your auctions. You can see yours here:
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.
steady2304
·1 year ago@sagethreds
There is nothing wrong with the software. eBay has changed the way Best Offers get paid. Once the seller accepts the offer it stays active for anyone to purchase until the buyer who made the offer pays for it.
It really is a dumb way to do it but most sellers like it because the item stays active until it is paid for. For sellers like me who offer combined shipping discounts it's a pain in the *** as you can't send an invoice if a buyer accepts multiple offers because each one has to be paid for separately before they show up in your awaiting shipment folder and then the seller has to refund the excess shipping.
It's just another one of eBays so called improvements that really isn't.
kasp182
·1 year agoBut why doesn't it show as "awaiting payment"? It doesn't exist anywhere...
wastingtime101
·1 year ago@kasp182 Accepted counter offers move to pending status on the listing's offers management page; no order is created until (unless) the buyer pays and you cannot send an invoice.
While offers are in pending status the item is available for anybody else to purchase. eBay is trying to eliminate the inconvenience to sellers when buyers change their mind so the seller does not have to start from scratch and lose interested buyers when they relist. They're also trying to eliminate the inconvenience of having your item off the market during the 4+ day waiting period for payment.
If the buyer does not pay within a certain amount of time, the offer will expire and be removed from the pending section. If the buyer pays then it will become an official transaction on your orders page. In the meantime, any buyer can purchase at full price or make an offer.
siamjane8
·1 year ago@sagethreds unfortunately we have been dealing with this problem for months! They screwed up (intentionally) the programming when they redid the offers system. Now when offers are accepted, they do not consider it sold until actual payment has gone through so the item will remain live for others to purchase...... Realistically all this did was to make more confusion and an epidemic of unpaid offers because buyers no longer even realize that you accepted their offer and are required to complete payment. We are in the same boat and have had more unpaid and lost accepted offers in the last 4 months than in our total 25 years selling on eBay. It's so discouraging to be held to a system that is so screwed up. We lost 2 sales yesterday because the accepted counter offers never paid. eBay has had absolutely NOTHING to say about this issue for months. At least now there seems to be a couple new posts a day turning up so perhaps it will force them to roll back the change and make it just simple an not so confusing
218lovemyfreedom
·1 year agoYES, LOST ACCEPTED OFFERS. Some of these items if they don't sell at that time, (as in before Christmas), you might not get another chance. This just happened to me and ebay was of ZERO, ZZZZZ EEEEE ROOOOOO HELP.
I am so frustrated.
fbusoni
·1 year agoOthers have reported the same issue.
The best workaround seems to be for you as the seller to send a message to the buyer telling them that you have sent a counter offer, have accepted their offer, etc.
(PS: You may have worked for other ecommerce retailers, but from what I have observed, eBay is sui generis. 😆)