Ebay seller protection SUCKS!
I keep getting flake bidders who don't pay.
This is such an easy problem to solve!
Make buyers automatically pay for their bids. Require them to have a payment method in their account, and require for payment to be made automatically if they win an auction (or even charge their bid price up front, return it if they lose).
Make buyers stop wasting seller's time. PLEASE.
At least make this option available for sellers to enable.
This problem is infuriating, and demonstrates a serious lack of eBay's management.
29 comments
inhawaii
·1 year agoWhy doesn't ebay make it HARDER for buyers to bid/buy items?
I think you answered your own question.
trueskateboarder
OP1 year agoYeah, because eBay cares about its profits, not its customers. Obviously!!!!!! They'd rather make more money than let you managed you business how you see fit!!!!!
Really sad that now I've pasted "Serious bidders only! The previous two winners flaked an did not pay." at the top of my listing.
Really #$%&ing sad.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoSellers have a choice about requiring Immediate Payment.
Some use it , but some who expect multiple purchases do not, since it makes combining shipping fees more complicated.
But the option is there, even for the less than 15% of transactions which sell as Auctions.
The chart in Post 19 shows all the Blocks and Requirements that you demand, as options for the seller.
Personally the only options I use are the Block on deadbeats with 2 or more Strikes and the Block on whining messages from Blocked bidders.
showmecurrency4u
·1 year agothe seller protection really does on exist. we only have protection for ebay.
luckythewinner
·1 year agokeep getting flake bidders who don't pay. This is such an easy problem to solve! Make buyers automatically pay for their bids. Require them to have a payment method in their account, and require for payment to be made automatically if they win an auction
eBay has been working on this for a couple years now, especially with offers, and many buyers and sellers do not like it. eBay can see what effect it has on overall bidding and buying, and I suspect buyer resistance is why they are not rolling it out faster.
or even charge their bid price up front, return it if they lose
I would stop shopping on eBay if they did that. I can't think of a better way to scare off good buyers than by letting them know you are assuming they are deadbeats up front.
trueskateboarder
OP1 year agoMaybe that's overboard, but the fact that eBay doesn't auto charge winning bidders, even if a payment method is required to be in all bidders' accounts, is ridiculous. It doesn't make sense to allow people to win auctions they can simply choose not to pay for. That's a horrible feature.
johnrj1226
·1 year ago1. Don't do auction at all - most items sell at you lowest price - very few will get a big run up = just a dream. People want there stuff right away and folks don't want to wait until the last second to buy or just missed getting something they reall wanted
2. Don't do Fixed Price w/ best offer - your inviting low ballers
3. Do fixed price only with immediate payment required (it is an optional feature you need to select - if the buyer doesn't pay pronto your listing remains active to any one that buys it and pays for it immediately.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year ago1. Don't do auction at all - most items sell at you lowest price - very few will get a big run up = just a dream. People want there stuff right away and folks don't want to wait until the last second to buy or just missed getting something they reall wanted
2. Don't do Fixed Price w/ best offer - your inviting low ballers
3. Do fixed price only with immediate payment required (it is an optional feature you need to select - if the buyer doesn't pay pronto your listing remains active to any one that buys it and pays for it immediately.
There are a number of reasons for using the auction format. I do so from a time management perspective. With the auto-pay feature capability for auctions it is the same as using IPR on BIN items. However, there are trade offs for using the auto-pay feature on auctions just as there are for using IPR on BIN items.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoI'm looking at the auction style from a buyers prospective - IMHO it is not convenient to buy stuff you want. Items are offer by sellers in various time zones - buyer convenience is a key to successful selling. The buyer doesn't give a flip if it makes the seller more time efficient. -
No doubt there is a segment of buyers that like to play with auction bidding - the greater population want it now - have noticed that those Friday / Saturday night Auction Houses are less and less here in "Dog Patch GA" while the population in our county has tripled in the last 20+ years. Me thinks auctions are going the way of the dodo bird. Ya catch more fish if you fish where the fishes are and have the right bait or color lure. Just my perspective - I fished a lot.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoI'm looking at the auction style from a buyers prospective - IMHO it is not convenient to buy stuff you want. Items are offer by sellers in various time zones - buyer convenience is a key to successful selling. The buyer doesn't give a flip if it makes the seller more time efficient. -
No doubt there is a segment of buyers that like to play with auction bidding - the greater population want it now - have noticed that those Friday / Saturday night Auction Houses are less and less here in "Dog Patch GA" while the population in our county has tripled in the last 20+ years. Me thinks auctions are going the way of the dodo bird. Ya catch more fish if you fish where the fishes are and have the right bait or color lure. Just my perspective - I fished a lot.
Tend to agree with most of your statement and it often depends on what you are selling which works best. Commodity type items, which is about 80% of eBay these days, are probably best BIN but I have few of those. While I buy little on eBay these days I used to purchase most of my items from auction type listings most of those were coins and precious metals.
Auctions may be dying in your area but in mine they are on the rise not so much the physical ones but the online ones. They are one of my prime sourcing methods so the more people that don't like auctions the better for my sourcing.
I still fish a LOT and since I use the scheduler and all my auctions end on Sunday, most buyers pay by Sunday evening, I drop at PO on Monday and I am free of eBay for the next 6 days to go fishing, camping, travel, hike............... I can still access my account remotely but I don't have to handle logistical actions everyday. It just depends on ones lifestyle just like I will totally shutdown around 1 December - Mid January to enjoy the holidays even though it is a prime selling time on eBay.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoDo what you want to do. Just sharing 41 years of experience in tete a tete selling in the same very competitive industry and enjoyed selling on ebay for 13 years then hung up the spurs. Did very well in either - never a bottom feeder.
Just curious just reviewed the last 54 items you sold over the last 90 day period, the greater majority received 1 2 or 3 bids and only 1 bid was the majority of those) =+ a couple of 4 bids and 1 11 bids
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoDo what you want to do. Just sharing 41 years of experience in tete a tete selling in the same very competitive industry and enjoyed selling on ebay for 13 years then hung up the spurs. Did very well in either - never a bottom feeder.
Just curious just reviewed the last 54 items you sold over the last 90 day period, the greater majority received 1 2 or 3 bids and only 1 bid was the majority of those) =+ a couple of 4 bids and 1 11 bids
This is typical of the items I sell probably because my starting price is the same one I would use if I listed it as a BIN item. A lot of the bids I get also come on the last day of the auction often in the last hour or minutes and I am fine with that. The advantage I gain is I don't have to worry about potentially packing and shipping items every day of the week as I would potentially have to do with BIN. About 99% of the time all buyers have paid by Sunday evening, I have everything packed and ready to drop at the PO on Monday morning after which I am free until the following Sunday.
I can monitory and respond to about anything, including this forum, from any location but I do not have to address logistical matters.
trueskateboarder
OP1 year agoWhat if I don't know a good Buy it Now price and the one eBay auto-suggests seems off?
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoWhat if I don't know a good Buy it Now price and the one eBay auto-suggests seems off?
Never go by what eBay suggests. Search eBay and other venues to find what items you are selling are actually selling for and make a decision based on that research.
trueskateboarder
OP1 year agoMy eBay account is more than 20 years old.
Please fix this nonsensicality.
Until then, I will avoid eBay.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoSee you sold 4 items in November so far. Probably won't sell anything more as you currently have all of zero items listing posted - must be moving day has come and gone.
evry1nositswindy
·1 year agoAre you giving these non-payers strikes? After 4 days of non-payment, cancel the transaction with the reason buyer did not pay. This issues a strike and 2 of those in a year will keep them from bidding/making offers. Don't think this works? My buyer requirements activity log has 24 bids not accepted by a buyer with too many unpaid item strikes (a buyer with over 1000 feedback--not a newbie). Check yours here: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/blockedbuyeractivities
monica-sells
·1 year agoWhy don't you just implement the pre-authorization?
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
Under Buyer Rules (at the bottom)
Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid
iamalwaysright
·1 year agoI'm aware of this program but I never had to enforce it because I haven't run auctions or offers since then. But does enabling this force the buyer to pay when it comes time to collect? Or does it just allow the buyer to bid/make an offer and the buyer pays when they want (or if they want)?
If it's the latter, then I suspect ebay forcing these pre-authorized buyers to pay up will be coming soon if this pre-authorization system proves to be a general benefit.
ittybitnot
·1 year agoIf it's the latter, then I suspect ebay forcing these pre-authorized buyers to pay up will be coming soon if this pre-authorization system proves to be a general benefit.
@iamalwaysright
The buyer requirements, later renamed "buyer rules" were placed on all sellers accounts over a year ago with the default set to YES. eBay, of course, didn't bother to tell anyone, and there are still plenty of sellers who don't know they are there, much less understand the implication in keeping them. In order for it to work, but BUYER ID must be enrolled into forced compliance as well. eBay is not finished enrolling all buyer IDs into forced compliance for bidding as they are for requiring it for a buyer to make an offer.
The downside of keeping those is that they are the combined shipping killers of the first order. The buyer is automatically billed (item paid for) as soon as an offer is accepted, and with few exceptions within an hour of the auction close. These are all separate charges to the payment source which is also limited in scope. No Google Pay, Apple Pay, Spendable Funds, PayPal Credit, PayPal Pay in 4, some coupons, gift cards, etc. This is not a popular plan with many buyers who wish to purchase more than one item from the seller, for there is no opportunity to combine items for one shipping price.
For those sellers who do not wish to sell multiple items to the same buyer, this will work fine. However, some suspect it does more to turn PAYING buyers away than taking care of buyers that don't 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.
The best "general benefit" is to eBay who gets the non-refundable transaction fee for items billed and paid for separately instead a single transaction fee for a combined order. I see that "form" when going to make offers or bid on a seller's auction, I just don't bother and finds someone else that has turned them off.
Even if a seller turns them off, eBay is right behind them making all seller generated offers (and counter offers) immediate payment required if the seller wants that feature or not. No more combined shipping, each must be paid separately at full shipping price. eBay makes more money this way.
fbusoni
·1 year ago@ittybitnot
For those sellers who do not wish to sell multiple items to the same buyer, this will work fine. However, some suspect it does more to turn PAYING buyers away than taking care of buyers that don't pay.
Indeed, this was precisely my experience, unbeknownst to me.
Once I turned off the requirement for pre-authorization, my sales jumped noticeably.
In particular purchases from first-time eBay buyers.
trueskateboarder
OP1 year agoWhat sales? Your feedback score shows 0?
Anyway, I think sellers should at least have the option to require their bidders to be auto-charged after winning. Let sellers determine if that works for them!!!
trueskateboarder
OP1 year agoI'm on mobile web. I didn't see any such option. Please, eBay, make a consistent UX across all form factors. Don't skimp!
Just require all buyers to input payment methods by default, and automatically charge them for won auctions!
Allow sellers to optionally disable the requirements (why would they?).
THAT'S the solution!
texasguava
·1 year agoAgreed. The mobile web is dumbed down to match the level of historical eBay executive leadership. Whether it’s the app popping up on a hidden web platform links, or a “rate the app†pop up while using the app, to the many fake Apple App Store fake reviews, it stinks. You’d think that these eBay executive clowns have ever had to use their own platform like a buyer, seller or employee would.
femmefan1946
·1 year agoBut does enabling this force the buyer to pay when it comes time to collect?
The bidder who wins has the payment automatically taken.
But.
Many potential bidders will take one look at the demand that they give their financial information to a stranger on the off chance that they will win a week down the line and say "stuff that for a game of soldiers" and move on.
Auctions make the customer wait for a week (or more) before they learn whether or not they won.
The Autopay doesn't give them the courtesy of any equivalent time to pay.
chevymontecarlo88
·1 year ago@trueskateboarder I would suggest what @monica-sells has suggested.
Easy
trueskateboarder
OP1 year agoI already did that, and it didn't help. Winner of my recent auction didn't pay despite the options as restrictive as possible. Screenshot of the options:
And besides that, there's no option to prevent people with 0 reputation from bidding no matter what.
The solution is very very *very* simple: eBay needs to not only require payment method, but also automatically charge for winning bids. Plain and simple.
Doing this will also eliminate all the fake accounts that must exist that serve to either elevate prices, or block other listings from winning.
This system is messed up. And with AIs, its gonna get worse.
briggett172
·1 year agoPre-authorization doesn't seem to make a difference. I have that option enabled. I have 3 "waiting for payment" at this time. One for 4 days now, one for 3 and one ended an hour ago. Seems to me the pre-authorization does no good.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoPre-authorization doesn't seem to make a difference. I have that option enabled. I have 3 "waiting for payment" at this time. One for 4 days now, one for 3 and one ended an hour ago. Seems to me the pre-authorization does no good.
You may want to recheck your settings and if you do in fact have the auto-pay enabled and it is not working you should contact eBay technical support and I would suggest you do so through one of the social media sites.