I'm convinced they just don't want us to understand how offers work AT ALL anymore
..... either that, or my dream has finally come true and a buyer now only gets 24 hours to pay.
I really don't know what to make of this. A few hours ago my phone made the CHING! sale sound. I saw that an item sold via buyer-initiated offer. I do mean SOLD because I had an auto-accept amount set, and their offer met it. I have auto-pay switched OFF, so they should have 4 days to pay, right?
Well just now I look at the email from eBay and right away it looks unfamilar, just in format/color scheme (kinda looks like a Goodwill sign, LOL). But why on Earth are they saying I have an offer to respond to? 
So then I click the Respond now, and it takes me here, same page you go when you click 'Review offers' from a listing on the hub. But it's just more bonkers contradictions and bizarre statements for this item:
Now zooming in, this item does show in the 'Pending' thing on the lower left, whole nother pot of HUH?:
On my Orders page, it does show as a sold item, awaiting payment.
So is this really a SOLD, ENDED item awaiting payment? Or is a PENDING OFFER, awaiting a response and which could "expire" 24 hours from when the buyer made it? Why is there nowhere saying "The buyer has until (date) to pay, then you can cancel" like it used to?
Oh by the way, this item isn't anywhere on that new other 'Offers' page, in the Marketing tab. I don't even know what they're doing with that thing, seems like an unfinished project, totally useless.
gurlcat
OP9 months agoWelp GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS. -The buyer has paid. Good news for obvious reasons, bad because now we can't know what would have happened if that "offer expiration" clock had run all the way down.
@jonathanbrightlight @ittybitnot or anyone who watches these forums closely, if you see another post with a similarly weird offer scenario, and you remember -would you tag me?
jonathanbrightlight
·9 months agoIf I remember, and I’ll try to!
dhbookds
·9 months ago@gurlcat Not sure how I was snippy, but if you viewed it as such, I apologize..........
gurlcat
OP9 months ago@dhbookds Lol no I was the one who got snippy, thus my apology.
gurlcat
OP9 months ago@ittybitnot Here's another situation where it looks like they're messing around with how offers work, or there's a glitch.
gurlcat
OP9 months agoSince in my post I used 2 different terms with the word "auto" in them, maybe there is some confusion about that.
I used the LISTING settings to automatically acccept a buyer's offer of at least $40. This is what that looks like:
And yes I have the 'Require immediate payment' feature check-marked, but that would only apply to someone paying the full BIN price. -Normally accepted offers give the buyer 4 days to pay.
But if I wanted to require immediate ("auto") payment from their bank card, I would checkmark this in my SELLER PREFERENCES settings (which affects all listings, not just the one in this sale). That setting looks like this, and note I do not have any of the options check-marked.
ccomic
·9 months agoI noticed as a buyer I have the option to turn off the one hour auto-pay when I bid, but I can’t turn off auto-pay entirely. It does seem to default to 1 hour. I think the other choice was 4 days. I don’t recall. There were only two choices however.
Edit: I just tried it again and it does not allow me to change it if the seller does not allow combined shipping. Also, on my phone, it is hidden much more than on the desktop. I really don’t care once I know its going to happen, but feel it really is insulting to a buyer who is not aware that its going to happen.
gurlcat
OP9 months agoLike I said, I have autopay switched OFF, so what you're describing wouldn't apply at all.
dhbookds
·9 months ago@gurlcat , sorry, from your title, I thought you were confused about what time frames applied.
gurlcat
OP9 months agoAre you joking? You just reply to threads based on the title, without reading the post?
dhbookds
·9 months agoCertainly, I read the post. I found it a bit complicated to address, so just posted on what I thought to be one issue.......with the thought that others would come and address others.... Obviously, that seems to have upset you....which was definitely not my intent........
gurlcat
OP9 months agoNo, I am sorry that my post was so confusing. I did try to avoid that, but considering how confusing eBay's repeatedly-changing offer structures have been, and how this transaction doesn't even jive with the (known) complicated way it worked last I knew of ..... it was just bound to be a very hairy post, no matter what.
The longer thread title would include:
also they probably like it when we confuse each other and get snippy about it because that feeds the chaos even more.
nh_sales_lv
·9 months agoAsk AI Gurlcat. AI could be your Buyer. AI is Buying and AI is Selling. Why are you bothering us ? when we have the Almighty Alknowing AI. Maybe I am AI ?
jonathanbrightlight
·9 months agoI believe what you're seeing is that the offer was automatically accepted, and it is a sold item, but either the payment is taking a while to process (happens sometimes), or something is just still updating in eBay's system as far as marking it sold. It does show in your Sold Items when I view your listings.
As for why, I have no idea. I have been trying to put in some effort to figure out what actually results in each possible outcome for an accepted offer, but I have had to put a lot of my mental energy into personal situations lately, so I haven't been able to dig into it like I wanted.
gurlcat
OP9 months ago@jonathanbrightlight As of right now the buyer still hasn't paid, and I have no idea whether they were given a deadline to pay. But the only difference I'm seeing on my end is the amount of time left before the "offer expires." -That phrasing is what they always used to say about how much time the seller has to accept the offer, so why that is still ticking down makes no sense whatsoever.
Also, look how it says "All agreed upon price points" -Just me or are "Pending" and "Agreed upon" totally different things?!!
Well I guess I'll know something(?) at around 11:30 tonight, if the buyer hasn't paid by then. But like you I have personal stuff going on, my kid arriving in town for a visit at 10:00, so I don't know when I'll be updating.
dhbookds
·9 months agoThere's a difference via buyer-initiated offer and seller offers sent........
Seller offers sent, 96 hrs.
https://export.ebay.com/en/marketing/promote-listings/offer-buyers/
Best offer by buyers: 24 hrs for seller to accept
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/selling-buy-now/adding-best-offer-listing?id=4144&st=3&pos=1&query=Adding%20Best%20Offer%20to%20your%20listing%20and%20sending%20offers%20to%20buyers&intent=buyer%20initiated%20offers&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1043
babyers88
·9 months agomaybe it is different for auctions but if I with (buy it now only AND enable best offers) accept a offer from a buyer, then it is automatically paid. That is something they changed that year (i think) it wasn't too long ago.
same if I send a offer and they accept, then it is paid automatically.
It was a nice change to eliminate non paying buyers entirely.
gurlcat
OP9 months agoAuto-payment is happening for you becuase you have that setting switched ON in your seller preferences. Don't worry if you don't remember doing that because you didn't; eBay automatically switched it on for ALL seller. But when we got to discussing the details of how it worked, even though immediate payment sounded AMAZING, the way they set it up is extremely problematic in some ways, and buyers HATE it, so it definitely costs you sales whether you know it or not.
gurlcat
OP9 months agoI know that, but this isn't about when acceptance occurs, because in my case acceptance was IMMEDIATE. Did you not see that part at the beginning of my post, that I had an auto-accept setting for offfers?
tarotfindsandmore
·9 months agoKeeping my fingers crossed your dream has come true. 96 hours is absurd. 24 hours is plenty.
meme6253
·9 months agoSomething out of the Twilight Zone!, I have no idea what to tell you about this one,Pretty Crazy!