Question thread: Reducing unpaid items

[seller_update@ebay]

Today we announced one of the ways we are reducing unpaid item cases. Buyers will automatically be charged when sellers accept their Best Offer. You can read more about that here. Feel free to review and leave any questions you may have below! 

Please note that eBay experts will be present and engaging on the boards between 8 am and 4:00 pm PST on 2.9.

[ittybitnot]

You need to address this

@lacemaker3   

I don't think anybody will address this.  The first post says they would be answering questions on 2/9 (not today). 

In the meantime seller_update@ebay  needs to go help the OP in this thread.  I think I know what has happened to this buyer in light of other discussions like this topic, but there is some serious buyer confusion going on that I really don't think calling CS is going to help this guy.  I really don't want to tell him that is very likely he can use that money in about 10 days.  It is so sad.  eBay needs to call off their dogs (charge holds). 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/why-was-I-billed-for-an-item-for-which-I-was-outbid/td-p/326903...

[ittybitnot]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Make-an-offer-Select-a-payment/m-p/32691909#M390321

[hockeymom2]

I haven't sold for a couple of years, but I do understand not receiving payment from buyers.

My concern is that those of us who do intend to pay, are usually biddin on other items of that seller and wand combined shipping. I hate paying shipping and want that cost as low as possible. If you make it impossible for me to get combined shipping, because I make an offer, I probably won't make or accept any seller offers.  Shipping is high and I refuse to pay full shipping on every item. Just a thought.

[mam98031]

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@monica0102009 wrote:

bout you bring back the negative rating for buyers
it seems that e-bay protects buyers while allowing negative feed back for sellers

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It will never happen @monica0102009 .  It is simply bad business.  No other site does it either and there is very good reasons for that.  

Best to keep in mind that every transaction on Ebay is a Business transaction NOT a personal one.

[jayswancards]

This questions doesn't apply directly to best offers being automatically paid but can something be done in regard to box and case breaks?  Unlike the sale of a card(s) or sealed boxes, a spot in a case break is time sensitive and I can't just wait until auctions are paid to start the case break unless I want to annoy the people that actually paid on time.  I usually do breaks within an hour or two of auctions ending as that is how buyers like it.  If someone doesn't pay, I either have to try to sell the spots at a discount to the auction ending price or just eat the loss and hope the buyer actually pays.  There needs to be a mechanism similar to the best offer payment where buyers are forced to pay upon the auction ending somehow or at least before the break starts.  That would eliminate the non-payment issue as it relates to case breaks.  To give some context, I had one thief run up over a thousand dollars in auction wins in one break and then refused to pay, citing Ebay was doing something to stop payment, which was total **bleep**.  He was hoping he hit something big in the break before paying.

[transamcc]

A much simpler solution to all this is to permanently suspend  a buyer account on the second unpaid strike and forget about all of the programming war games.

[mam98031]

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@transamcc wrote:

A much simpler solution to all this is to permanently suspend  a buyer account on the second unpaid strike and forget about all of the programming war games.

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I personally think that is a permanent solution to what is likely a temporary problem.

But the good news is @transamcc if that is what you feel is appropriate, you can accomplish that for your own account by setting your site preferences properly.  If you set the setting under Buyer Requirements for unpaid items to 2 in the past 12 months, then it would mean the same thing for you.  and you can have your account set to what you feel is appropriate.  Those buyers will be blocked from purchasing from you.

[loewe_new]

On eBay since 2009
Always paid for 0-6 hours after the consent of the seller.
I don't like the new feature and I just stop using "Make offer"

[transamcc]

I have been here about 16 years, have always paid within minutes,  or hours when a seller accepts my offer after I have gone  to sleep. I buy only,  do not sell, never have and do not intend to begin selling.  I will not need to make  those buyer requirements settings in the foreseeable future at all. I am disabled, and for that reason I cannot physically provide others with the high standards of timely handling and delivery that I expect to receive. 

I believe that the account suspension action , if not forever, but for at least a year would solve the problem  entirely.

[mam98031]

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@transamcc wrote:

I have been here about 16 years, have always paid within minutes,  or hours when a seller accepts my offer after I have gone  to sleep. I buy only,  do not sell, never have and do not intend to begin selling.  I will not need to make  those buyer requirements settings in the foreseeable future at all. I am disabled, and for that reason I cannot physically provide others with the high standards of timely handling and delivery that I expect to receive. 

I believe that the account suspension action , if not forever, but for at least a year would solve the problem  entirely.

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I too function as you do when I buy something as does most buyers as well.  But there are enough that do not to create this problem.  

All I'm saying is if a seller feels the same way you do about non paying buyers, Ebay offers them a tool in which they can use to accomplish exactly what you are saying.  The decision is the sellers.

[gurlcat]

Thing is, for all the sellers who are savvy enough to know about the Community forums and talk about the problem of how they would combine shipping, in actual transactions I find the majority of sellers totally clueless about how to combine shipping.  Like they are willing to do it, just don't know how and so what ends up happening is I pay the full amount of shipping for all the items, then they refund me the overage.  I always go ahead and TRY to do the "request invoice' thing, but more often than not, I get the bot reply about how this seller does not combine shipping, so I have to write to them.  

If ebay would just make combining easier, like more intuitive, that would help a lot.  

As for the 'how much would be authorized' when a bidder places their initial bid, I guess I don't know that.   I'll probably get jumped on for saying this by sellers who don't mind waiting days for payment, but I think 24 hours is plenty of time for the buyer to get out of bed, do their shift at work, feed the kiddo's etc., and at SOME point realize they won the auction they bid on, click the button and PAY, or else the item becomes available to the seller to offer to the next-highest bidder, or relist and start over.  

I'm glad you bring up the comparison to live, in-person auctions.  Because whether it's at an auction house or the estate home of the person who died or is moving, the reason to pay immediately is obvious: if payment is not received the item is going to sit there taking up space.  It seems that Ebay's polices of giving winners multiple days to pay is an application of the principle that 'slow pay is better than no pay' and in theory it's true, but what we have here is an entity (Ebay) that gets to strong-arm how slow is 'fast enough,' yet they are not the entity providing the shelf space.  They also rake in bazillions of bucks a day from the mazillions of sales that occur on the platform, so of course it doesn't matter to them if this $235 or whatever comes in today or 5 days from now,  whereas for the seller each day of non-payment might cause them real problems.  

[gurlcat]

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@jayswancards wrote:

This questions doesn't apply directly to best offers being automatically paid but can something be done in regard to box and case breaks?  Unlike the sale of a card(s) or sealed boxes, a spot in a case break is time sensitive and I can't just wait until auctions are paid to start the case break unless I want to annoy the people that actually paid on time.  I usually do breaks within an hour or two of auctions ending as that is how buyers like it.  If someone doesn't pay, I either have to try to sell the spots at a discount to the auction ending price or just eat the loss and hope the buyer actually pays.  There needs to be a mechanism similar to the best offer payment where buyers are forced to pay upon the auction ending somehow or at least before the break starts.  That would eliminate the non-payment issue as it relates to case breaks.  To give some context, I had one thief run up over a thousand dollars in auction wins in one break and then refused to pay, citing Ebay was doing something to stop payment, which was total **bleep**.  He was hoping he hit something big in the break before paying.

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I read this twice (much slower the second time) trying to understand what you are talking about.  What do you mean about spots, boxes, cases and breaks????  Do you mean like how long before you can file a case, as in cancellation of a winning bidder's right to the item?  

[lacemaker3]

@gurlcat, @jayswancards is asking for eBay to require immediate payment for auction-format listings. Or at least within a couple of hours of the auction end.

You can google "box breaks" to get a better understanding. It's a way of selling sports cards, that comes pretty close to being a lottery but not quite.

[transamcc]

My simplistic solution does not even depend on a seller taking the time or initiative to make those settings for themselves. As a default condition, it would become universal UNLESS a seller REMOVED it from their buyer requirements.  One can possess a closet full of tools, but unless one gets a tool out to use it,  that  tool  remains lifeless.  In the instance of a seller intentionally removing the requirement from settings, they then should have no basis to complain about non-payments.

[velvet@ebay · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone! These threads are closed from further replies. If there are outstanding questions that we are waiting for additional information with, we will update the thread with the response we receive and tag you to make sure you get the notification.