Inceptions
ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
Auto-pay only applies to offers and auctions. You are always given the change to select your payment method.
Many seller require immediate payment for BIN purchases, but you still go through checkout after you commit to buy. If you don't, the item isn't yours.
That's very curious as there isn't any need for it on Buy It Now listings. If eBay is running a test, I haven't heard about it.
However, if you want (or think you might want) to buy multiple items from the same seller, don't click Buy It Now, rather click Add to cart. Then when you are ready to make the purchase(s), you go to your cart and checkout.
I misread...I thought you wrote Buy It Now...it was an accepted offer. That's correct. There is no need to go through checkout as you do that before you can make your offer.
You can choose your payment information, select an address... What you can't do is combine purchases (yet).
eBay has now required some buyers to add a payment method prior to making an offer. This has been implemented on only one of my buying accounts and not on others. While the test is applied to only some buyers, it will, in time, affect all buyers who make offers (and later, all buyers who place a bid).
The seller is able to turn off this feature if the seller typically has items that buyers purchase together for combined shipping (the buyer has no such ability to opt out). Many sellers don't know they have this ability to turn off the autopay requirement.
Below is how I first approached autopay as a buyer. Because I do not have a linked payment account for purchases, the first time I made an offer, eBay asked for a payment option prior to allowing the offer to go through. I selected my PayPal account. My PayPal account has its cash balance selected as the default payment method, with my checking account selected for backup payment.
As you can see from the screenshots below, when I started an offer, I could select the payment method, add coupons or gift cards, and also select the shipping method if multiple options were available. Then I had to log into my PayPal account to authorize payment, before being returned to the "review offer" screen.
When I made the offer, the seller "auto-accepted" and my PayPal account was automatically charged. Because I have chosen my cash balance as my default payment method (within my PayPal account settings), the purchase was drawn from my PayPal cash balance.
Later, I made another offer and had blithely skipped over the options to change my settings. That offer was also auto-accepted and payment was taken from my PayPal cash balance.
Upon further experimentation, after PayPal became "linked" as a payment method for eBay, I opened the PayPal options to see if I could change anything and was shown that I could select my linked checking account for payment.
When I selected that checking account, and examined the newly minted permissions on PayPal, I found that the new eBay token was still showing the default PayPal cash balance as a payment option. Since I did not complete that purchase, I don't know if that held true.
eBay is now well aware of the issue where buyers would like to combine shipments and don't want to
make individual payments for each offer, so we know that is on eBay's radar for future enhancements.
On another note, I have several PayPal accounts and several eBay accounts. PayPal constantly recognizes my checkout from a known PayPal account and wants to use that same PayPal account for all checkouts during a browser session. Of course, that is NOT what I want. So I have to either close my browser to eliminate the cookies, or log into PayPal to revoke the automatic payment instruction that has been assigned to that account for eBay purchases. This is separate from the autopay — so there are two issues to keep in mind if one has multiple PayPal accounts.
eBay doesn't have an autopay feature on Buy it Now, or none that has become known on the forums, and there is no need for that feature. If a seller has "immediate payment required" set on a Buy it Now item, then the buyer will be immediately taken to checkout to complete the transaction. The buyer can cancel Buy it Now before completing checkout. If "immediate payment required" is not attached to a listing, the buyer can place the item in the cart (with no purchase commitment and, conversely, no availability commitment) for later checkout. If a buyer has multiple items from one seller and requests a combined shipping total, that request will commit the buyer to the purchase, but will not autopay the purchase.
@shipscriptis correct. Buy It Now does not require auto pay. Auto pay only applies to Make an Offer and Auctions when it's turned on.
Sellers can choose to add the Make an Offer option to auctions or fixed price (Buy It Now) listings. As you're a seller too, you can take a look at the option in the listing form.
When you turn on Allow offers, you'll see both a Buy It Now Button and a Make an Offer button on the item listing. You can also list as a auction, add a Buy It Now price in addition, as well as accept offers.
You are required to pay when you make an offer (if accepted), click Buy It Now, or win an auction. Whether you provide your payment information before or after does not take any control of your money away from you.
But you don't have to make offers if you don't like the auto pay feature. You can just use the Buy It Now option and pay a little more if that will make you feel better.
...and if a seller makes an offer to a buyer, whether in response to an item query or as an automated offer to anonymous watchers, that offer does not carry the autopay feature.
