ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
I am a Seller who relies on the accuracy of details contained in Buyer Offers. I received an offer on November 9th that included the following commitment by eBay: ]
eBay: "We'll automatically charge the buyer once you accept the offer."
I was pleased to read these terms ("automatically charge") on the offer screen. In the past, eBays guidance was:
eBay: Buyers have 4 days to pay for items they purchase on eBay. (The actual eBay policy reads "Buyers must pay for the items they purchase on eBay within 4 calendar days.")
I based my decision to accept this offer on eBay's pledge to charge the buyer immediately. As I described below, eBay did not automatically charge the buyer. In fact, it has been 3 days and they still have not charged the buyer.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me fill in the rest details before returning to eBay's promise to "Automatically Charge Buyer Upon Seller Acceptance of Offer"
Since I needed to sell this item quickly I set the listing up as a "Promoted Listing" with an ad rate of 12%. (I was agreeing to pay eBay a 12% fee so that my listing appeared higher in the search rankings and more buyers would see it.)
The promoted listing was effective. In less than 24 hours my item had approximately 130 buyer views and 14 buyers had selected the "Add to Watchlist" feature suggesting that they were interested in my item and wanted eBay to notify them when there was a change in the listing price.
It was early Friday night and I decided to let the promoted listing phenomenon work its magic for one more day. In other words, instead of sending out offers to 14 buyers, I chose to wait until Saturday evening when the number of "watchers' would likely be significantly higher.
But I had to rethink my plan when a Seller offer came in around 8:30 pm. The offer amount was low, but still in the reasonable range. The buyer had a good feedback profile and a 10+ year history with eBay. So far, the offer was looking like one I should consider accepting.
My only remaining concern was "Would this buyer make payment as soon as I accepted their offer, or would they enjoy the 4-day payment window that eBay allows buyers who make offers such as this one? Without exception, my past experience with such Buyers has been that they not only wasted 4 days but they never followed through with their payment. Never. Not one time.
As a result, I don't accept offers from buyers unless they verbally (i.e. in writing) state that they agree to make payment at the time their order is accepted. My solution to what I consider to be a huge policy weakness on eBay's part is to avoid it altogether. (In addition to having buyers state that they agree to make payment at the time their order is accepted, I have often removed the "offer" entirely by changing my "Buy Now" price to the offer amount and instructing buyers to use the "Buy Now" button instead of "the offer" scenario. This technique has helped me avoid the "4-Day Wait for Nothing Blues" many times.
The offer I received on Friday seemed to eliminate the delayed or non-payment problem entirely. eBay's pledge to "Automatically Charge Buyer Upon Seller Acceptance of Offer" meant this buyer's payment would be immediate. As a part of the offer sheet, eBay promised me that the buyer's payment for my item would be immediate; there would be no laissez faire 4-day payment window.
Here is a screenshot of the offer I received on Friday. I have circled in red eBay's promise to "Automatically Charge Buyer." Below their pledge, eBay reminds me that this buyer's offer was a product of the promoted listing and that I would owe them $14.40 for the service.
My decision to accept this offer was based primarily on Ebay's promise to charge the buyer as soon as I excepted the offer. But Ebay did not charge the buyer automatically when I accepted the offer. The buyer purchased the item on November 9; today is November 11 and Ebay has still not charged the buyer.
My question to the eBay community is twofold:
First, Have I misread or misinterpreted Ebay's language ("automatically charge") on the offer sheet?
Second, how do I go about getting eBay to acknowledge what happened here and compensate me for my losses (the lost time, the 14 "Watchers" who are now lost, the lost proceeds from "the sale that never happened.)
I look forward to the eBay Community's comments and guidance.
Regards,
Texastype, Seller
I will tag some eBay staff to look into whether the promised autopay hit a speedbump that needs to be addressed. devon@ebay elizabeth@ebay kyle@ebay
Specifically:
- Offer shown to the seller indicated autopay.
- Was the buyer shown an autopay screen?
- Was a foreign payment method an issue?
- Is there some other problem with autopay?
Last month, one of my buying accounts was required to autopay, while the other was not yet in the program. I have just now tested three of my accounts on one of your items, and all three displayed the autopay screen (similar to below). My assumption is that you would not have seen the promise of autopay if it had not been presented to the buyer.
I also notice that your buyer is having the item shipped to a freight forwarder in Doral. That means the buyer is probably using a foreign bank account or card, and it is possible there are implications for clearing card payment. Obviously, the autopay did not perform as expected.
There is nothing eBay will do to compensate for the side effects of the issue. If the buyer fails to pay, you can cancel for non-payment, and the promotion fee for that sale should also cancel.
Remain active:
There is a feature called "Out of Stock" that allows your listing to remain active, but out of stock and hidden, after a sale. With this feature turned on, you would not lose your watchers or views after a purchase, but you would need to manually end the listing once satisfied the sale was successful.
I think it is a great tool to use if experiencing a lot of walk-away buyers. After the sale is canceled, the quantity in the listing can be changed from zero to one, and the listing will reappear in search, unchanged.
Autopay:
Because some sellers want a buyer to be able to fill the cart with multiple purchases for a single checkout and combined discounts, autopay can be turned on or off in a seller's account. Buyers, on the other hand, have been slowly rolled into the program where the buyer is required to autopay if the seller has that requirement turned on. That requirement is turned on in your account:
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
When I first encountered autopay as a buyer, I fiddled with it for a day or two, but only in a limited fashion as I have limited payment methods. I found that I could change my payment method (and other details shown in my screenshot) while making an initial offer to a seller. However, because eBay does not know what the settlement amount will be, I don't know that they would place a funds-hold on a card up front, but I don't have a solid answer. I do know that eBay will attempt a $1 transaction on a card that is newly linked to eBay for regular automatic payments.
"Unpaid Items" has been a moving target throughout the years:
Many sellers allow the buyer a week or so to fill the cart with multiple items, including auction items that might end on different days, so that shipping can be combined (3 to 30 days).
In the past, sellers could set up custom payment policies that were hard to enforce on buyers. The seller could open an "Unpaid Item Dispute" after a few days, allowing the buyer a few more days to pay, and if no payment arrived, the seller could then cancel the sale and get fees refunded.
To get around that strung-out process, some sellers have required immediate payment on fixed price listings, but this is not feasible for auctions or offers, where the buyer may not be online at the moment an offer is accepted or an auction is won.
With eBay now collecting payment, the Unpaid Item Dispute has been rolled into a single process that a seller can set up for eBay to handle automatically, with a seller-selected grace period of 4 to 30 days:
https://www.ebay.com/Cancel/Preference/UnpaidPurchase
A seller would need to be aware that any time the seller sends an invoice, the grace period for that purchase is restarted. eBay's reminders do not restart that period.
Which brings us full circle to this year's experiment surrounding autopay. This method has been introduced to reduce walk-aways and scam offers flooding new sellers. However, eBay is still honing the process, so feedback helps. Do you see the "tell us what you think" in your screenshot? That is the place to let the program manager know what would work better.
eBay is well aware of the time lost, views lost, watchers lost, etc. so focus on the particulars that might improve the process.
