setting : 'We automatically charged your PayPal account for this purchase' on offer being acccepted

[nixonsbeachwalk]

I was a bit surprised when I saw that an item was both paid for and shipped.

I saw this message:

'We automatically charged your PayPal account for this purchase' (It charged to Paypal).

What triggered this was my counter-offer being accepted by seller.

So is there a setting where maybe I had earlier chosen to cause all this to happen when my counter offer as a buyer was accepted by seller. I am not complaining here but I was surprised!

One other point: I thought that I looked for the results of my counter offer and I saw no response so I thought seller was just declining it tacitly. It's good I did not go and buy a different item!   (Is there a way to see all my 'still pending' offers?)

[shipscript]

I had made a couple of offers with eBay's new Autopay enforced, and was surprised by the instantaneous acceptance and payment of the item.  Offers now start with a "checkout" screen where you can set up all the parameters you would have chosen at checkout. You can change address, shipper, and payment method, and can add coupons on that screen.  Those details remain in force for the duration of that offer process.

Buying - autopay set up

The Autopay requirement is a new option in the seller account, and most sellers don't even know that it is turned on. Autopay is not optional for the buyer, and its appearance depends on the status set by the seller. 

Your seller may have had an auto-accept threshold turned on for that item, which would cause an  immediate acceptance of your counter offer.

In my experience, an initial outbound offer that you make doesn't seem to be displayed, whereas the subsequent offer trail would appear in your account.

https://www.ebay.com/mye/myebay/v2/bidsoffers 

[woodland_gnome]

If you mean as a buyer, you don't. That would defeat the purpose of the program (which is NOT to make checkout "smoother" or whatever else the PR types are trying to spin it as this week).

eBay had been "experimenting" with requiring pre-authorization of payment for Best Offers for over a year and a half (started prior to Halloween 2021), adding more and more users into the test group required to do so (sellers can opt their listings out of it; buyers cannot opt out once they are assigned). Too many users were making offers and then not paying when it was accepted, and too many of those were scammers who would try to get the seller to text or email them to get their number/email address to send fake payment messages to.

They have now officially made it permanent and all buyers are now required to pre-authorize payment for Best Offers they make on listings for sellers who have not opted out of the program. They started trying it out on auction bids (with a smaller group of buyers that is growing) in Spring or early Summer 2023 and that is still experimental. They will also start experimenting with requiring pre-authorization or payment for accepting offers from sellers soon.

You can try to find a seller who opted his/her listings out of the pre-authorization requirement for what you are trying to do (bid and offer are two separate opt-outs). Unless s/he says s/he has in the item description you'd need to actually try to bid/offer and if it goes through without you having to add or confirm (with links to edit--see "Review your offer" screen at top right of shipscript's screencaps) your shipping address and payment method then s/he has opted out (or if a bid then you haven't been put into the group of buyers required to pre-authorize to bid).