Ebay needs to disclose auctions which require auto payments.

[guises]

I posted this to the wrong forum originally. This one isn't ideal either, but Ebay doesn't seem to have a way to give feedback anymore.

Ebay has started doing this thing where instead of notifying you that you need to pay for an auction, it will just charge you automatically. And there's nothing you can do to stop it or pause it or cancel it. If you need to talk to the seller first about packaging or shipping or anything else, Ebay will just go ahead and charge you anyway.

I bought two items and wanted to ask the seller about combined shipping, but the autopayment process can not be stopped. And Ebay customer service are just worthless husks, incapable of doing anything but flailing limply.

I can understand certain motivations for implementing a system like this, but this needs to be disclosed on the auction page before you bid. Ideally this should be a search option as well, so that you can exclude such auctions from the outset. This isn't something that you should find out after the auction is over. Auctions which require autopayments need warning labels.

Warning: after winning this auction you will be charged automatically. The item will ship to whatever address you have set as your default, and the shipping method will be whatever the seller has set as the default. Combined shipping is not an option, nor is anything else. There's nothing that you can do to change this. Also, screw you.

[ittybitnot]

If you haven't seen anything about it since then, it means that you left the authorization in place to allow eBay to take the payment.

@lacemaker3 

Thanks for the info.  I didn't know eBay started doing that,  using the stored the Auto-Pay information from a previous transaction,  much less how to get rid of it.  I guess I was doubly not aware since I refuse to participate in listings were I am required to put up a payment source in order to proceed. 

[lacemaker3]

@ittybitnot, I don't like it either, but I prefer to deal with it when I have to.

I have set up my payment preferences for eBay in PayPal, to always use the credit card I prefer. PayPal Credit or Pay-in-Four is not an option, but I have never wanted to use them anyway. I don't allow eBay (or any other website) to log in automatically to PayPal, so that is not an issue. I have to turn this off each time, after I log in to make/authorize a payment. That's a PayPal issue I've been dealing with for the last 5-10 years.

So if I am asked for a payment method, I give PayPal when I am making my bid or offer. As soon as that has been submitted, I go to my eBay wallet and remove the payment source. I doesn't affect the bid or offer that is currently active, but it won't be used for anything in the future. This works for me.

[ittybitnot]

So if I am asked for a payment method, ...

@lacemaker3 

In light of your information it sounds now like our OP @guises  was NOT shown the form to pony up a payment source prior to bidding, yet auto-billing was enacted anyway.   It puts a whole new light on the post in general. Sheesh...sign up once as a buyer and your "in" just seems pretty shady.  

[lacemaker3]

@ittybitnot 

It's just like signing up for a "free trial" in one way. Once you sign up for your free trial, you're going to be committed to a full subscription unless you cancel before the end of the trial period.

PayPal has been doing something similar for many years. Every time I log in to pay for something, they enable "automatic login for faster checkout". I have had to disable that after every payment, for years. 

Shady or not, it's SOP.

[kitschy*loot]

I think certain question should be asked before you bid. If a shipping discount is a deal breaker you should reach out beforehand. Sometimes I would catch auctions nearing the end and I passed on bidding because there's no way I'm going to try negotiating discounts after I win. 

I've been bidding since my teens, and have had to trust a lot of sellers to refund agreed upon discounts and fortunately they were always honest. I learned you also have to very clearly state that you are looking for discounted combined shipping; combined shipping doesn't necessarily mean a discount as some sellers see it only as throwing all the items in one box.

I wouldn't shop for items on eBay that I'll need to change the address on anymore.

[guises]

This conversation was never supposed to be about trust, it was supposed to be about informed consent. And that was supposed to be a simple thing with a lot of people agreeing that informed consent is important.

I'm a little disappointed at how far afield this conversation has wandered, and the fact that recognition of the importance of informed consent is not as universal as I had hoped. Still, I appreciate that there's at least some engagement on this issue.

[marshallbda]

Unfortunately many sellers do not even understand these new rules so they're not willing to start changing settings, fearing they will cause more problems.

Customer service also mentioned that sellers can also go into their settings and add buyers to their 'exempt buyer list'. This is not an ideal solution as they would have to do it for EVERY customer, NOT practical. 

[gordp]

I had the same problem with autopay.    It wouldn't allow for combined shipping as I had agreed with seller, three tiems at $9.99 and $11.76 shipping each.  Since these were tee shirts seller had agreed to combine shipping in one package.   No the system autopayed and refused to allow me to request total or stop auto pay, including seperate shipping.   I just had to cancel the transactions.   This is dumb, turn it off or fix the functionality to allow request total and combine shipping.

[gordp]

Buyers beware of sellers using this!

[bambopbam]

Recently I purchased two items from the same seller, the shipping cost was $6 per item.  Both items ended within minutes of each other and both were auto-pay.  The seller shipped each item separately for $1.30 each  ($2.60 total) and kept the difference of $9.40. 

Bottom line is, auto-pay is a way for the seller to make extra money by charging exorbitant shipping fees, has auto-pay turned on so the buyer pays immediately, and the seller then ships each item individually and does not combine the cost as each item was shipped separately.   

Nobody wants that and I bet the seller wouldn't want to pay a shipping fee for each item when the items can be combined.  

[kathiec]

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@bambopbam wrote:

Recently I purchased two items from the same seller, the shipping cost was $6 per item.  Both items ended within minutes of each other and both were auto-pay.  The seller shipped each item separately for $1.30 each  ($2.60 total) and kept the difference of $9.40. 

Bottom line is, auto-pay is a way for the seller to make extra money by charging exorbitant shipping fees, has auto-pay turned on so the buyer pays immediately, and the seller then ships each item individually and does not combine the cost as each item was shipped separately.   

Nobody wants that and I bet the seller wouldn't want to pay a shipping fee for each item when the items can be combined.  

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This isn't really an autopay issue. Did the listing state the seller offered combined shipping? If not did you ask before buying if they would?

Sellers don't have to offer combined shipping and are allowed to add handling fees to their shipping charges. The only violation here would have been if the seller shipped the items together. You have the choice of accepting the shipping charge stated in the listing or hitting the back button.

[bambopbam]

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@kathiec wrote:

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@bambopbam wrote:

Recently I purchased two items from the same seller, the shipping cost was $6 per item.  Both items ended within minutes of each other and both were auto-pay.  The seller shipped each item separately for $1.30 each  ($2.60 total) and kept the difference of $9.40. 

Bottom line is, auto-pay is a way for the seller to make extra money by charging exorbitant shipping fees, has auto-pay turned on so the buyer pays immediately, and the seller then ships each item individually and does not combine the cost as each item was shipped separately.   

Nobody wants that and I bet the seller wouldn't want to pay a shipping fee for each item when the items can be combined.  

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This isn't really an autopay issue. Did the listing state the seller offered combined shipping? If not did you ask before buying if they would?

Sellers don't have to offer combined shipping and are allowed to add handling fees to their shipping charges. The only violation here would have been if the seller shipped the items together. You have the choice of accepting the shipping charge stated in the listing or hitting the back button.

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It is absolutely an auto-pay situation.  These were auctions that I bid on 2 days before the end.  When the auctions ended auto-pay happened instantly paying for each item individually and paying shipping for each item individually.  There is no back button and there is no asking the seller to combine shipping.  Yes sellers do not have to combine but most will.   Both items (pictured) were mailed the same day and both arrived to me on the same day.  The seller didn't even bother to put both in the same envelope even though they would easily combine at no additional postage.  

[kathiec]

@bambopbam 

The time to ask for combined shipping is before you bid, not after. The issue here wasn't autopay, it was you assuming that an international seller would combine shipping when you had no clue whether they would or not.

If you had contacted the seller beforehand and come to an agreement on combined shipping prior to bidding then, and only then, would this be an autopay issue.

[campanaelia]

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@marshallbda wrote:

Customer service also mentioned that sellers can also go into their settings and add buyers to their 'exempt buyer list'. This is not an ideal solution as they would have to do it for EVERY customer, NOT practical. 

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@marshallbda 

That is misinformation ebay CS told you, the exemption list does not apply to auto-pay.

The exemption list for auto-pay was brought up about 1.5 years ago in this forum and one of ebay's team members said they would escalate it but nothing was done.

[guises]

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@kathiec wrote: The time to ask for combined shipping is before you bid, not after.

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Negotiating the details of every auction that you may not win anyway is an unreasonable burden. For both the buyer, on whom you're pushing all of the responsibility of clear communication, and potentially for the seller as well, who now has to field questions from every bidder on every auction. This is especially true given the time-sensitive nature of Ebay auctions. A question like that isn't something that you can ask on the last day and expect to get an answer in time, and so you're demanding that buyers find every auction that they're interested in multiple days in advance.

Obviously you can't bid on an auction with the assumption of the availability of combined shipping, but you need to be able to ask. Or you at least need a warning label saying in no uncertain terms that it is unavailable, as I described up at the top. Disclosure is the most important thing.