1 hour or 4 days?

[lonsun45]

Why do I have 4 days to pay on some auctions, and on other auctions that I win, ebay immediately starts the clock countdown to process my payment automatically within 1 hour?

[12345jamesstamps]

eBay is still doing the '1 hour payment countdown from a clock'?...LOL

That was and I guess is still a test by eBay and not by the sellers.

Sellers have no idea about this...I have been there with a seller.

It happened one time to me and I complained and it stopped.

Seller also complained and it stopped.

[lonsun45]

Very interesting....an auction I won a few days ago, I had 4 days and communicated with the seller beforehand.  Won an auction today, and the 1-hour clock started ticking.  Weak.

[mr_lincoln]

Hi @lonsun45 

What you are seeing is eBay's Auto-pay feature which every Selling account has.  If it is turned ON for Auctions or the Offer process Buyers have to provide a payment method before bidding or buying.  You have one hour after an auction ends to change the payment method.

Some Sellers may not even know it is ON because eBay did not tell them when they added it to their accounts and the default setting was ON.  You can message Sellers and ask them to turn if off.

The 4 day time period is only for Sellers who have their Automatic Cancellation for unpaid items turned on.  If the 4 days time out on an unpaid item Buyers get an Unpaid strike on their account.  Getting 2 in 12 months makes it hard to buy on Ebay.

For myself Auto-pay is turned OFF and the Automatic Cancellation is OFF too because I work with my customers sometimes when they need more time to pay.

[lakefor94]

Sellers have an option to make payments immeadiate or not on offers.

I have mine set to not require instant payment on offers. So my buyers get 4 days or longer.

I dont run auctions though. They might have different rules....

@ittybitnot might be able to explain it better. 

[12345jamesstamps]

I love those who response who maybe have never won an auction...LOL

And they read from what is printed from something 'Help and Contact'...LOL

[ittybitnot · Accepted solution]

@lonsun45 

Here are the settings  on a seller's account that determine what you are experiencing.  Actually, even though you don't sell, there is a good chance they are also on YOURS with the defaults "checked" in case you do decide to sell on this account someday.  

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

Buyer Rules:

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer.

Click submit or save.

When you go to bid on an auction from a seller that has kept these default settings, you will be required to pre-select a payment source BEFORE you are allowed to bid or make an offer.  This is your big clue that you will be in an auto-pay situation.  For auctions, you have an hour in your case before eBay takes the money from the payment source you already provided.  If you hurry up and pay before that, you may be able to use something else.   If you make an offer and have complied with filling out the payment form first, if the seller accepts your offer you will be billed and the item paid for instantly.  If you make offers on more than one item and they are all accepted, you will be billed separately for each one at full shipping price, and the settings are known as the combined shipping killers, for invoicing for a combined total is not allowed. 

If you wish to bid on a seller's auctions that does NOT have this requirement you won't really know until you try.  If they want a payment source, you are going to be playing the same game.  If they don't, you will not see the screen and you can bid as normal.  If you win more than one from the same seller you can "request a total" or a revised invoice to ship the items together and save on shipping as normal.  It is best to ask the seller first once you see they have the "Buyer Rules" turned off. 

That is why sometimes you will get 4 days to pay, and other times not. 

You may see the results of a new "test" that will allow you, the buyer,  to select up to six days to pay for your auction wins.  You will have to put up a payment source first, however, before proceeding.  Be careful with this, since if the seller doesn't wish to wait that long they are free to start awarding you non-payment strikes/cancellations after 96 hours (four days) anyway regardless of your selection of six. 

Though not related to the "buyer rules" settings above, be advised that if a SELLER sends you and offer, or accepts a counter offer from you, you will have to pay for each separately.  They will remain for sale until someone pays for them, and of course, combined shipping will not be available.  There will be no auto-pay/auto-billing involved either. 

Hope this helps with your question. 

[lonsun45]

Interesting - and very helpful replies, thank you.  I s'pose the one thing I'm not 100% clear on (because I'm a bit thick) is, I was not asked (or prompted) to pre-select a payment source, although my account does automatically default to my Discover card (the only payment method I've ever used).  So perhaps that satisfied the requirement.

Either way, it sounds like the best course is, in future auctions, just message the seller and ask, although I shouldn't be terribly concerned, since I shouldn't be buying things without funds available in the first place 😁

Thanks again all ✔️

[mtgraves7984]

Hope this helps with your question. 

@ittybitnot 

Boy, howdy... it sure helped me!  😃

Thanks,

Timmy in the First Reader
     😉

[mr_lincoln]

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@lonsun45 wrote:

Interesting - and very helpful replies, thank you.  I s'pose the one thing I'm not 100% clear on (because I'm a bit thick) is, I was not asked (or prompted) to pre-select a payment source, although my account does automatically default to my Discover card (the only payment method I've ever used).  So perhaps that satisfied the requirement.

Either way, it sounds like the best course is, in future auctions, just message the seller and ask, although I shouldn't be terribly concerned, since I shouldn't be buying things without funds available in the first place 😁

Thanks again all ✔️

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@lonsun45 

You are more than welcome ...