Managed Payments Issues

[cleviebee]

Recently, I enrolled in Ebay Mangeed Payments for sellers because the indicastion was that my selling acount would be limited if I did not switch from Paypal to Managed Payments. I have been very disappointed and frankly, I feel defrauded by Ebay, because I still have not received funds in my account from a sale 3 days ago. I miss Paypal, when I transferred the funds to my bank account myself, and the money was available the next day. I would like to hear from other disgruntled sellers and discuss ways around this inferior system.

[thehappyretailseller]

1. First, I would like to tell you that I absolutely agree with you - I too have been ABSOLUTELY disappointed by managed payments! 
2. Please know that you are not alone! Many sellers are unhappy with the system and would leave if it was feasible to do so rather than continue with managed payments. I thought PayPal was bad because I couldn't reach them at times and had to use their stupid message system. I have been on managed payments for MONTHS and have been unable to reach anyone in that department! This is FAR worse than PayPal! When you have people's money, you can't be hard to reach or unavailable! I have literally spent HOURS on hold for that department & I have eBay's concierge service! It doesn't matter. That department is a black hole and it is horrible!
3. Third, please know that the only way to avoid managed payments, for now, is to create a new account or to sell in a category they don't allow on managed payments.  However, creating a new account is fraught with issues. You will lose your history, feedback, etc, but new accounts start out on PayPal still! I don't know how long that will last, but they do. My sister just created a new account and it is set up with PayPal.
4. Please also know that there are eBay employees on this message board who respond negatively to people who have managed payments issues. Don't get into fights or arguments here. It just isn't the place and it will do no good. Ebay has not rolled out managed payments to everyone yet. They are doing ROLLING additions. This means that a lot of people are experiencing your frustrations, but a lot are NOT! They did this to make sure they could work out the kinks, but also to ensure that everyone did not go ballistic and complain at the same time. So when you see a comment from someone who talks about how we just didn't read or we just should have known or we just should be OK with what is happening, don't argue. You have NO IDEA who people are on these boards and it could very well be an eBay employee whose purpose is to make you seem crazy. Don't fall for that type of back & forth. This doesn't mean that every person who disagrees is an employee, but some are and that is enough to warrant caution.
5. When you read up on managed payments, all of the issues you are going to encounter are NOT all listed in the same document! For example, the main document DOES NOT TELL YOU that their DAILY PAYMENT on managed payments is NOT actually DAILY! The document makes you think that you are going to get your payments paid out daily, but the system doesn't work like that. The documentation does NOT tell you that if you get sales over the weekend, you don't get paid for that the next day! I had an eBay employee tell me if I had sales everyday, I would get a payout everyday! WRONG! There is so much misinformation between the documentation and the eBay customer service agents that it almost isn't worth even asking. The system is VASTLY underdeveloped for a system they were working on FOR YEARS! 
6. The thing that bothers me most about managed payments is the damage it can do if you have a case opened against you. While the case is on hold, your funds are frozen. The problem is if the item in question is a big ticket item and you sold that along with smaller items. For example, if you sell something that is $2000 and the customer has any issue and opens a case, eBay will freeze your account for $2000 until the case is resolved if you are on managed payments. However, if you also sell 10 $50 items, for a total of $500, that ENTIRE $500 for those 10 sales will NOT be paid to you until the one $2000 case is resolved! If you were going to use the money to buy shipping for those 10 items, you can't UNLESS you use ebay's FedEx & UPS label feature, typically resulting in higher shipping costs, unless you pay for those outside of the money you collected from your customers. Now, if that $2000 case gets resolved in the buyer's favor, that $500 you made from those other 10 orders gets wiped out. There are a number of problems with this, but one of the main ones is that a buyer can open a case for ANYTHING. If USPS takes to long to deliver something and the buyer opens a case, your money is held if you are on managed payments! That is just awful! One solution eBay could do to remedy the destructive nature of this is to have a credit system for certain sellers that would allow them to "borrow" money to handle returns or cases instead of freezing their funds immediately. Then, the seller could possibly pay it back by subtracting a small additional percentage over their next few sales until it is paid back. That is one idea and there are others that could be implemented, but the system as it stands can wreck a good sellers business if they get one bad, high dollar return that isn't reflective, in price, of the items they normally sell. 
7. The other part that makes managed payments horrible is that eBay is now charging its fees on the TOTAL paid by the buyer, including sales tax! This is horribly unfair to sellers! Some states charge more sales tax than others. So you could sell something to a person in Florida, versus a person in Delaware and get two different payouts because eBay's final value fee is based on what the BUYER pays! Why should eBay charge me based on something I cannot see, touch or handle in any way? That should be illegal and I fully intend to pursue that as an issue because it is just not right! Ebay is now profiting off of sales tax with their final value fee, at the expense of sellers, when they shouldn't legally be able to do that since we don't and can't touch sales tax money! 
8. Managed payments can't accommodate all sellers yet! If you sell coins, adult items, etc, you can't get on managed payments, so those accounts are still on PayPal. Again, as I said earlier, all new accounts are still on PayPal too! So there are people who have "escaped"......for now. I don't know how long that will last, but kudos to those people. Stay away as long as you possibly can! Tell your friends to stay away!

The bottom line is that managed payments is just not a great system! If you signed up to eBay to get your payments as soon as a purchase is made, managed payments represents a shift that you will likely find untenable. Does that mean you should run from eBay? I don't know what works for you, but I know that some people are going to find managed payments harder to deal with than others. I for one hate the system and it has completely changed my view of eBay, but right now, I sell used items and Amazon doesn't allow used items in my category. If Amazon ever does, based on what I have experienced with managed payments, I would absolutely use Amazon too. I say "too" because I don't believe that any system is going to be "perfect" and I don't want to "chuck the baby out with the bathwater". So, hopefully, if anyone is reading this who still has a choice on whether or not to use managed payments, I say to steer clear for as long as you possibly can! Ebay could be a great force again, but right now they have shareholders and they are nickel and diming sellers so they can appear to grow year over year. Shareholders don't want stagnant growth. They want gains! They want increases. We all do. However, eBay's increases are coming at the expense of sellers! 

Please note: Before you even post it, if you are one of those people who don't like reading long messages, please keep that to yourself. Sometimes people on these boards respond with those types of messages, but you ALWAYS have the option to just not read! This is to help the person who needs to see this. If that is not you, that is OK. Please just be respectful and courteous and move on or don't read this.

[mobley120]

"You seem to see anyone that won't get on board with your viewpoint to be wrong.  I don't expect everyone to see things the way I do and you should expect everyone to see things the way you do.  That doesn't mean we have to be arguing on the threads.  There is room for us all."

No, your assumptions of my reasoning are wrong. I have no expectations of whether one agree with me, or not to agree. 

And, I am not arguing with you, as you know, we have chatted often, sure, our debates are somewhat snippy, but we don't argue, unless you consider yourself to be in a argumentive state, but not I.

Look, you responded to the concept of a marketing facet, in which you tried to exclude eBay from the nature of such, and that is totally illogical.

I'd surmise that eBay, in the near future, will be more forcible about the sellers handling time. And, even you can recognize eBay strives to match e-commerce standards, thus such would seem to place more pressure on the sellers, due to the MP system. 

I am not an eBay Loyalist, sure, I shop on eBay, but no where near as much as I use to, and I use to sell items on eBay, but not anymore, and furthermore, I didn't leave eBay, but rather eBay left me, and there is a strong feeling in me, that eBay threw me under the bus with not one iota of thought or concern.

Now, I know there are many who do not feel the same way I do, but I'd say it's safe bet that there are many who do feel somewhat the same way, thus eBay has lost many sales, but I'm sure eBay looks at it in the aspect of high turnover, like in, one leaves, two join, so, in that thought, what concerns does eBay really have? It really is, all about marketing.

Good luck with your sales.

[calntom]

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@mobley120 wrote:

There's a back issue with MP that will continue to hurt eBay, it concerns marketing, best way to explain it: every other e-commerce site I shop with, has next day ship-out, or no more than 2 days handling time. But, due to eBay's MP system, many sellers on eBay have increased their handling time, and why, is because they are waiting for eBay to release the funds to their accounts, thus subjecting the buyers to delays in receiving what they have paid for in good faith. 

Many times I have read different posts here, where sellers have asked questions  concerning MP, and about the shipping of items without receiving funds to those sellers' accounts. And just about all recommendations that have been put forth are, "increase your handling time, that way you are not helt to a particular ship-out time and that will allow you time to receive the funds from eBay,," so with that in mind, it would seem to me to be a marketing nightmare for eBay, once it becomes mainstream knowledge that if you buy things on eBay, it's likely the item will not be shipped-out for 3 to 5 days.

I do realize, not all sellers increase their handling time beyond 2 days and some still do next day ship, but many sellers have increased their handling time due to the MP system, thus, not only causing a nightmare in marketing for eBay but also those sellers who recognize that next day ship is pretty much a standard in e-commerce and, is a marketing tool that works.

The above is just my opinions

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Good post.

If sellers are waiting to ship until the payment hits their bank, those sellers are not really players on eBay.  If they don't have the operating capital to ship, they are not doing much online business. Their sales will lag due to other sellers with better EDD's. It is their choice on setting their handling time.  

[mobley120]

"If sellers are waiting to ship until the payment hits their bank, those sellers are not really players on eBay.  If they don't have the operating capital to ship, they are not doing much online business. Their sales will lag due to other sellers with better EDD's. It is their choice on setting their handling time. "

I think your point is valid in some aspects.

But may I just give it a little more thought:

I don't believe it is always about capital/funds for shipping purposes; I think there's more to it than just that. I think the volume of sales by any particular seller will have a effect in the aspect of the subject. And, it's human nature for one to think: you want the item, I want my money. And, regardless of eBay acting on the sellers' behalf, such really doesn't matter to Some; what matters is, I want my money. And, also the world isn't perfect, many businesses operate by a steady cash flow, and I'd surmise some businesses rely on that cash flow to meet payroll. After all, businesses consist of people, and many people live pay check to pay check: an imperfect world.

But I think your point is valid in some ways.

[mam98031]

Since the day Ebay gave us the option of handling time, sellers have been in control of what they set their handling times for.  It is NOT something new to Ebay for those in MP.

There are all kinds of sellers in all kinds of categories that have 5 day handling times and some even longer than that.  It is now and has always been the choice of the seller.

Some sellers in MP will opt to have their handling time at 5 days.  It is highly likely that more of them do not and have shorter handling times.  Either way, seller choice and it isn't going to hurt the site as a whole as sellers have been making these choices for years and years.

[vintagecraze50]

2 years folks in MP and I ship my stuff out yesterday so my customers can get their stuff fast. This is especially important with the shipping problems with USPS. NEVER have they made an error with my payments. 

[vintagecraze50]

We use Go Daddy Bookeeping service linked to the MP account. Simple concise and zero stress doing taxes every year using their system. I highly recommend it.

[mam98031]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

2 years folks in MP and I ship my stuff out yesterday so my customers can get their stuff fast. This is especially important with the shipping problems with USPS. NEVER have they made an error with my payments. 

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I agree and there is good reason for that.  Buyers have no ability to pull back, cancel or otherwise stop a payment once they submit it to MP.  Anymore than they had any ability to do that when they paid through PP.  They just don't have any access to do it.

[mobley120]

"Since the day Ebay gave us the option of handling time; etc.; blah blah blah; it isn't going to hurt the site as a whole; etc.; blah blah blah."

I strongly disagree with your opinion. And do note, although eBay give freedom in the aspect of handling time, but they strongly recommend next day shipping, along with offerings of  some type of perks for adhering to such, now why would they do that? Look, lengthy handling time is a necessity for sellers that manufacture items by the buyer's specifications, if  regular product sellers take advantage of that freedom of handling time, due to the MP system, it is my belief that it will hurt eBay, in the long haul. But again, it's a marketing issue. 

You have your opinion, in which I consider to be illogical. And I have mine, in which you consider to be wrong. But guess what, the wheels keep on turning and the universe keeps on expanding. 

[mam98031]

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@mobley120 wrote:

"Since the day Ebay gave us the option of handling time; etc.; blah blah blah; it isn't going to hurt the site as a whole; etc.; blah blah blah."

I strongly disagree with your opinion. And do note, although eBay give freedom in the aspect of handling time, but they strongly recommend next day shipping, along with offerings of  some type of perks for adhering to such, now why would they do that? Look, lengthy handling time is a necessity for sellers that manufacture items by the buyer's specifications, if  regular product sellers take advantage of that freedom of handling time, due to the MP system, it is my belief that it will hurt eBay, in the long haul. But again, it's a marketing issue. 

You have your opinion, in which I consider to be illogical. And I have mine, in which you consider to be wrong. But guess what, the wheels keep on turning and the universe keeps on expanding. 

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Ebay doesn't penalize a seller for a handling time up to 5 days.  But you are right if they have a longer handling time they may lower them in the search returns.  Again that is before MP as well.  None of the rules on handling time has changed just because someone enters MP.

A "lengthy handling time" is subjective.  I don't know what your threshold for that is.  If it is 5 days, clearly Ebay doesn't agree as they don't penalize a seller for it.

Your are assuming that a large number of sellers that go into MP will change their handling time to 5 days and not ship to the buyers until the payments are in their checking account.  I don't know that to be true.  

Many sellers that have been in MP for awhile have come to the threads and stated that they ship as they always have and that no payment has ever been pulled from their MP account.  Which would stand to reason as a buyer has no ability to do that in MP just as they had no ability to do that in PP.

I don't think your opinion is "wrong".  I think you are absolutely correct about the fact that some sellers will wait and ship after money is in their bank.  I firmly agree with you on that.  What I disagree about the sellers that choose to move to a 5 day handling time will somehow "hurt Ebay".   Short haul or long haul, it is my opinion it won't matter to Ebay as a whole.  As an individual seller that is likely different.  

[calntom]

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@mobley120 wrote:

"If sellers are waiting to ship until the payment hits their bank, those sellers are not really players on eBay.  If they don't have the operating capital to ship, they are not doing much online business. Their sales will lag due to other sellers with better EDD's. It is their choice on setting their handling time. "

I think your point is valid in some aspects.

But may I just give it a little more thought:

I don't believe it is always about capital/funds for shipping purposes; I think there's more to it than just that. I think the volume of sales by any particular seller will have a effect in the aspect of the subject. And, it's human nature for one to think: you want the item, I want my money. And, regardless of eBay acting on the sellers' behalf, such really doesn't matter to Some; what matters is, I want my money. And, also the world isn't perfect, many businesses operate by a steady cash flow, and I'd surmise some businesses rely on that cash flow to meet payroll. After all, businesses consist of people, and many people live pay check to pay check: an imperfect world.

But I think your point is valid in some ways.

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eBay Sellers as a whole are one of the absolute, most resistant to change, groups I have ever been around. Continual change is inevitable. I understand why sellers want to be paid daily. It is because they were accustomed to daily payouts with PayPal which was quite nice. 

If someone has a business with a payroll, I would surmise they cut paychecks weekly or twice a month. Living paycheck to paycheck is a weekly deal. If the business owner always needs today’s proceeds to make this afternoon’s payroll, that would be a tough road to travel.

Major Ecommerce as a whole is headed down the managed payments highway and they don't payout daily.

[mobley120]

 

[mam98031]

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@mobley120 wrote:

 

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I feel your pain!

[mobley120]

"Major Ecommerce as a whole is headed down the managed payments highway and they don't payout daily."

Yes, your point is very valid, but it really doesn't have to be like that. We are bound by the whims of Corporate America, and it seems there's not much we can do to change it.  Do note, if the issue was reversed, eBay would dip into your account within minutes, ugh.

[mobley120]

"that would be a tough road to travel."

I want to give you a life experience story, and I'd like to address other parts of your response, with more thought, but empathy in business, doesn't hold a seat. 

It's a tough road: when I was in my mid 20s, I went to work for a newly start-up company. It was a heavy construction company, major overhead. The owner didn't have very much capital nor any backers, and just a note, capital loans just wouldn't be approved due to the newness of the company, it was like this, establish the business first, come back in a couple of years.

Anyway, my job was to try and collect funds through billing. Now, I know that sounds mundane, but there was a problem in the aspect of what my job entailed, for you see, 95% of the company's contracts were government contracts, and like any other business in that industry, the billing system is every 30 days. But due to overhead and a weekly payroll, the company struggled to meet that payroll due to a lack of cash flow, so due to that, I spent hours on the phone and I spent hours in person at many government offices, trying to collect funds from billings that were not yet due for payments, and many times I was not successful in that light, but I always seems to find one or another to pay "at least" a partial payment towards that un-due bill, just so the company could make payroll. I remember rushing back to office many times, to submit the payee's check to the office manager, on Thursday, so she could get it in the bank that evening. After about a year or so, the company had established enough capital where that chasing of the money was no longer required. And, was it a tough road, you bet it was. Business, life; love, non of it is perfect and, all of it can be a tough road at different times in one's life.

Anyway, the subject in question, is truly a marketing issue. And it doesn't take but a few reflections of "no probs on the shipping prior to the sellers receiving their funds, just increase your handling time" to reach mainstream's perception. And just a note, I'm dealing with such, at the present time, I purchased an item on Thursday, my payment was made within minutes of the purchase. The item could have been shipped out on Friday, and at least by Saturday. It is a USPS priority shipping method, and USPS offers free next day pickup, and they also do Saturday pickups. But the seller has yet to print the label or submit a tracking number. The purchase was a couple hundred dollars, so I can only assume the seller is waiting for eBay to release the funds to that seller. So, it is my opinion the matter has become a marketing issue.

Nice chatting with you, I like : )