can not pay for items

[floriantet]

The issue happens pretty randomly, with items won auction-style, low prices.

When it happens: If I pay with a credit card I get the message "your order is in" but each time in my Orders shows “Payment pending” and after a few minutes are back in my unpaid items: "Your payment didn't go through. Please go to your unpaid items to pay for the item again". This is a false error message as there is no problem on my side, see below). I try again and it is the same. If I try with PayPal I get “We ran into a problem and PayPal isn't available right now. Please select a different payment option.” If after PayPal I try with an eBay Gift Card I get “You can't apply gift cards, coupons, or eBay Bucks at this time.” If I restart the check-out process from home page and try the eBay Gift Card from the beginning I get "your order is in". Item is no longer in my cart, is under orders, I have no unpaid items but after a while is back in my unpaid items (and eBay Gift Card was not charged).
For people eager to come with suggestions, I already had a lot of them (pay only one item at the time, pay for all, remove PayPal account, add back PayPal account, ...) from countless times I called customer service since January:

• Do not tell me to ask the seller for an invoice (preferred method of eBay customer service to get rid of me) as I did that on a few items with the same issue and it didn’t change anything
• Do not tell me to check if it is a problem with my payment methods as I am able to pay for other items, before and after, using any of my payment methods: All work for other items, none work with the items with the issue, including PayPal with PayPal balance, eBay gift card !!!
• Do not tell me it is a seller problem because I had a few times in my cart 2 (or more) items from the same seller (both won auction-style, similar items) and I was able to pay for one but not for the other one. Also as eBay customer service suggested, I have contacted the sellers and their answer was invariable “we have checked and everything is ok on our side”.

Please write a suggestion here only if you had this issue and you got it solved.

This issue started in January and it is like I am playing a lottery: After I won an item, will I be able to pay for it or not ?

I am tired of talking with customer service, they don’t know why or how to solve this issue, all they can do is later erase the record of an unpaid item from my account.

I have a feeling that this is tax-related as it started in January after eBay started collecting taxes and recently I was able to pay for an item won with 1 cent (no tax during check-out) and I was not able to pay for an item won with 10 cents (+1 cent tax = 11cents) from the same seller.

I cannot believe that eBay was not able to solve it from January, what is going on ?
Is there anyone from eBay who can actually debug this issue or put me in contact with someone who can debug the issue ? (maybe someone from developing team ?)

[phatmitz]

Same here just started happening

[amcruz3]

same thing here, Your payment didn't go through. Please check your payment details or select a different payment option.

[glassr777]

I HAVE HAD MONEY TAKEN FOR ALLEGED SUBSRCIPTIONS WHICH I DID NOT BUY? PayPal JUST SAYS YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE, CASE CLOSED? no GUARANBTEE. these THINGS WHICH ARE HAPPENEING WITH PayPal RIGHT NOW (FRAUD AND THEFT) CAN ONLY OCCUR VIA CORRUPT STAFF AND NOTHING ELSE. Covid 19 HAS BECOME A ROBBERS DREAM AND FOCUSED ON THEFT, WHAT YOU WANT TO BUY LEGITIMATELY APPEARS TO GO TO THE END OF THE QUEUE. eBay APPEARSA TO BE IN ON THIS AS WELL. Sorry for caps lock., bad keyboard. I have had lots of little scummy third world snake oil peddler stuff happen this year, incompetence and no idea of first world consumer law, just whatever they can get away with and case closed to complainant. I have been trying to close my PayPal account all night, I will simply use "AfterPay" which has no charges and no interest. They just refuse to close my PayPal account after todays theft, BUT remember case closed, they backed the thief not a legitimate buyer with over 287 purchases over 3 years. Lots of scummy stuff happens with both eBay and PayPal Staff last 12 months, I have no idea which country these cabbage patch people come from

[gagan27]

I have run into the same issue and it has now been raised with Technical Support. Will share if it gets resolved.  

[nycpicker1]

Why is this happening I have the same problem, I’m going to get unpaid item strike smh 

[floriantet]

This issue started in January 2020

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/can-not-pay-for-items/m-p/30652822#M66995
is still unsolved in October 2020.

Right now I can not pay for 3 items in my cart with anything (Paypal, eBay gift card, credit card, bank account) while I was able to pay for other items before and I can pay for other items I won after and in between those 3.

This situation is repeating every month with different items and different sellers. The sellers have no clue why and they report "we have checked with customer service and there is no problem with our account"

How much time do we need to wait eBay, until you solve this issue ?

[urban_picker]

As a seller, the first weekend of this month was the only time it seemed "fixed" for my account. This weekend I did half in sales of the prior due to these issues. Been going on way too long for a company this big, so I believe it must be intentional for reasons I do not understand. How can a company want their sellers to fail? Makes no sense, I've been doing this full time for 19 years and something is starting to smell funny here.

[sawijes4]

• First thing you have to check your debit card or credit card is ok for the payment.
• If not you have to contact your seller.
• Other wise you have to asking for ebay customer service agent.

thank you

have a nice day.

[floriantet]

Thanks sawijes4  for your intention to help, but in this case, it is better without, than with answers like yours.  
Please read at least the first post; all you suggest have been checked and tried already. 
In the last 30 days:

- I was able to pay for 52 items (total $ 400)

- I was NOT able to pay for 4 items (total $ 0.55)

From those 4, 3 are from a seller in China, one from Israel. While I had those items that I could not pay for, I was able to pay for other items.

- I have contacted the sellers.

- I also have an eBay gift card as one of my payment methods.

- I have probably spent one hour on the phone with eBay customer service: when they run out of options to try and check, they create a ticket with no immediate or long term result.

- I had 3 cases of an unpaid item which turned into 3 records of an item not paid on my account and the fourth will soon follow no matter what I try or do or speak with. 

Sadly this has become a routine for me, this describes what happens every month since January (since eBay started collecting taxes ?), different sellers, different items, nobody knows so far why or how to fix it.
Is anyone from eBay reading this? Hello ?

[floriantet]

With the hope that someone from eBay would actually read this, I am posting more debugging information for the same issue. In the attached pictures, there is one item (402504200794) that I can not pay for. Item was auction-style, ended with winning bid $0.17, Free Shipping (first picture). At check-out, while the Free shipping is the default option, notice that the seller is offering other shipping options.  With Free Shipping selected, I try and fail to pay with any method; after trying all (PayPal and credit cards), the PayPal option is gray (disabled, I can not select it) and the button "Confirm and pay" becomes disabled (picture 2).

If I restart the check-out process from eBay home page and select this time $3.45 SpeedPak Shipping, the PayPal option becomes available and the button "Confirm and pay" is enabled and I can pay (picture 3).
Obviously, the error message that appears when Free Shipping is selected "This seller doesn't accept any of these. Please add another card or select a different payment option." is false: as soon as a different shipping method is selected suddenly "seller DOES accept any of these"!!!
Of course, I could checkout with $3.45 shipping but I don't want to pay $3.45 shipping for a $0.17 item that has the option as stated in the auction description Free Shipping.

Not sure if this eBay bug that appears for some items is related to free shipping, total price, or tax, but I am doing anything I can to help eBay to debug and solve it.

picture 1:

picture 2:

picture 3:

[comics-scifi-collectibles]

@floriantet   The problem is that paypal can not process such a small payment.

Paypal charges a .30 cents per transaction fee plus 2.9%.  The sale needs to be enough to cover the fees that are taken before the sellers money is deposited into their account or the payment doesn't go through.  

I wish that eBay would make it so that sellers can not sell items for less than .99 cents, this would take care of the problem.  

The seller is also billed for their eBay fees of 10% on a monthly invoice.  I just don't see why a seller would even bother with such low priced listings.

[floriantet]

Thank you comics-scifi-collectibles for trying to help. I guess your information is up to date and what you say make sense, however:
- I regularly win items like $0.11 +Free Shipping and I have no problem paying for (now I have to say "the majority of") those. What you say would affect all items, while this happens randomly.
- I had won 3 similar items from the same seller, same price (like $0.16, Free Shipping) I did check-out for all 3, 2 went through one did not. Could pay for other items won shortly after that from the same seller, but for that one could not. Then the "randomly could pay for some and could not pay for some items" continued for that seller until I gave up bidding on his items. Unfortunately, it continues to happen with different sellers, different items.
- if this would happen with every transaction sellers would stop listing $0.11 items with Free shipping (but they still do that, months later). When I could not pay, I would contact the sellers: they all claim they could receive payment from other buyers (others who won items with $0.11 and free shipping). A look into their feedback history confirms they do receive payments from other buyers for these low priced items. In the same time, there are other posts here from buyers with the same issue, so I am not the only one experiencing this.

- I assume after 10 months of having this issue, customer service would know something about this, eBay would have enforced a  rule like you say "sellers can not sell items for less than .99 cents" but I guess they take their money anyway from the seller, and if a seller does want to sell an item at a loss (for promotional or other reasons) who is eBay to stop that seller for doing that?
Let's not divagate please, I don't care how they solve the issue, by enforcing a new rule or correcting a software bug I just want this solved. 

Please write here only if you have this issue or had this issue and you got it solved or if you are someone from eBay and you need more debugging information. 

Thank you!

[floriantet]

I am posting more debugging information for the eBay team, the same unresolved issue since January.

In the attached pictures I have 2 recent items from the same seller, one that I can pay one that I can not.
Could be because of tax? Please eBay team, solve the problem, please!

I can pay for item 333785907990  from seller osag :

but can NOT pay for item 333785405322  from the same seller osag :

[floriantet]

A new example for eBay debug team:

This is an item I could not pay for, now I have an open case, I was thinking "I haven't tried in a few days, let's try again to pay, maybe eBay fixed the issue". Well, it looks like all links to pay (see below picture)  are gone. Happened for this item only, (not for others), item is not included at checkout, cart, no links to pay in purchase history, case actions or anywhere else; I can not even retry to pay! Meanwhile, the open case against me for an unpaid item is still going strong with  4 days left for me to pay (only if I could!), and unfortunately, since there is nothing I can do, 4 days until a new strike will be posted on my account ! Thank you eBay !