Accepted Offer, Buyer has not paid and I cannot contact.

[griley5]

Item shows as awaiting payment but there is no way to contact to send a reminder to the buyer to pay. I believe that when I accepted the offer it indicated the buyer would be automatically charged. 

This happened once before and eBay was not helpful. The item was paid for a day or so later and when I purchased the shipping label, the buyer cancelled and was extremely upset and said they never heard back from me on my offer and then all of a sudden they were being charged for it. 

What can I do to get this out of eBay limbo land?

[griley5]

I have wondered if the lack of funds when payment is attempted is the reason but I have no way of sending a reminder in these 2 instances. I have sent reminders without an issue on other transactions. 

[troubs1]

I checked my settings and I had what you suggested set up already. Buyer has a lot of feedback and 100%, so I doubt they have a problem with setting up the payment method.

 

 

[ittybitnot]

If I accept an offer that is not autopay, I can send a reminder. That is not the case here and I cannot message the buyer. 

@griley5 

Understood.  At the same time, eBay had previously declared that ALL BUYER ID's were now in forced compliance to put up a payment source in order to make an offer FOR THOSE SELLERS THAT REQUIRE IT.  You do require it.  It takes both  forced enrollment of the buyer ID into compliance AND the seller retention of the Buyer Rules  set to the default of yes, for the program to work. 

So it seems that something else is at play.  There have been many reports of same.  Even if "some" buyers are not being forced to put up the payment source and can make offers anyway, their transactions should not be blocked from YOU invoicing, communicating, or any normal activity that would occur as a result. 

Were these perhaps "international sales" where buyers are not forced to put up that payment source first?  or did they comply, and the payment source fail?  Why is the auto-pay feature intermittently not working?  These are the questions that need to be answered to get to the bottom of the problem.   

Sellers that retain those Buyer Rules for auto-pay are likely sacrificing sales as a result, in favor of getting paid fast from buyers that do comply.  Though, as a buyer, I won't participate, I still feel sellers that like it should have it work, and work correctly. 

[ittybitnot]

By setting up tools like the Unpaid Item Assistant.....                                                                              

[kyle@ebay]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

 I see an immediate payment required option for Buy It Now, but not for Best Offers.

@troubs1 
@griley5 

Both you and the OP  retain the buyer rules that require the buyer to put up a payment source in order to make an offer in the first place.  That is different than the "immediate payment required" feature. You can view them here

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.

This means that the moment you "accept" a buyer's offer, their payment source is automatically billed and the product paid for.  If you accept multiple offers from the same buyer, each will be paid for individually, at full shipping cost each, and there is no way to invoice/combine shipping/etc. since they are all supposed to be paid for already.  

(That of course, does not apply to offers a seller sends, or counter offers the seller accepts. )

I am going to tag an eBay employee once again regarding this issue. Since both of you should have had these transactions already paid for if indeed no counter offer is involved. 

 kyle@ebay   Can you confirm once again that the process of "auto-billing" a buyer has not changed for BUYER GENERATED offers?  Both sellers tagged in this thread have the "Buyer Rules" enabled that should put the 'auto-pay' sequence in motion, but does not.  It seems to me that sellers who retain the default set to yes that eBay awarded are indeed limiting their buyer pool by keeping these in place, since they limit a buyer's payment methods AND combined invoicing/shipping.  It should at the very least, help them get paid a little faster as promised. 

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Hey @ittybitnot you are correct.  This process has not changed recently.  It does sound like there may be something else going on to cause these to not be auto-paid.  You mentioned some things to check a little bit down the thread, and those are great ideas!  If those don't turn out to be the issue, I'd recommend @griley5 and @troubs1 contact CS so that they can look at the individual accounts, and potentially file a ticket as well.

[griley5]

I contacted customer service the first time this occurred and was told there was no issue. I actually contacted them prior to the transaction being paid. I spent a considerable amount of time on this at that time. It's like the transaction goes into a void and then at the 4 day limit comes out of that void and processes. In the meantime the buyer thinks we have not accepted the offer because we only have 24 hours to accept or not accept. 

[ittybitnot]

@griley5 

@troubs1 

I would follow the advice given by kyle@ebay .  However, I would use one of eBay's social media portals to contact customer service instead of the regular foreign call center reps you get in a call back or chat.  Some of the answers members have shared from the call center agents on this topic have been nonsensical or simply not applicable at all.  Use one of these that puts you in touch with US based eBay employees who are not committed to use an AI or scripted response.  

https://www.facebook.com/eBay/ (use the blue message button)

OR one of these:

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

https://x.com/askebay

It would be interesting to find out why your buyers are NOT being auto-billed in these situations, and what you are supposed to do about it.  As far as we know you CAN NOT file a Unpaid Item Cancellation after 4 days as would be the normal procedure if you did not retain the "Buyer Rules" and allowed combined shipping/invoicing. 

Good luck and let us know what you find out.  

[femmefan1946]

It's like the transaction goes into a void and then at the 4 day limit comes out of that void and processes.

So the buyer either pays, within four days, or the transaction ends and the deadbeat gets a Strike at the end of four days. 

Just as happens with Fixed Price items that are sold.

The only question in my mind is whether the listing remains active during that four days and can be sold (possibly at a higher price) during the four days.

[griley5]

Item is active which is good. I don't know if they get the strike because of whatever is holding it up. This is a fixed price but accepting offers. 

[griley5]

@ittybitnot 

Thank you for all your help and direction. I will use the contacts you have given me. Fortunately, this is only the second time this has happened to me but I do expect to lose the sale and it's not like a $10-20 sale.