eBay

jscott991 · ‎08-02-2018

I know that eBay is pushing sellers to be open to best offers, and I have had some luck with them in the past, but lately I've been driving crazy by buyers proposing best offers, I accept (or they accept a counteroffer), and then the buyer doesn't pay for 2 days or more (sometimes after the unpaid item case kicks in).

This is extremely frustrating because I switched to using "Buy It Now" listings for this very reason (too many buyers winning an auction and then only paying after an unpaid item case was opened). The biggest advantage of a BIN listing is that the item stays up on the site until someone pays, even if they add it to their cart.

Is there a way to avoid this, beyond just not accepting any more best offers?

I notice a lot of sellers put language to the effect of "payment is expected within 24 hours" in their listings. Is that actually enforceable? Can you do anything to cancel a transaction with deadbeat buyers who wait 2-6 days to pay that doesn't affect your seller rating (or leave you open to absurd negative feedback for canceling)?

EBay really needs to address this. Even if a buyer accepts a counteroffer or a seller accepts a best offer on a Buy It Now listing, it should still be available to other buyers until the buyer actually pays!

Sorry for the rant, but I really would like some recourse to this. I have two best offers now sitting at awaiting payment because buyers accepted a counteroffer and then are just sitting on the item.

gopetersen · ‎08-02-2018

As a seller, I have no problems being paid for my Best Offer listings.

I use eBay's options for a lower end for the offers (reject the low ones) and for automatic acceptance of the good ones. This seems to work quite well. I never see the lowball insulting offers and I get paid right away for the good offers.

The problem with many listings is the sellers DON'T use the auto-accept. I know that when I try to BUY something with Best Offer, if I am making a good offer that only shaves a couple of dollars off a $50 item, it's annoying to have to wait 2 or 3 days to find out if the seller will accept it. And if they don't then WHY ON EARTH did they put Best Offer on the listing in the first place?

Be nice to your buyers. If they make a good offer, auto-accept it and they usually pay right away. If you don't auto-accept and they have to keep coming back and checking, they may forget. That's why they are often slow to pay. After checking 10 times, if it hasn't been accepted, they assume the seller is not going to accept and get tired of checking.

castlemagicmemories · ‎08-02-2018

You don't have to accept the Best Offer that way.

You can message the buyer that you are revising the listing to the price they offered, and that they have 48 hrs to buy it before the price will be revised back. This is to inspire them to action; they know that this is a limited time offer.

This retains the immediate payment required, and the listing stays up until it is actually bought and paid for.

thatsallfolks · ‎08-03-2018

@gopetersen wrote:
The problem with many listings is the sellers DON'T use the auto-accept. I know that when I try to BUY something with Best Offer, if I am making a good offer that only shaves a couple of dollars off a $50 item, it's annoying to have to wait 2 or 3 days to find out if the seller will accept it. And if they don't then WHY ON EARTH did they put Best Offer on the listing in the first place?

It's been well-documented that ebay sometimes adds Best Offer to listings with the seller's permission. So maybe the seller doesn't respond because they were never interested in offers in the first place.