And Now This

[hartungcards]

In the latest unannounced change instituted by eBay, sent offers now expire in 4 days (96 hours), instead of 2 days (48 hours). Thanks for letting us know.

[lakefor94]

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@hartungcards wrote:

In the latest unannounced change instituted by eBay, sent offers now expire in 4 days (96 hours), instead of 2 days (48 hours). Thanks for letting us know.

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eBay sure has been dillying around with Best Offers lately. It has been so screwed up I have not been receiving many if any chances to send offers. Been this way for about a week. 

Hoards of posts about issues with Best Offers.

Thanks for the heads up on the 4-day deal.

[wastingtime101]

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@hartungcards wrote:

In the latest unannounced change instituted by eBay, sent offers now expire in 4 days (96 hours), instead of 2 days (48 hours). Thanks for letting us know.

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Nice catch @hartungcards . I just tested this by sending an offer and you are correct. There is no information anywhere on the send offer pop up to tell a seller how long the offer will stay open, yet after sending it, when going to the listing and viewing offers, it shows it's valid for 4 days on the countdown timer.

The help page does not list a timeframe for single offers. It lists 48 hours for bulk offers.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/adding-best-offer-listing-using-reply-offer?id=4144#secti...

eBay Open is in 5 days and the Fall Seller Update will probably be released the week after, and I expect that's where we'll see this announced if it's an intended change.

[hartungcards]

Yes, the operative words there are "if it's an intended change."  Or if it's just another aberration from one of the monkeys.

[ckimodog]

@hartungcards 

I think I found the culprit...

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@hartungcards wrote:

In the latest unannounced change instituted by eBay, sent offers now expire in 4 days (96 hours), instead of 2 days (48 hours). Thanks for letting us know.

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Great catch and post! 👏

Although you are not a fan of silent protests, this may be your chance to protest eBay messages that overwhelm you daily. 🙊

 Silence is the keyword here. ✊

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@hartungcards  Thanks for the info.

[brightlightbookseller]

I just commented on another thread about this, but I sent feedback and suggest anyone else annoyed by this change do the same.  This was my feedback if anyone is curious:

"I just found out that seller-initiated offers are good for 96 hours now instead of 48, which is very frustrating since it locks any changes for that amount of time. Please allow us to change the timeframe, or cancel seller-initiated offers if needed!"

[hartungcards]

You do know that any sent feedback goes to the guy that @ckimodog posted a picture of above, right?

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Yes, the operative words there are "if it's an intended change." 

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At this point I'll make an educated assumption that it's intended. If I had to guess at the reason I'd say eBay ran some tests and/or responded to buyer feedback that the 48 hr window was too short and they had higher sales conversion rates when extending the window to 96 days hours.

My problems with it:

1. As mentioned - unannounced. Even if eBay announces this over the next couple of weeks between eBay Open and the Fall Seller Update, they should not have changed the actual function without, at minimum, a note on the offers pop-up that tells sellers how long the offer will last.

2. The 4 day window is a long time to lock a listing to edits, especially for sellers that use automatic offers. There are so many changes coming up with holiday, shipping surcharges, etc, and we need to be able to revise listings without worrying they're locked for an extended offer period.

In the past sellers had a choice of how long to extend the offer, and I'd suggest eBay do the same thing here: give sellers a choice of 48 hrs or 96 hrs.

I think 96 hrs is fine, for the most part, but if a seller knows they need to make updates in the next week maybe they only want to extend a 48 hr offer. 🤷

[wastingtime101]

Friend of mine says they time their offers and their sale events.

They won't send offers more than 3 days before a sale event because they don't want buyers thinking the offer isn't a good deal if the item is on sale. So they leave a 24 hr gap between offer expiration and sale.

They said the new 4 day window means they'll send fewer offers since they won't send them in that window before a sale which has now increased by 2 days - which is not a big deal, but they were grateful for the heads up I gave them since it affects their business function.

[dolcetreasures]

All the hallmarks of a slimy company. How many sellers are gonna get caught unable to process orders that come in after the 48 hour window they are expecting? What happens when sellers put their accounts on time away not knowing/realizing their offers from 72 hours ago are still active? 

[m60driver]

I don't think it is that big of deal other than the disrespect shown to sellers by not informing sellers about this change.  If I need to edit a listing so bad that I can not wait two more days I can just end the listing and then relist the item with the changes.

[brightlightbookseller]

I know no such thing.  eBay has made changes due to pressure from sellers/buyers before, even if it doesn't often happen.

[robbie31415]

"buyer feedback that the 48 hr window was too short and they had higher sales conversion rates when extending the window to 96 days."

That's a big difference. 🤣