Auto-charge

[kaidensnan]

I berated ebay about the new auto-charge feature in respect of not allowing combined postage before payment taken. My feedback asked why all new or changed features are generally for the worst and did they not consider the implications before making changes. Hit the send feedback button and low and behold got "message failed" back. Ha, ha.

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

Best to make contact with eBay on Facebook these days. Search "eBay for Business" on Facebook. Also on Twitter if you tweet.

[kaidensnan]

Not on any social media but thanks.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Bit confused by your post but I am assuming you are talking about the following setting that requires buyers to provide payment information before making a bid or an offer. 

     The change was in response to years of sellers complaining about all the non-paying buyers. The implications were probably known and combined shipping has presented a number of challenges over the years for BIN/IPR sales as well as international ones. There are workarounds for the BIN/IPR and eBay is supposed to be fixing the combined shipping issue with EIS before the end fo the year. 

     I have found that a lot of times the changes are heading in the right direction but eBay botches the implementation and deployment. While eBay unilaterally turned this option on for a number of sellers as part of the test phase the seller does have the option of turning it off. Apparently eBay also unilaterally placed a number of buyers into the test pool but to the best of my knowledge the buyers do not have the ability to turn off the option but do have the ability to elect to not comply and simply not bid on or purchase the item. 

     There are pros and cons to the new feature but as with most things the sellers and buyers have the ability to make adjustments. Even before the new option I occasionally had one buyer win multiple auctions where I had to work through the combined shipping to get all the items in one package, load the tracking information for the multiple items, calculate the combined shipping cost and then refund the buyer for any excess shipping they may have paid. 

     As with most things this is kind of an 80/20 situation where 80% of the time the standard solution/option works just fine. The other 20% of the time you have to make adjustments. 

[dhbookds]

If I'm understanding correctly............you can opt out of auto pay in your preferences if it doesn't meet your needs.

Auto pay has been requested by many sellers over the years because of non payments.......so even tho you may not like it.......many sellers do/will.  It's still be slowly rolled out, as I understand it, so the "implications" are being considered..........

[coolections]

Every seller gets an "option" to either force buyers to pay, or allow them to wait. Someone showed the page, just unclick making buyers pay.

[ittybitnot · Accepted solution]

 they not consider the implications before making changes

@kaidensnan 

I am sure they did.  It is working as intended, eBay makes more money when combined shipping is disallowed.  Though they said they are "working on the combined shipping issue" there have been no indications of same.  After all, mobile users have been waiting for that "request total" button for a couple of years now.  

Many of the payment options are removed for buyers forced into the program as well.  I find this rather ironic after months of eBay claiming (with the rollout of MP) how offering buyers more choices was going to increase sales.   A good buyer experience does not seem like any sort of priority now.  This is especially true for a buyer who complied with the requirement touted as "New Smoother Checkout" and finds they just paid full $6 each shipping for their ten auction wins ($60), that would normally be combined for $6 total. 

[high.qual]

I am a buyer and seller.

As a buyer, I've had the most problems with sellers not shipping items, or shipping them so slowly. I don't have any settings in my buying account to allow for auto-pay. So, eBay is doing this with the sellers and without authorization? That's a real overreach; it's creepy.

As a seller, I ship the same day or within 24 hours. If buyers ask to cancel, I cancel orders. Why isn't there a policy or "promise" for sellers to ship quick? 

[luckythewinner]

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@kaidensnan wrote:

I berated ebay about the new auto-charge feature in respect of not allowing combined postage before payment taken. My feedback asked why all new or changed features are generally for the worst and did they not consider the implications before making changes. 

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Sellers on this board have been constantly and loudly begging, pleading, and clamoring for an auto-pay feature like this. 

"Why can't eBay force buyers to pay automatically as soon as an auction ends or when they make an offer"  has been a constant refrain here for years. 

In addition to the optional setting to require payment at the time of a bid or offer, eBay also has a setting that has been available to sellers for years to optionally require immediate payment when buyers purchase a fixed-price item. 

[isaiah53-57]

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@kaidensnan wrote:

I berated ebay about the new auto-charge feature in respect of not allowing combined postage before payment taken. My feedback asked why all new or changed features are generally for the worst and did they not consider the implications before making changes. Hit the send feedback button and low and behold got "message failed" back. Ha, ha.

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Nothing ironic about that...