Buyers who submit a 'best offer,' but never pay...

[noahs*arcade]

Over the past year, I've had a rather large amount of prospective buyers who will submit a 'best offer' but never follow through with payment. Happens with old accounts, new accounts, etc. No pattern to note other than simply not paying (or establishing communication). I heard some talk that eBay might be rolling something out that locks buyers into automatically being charged if their offer is accepted, any news on that? I know some other popular sales platforms already do that, would love to see eBay follow suit.

[kensgiftshop]

Yes, they are starting to give the sellers the option to use the automatic payment for offers and auctions.

Not sure if it's avaliable to all sellers yet.

[titipeo]

It has been rolled out, but it is not 100% in full effect yet. Hang in there, I know it sucks to have to wait for payment, and then ghosted. You should check your settings to see if they are on instant payment. 

Good luck. 

[selsa84]

I've had more non payers this summer than 12 years total. 

[a_c_green]

---

@noahs*arcade wrote:

I heard some talk that eBay might be rolling something out that locks buyers into automatically being charged if their offer is accepted, any news on that?

---

Scroll to the bottom of your Buyer Payment  Requirements page and see if you have the last box checked: 

(The line above it is for requiring auction bidders to provide the same thing.)

Not all buyers are in this required payment info program for making offers yet, but for those that are, this checkbox will ensure that immediate payment occurs if you accept their offer.

[reallynicestamps]

It's a pain in the badonkadonk, but the time between sale and cancellation as Unpaid has gone down to four days (96 hours) from eight days (four to open UID and four to close - it was two days to open for US based sellers).

How time sensitive are you?

Mostly it's annoying unless you desperately need the cash, in which case maybe pawnshops are a better idea.

You sell Fixed Price, so you have two  other choices.

Don't accept Best Offer at all , ever.

Make all your listings Immediate Payment Required.

The problem with making the customer give financial information before even making the Offer,is that many honest  prompt payers will get insulted and move on to another seller.

Can you emotionally stand waiting 96 hours and one second to Cancel?

The cancellation as Unpaid still gives the deadbeat a Strike btw.

And you can still set an automatic Block on buyers with Strikes.

[itsjustasprain]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

The problem with making the customer give financial information before even making the Offer,is that many honest  prompt payers will get insulted and move on to another seller.

---

I dont see why. The honest prompt payers wont care because they are ready to buy anyway (and this saves the hassle of having to check back later to make the payment). Only the ones who are being wishy-washy about deciding to buy or are planning to drag their feet will be persuaded to move on and irritate some other seller instead.

[reallynicestamps]

We're already seeing buyers complaining about this and some are saying they moved on when their financials were demanded.

This was a small problem that some (noisy) sellers had, mostly with auctions and some with BOs.

EBay for once reacted to the sellers.

It was in my opinion a mistake.

[soh.maryl]

eBay heard for years from sellers who complained of non-paying bidders asking eBay if they couldn't do something about it.  So they did.

Now they are hearing from people who see this as an a mistake on eBay's part.  

Can't please everyone.  

[tu2943]

eBay is rolling out the option for automatic payment on accepted offer and auctions, but it might not be available to all sellers yet. This change aims to address the issue of buyers submitting offers and not paying, reducing the waiting time for payment or cancellations.

[noahs*arcade]

Found the setting. It appears to already be enabled, but I believe it hasn't been fully enacted yet, as I had a non-paying bidder a few weeks back and another one this week. Hopefully this madness ends soon 😂

[noahs*arcade]

Personally, my gripe with the current system regarding non-paying bidders is that a) the watcher count is reset, so I lose out on that group of prospective buyers who located my item and b) I sell a lot of limited edition/exclusive items while at conventions, such as San Diego Comic Con. Prospective buyers will exploit the system by making a purchase, but then delay payment in case the same item shows up from another seller for cheaper. As you probably already know, item prices can fluctuate on items during a convention depending on availability. It's really no different than if I sold an item for $100 on the 1st day of a convention, delayed shipping, saw the item double in $$$ and promptly cancelled the buyer's purchase, relisting for $200. IMO, eBay needs to refocus on a purchase/sale being an actual binding contract (as intended) and I believe this newer change being rolled out enforces that. For those sellers who don't like it however, it's nice to see that it can be changed within your settings.

[reallynicestamps]

I agree that making the demand for financial information optional is a good thing.

I wish it had been made truly optional though- that is,that the seller had to OPT IN.

As it is, like eIS , the seller who does not want to use it has to OPT OUT,  and may be losing sales to miffed customers before the seller learns that they have been enrolled.

And Watchers Watch.

Viewers View.

Every Watcher and every Viewer is someone who did not Buy.

[itsjustasprain]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

I agree that making the demand for financial information optional is a good thing.

I wish it had been made truly optional though- that is, that the seller had to OPT IN.

---

Thats a fair statement. Im thinking that Ebay was weighing which way would be more beneficial: give newbie sellers a better chance of avoiding the deadbeat offers right away by setting the option as default On vs. leaving it inactive (default Off) until someone complains about getting burned.

Once they got the mechanism in place it was probably too tempting to just leave it switched Off for everyone. So they turned it on by default and let the people who didnt want it turn it off.

I dont know how they are deciding which buyers are in the pre-loaded payment info program and which are not in it yet - but I would hope that those who already have Unpaids on their record were first in line to get put in.

[4pawsup*]

I do not use it. When ebay started they enabled it to be on. I had buyers who voiced their displeasure to me. I have only had one non payer. I disabled the option and so far i have not had any non payers. I am hoping by responding to this thread i am not bringing any bad ju ju down upon me like a non paying buyer