Local Pickup: Why purchase before pickup? Defeats purpose.

[tomatbay]

The whole point of local pickup is the buyer meet seller, inspects item, and then purchases it.  That way there are no disputes.

But it seems that is not the case.

So how does it work?

Any what about the option to accept cash payment?

[dirk12955]

Fee avoidance.

eBay want to get paid their FVFs. 

[redmodelt]

Go to Help/Contact and type Local Pickup in the search box, it should all be covered there. 

[shipscript]

Now that eBay is collecting sales tax for all the states that levy that tax, buyers in those states must pay through checkout in order for eBay to collect the tax. In states without sales tax, it is still possible for a buyer to meet up and pay cash, and for the seller to mark the sale as paid and picked up.

There are certainly workarounds to this scenario, but they involve completing the transaction outside of eBay (a violation of the platform) and leaving the seller the obligation of collecting and remitting sales tax to their local authority, which is not always feasible.

[marnotom!]

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@shipscript wrote:

. . . and leaving the seller the obligation of collecting and remitting sales tax to their local authority, which is not always feasible.

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In this scenario, wouldn’t it be the buyer’s responsibility to remit the taxes owing to their local authority in the form of use tax, just as buyers did for their eBay purchases before “internet tax” became a thing?

[alcoforever]

If you are asking as a buyer, there is a solution.

Once the seller has agreed to a local pickup, the seller sends you a new invoice that omits shipping charge.

You go to the seller location, inspect the item and then pay using your smartphone.

Seller checks his account to see the payment and then you are on your way with your item.

[tomatbay]

It sounds like the rules allow the buyer to take the item and then claim fraudulent SNAD and cheat the seller - the whole point of face-to-face is to preclude that.

Buyer pays with Paypal, goes to pickup, inspects item and is actually SNAD, how is that going to work?  Buyer takes item then files dispute?  Appears there is no way to settle things while face-to-face.

I know in the past cash was an acceptable payment, but it sounds like that could get really weird if Buyer finds item SNAD and refuses to pay.  Seller could report Non-Paying Buyer.  Of course if paid with Paypal, and SNAD, Buyer has to be really scared seeing Seller has his money and while face-to-face, Buyer can do nothing about it when there.

I was hoping that Local Pickup would eliminate fraud.  

_____________________________

RE:  Sales Tax: Face-to-face purchases do not involve sales tax.  Facebook and Craigslist buy and sell locally all the time and there is no sales tax requirement.   Nor is there sales tax requirement for classified ad purchases or yard sales.

Sounds like Local Pickup is 

[tomatbay]

RE:  Local Pickup:  Cash Payment:  Since no 3rd party involvement, does that show up on 1099-K?

[reallynicestamps]

Buyer pays with Paypal, goes to pickup, inspects item and is actually SNAD, how is that going to work?

No.

The seller cancels the sale "At Buyer Request", they shake hands and both go home.

The Buyer can leave appropriate feedback on the cancelled sale, btw.

The seller rewrites the description to show the corrections, maybe adds another photo, and relists.

Politely. --- Captain Malcolm Reynolds

[shipscript]

@tomatbay  

We had a lengthy discussion on another forum where staff also responded. I believe the sales tax was not collected on that sale and neither did eBay register the payment (meaning it would not appear on a 1099-K), The seller would have paid the selling fees.  The transaction was over a month ago, so any fallout should be apparent by now.

The conversation was started by @mr_lincoln .  Let's ask if he can share and summarize how he handled the cash on pickup and sales tax issue.

[mr_lincoln]

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@shipscript wrote:

@tomatbay  

We had a lengthy discussion on another forum where staff also responded. I believe the sales tax was not collected on that sale and neither did eBay register the payment (meaning it would not appear on a 1099-K), The seller would have paid the selling fees.  The transaction was over a month ago, so any fallout should be apparent by now.

The conversation was started by @mr_lincoln .  Let's ask if he can share and summarize how he handled the cash on pickup and sales tax issue.

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 Hi @shipscript 

Thanks for looping me in ...

Since I have a state tax ID I report the cash sale and pay the state sales tax.  I am currently set up for bi-annual reporting and paying state sales tax.  In my case I do not charge Buyers the state sales tax at pick up, I eat the 6%. 

Since eBay is not the only venue I sell on I also have additional "income" that I report at the end of the year on my Schedule C ... consignment with auction houses, cash sales, etc. Those values are simply added to the 1099-K total that eBay sends.   

Let's not fool ourselves here, some / many Sellers will not do any of that reporting if they can avoid it and dodge paying tax (be it Sales tax or Income tax). I am glad they lowered the threshold for the 1099-K to $ 600 ... that should weed out some of the tax dodgers or at least make them more responsible to report their income or loss.

[electrola_man]

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@tomatbay wrote:

The whole point of local pickup is the buyer meet seller, inspects item, and then purchases it.  That way there are no disputes.

But it seems that is not the case.

So how does it work?

Any what about the option to accept cash payment?

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Uh, no.  That is not how it is supposed to work.  Local pickup is only for the mutual benefit of buyer and seller if the distance is close and it is beneficial to both parties to handle it this way.  There are lots of situations in which it is far easier for the seller to box up something and label it for shipment within a few minutes rather than go through a lot of back-and-forth messaging with a buyer to plan out a meeting.  

The "point" is not to meet the seller, inspect the item, and then purchase it.  The buyer should have already made himself/herself sure that he/she wants to buy the item before the purchase was finalized.  There should be no inspection of the item at the pick-up as a condition for completion of the sale.  The time for that has already passed.  Just like buying something that is being shipped, the buyer should make sure he/she has full knowledge of what is being sold, and be prepared to pay for it before the pickup is scheduled.  That is the buyer's responsibility.  If the photos and description do not make it clear enough to a buyer, that buyer should ask questions, and only bid/buy after being sure he/she wants to continue.

In the rare instances that I do a local pickup, I insist that payment be made though Ebay and that the buyer brings the code for me to load into Ebay to indicate that pickup has taken place.  It works well.  

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, here is the eBay policy regarding Local Pickup:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/local-pickup?id=4181

In it, cash on pick up is still an option. One must also offer at least one of the approved electronic payment options as well. The policy states:

”Payment options for local pickup

In your payment options, select Pay on pickup and any other payment methods you'd like to accept. You need to offer buyers at least one of the approved electronic payment methods, and you cannot discourage buyers from using any payment method you specified in the listing.”

[mr_lincoln]

@tomatbay 

-If you offer Local Pick up AND have Immediate payment required then the Buyer will pay through eBay and you can exchange contact info to see up the pick up day - time and location

-If Immediate payment is NOT turned on then you can Send an invoice or not.  If you do NOT send an invoice but still follow through with the Local Pick up and receive a cash payment and go back home and mark the item Paid and Shipped eBay will:

1. Take their FVFs out of the sale price

2. Give your account a defect for the "Tracking uploaded on time and validated" metric BUT this Seller Metric does NOT affect your account per a statement by eBay.

- Here's one I got back in March for the procedure described above:

-If you Send an invoice BUT the Buyer does not pay it AND you follow through with the pick up and then go back home and Mark the Item Paid BUT NOT mark it SHIPPED then:

1. eBay will take their FVFs based on the sale price

2. eBay Will NOT give your account the defect for "Tracking uploaded on time and validated"

[susanb1872]

The only reason I would use local pickup for a sale is if something was too large or too heavy to ship and I would require payment up front. I agree with @electrola_man , it's not always about inspection, etc. However, if they were not satisfied with it at the time of pickup, I would allow the buyer to back out.