Offers being accepted then not showing up as sold creating havoc for sellers and buyers

[danra_1073]

I am a very active seller in the hobby/model train space with over 1000 transactions a month processed on Ebay.  Recently, we have noticed that when and offer comes on for an item that we accept, sometimes, and the key word is sometimes... the offer acceptance never processes as an actual order.  It disappears completely and the listing remains active.    Yes, I have reported the issue and opened a Case with Ebay.  No fix as of yet and this seems to be happening 2 - 3 times a day on my account which is frustrating and wasting everyone's time.  

The fix in the meantime is to relist the item at the agreed price and send the purchaser a message with the new listing ID number.  Be sure you DO NOT promote the new listing and use the "Sell Similar" option when doing so as this avoids any promotional fees that might have been applied since Ebay cannot seem to fix the issue, they certainly do not deserve my advertising dollars on the items affected.

All Ebay can tell me is they are working on it and no one seems to really be elevating the issue that is affecting my revenue, likely your revenue and of course the mother-ship.

Anyone else having this issue?  Work-around ideas welcome!  Happy New Year Sellers!  Wishing you all much success in 2024! 

[robbie31415]

I like this change, maybe the implementation needs some work but overall a good idea.

Just because you are willing to accept a lower price shouldn't remove the item from being live.

Only thing that should change status of item to 'sold' is payment.

[kandf_vintage_finds]

I accepted 1 offer yesterday and 2 today.  All 3 appear in my solids as they always have.

[dazed_n_confuzed]

I’m glad to see someone else is having this issue. Not happy that you’re losing sales like I am, but at least I know it’s not me. I started noticing it last night and here’s what I noticed. It only happens if people are sending back a counter offer. Anytime a normal offer comes in and I accept it, all is well. If someone sends back a counter offer, that’s where the issue is. 

[broto_64]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

If I send you an offer and you accept it...

It then sends me a message talking about you sent me an offer?

@broto_64 

If you are the BUYER and send an offer to the seller, that is exactly what it appears is happening.  

You, the buyer do not get notified that your offer was accepted.  You get a message that says YOU HAVE AN OFFER.  There is no accept button on that message.  You can pay, or decline. 

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Yeah that makes no sense, I do a lot of things in the course of a day, I order and sell and buy and this and that... So much so that if the UPS man shows up with a Wildebeest it probably means I paid for it and just don't remember so if I get an email talking about I have an offer there's a really good chance I won't be connecting the dots. Instead I will think it's the usual automated spam that some sellers opt in to send to everyone who even looked at their listing... That or it's for more than I offered, so either way decline.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Okay, now this is slightly hysterical.

CSR making alert #s for tickets when it's actually by intent.

[ittybitnot]

 Instead I will think it's the usual automated spam that some sellers opt in to send to everyone who even looked at their listing... That or it's for more than I offered, so either way decline.

@broto_64 

Thank you for sharing your information.  Next time you get one of those that are truly "auto generated spam" offers  i.e. YOU MADE NO OFFER, and this one just showed up, can you please capture a screen shot?   IS THERE AN ACCEPT BUTTON?    

These latest ones where YOU AS THE BUYER send an offer, and the seller accepts and the transaction is renamed 

for the seller:  You sent an offer, when you did no such thing.
for the buyer:  No notice that your offer was accepted, but rather YOU HAVE AN OFFER.  There is no ACCEPT option for the buyer. They can pay, decline, or ignore. 

[siamjane8]

        At this point it is almost comical.   How did they take a simple buyer/seller yes/no transaction and complicate it to the point of nobody knows if an offer was accepted or payed for/ is the item still for sale?/ will someone else buy it before the accepted offer pays?/ seller accepted offer- done deal- handshake complete......but ebay is telling the buyer that seller sent another offer?? for the same price?? so confusing and shady! i agree that i would walk away thinking it was spam or a scam.   It is comical! Talk about a giant "screw you" to the ebay users lol- Welcome to 2024 when ebay still implements silly ideas that disrupt sales.  

  Again, as i always say- I do not think these employees are trying to make it worse to sell or buy here- they are genuine in their efforts, it just that they do not have an understanding of how trade interactions work.   It must just be generational or poor schooling/ lack of real life experience.......

[nikknackjack]

I came to the forums just for this reason!! In the last two days it's happened to me, and I was not aware of any changes going on, but as some people have said, they didn't exactly make an announcement.

Most sellers I follow and know have wanted the immediate pay on offer accepted for some time now, and ebay DID announce that it was being rolled out. So why the sudden change I wonder. It was working just fine. I send you an offer, you accept, pay, done. You send me an offer, I accept, you pay, done.

Both times it's happened, it was only in last 48 hours, on new offers sent to me, NOT counteroffers. I accepted it, and POOF it disappeared. Not into sold, not into awaiting payment, just gone. And yet when I looked back to the "still active" listing, it would say *username123 has won the offer* that's it.

I chalked it up to a super odd and annoying glitch and sent a msg to the buyers. They were also both super confused but happy I reached out and immediately paid. The first gentleman actually said he had to go searching thru his messages to find he'd "won" the item and pay, and after he paid he was prompted to pay again, which thankfully he didn't do. Ugh ebay.... NOT the best way to roll out 2024. Best of luck to you all in navigating this!

[robbie31415]

Well buyers better be quick.

Accepted an offer from a buyer for a $220 dollar item. They offered 150, I said heck with it IDC and accepted the offer. Few hours went by no payment, but then I got an alert that the item sold for $220.

I like it. 🙂 You want that discounted price then you better hurry up and click checkout on the offer that is sent back to you!

[carlmarxx]

The  auto pay take's  3  days or longer  from the buyer's account  then another  2 to 3 for the seller to get it.   I don't buy  from sellers that use the auto pay, because I will  not  let ebay keep the info  on file.  since ebay has been hack into more then once over the years.

[valueaddedresource]

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@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

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@ltldpr wrote:

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@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

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@danra_1073 wrote:

I am a very active seller in the hobby/model train space with over 1000 transactions a month processed on Ebay.  Recently, we have noticed that when and offer comes on for an item that we accept, sometimes, and the key word is sometimes... the offer acceptance never processes as an actual order.  It disappears completely and the listing remains active.    Yes, I have reported the issue and opened a Case with Ebay.  No fix as of yet and this seems to be happening 2 - 3 times a day on my account which is frustrating and wasting everyone's time.  

The fix in the meantime is to relist the item at the agreed price and send the purchaser a message with the new listing ID number.  Be sure you DO NOT promote the new listing and use the "Sell Similar" option when doing so as this avoids any promotional fees that might have been applied since Ebay cannot seem to fix the issue, they certainly do not deserve my advertising dollars on the items affected.

All Ebay can tell me is they are working on it and no one seems to really be elevating the issue that is affecting my revenue, likely your revenue and of course the mother-ship.

Anyone else having this issue?  Work-around ideas welcome!  Happy New Year Sellers!  Wishing you all much success in 2024! 

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@danra_1073 

There is an open ticket for this issue (I had it myself the other day).  You can add your errors to ALERT15115 by contacting CS.

Start on this page:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/resolving-technical-issues/technical-issues?id=4220

Scroll to the bottom of the page and use the "Contact Us" option

Type AGENT into the chatbox to get a callback (you may need to type AGENT more than once)

Tell the agent the alert # and have them add yours to the ticket.

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Curious, how long did it take you to get them to actually issue the ticket number? 

I ask because I was lied to by both the agent, and supposed supervisor - they both simply gave me the chat ID number -it looked nothing like your number and matches my chat ID number after the fact.

And did you call or chat?

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@ltldpr 

I was given the ticket # by an eBay community team member on a different thread.

I asked for "AGENT" on the chat and got a call back.

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@penguins_dont_fly  do you have a link to that comment/thread where an eBay community team member provided that ticket number? I've searched but can't find it.

@hartungcards  provided a screenshot of what this new process looks like on the buyer side in this thread

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Received-offers-turning-into-sent-offers/m-p/34183321/highligh...

There's an entirely new design including a message that says "You  received an offer! Others received this offer too. The first person to checkout gets the deal." as well as changing "accept offer" to a button that says "check out."

If that's a "technical issue" than I would have to believe eBay's AI has gained sentience and taken over the place. 😂

Everything about it looks pretty intentional to me, though as with many changes around here, it's entirely possible (even very likely) that it's either a limited test or phased roll out (so it may not impact every buyer/seller/transaction) and also very likely customer service reps (and even community staff) may not have been informed.

[siamjane8]

@robbie31415   Accepted an offer from a buyer for a $220 dollar item. They offered 150, I said heck with it IDC and accepted the offer. Few hours went by no payment, but then I got an alert that the item sold for $220.

      I see your point and that often happens to us when we decline a lowball offer or receive messages about how overpriced an item is..... it then sells for full price hours later.   I have just wondered if there is "action" on a listing- ebay pushes it to the top of the search list or something. This happens all the time lol. 

    But with this new "not telling people their offer was accepted" stupidity, we are likely to lose more sales due to confusion or just people not being informed correctly that they actually won the item,  than we will gain in waiting and hoping someone else pays full price........A bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush lol

   To be fair- I am not college educated in web design or anything else for that matter.......but isn't this a case of ebay's constant lack of ability to communicate effectively?.......  Why not have the message say " The Seller accepted your offer- You have won!  But the item is still available for sale and not yours until you complete payment so PAY NOW- (with a nice big button.)

     Seems like that would be the best of both worlds- without making a giant confusing mess of it all.

[ittybitnot]

also very likely customer service reps (and even community staff) may not have been informed.

@valueaddedresource 

Maybe they will get some "coaching" this week.  Maybe some eBay staff will answer their tags and give some guidance?  

[danra_1073]

What Ebay is missing in this whole MESS is the fact that most of us Sellers do not manage the business form the Ebay Message inbox.  I'm selling 1000 items a month.  Between order notifications, payment notifications and shipping notifications, that is 3000 emails a month.  I don't go to the inbox to see which offers have been accepted or sent or are pending.  I use the main dashboard screen and regularly look at the # of items awaiting to be paid.  That is what a business manager does.  At the very minimum, Ebay needs to bring that information back to the screen so we can see what the heck is "Pending" payment.  If the item is still listed, fine, I get that.  As sellers, we should still be able to send that buyer a reminder on their offer being accepted.  Surely these "Smart" people can figure out a way to do that and help the sellers out there that are pulling out their hair over this issue.  

[birdsshop2010]

This has just happened to me. Accepted the offer & it showed that I made the buyer a winner of the item & then never showed up in the sold. Researched the item found that it is still active & shows that I have sent out an offer.  Happened one other time after a couple of hours it showed in the sold but this time it has been about 24hours  not sure what to do???