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! 

[msroni61]

Yes happened to a couple of my sales yesterday.  I am not able to invoice the buyers . 1 buyer did pay the other has not. I tried to message the non paying buyer that fails as well.

This seems similar to Poshmark except there you have to have a payment source on file and that is used automatically when you make a purchase . If the payment rejects doesn’t process the seller knows immediately when the offer is accepted and the item remains for sale.   Poshmark contacts the buyer to let them know there is an issue that needs to be resolved.

personally I’d rather my item stay for sale until it’s paid for.  But would prefer consistency. I also had some items that sold in the last month that sold on offer and then  sat for 3 days never got paid and had to relist, even though the buyers reached out to let me they would pay .  

[siamjane8]

This just happened to me last night!  I had sent an offer out. potential buyer sent a counter-offer and i accepted- then poof- no record of sale, nothing. I had to reach out to the buyer this morning through messages on one of their listings to explain that i had accepted but ebay is making the process more confusing. I let them know that they will not be told that i accepted, but instead see another offer from me for the same price that they offered!... Confusing as heck for everyone.   So far no response. No sale.

   Thanks again for making something that worked well- not work at all ebay!

Please revert this very poor implementation. If an offer is accepted YOU NEED TO TELL THE BUYER- not send them an offer for the accepted price- what planet do these people live on?  

1. an offer means continued negotiation- not you've won

2. buyers receive offers all the time so accepted offers parading as counter offers go unnoticed

3.acceptign an offer is a "handshake" deal- now if they wait and it sells to someone else- Ebay has made me the seller a deal breaker and a not a man of my word.- that is negative for everyone including ebay

4. We are losing sales because of this- we invest more time in sending offers but are getting less conversion because of this confusion to buyers

5. this is just common sense- just let buyer know that they have won and need to pay.

[siamjane8]

BTW- I had an offer accepted over the holiday and the person reached out saying that they could not pay until Wednesday. I have no issues with that- its a done deal. No mystery or miscommunications. I would rather wait for the sale to be completed than never know if they understood the backwards accepted/offer system in place now.  Now we sit around wondering why they did not pay, even after we accepted the offer. Did they get the message? Was this another ebay glitch?

    Who knows - its all a big guess now, but at least on paper its not an "item not paid" case- was that the real reason for the change- to impress wall street that ebay is reducing unpaid items in 1st quarter?.... or  was this just a truly bad idea that slipped through again?

[jjddmwi]

I don' t like the fact that buyers will not get unpaid item strikes anymore.  No consequences.  Doesn't seem right to me.

No communication from Ebay on this matter (the whole offer process) also doesn't seem right to me.  This is a pretty big change in my opinion.

[ittybitnot]

I don' t like the fact that buyers will not get unpaid item strikes anymore.  No consequences.  Doesn't seem right to me.

@jjddmwi 

Even if you retain those buyer requirements that require a payment source up front from the buyer, with this procedure no more auto-billing buyers/no more instant payment when you accept an offer.  Buyers don't have to pay at all, so this does not help with the PROBLEM of buyers that didn't pay for the offers you accepted.   Might as well turn the requirement off,  at least you may get buyers that DO PAY and previously refused to comply with the pre-payment source requirement. 

I think you are supposed to simply be thrilled that the listing remains live until somebody pays.   

[siamjane8]

Just received confirmation from my buyer.. They would have never seen it if I had not reached out to them in messages! At least I saved this sale but eBay has made it so we have to work 2x harder complete a sale that technically already took place lol... Only at eBay!

 

[fern*wood]

That's good!  This might work okay in the long run, but for ebay to change the flow of this completely from how it's been done for years without any warning or explanation is...well, beyond explanation in my opinion.

[siamjane8]

My buyer would have never seen it or known to complete the sale of I did not message them. Hopefully eBay reverts this or comes up with a better way to implement it soon. I wonder if the data will show a significant drop in  counter offer conversions because of this. 

[siamjane8]

A friend of mine that is a full time seller just sent me this....lost a sale because of this new backwards way of not telling the buyer that the seller accepted their offer....

eBay needs to correct their design mistake urgently!

 only eBay can take a simple transaction and make it sooooo confusing that the sale falls through.....

 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

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@siamjane8 wrote:

 only eBay can take a simple transaction and make it sooooo confusing that the sale falls through.....

 

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They do the same thing with no RQT on the app. I stopped counting how many sales slip away due to that.

[siamjane8]

@toomuchstuffagain35 

   Not familiar with rqt.... What is that?

[toomuchstuffagain35]

RQT - request total (from seller) although I believe it has now been changed to say request combined shipping.

[siamjane8]

@toomuchstuffagain35 

   Thanks for the explanation.   That is an area of ebay that really never effected me -I generally do not sell multiple items to the same buyer ever. We sell vintage car parts so often it is just the one item they need at the moment.  I can see though how some sellers would count on that to combine shipping or discount for multiple purchases.   

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I haven't been able to get an answer from ebay as to why they refuse to offer it on the app, given the % of buyers using the app increases every day and ebay for their part is constantly pushing users to use it.

Have they even figured out how to send an invoice on the app yet?

If not, at least allow it even if sellers have to move off the app to send an invoice.

It just frustrates sellers and buyers alike.

[amhaye-947]

We have had the same issue and it seems to be getting worse instead of better. Wondering if you have had recent luck? Ebay tells me it is a “bug” and they’re “working on it”. It’s making me very anxious.