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! 

[valueaddedresource]

Yeah, it's been kind of a "phased rollout" as eBay would say lol

When they went from weekly open chats to monthly themed chats, that was a big red flag in my opinion and I've noticed especially over the last year or so that  official eBay participation in this community has dwindled, with tags going unresponded to more often and more "drive by posting" by generic "team" IDs, like the threads on the new feedback experience where "seller_news_team" dropped some info and didn't stick around to answer questions.

eBay has said for many years that the forum is "not an official support channel" and my guess is there has been an increased sensitivity and desire for control as to what is publicly presented as "official statements" from representatives of the company.

I had noticed a while back that some posts that had been made by official eBay people who are no longer with the company had been changed to "anonymous" while others remain with the account being notated as "alumni".

For example this thread where then VP Seller Experience Harry Temkin joined the community specifically to respond to questions and concerns about the Listing Quality Report is now "anonymous"

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/New-Listing-Quality-Report/m-p/31521610/highlight/true#M168757...

And they did the same with Trinton's account as well.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Trinton-is-going-on-Vacation/td-p/28663281

But Brian, Tyler, and Brittanie's old accounts remain under the names with the eBay designation still there, just with the word "alumni" added to show they are no longer part of the community team.

In fact, that actually ended up being kind of awkward with all their tags saying nice things about Trinton being changed to "@anonymous" in the thread marking his departure.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-Community-Platform/Thank-you-and-good-luck-to-Trinton/m-p/311050... 

So yeah I've definitely noticed a trend in the amount and types of participation from eBay reps here for sure.

I just hope eBay isn't considering going down the same path Etsy is - they just announced this week they will be making most of their community completely private and inaccessible to even read unless you are logged in with an active selling account.

[gurlcat]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

I just hope eBay isn't considering going down the same path Etsy is - they just announced this week they will be making most of their community completely private and inaccessible to even read unless you are logged in with an active selling account.

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Wait, like only private messages between 2 people?  

[valueaddedresource]

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@gurlcat wrote:

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

I just hope eBay isn't considering going down the same path Etsy is - they just announced this week they will be making most of their community completely private and inaccessible to even read unless you are logged in with an active selling account.

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Wait, like only private messages between 2 people?  

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@gurlcat no, still a forum type setup, pretty much exactly like it currently is (and  similar to this one as it is also run by Khoros), it will just be mostly a closed/private community.

Currently, their forum is set up so that anyone can read most of the posts with no login required, but you have to be signed in with your actual, active selling account to create or respond to posts.

Soon, only their announcements and technical issues boards will still be able to be viewed publicly - the rest of the forums will be put behind a log-in wall and only those signed in under their active selling accounts will be able to post or even read anything outside of those sections.

[ittybitnot]

Actually it does wonders for the non-paying buyer issue.  Nobody was required to buy the item when there was 4 days to pay, and nobody COULD buy it during that time while the so-called buyer was m.i.a.

@gurlcat 

Yes, it does "wonders" since buyers can make  all the offers they want and continue not to pay when they are accepted by the seller.  Now there are no consequences for buyers that do that, and they can continue to do it all they want.   Under the old system, there would be consequences for that behavior i.e. unpaid item strikes, and the buyer being prohibited  from purchasing from  sellers that retained the two in 12 month buyer restriction.  

Now there is still no combined shipping for the buyer who makes multiple (accepted) offers with the same seller.  No request total, no invoicing, etc.  but more importantly, no communication to the buyer that their offer was accepted in the first place.  

I suppose that sellers who continue to lose out on sales with this are supposed to be thrilled by the fact, even though their buyers are not having a good buyer experience, their listing remains live instead of being posted as sold.  Personally, if I still sold here, I would prefer a buyer make ten offers on my listings, and pay for a combined invoice/shipping charge.  It would cost me only one 30 cent transaction fee instead of $3.00.  In twenty-two years of selling here I only had like two NPBs.  

All this going on with no information/direction/communication from eBay.

[trending_threads]

Same thing happening to me. Losing money everyday because my accepted offers are not actually selling. How do I send a message to buyer that sent offer? I see there eBay name but not sure how to send message. Thanks to anyone who can help.

[ittybitnot]

How do I send a message to buyer that sent offer? 

@trending_threads 

Not sure that you can.  Other sellers have reported that even though they can see  the ID of  buyer that sent the offer, communication is blocked.  There are many threads on this topic,  so I don't know if it was described already in this one or not. 

[ittybitnot]

 (Next time I will post a screen shot of a seller generated offer when I get one). 

@gurlcat 

Here is a screenshot of what I received with a SELLER Generated offer.  The item was in my watch list. 

 

As I said before, no more 'accept' button, check out and pay or don't.  It is basically the same as before other than the accept button has gone missing, and the implications related to that.  

I believe it is what a buyer gets as well if the buyer generates the offer and the seller accepts in lieu of notice of acceptance. 

[gurlcat]

Ahh thank you .  -You stated it clearly the first time; my dense butt just forgot that this joint is readable without being logged in, since I'm auto-logged in every time I come here.  But now I'm wondering, how does Etsy's distinguish seller accounts from buyer accounts?  Like me for instance, I sold two things on there way back in 2017 or so, and only bought since then.  Or what about a buyer who never sold -could they not read or reply to Community threads?  

BTW now is when I should mention I didn't even know Etsy had a Community forum.  

[gurlcat]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

Actually it does wonders for the non-paying buyer issue.  Nobody was required to buy the item when there was 4 days to pay, and nobody COULD buy it during that time while the so-called buyer was m.i.a.

@gurlcat 

Yes, it does "wonders" since buyers can make  all the offers they want and continue not to pay when they are accepted by the seller.  Now there are no consequences for buyers that do that, and they can continue to do it all they want.   Under the old system, there would be consequences for that behavior i.e. unpaid item strikes, and the buyer being prohibited  from purchasing from  sellers that retained the two in 12 month buyer restriction.  

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But I can't think of any reason to care if they get consequences, as their not paying will have done me no harm.  When non-payers cost my items 4 days worth of visibility and availability to people ready to buy, THEN yeah, I want them to have consequences and I don't want people with that historical rudeness making offers to me, so I keep my 12 month unpaid item tolerance setting to the lowest possible. But with "Check out or Decline" an accepted offer will basically be like an e-coupon with a 4-day expiration date, for them to use or not.  It won't matter to me how many times they do it anymore than it matters to retail stores how many people are signed up for their monthly coupon flier .  Ha, in fact with the item remaining listed, I'll go ahead and increase my maximum days they can pay with the offer price.  Why not?  (I'm talking about when I switch the feature back 'on' for Best Offers, sometime after the newness wears off, and the feature accepts (at LEAST) eBay gift cards).  

It's not even like answering offer requests takes any of my time or emotion, because I have the 'automatically reject' and 'automatically accept' set to the same price.  I have this whole time and it's perfect; either they offer enough and get immediate acceptance or they don't.   Well, three chances if they want, but I don't have to think about or even know about any of them.  -Yesterday I went to the Review Offers page for an item, to see how much time was left for the current recipients of my last seller-sent offer .... and I saw that the bot had auto-rejected a buyer's $100/105/110 offer strike-out, for this $240 item.  I was so glad I didn't have to see and respond to that mess in real time, it would have put me in a bad mood for sure.  Good bot!

[gurlcat]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

 (Next time I will post a screen shot of a seller generated offer when I get one). 

@gurlcat 

Here is a screenshot of what I received with a SELLER Generated offer.  The item was in my watch list. 

 

As I said before, no more 'accept' button, check out and pay or don't.  It is basically the same as before other than the accept button has gone missing, and the implications related to that.  

I believe it is what a buyer gets as well if the buyer generates the offer and the seller accepts in lieu of notice of acceptance. 

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Thank you.  But that that DOES have the Accept Offer button.  Not Check Out.  

[toomuchstuffagain35]

So does this mean that (hopefully) an actual seller generated offer does have the accept button?

And it's only the seller accepted (but changed to tell buyer 'you have an offer") offers that don't have the accept button? Perhaps because they can't accept because THEY were the ones who sent the offer? That would make a weird but logical sense.

[valueaddedresource]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Ahh thank you .  -You stated it clearly the first time; my dense butt just forgot that this joint is readable without being logged in, since I'm auto-logged in every time I come here.  But now I'm wondering, how does Etsy's distinguish seller accounts from buyer accounts?  Like me for instance, I sold two things on there way back in 2017 or so, and only bought since then.  Or what about a buyer who never sold -could they not read or reply to Community threads?  

BTW now is when I should mention I didn't even know Etsy had a Community forum.  

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@gurlcat their forum was already pretty much exclusively for sellers to discuss stuff about selling, not really a place for buyers. My understanding is you have to have an "open shop" in order to post there now (so just creating a seller account isn't enough, you have to actively be selling).

Currently, buyers (and anyone else) can read but not post and once this change is made, they won't even be able to do that, though to be fair, I'm honestly not sure how much buyer interest there is in reading any way, since most of the discussion is about selling.

It really isn't that different than other marketplaces' forums, for example Amazon has one just for sellers as well and you have to log in with your seller credentials in order to post or reply, but you can still read all the posts when not logged in.

I think sometimes it's easy to take for granted how intertwined the roles of buyer and seller are (or at least were) on eBay and how that's something that actually makes this place unique.

That's another reason I really hope eBay doesn't go down that same path with this community actually. think the fact that both buyers and sellers participate and that a lot of members here can speak to both sides of the experience is a great thing.

[gurlcat]

I agree 100%.  

[gurlcat]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

So does this mean that (hopefully) an actual seller generated offer does have the accept button?

And it's only the seller accepted (but changed to tell buyer 'you have an offer") offers that don't have the accept button? Perhaps because they can't accept because THEY were the ones who sent the offer? That would make a weird but logical sense.

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Hard to say, because @ittybitnot is the only one I've seen saying seller offers now come with a 'Check Out vs. Decline' choice only.  And I don't think they were just making that up, but as you can see their screenshot doesn't illustrate what they described.  Maybe just accidentally grabbed the wrong one from a string of them.  It appears to be a phone screen and I know I'm prone to misidentifying what I see in such a tiny space, so I tend not to use the app unless I have no choice (laptop in the shop/wifi not working) or if I'm stuck somewhere with nothing to do like a waiting room at a dr.'s office, LOL.  Even then I just window-shop and maybe put items on watch, to look at later at home.  

Anyway, wish I could tell you something but as of right now this is all just as mysterious to me as it is to you. 

[ittybitnot]

 

@gurlcat   You are right.....I am losing it....LOL  

Now I just bought that thing to see the screen shots.  LOL. 

I accepted the offer on the screen shown in my PREVIOUS post. 

Then went to first screen shown here, then the second. 

The product is now in my cart "awaiting payment".   
 I am going to pay now. 

However, there is a possibility I am  not as crazy as I thought though.  Here is a SELLER GENERATED OFFER  made to me last week.  This has the checkout or decline feature, sans 'accept' button. 

FWIW  the above screen from a seller generated offer was from a seller that DOES retain the Buyer Preferences for providing an upfront payment source in order to make an offer or bid. 

I do not know about the previous one which I need to pay for now, because they do not use the best offer feature on their listings, and do not use auctions.