Requiring 4 days for a buyer to pay is way too long

[thin_air_research]

Ebay's rule of waiting for 4 days for a buyer to pay before cancelling is ridiculously long. Should be 48 hours.

[mam98031]

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@cardsforauction wrote:

These "eBay Announcements"  only mention seller protection.  Do they help buyers too?  I've seen the banners pop up during a natural disaster or COVID or USPS delay in delivery, etc. 

I'm not sure if sellers are going to look at the announcement board very often or think too much about the buyer who lives in the area affected and allow more time to pay even if the seller gets an email from a buyer for a little extra time for payment.  I'm sure there are many sellers with good hearts. I would probably give a few more days.

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You can Subscribe to the Announcement board, which is a good idea for all sellers, and then you will get an email notification of any announcement Ebay makes on that board.

As I've said several times.  Payment terms have ALWAYS been seller choice.  Ebay does NOT and never has had a policy as to when sellers have to be paid.  The cancellation process for non paying buyers after 96 hours is simply a tool for sellers.  It is a tool they can choose to use or not to use.  There is not a single seller on this sit that is required to have 96 hour payment terms.

And YES there are plenty of sellers that allow buyers a longer period of time to pay as many sellers have since the beginning.  So your point is what exactly??

[reallynicestamps]

@appytrails99

Before this four day implementation payment people usually paid very promptly. Now payment language is out there and I send reminders and still get payment on day five or six.

Well. No.

The four days (actually five) is shorter than the previous policy.

Sellers could not open an Unpaid Item Dispute  for 96 hours (48 for US sellers) and the buyer then had another 96 hours to pay.

The new policy for all sellers is now 96 hours and immediate cancellation.

Two to four days faster than in 2019.

EBay even allows you to set this up automatically.

Take another look at the Sell Your Item form to opt in to this program.

Most successful Auction buyers are not nibble bidding. They are either using Automatic Bidding, where they bid their maximum hours or days earlier and let eBay's bots do the work or they are using a sniping service to jump in at the last nano-second with a bid they set days earlier.

This is why most bidding happens in those last few minutes of the auction.

And the bidder is playing with their kids, or loading a truck, or studying calculus , or sleeping. They may not look at eBay again for a day or more.

[mam98031]

@reallynicestamps 

It doesn't have to be 5 days, just a full 4 days or 96 hours from the time the buyer purchased.  For example if the buyer purchased something at noon on Sunday, you can file for the cancelation because of lack of payment at about 12.01 PM on Thursday.  So anytime after about 96 hours and one minute.  

[rugerskick]

1-2 days would be the max.  They've agreed if they accept the offer, no reason really to wait.  When they pull the trigger and say yes, just finish it completely.  There's no need to wait.

Especially if they are the ones initiating an offer and the seller accepts, that should be basically instant payment.

[reallynicestamps]

@mam98031 

I agree, we see the "five days" all the time but as you say, it's really "on the fifth day" or 97 hours later.

Since the process is automated, it is very likely within minutes if not seconds of the 96 hours deadline.

@rugerskick 

I get to my computer around 10am PST. If someone made an offer at 9am EST, he's likely off at work by the time I see and respond to his offer.

And he may not get back to the computer until after dinner, say 8pm EST, which is my 5pmPST and I am mooning around in the kitchen trying to choose between liver and onions or liver and bacon for our dinner tonight. I won't be back until around 9pmPST and my customer is sleeping since it is midnightEST.

EBay is a 24 hour, world wide site.

[mam98031]

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@rugerskick wrote:

1-2 days would be the max.  They've agreed if they accept the offer, no reason really to wait.  When they pull the trigger and say yes, just finish it completely.  There's no need to wait.

Especially if they are the ones initiating an offer and the seller accepts, that should be basically instant payment.

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Yes and no.  Sellers need to remember that buyers aren't at their computers or on the site as often as sellers are.  Now when they buy a fixed price listing I agree with you, but a seller can insure that happens by putting IPR on their listing.

Auctions, not so much.  The end time of an auction will not always happen at a time when a buyer can be on the site.  The start time of the auction is up to the seller which dictates the end time, the buyers have no say in this matter.  And that isn't even considering time differences between where the item is and where the buyer is.

[robxznyc]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@rugerskick wrote:

1-2 days would be the max.  They've agreed if they accept the offer, no reason really to wait.  When they pull the trigger and say yes, just finish it completely.  There's no need to wait.

Especially if they are the ones initiating an offer and the seller accepts, that should be basically instant payment.

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Yes and no.  Sellers need to remember that buyers aren't at their computers or on the site as often as sellers are.  Now when they buy a fixed price listing I agree with you, but a seller can insure that happens by putting IPR on their listing.

Auctions, not so much.  The end time of an auction will not always happen at a time when a buyer can be on the site.  The start time of the auction is up to the seller which dictates the end time, the buyers have no say in this matter.  And that isn't even considering time differences between where the item is and where the buyer is.

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Buyer may not be in front of the computer when seller accepts Buyer Initiated Offers (best offer, counter offer). Buyer is literally in front of the computer when they accept Seller Initiated Offers (send offer to watchers, send offer through Message, and counter offer), after having 48 hours to consider if they have the means and how to pay. Payment should be made as they accepts the offer. If they can't pay until later, communicate with the seller, don't accept offer with no action that prohibits anyone else to buy and just leaves the seller hanging. If this is not extremely selfish I don't know what is.

The longer it takes a buyer to pay the less likely it'll happen. Anywhere else in retail, fixed price or negotiable, we all make immediate payment so there should be no exception or need for extra time on eBay when buyer accepts SIO's. 

[rugerskick]

Yeah I agree auctions could have more time than fixed priced or if they send an offer and the seller accepts.

The system should be set up that if a seller accepts a buyer offer it should be treated as a buy it now, an instant payment requiring no more input from the buyer.

[mam98031]

@robxznyc 

I didn't say anything about Best Offers, but a buyer may or may not be in front of their computer.  First the buyer submits the Best Offer, then they have to wait and find out if the seller accepts or rejects the offer.  Buyer don't have to stay on the site in the anticipation that the seller will respond and likely don't.

Ebay is currently testing a feature that when a buyer submits a Best Offer, they have to also agree to submitting the payment method at that time.  What that means is if the seller accepts the offer just as the buyer submitted it to the seller, the payment would then go through.  This would be a very good thing and solve many of the problems with Best Offers.

On what what retail site can you submit a Best Offer and pay immediately if you don't know the retail site will accept the offer or not?  

[mam98031]

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@rugerskick wrote:

Yeah I agree auctions could have more time than fixed priced or if they send an offer and the seller accepts.

The system should be set up that if a seller accepts a buyer offer it should be treated as a buy it now, an instant payment requiring no more input from the buyer.

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As I just explained to another poster Ebay is testing a process very close to what you are describing.

[7606dennis]

Actually, the new method for dealing with non-paying bidders is better than the UID system of the past in my opinion.

[mam98031]

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@7606dennis wrote:

Actually, the new method for dealing with non-paying bidders is better than the UID system of the past in my opinion.

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OH YES.  I agree.  The original policy on this took 14+ days.  You couldn't file for a UID [unpaid item dispute] until 7 full days after the purchase.  Then you had to give the buyer 7 full days to respond.  If they never pay you could close the UID for non payment on day 15.

[firemedic712]

So it's just as easy for me to drive 14 miles to the post office on a work day, when I have to pick the kids up from school, as it is for someone to push "pay now" on their phone. Got it.

[craft-stash]

More like 48 Minutes!

[norcalvalleyofvintage]

I have a love/hate relationship with ebay. Of all the sites I've sold on, ebay moves items the quickest. I've had bidders not pay auctions twice, so now I am paranoid if I accept an offer and they don't pay right away ( I was advised not to do auctions and do buy it now). Gonna give it some more time and see what works best for me as a seller. For such a large company, I feel like ebay needs to have better support for sellers. It is happening, but very slowly, so I still have items listed on other sites.