Unable to cancel sale due to unpaid because date sold keeps changing

[tonybrand]

Buyer never paid for an item he purchased even after numerous messages. Every time it gets close to the date I can cancel the date sold changes and gives the buyer more time. What is going on with this? Eventually I had to cancel with another reason. Buyers feedback shows numerous issues with unpaid purchases. 

[wastingtime101]

@tonybrand - I'm going to assume this will explain your issue. If it does not, let us know.

There's no reason to send an invoice unless you have to make an adjustment, for example combined shipping costs or adding another shipping method the buyer requested.

eBay sends out payment reminders to buyers automatically. Sending invoices is a duplication of efforts and clogs the buyer's inbox.

Sending an invoice locks in the shipping cost. That could have a big financial impact on someone that uses calculated shipping. The shipping price gets locked in based on the buyer's default location, but if they change the address at checkout to have that item shipped to Mom across the country, that shipping cost can change by leaps and bounds and seller is out the $$.

Finally, sending an invoice resets the clock on when an order can be cancelled for non-payment when sellers handle UPIs manually. The automated system will cancel based on the seller's settings regardless of sending an invoice, but when you use the manual process and an invoice is sent it resets the clock, giving the buyer an additional 4 days before the system will let the seller cancel.

[inhawaii]

Please give us the item number.

I guarantee you the sold date will not change. 

[wastingtime101]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Please give us the item number.

I guarantee you the sold date will not change. 

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In Seller Hub on the Orders page, the "date sold" changes when the seller sends an invoice.

[12345jamesstamps]

When you send a message to buyer  the purchase date changes on the date you sent the message. Stop sending messages. That's eBay's job. Never send a message reminder.

[wastingtime101]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

When you send a message to buyer  the purchase date changes on the date you sent the message. Stop sending messages. That's eBay's job. Never send a message reminder.

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Messages do not affect things in that way. I assume you intended to say invoices, not messages?

[inhawaii]

The "sold date" changes?

So once you send a invoice(s)  you have no idea when the item actually sold?

I find that hard to believe but i'll be the first to admit if i'm wrong. 

[12345jamesstamps]

 I am assuming maybe seller is also sending out an invoice as well as a message. Invoice will change all the time. Message could be in the invoice...correct?

[wastingtime101]

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@inhawaii wrote:

The "sold date" changes?

So once you send a invoice(s)  you have no idea when the item actually sold?

I find that hard to believe but i'll be the first to admit if i'm wrong. 

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On the Seller Hub Orders page it does change.

No idea if the order details page also changes. I would venture a guess that the order details page stays the same, but really I have no idea.

If you need someone with first hand experience other than me, @mr_lincoln will back up my statement. He's experienced the same thing. You can do a search on this board to find a lot of discussions about it. There are posts from eBay rep Tyler that also confirmed this.

Sending an invoice changes the "date sold" column on the seller hub orders page to the date of the most recent invoice sent out by a seller. 100%.

Whether eBay intended it to work that way, I don't know. But that is how the code was designed and how it functions.

[soh.maryl]

When a buyer does not pay within 4 days of the end of the listing/auction, the seller can simply cancel, no need to re-invoice and no need to message.

Have no idea what happened in your case.  What "other reason" did you use for cancellation?

And I'm sure you know this also:  When you see buyers that have FB with information about not paying, that seller violated eBay's rules.  When that happens, the buyer can and should contact eBay about the violation.  Wording will be removed, positive green "doughnut" remains and seller gets a defect.  Hope you will keep that in mind.  

[tonybrand]

I was sending an invoice trying to get the buyer to pay. Wish I’d known it would change the date sold. So odd it does this.  Thanks for the replies. Tony

[wastingtime101]

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@tonybrand wrote:

I was sending an invoice trying to get the buyer to pay. Wish I’d known it would change the date sold. So odd it does this.

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Well, not that odd. As I said above, there's generally no reason to send an invoice unless you need to change something (like combined ship, add a new ship method, apply a discount, etc). Once an invoice is sent with a changed order total, the clock resets because the buyer is given 4 days to pay once the new total is locked in. If you're not changing the pricing or shipping, sending an invoice is pointless because eBay already sends reminders.

[buyselljack2016]

Seems odd, but if it did not change it could be problematic.

example.  Extereme, but let's take it to the extreme. Seller waits 95 hours, 45 minutes to send a revised shipping discount amount. Without time to pay adjustment the buyer now has 15 minutes to pay before the seller would be able to cancel due to "buyer did not pay" at 96 hours, and one second.. 

Could eBay code it to recognize that there was a change in the invoice, or no change? Possibly, possibly not. Sometimes the less coding eBay does, the better.

[ms.rodriguez*]

I did read here that when you send a reminder days later, it actually gives the buyer extra days to pay.  I had this happened to me today on my seller account.   I clearly saw that ebay is allowing them to have until May 3rd to pay when I could have closed the case on April 29.   I did not try to cancel the sale because it's actually 3 different sales and the same buyer won a car last week with another ID.  So I decided to wait a bit but I did send out a reminder and that was when I saw the new date. I did check and the CANCEL SALE button is there but I did not press it.

[sin-n-dex]

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@inhawaii wrote:

The "sold date" changes?

So once you send a invoice(s)  you have no idea when the item actually sold?

I find that hard to believe but i'll be the first to admit if i'm wrong. 

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I have the type of buyer that keeps buying one more thing every three days and asking it to be added to their invoice, thus making it 2-3 weeks to wait for payment. (I'm not about to cancel unless I think I won't be paid, most times buyers do pay, but this adding a new item every three days is annoying).

When the item gets added and an invoice goes out, that becomes the new date of sale in Seller Hub giving them four days from then before they can be cancelled for non payment. I presume the technique of adding an item is to avoid this happening, however if they'd just ask me to wait, I would. Nothing happens in my store if you don't pay in 4 days unless I decide to cancel it for non payment.

C.