What's going on with this pending payment?

[sin-n-dex]

I have an awaiting payment on two coins I sent an invoice for. If I try to send another invoice it lets me do that. I've combined shipping.

The buyer has told me twice he paid, and sent me a screen shot of his phone that shows the two coins to be paid for, and that payment is pending. Supposedly he paid an hour ago.

What's going on with his payment? He's hoping I'll ship his coins tomorrow.

See screenshots:

[itsjustasprain]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

The buyer has told me twice he paid, and sent me a screen shot of his phone that shows the two coins to be paid for, and that payment is pending. Supposedly he paid an hour ago.

What's going on with his payment? He's hoping I'll ship his coins tomorrow.

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Just be patient and wait for the notification. Payments do usually go through in seconds and with a ship notification almost immediately. But sometimes they do not and you just have to wait it out. Today being Sunday probably does not help.

I would not be too concerned unless you are way into Monday with still no notification. Should be fine though.

[sin-n-dex]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

The buyer has told me twice he paid, and sent me a screen shot of his phone that shows the two coins to be paid for, and that payment is pending. Supposedly he paid an hour ago.

What's going on with his payment? He's hoping I'll ship his coins tomorrow.

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Just be patient and wait for the notification. Payments do usually go through in seconds and with a ship notification almost immediately. But sometimes they do not and you just have to wait it out. Today being Sunday probably does not help.

I would not be too concerned unless you are way into Monday with still no notification. Should be fine though.

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OK, an hour to wait seemed like a long time, and he's a little anxious to make sure I can ship tonight. I've had it happen where a payment is pending, it usually does not let me send an invoice and I can still do that.

So long as there is a payment coming, I won't worry about it too much. Normally buyers don't tell me they've paid immediately after purchase, and if payment takes a while to come, I just figure they paid later in the day/evening.

C.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

The buyer has told me twice he paid, and sent me a screen shot of his phone that shows the two coins to be paid for, and that payment is pending. Supposedly he paid an hour ago.

What's going on with his payment? He's hoping I'll ship his coins tomorrow.

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Just be patient and wait for the notification. Payments do usually go through in seconds and with a ship notification almost immediately. But sometimes they do not and you just have to wait it out. Today being Sunday probably does not help.

I would not be too concerned unless you are way into Monday with still no notification. Should be fine though.

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I concur. Has happened to me in the past and eventually they went through. It does show pending so i would not worry.

[powell-memorabilia]

Have to say that I’ve never noticed a delay in payment processing.  Might this have anything to do with you being in Canada, and eBay having to take an extra step of converting from usd to cad?

[sin-n-dex]

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@powell-memorabilia wrote:

Have to say that I’ve never noticed a delay in payment processing.  Might this have anything to do with you being in Canada, and eBay having to take an extra step of converting from usd to cad?

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Usually when they say they've paid, I see the notification in a few minutes. It's not just not having received the notification, it was that an hour passed and it was still in awaiting payments (not even processing, sometimes they show payment processing while in awaiting payment status).

I told him he would just have to wait for eBay to process. If he overpaid in shipping, I can't refund him until I receive payment.

C.

[12345jamesstamps]

eBay did maintenance this morning on payments...actually last night as well.

I have "express payouts" and couldn't take money out of "available funds"...I could do it every night after 10PM usually.

And I was afraid to try to take it out at 1:20AM when eBay said I could but I couldn't...then it went to 2:00AM...and then I went to bed.

I was able to take money out at 9AM today. 

If you don't see the money in "available funds"...I wouldn't mail items out.

eBay doesn't tell us when "maintenance is happening"...until it is happening.

[sin-n-dex]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

eBay did maintenance this morning on payments...actually last night as well.

I have "express payouts" and couldn't take money out of "available funds"...I could do it every night after 10PM usually.

And I was afraid to try to take it out at 1:20AM when eBay said I could but I couldn't...then it went to 2:00AM...and then I went to bed.

I was able to take money out at 9AM today. 

If you don't see the money in "available funds"...I wouldn't mail items out.

eBay doesn't tell us when "maintenance is happening"...until it is happening.

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I can't print postage until it clears anyway. On my end it's showing as awaiting payment, it doesn't even seem to be aware he made payment over here.

I told him I'd ship as soon as payment is received and asked for his patience since this is an unusual situation. I tend to get these situations of technical things not happening as usual when a buyer is impatient for something (in his case he wants it shipped tomorrow and the refund on the postage overpayment right away, but I can't refund him until it's received). I've had it happen where a buyer wanted a refund and it seemed to take forever to process, like hours... it was never good to try and tell a buyer refund's been made if they kept checking and not seeing it.

I'm not sure notification of maintenance would be all that helpful since I don't pay attention to that. It's kind of when it's happening, I like to know why, so I know what to tell buyers.

C.

[lacemaker3 · Accepted solution]

@sin-n-dex,

The only time I have ever seen a payment take this long (and this goes back to before managed payments), is when a buyer pays with an "echeck".

In my experience, the long-pending payments were paid through PayPal, and were funded by the payer's bank account, without having a backup funding source (credit/debit card) in place. That is what PayPal/eBay used to call an "echeck". That term can mean a number of different things depending on the context and the processor ... but basically, it's a digital/online payment that for one reason or another, gets processed as though it were a check, which might bounce.

Again, in my experience, the payment is pending when the payment processor suspects that the payment might bounce (or the payment source might fail, and they might not get their money).

When it was being processed by PayPal, the echeck would (hopefully) go through successfully the first time it was submitted to the payer's bank, which would usually take  only a few days, sometimes only a few hours. However, if it bounced, that usually took 7 days (meaning PayPal would wait 7 days for the payment) and then PayPal would submit it a second time. If it bounced once, then it usually bounced the second time and the payment would fail after 2 weeks.

Echecks can still be submitted on eBay by using PayPal, and I suspect that is what's happening here. They can be a problem if the payment doesn't complete within 4 days, because the sellers can cancel for non-payment at that point. And many sellers have it set to cancel automatically if the payment is not complete within 4 days.

[jaja_2942]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

I told him I'd ship as soon as payment is received and asked for his patience since this is an unusual situation.

C. 

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Since you are in communium with him, perhaps ask how were the funds consecrated?

[sin-n-dex]

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@jaja_2942 wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

I told him I'd ship as soon as payment is received and asked for his patience since this is an unusual situation.

C. 

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Since you are in communium with him, perhaps ask how were the funds consecrated?

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I did earlier tonight and just got a reply.

He confirmed he paid from his "bank account", so I would translate that to be "eCheck" which is what @lacemaker3 had suggested earlier.

Right now payment has not cleared yet, but I assured him I'd hold his coins and mail them promptly when payment clears.

C.

[lacemaker3]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

I have an awaiting payment on two coins I sent an invoice for. If I try to send another invoice it lets me do that. I've combined shipping.

The buyer has told me twice he paid, and sent me a screen shot of his phone that shows the two coins to be paid for, and that payment is pending. Supposedly he paid an hour ago.

What's going on with his payment? He's hoping I'll ship his coins tomorrow.

See screenshots:

...

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@sin-n-dex, this ^^screenshot from the buyer shows two items at the top "payment pending" and then two more below them, that it looks like he has purchased/committed to buy, but not paid for yet "Pay by Jun 13".

Are those two items yours as well? It looks like they have the same background in the pictures.

EDIT:  no, wait ... those are the same two listings aren't they? showing up twice for some reason?

[sin-n-dex]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

I have an awaiting payment on two coins I sent an invoice for. If I try to send another invoice it lets me do that. I've combined shipping.

The buyer has told me twice he paid, and sent me a screen shot of his phone that shows the two coins to be paid for, and that payment is pending. Supposedly he paid an hour ago.

What's going on with his payment? He's hoping I'll ship his coins tomorrow.

See screenshots:

...

---

@sin-n-dex, this ^^screenshot from the buyer shows two items at the top "payment pending" and then two more below them, that it looks like he has purchased/committed to buy, but not paid for yet "Pay by Jun 13".

Are those two items yours as well? It looks like they have the same background in the pictures.

EDIT:  no, wait ... those are the same two listings aren't they? showing up twice for some reason?

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@lacemaker3 

The items are showing up twice, they're all mine, but he only bought two items. When I have items in pending payment sometimes they show up twice while payment is being processed and hasn't cleared. It will show the invoiced total, and then it shows all the items individually and says "payment Processing" (or something like that). That's why I didn't think it was weird they showed up twice if the payment was processing.

I've assured him I won't cancel his order and will wait for this to be sorted out. I explained to him about bank account payments not always clearing very quickly (and it was pointed out that being Sunday today doesn't help).

Hopefully it will clear tomorrow. I told him whenever payment clears I'll make a special trip to ship his package. I wanted him to feel a little better about the delay once he told me he has paid, but I hadn't received payment. Initially I was telling him to get it out tomorrow I'd need payment tonight (to encourage him to pay quicker, I have lots of time to pack orders on Sundays). After Monday's shipping it depends on my work schedule, but I will see his package gets out quickly since it appears to be beyond control that it's taking a while to clear. He said he pays from his bank account always and it doesn't usually take such a long time. We're going on almost 5 hours since he told me he paid.

C.

[lacemaker3]

A lot of buyers don't  understand about how checks are processed these days. It's very common in the states; even 10-15 years ago, most US people understood that checks were different, but even then, they didn't think that echecks would be different too (handled more like paper checks).

I don't think it's as common in Canada, most people there understand that debit cards and checks are handled differently (by Interac) and are not the same instant-satisfaction as credit cards. But in the USA, debit cards are processed like credit cards for the most part and people are not used to there being any delay or any difference.

I hope it doesn't take this long, but you might want to keep an eye on the 4 day/96 hour deadline for making payment. If it gets close, you might want to make sure that you have automatic-cancellation turned off for those two items.

Please keep us informed. I have never been able to find out what happens with echecks under managed payments. I tried to test it out myself, at one point, but even after I removed my "backup payment source" from PayPal, they went ahead and processed my payment immediately. As a courtesy, I suppose, because I had never had a payment that failed, ever. So PayPal wrecked my test for me.

[sin-n-dex]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:

A lot of buyers don't  understand about how checks are processed these days. It's very common in the states; even 10-15 years ago, most US people understood that checks were different, but even then, they didn't think that echecks would be the different too (handled more like paper checks).

I don't think it's as common in Canada, most people there understand that debit cards and checks are handled differently (by Interac) and are not the same instant-satisfaction as credit cards. But in the USA, debit cards are processed like credit cards for the most part and people are not used to there being any delay or any difference.

I hope it doesn't take this long, but you might want to keep an eye on the 4 day/96 hour deadline for making payment. If it gets close, you might want to make sure that you have automatic-cancellation turned off for those two items.

Please keep us informed. I have never been able to find out what happens with echecks under managed payments. I tried to test it out myself, at one point, but even after I removed my "backup payment source" from PayPal, they went ahead and processed my payment immediately. As a courtesy, I suppose, because I had never had a payment that failed, ever. So PayPal wrecked my test for me.

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Sure I can come back to this thread.

Interac is instant like credit cards. We actually at Interac set up since 1991 which was long before we could use debit cards in the US. I remember when I was living in the US in the year 2000, I had a debit card and I had to go to an ATM because not many merchants would take it for payment. I was told to use it as payment I need Visa logo applied, but since I didn't have an SSN (and was on my partner's account as an authorized user to access the funds), I didn't get to have the Visa logo on my card, but he did. The card only worked as long as there was money in the account, and we used to go to the ATM every day or so to grab $20 for incidentals like a few groceries, laundry money, coffee money, etc.

In Canada I've been able to use my debit card to pay for stuff as long as I've ever had a debit card (which would have started after 1991 when it was introduced... I remember I was 12 at the time thinking it was really cool to go into a store with an ATM card and pay for stuff without having to take money from an ATM). Back then the ATMs gave out $5 bills.

No one takes cheques in Canada (we call them cheques, you say checks). In fact, I don't think many people even have cheques anymore. My boss was collecting funds for a gift basket a couple weeks ago and I asked if I could give her a cheque for my contribution, and her response was "why would I want that? I'll give you my email, you can send an e-Transfer" (which is the Canadian banking version of paypal, you can send it to anyone with email and they will answer a security question and deposit it into their account).

I currently use cheques to pay the B&M store after eBay deposits my funds. We have an arrangement. eBay gives me money on Tuesdays (and it gets deposited at 3:30pm sharp every Tuesday as long as it's not a Canadian holiday), and I bring them a cheque at lunch on Wednesday along with collecting all new stuff from my box that I have to take home to process, photograph, package, etc.

Anyway that's a bit about Canadian payments. I haven't come across the eChecks thing where there was a delay in payment yet. I don't have auto cancel turned on because it would make the auction bidders mad to have me cancelling their purchases. A few of the international bidders add items for 2-3 weeks and pay at the end. I wouldn't want to inconvenience them, it's actually quite rare I have to cancel for non payment.

C.