Why do we have to wait 4-5 days for UNPAID buyers?

[vintageshaz]

Hi all..I'm an old Ebayer (buyer) but just recently opened my store and love it.  However currently I have this issue with a buyer (no address or buys under their account) and was disappointed to learn I have to wait 4-5 days to cancel or receive payment. My concern here as sellers is that many of us are listing on multiple platforms..if we were nice enough to accept a lower offer than what we are selling an item at, common courtesy would be to complete the order..Why accept the offer if you're not ready to pay? I can't walk into ANY store and expect to not pay immediately so I found this to be odd. If I remove this same item from other platforms and the person ends up not paying, I am still impacted by relisting fees etc.  4-5 days is a LONG time. I understand customer satisfaction but I would say 2 days max. I love ebay and would love to see some updates on this policy.

[gdiesel70]

Good grief! I’m over here screaming every four-letter word I know (even made up a few) at the screen reading these responses. 

OP, I couldn’t agree with you more. It is inconsiderate to leave someone hanging for 4-5 days. Some of the answers here are so out of touch. My goodness, have some perspective, folks. 

Are people really THAT busy doing first world things that they can’t take a minute to pay a seller for something they agreed to buy? It takes a minute or less if eBay has payment info on record for offer eligible buyers.

Here’s a thought…Maybe a seller is trying to hustle offers to raise money so they can pay $400 for a prescription they need to survive here in good ole USA!!! Or has calculated the payment to clear Tuesday so they’ll have money to buy groceries on Friday, or whatever because I’ve been there, it’s a reality. If a seller is leaving money on the table, extending a generous offer, there could be a very good reason.  Say thank you in CASH, by paying the seller who just offered you a big discount. It says a lot about the lack of regard we have for those we can’t see.

My husband lost his job unexpectedly a few years ago after 20 years with the company. Shortly after was Dx’d with cancer, needed surgery—COBRA was like $2800 a mo. I net about $3k a month, so that was me —HUSTLING 50% offers, trying to fill a shortfall of a $120k salary so I could pick up an Rx no longer covered…. $1300 antique flambé vase, the buyer never paid, I had to wait for what seemed like aeons in poor folks world. Lost all 35 watchers, the relisted item took a year to gain momentum and two years to sell; plus the direct link from Google images was broke so lost all that traffic too.

Immediate payment doesn’t apply to offers and since eBay has trained buyers to watch and wait for offers many items now only move via offer sent. It’s not unreasonable to expect immediate payment, this isn’t Sears layaway.

eBay has immediate payment in beta for offers received, but why not offers sent? It shouldn’t make a difference which way the offer is initiated. With offers on Mercari (regardless of who initiated), once accepted the payment method on file is charged, the label is populated, and that item is packed and out the door.

I kept having to remove active Mercari listings because of inconsiderate eBayers. The item would be tied up in limbo while losing full-price inquiries and serious offers.

A better way to handle this, IMO, would be to leave the item visible *pending sale* but available to all to view, bookmark, purchase, etc. until it’s actually paid. This puts a little fire under the offer recipient’s rear end. First come, first serve. No broken links from Google SERPs, no lost watchers, no relisting fees.

[soh.maryl]

Just curious, how do you know that?  

[ifxteam]

Been buying and selling on here for over 20yrs, mostly sell now, I definitely agree it should be 2 days max. Can't tell you how many times I had to cancel and relist items due to non-payment, hell one buyer sent me a message and said they weren't going to get the item so I might as well sell it to someone else. 4 days is way too long. Between the ebay mobile and desktop site/app and the fact that ebay sends you notifications when you won auction, no way people are that disconnected to not know. It's shocking to see buyers with feedback scores over 1K fall into the NPB category. 

[ms.rodriguez*]

Where else can you buy something without money in your wallet?  Why Ebay of course.  Sometimes, folks do not have the funds until days later.  I have had some ask for a bit more time.  Sometimes, people bid while on vacation and don't want the item to be shipped before they get home.  

[thekrazyklotheslady]

I agree 100% . Buyer asked me to except offer and I did 4 days later no payment. If I took 4 or 5 days to ship it would be my problem.  This should be addressed.

[thekrazyklotheslady]

Why should the buyer receive such service.  I'm thinking it's because E-bay want their cut. This is not the way to run a business. 

[ebooksdiva]

It has been addressed. Go to your Buyer Requirements and tick the box that says you require a payment method when an offer is made. When you accept the offer you get paid.  

[authentic*luxury*labels*for*less]

It IS extremely odd & extremely frustrating for sellers. 

[authentic*luxury*labels*for*less]

EXACTLY! More very solid points! 

[atlasesattic]

I don't wait, after 24 hours I message them asking Do you still want this? If not I would like to put it back up for sale...I send 1 invoice stating, thank you for your order, soon as everything is finalized I will ship it ASAP...but never send anymore invoices or it prolongs the waiting process, that's when I send them a message, do you still want this?....most of the time it works.

[chrba3924]

I have that checked. It doesn't work for buyers when who SEND offers which are in turn accepted.

[chrba3924]

I agree with you 100%

I had a lady, just today, accept my offer. She messaged me and said she would pay tomorrow morning. SMH ugh!

It's like that old saying, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Um, how about, "NO."

These people want to WIN the item so no one else can get it, but then not pay!?

So what about those who may have also wanted it but just couldn't accept my offer first?

If this lady doesn't pay, those people may have unmarked it as a watched item and I loose their business.

No other site, that I am aware of, will let you pay later.

Amazon, Mecari, Target, Walmart, etc., you see my point.

Ebay needs to figure this out.

If you can't pay, you don't play. Simple.

[pennywiser]

I hear you I’m in the same boat. When I was buying and an offer was made i could have sworn I was given a notice by eBay that if I except an offer I’d have to pay right away. Now that I’m selling again I’m told to give buyers 4 days for payment. From my understanding this was only allowed on auctioned items. It seems eBay has a different set of rules for sellers. This is like putting something on lay away with no down payment for taking of the shelve and holding it for the buyer. Not cool to say the least. I’m still waiting on a payment on an item I’ve had multiple offers for. eBay also stated in their cancellation section to they encourage not canceling orders but they understand that situations arise to where the buyer has to. Well when a buyer doesn’t pay after a few hours I just send them out a notice to contact me to make arrangements for payment if they can’t pay right away and any failure to do so will tell me they’ve opted out of the offer and want their order cancelled and i cancel them after 24 hours of no response. Or you could repost your item and if someone makes another offer or pays full price right away then cancel the order that’s waiting for payment as item out of stock which is technically true. As far as I know eBay can’t or won’t fault you for taking this approach. 

[pennywiser]

So they cut processing time in half only to ask the seller to wait longer on payments? Sorry but that makes no sense to me. When buyers make an offer that usually means they don’t have the amount the seller is asking or just like bargaining shopping which is understandable and who doesn’t. But with that to wait as long as 4 days tells me as the seller they could have come up with that extra $10-$20 bucks in 4 days and just paid full price. Sellers don’t just sell on eBay and most run their own brick and mortar stores which I’m sure offer layaway plans that the customers would put a partial payment for the business to take off the shelves and hold on to. I understand customer satisfaction but you’re not a customer if you’re not paying is the way I look at it.

[pennywiser]

Yeah I think that’s a given🙄 He’s making a point here. Selling online shouldn’t be different than selling in person. So it’s convenient for a customer not to go out and shop payment should be no different unless the seller gets a layaway fee for the potential buyers he’s lost in holding an item.