eBay Testing Changes To Payment Process For Offers & Auctions

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Per the ValueAddedResource blog, it appears ebay is testing its way into a solution for auto payment/ combined shipping. Worth a read:

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-payment-process-offers-auctions/

[mindeyefirestorm.2]

It's seems buyers have less rights than we use to. 

No wonder ebay traffic is slow.. 

As buy I help pay for this site with my purchases..

[dhbookds]

Yep, 4th quarter is the optimum time to test stuff like this..........sigh    That IS sarcasm. 

[hartungcards]

They have to start testing this stuff in the 4th quarter, so that it will be up and running correctly by the 4th quarter of 2027.

[ladyindecadence]

In my opinion all offers even accepted ones should be just that offers and the item should remain active on the site until the potential buyer actually makes payment.

[chapeau-noir]

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@ladyindecadence wrote:

In my opinion all offers even accepted ones should be just that offers and the item should remain active on the site until the potential buyer actually makes payment.

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This just seems the most obvious solution, but eBay can't seem to grasp what every.other.site seems to manage.

Yes, buyers shouldn't be allowed to string sellers along for days before they feel like paying - what other site does that? - OTOH, if items were allowed to remain active, it would be no harm/no foul for anyone if payment isn't made.

[ittybitnot]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Thanks for the post.  Though I checked the Announcements under Seller News, etc.  there is nothing posted on eBay regarding this, or what sellers need to do other than dump those buyer requirements until eBay decides what to do.  

Apparently, the only info is available in a "pop up" of some sort,  as illustrated my @valueaddedresource in her article, but it looks like eBay still wants that "default payment" in order for a buyer to proceed to bid or offer.  Not such a great idea to change the user interface yet again with just "pop ups" and no way to get any specific information.    The last rollout was indeed TRIAL BY FIRE.  Will keep an eye on the buyer board, but I doubt this is even a rollout to everyone yet. 

Best check your preferences for any new surprises: 

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

[toomuchstuffagain35]

And how does this help with "combined offers" exactly?

A buyer makes offers on several items, the seller accepts BUT as the items remain active until paid, someone else comes along and just buys one of them? Then what?

And their "solution" for combined shipping is to "contact the seller beforehand"? How does this help when ebay forces them to pay when each offer is accepted or won?

Tbh, I STILL think auto pay was a solution looking for a problem. There were ways to NOT have your items go unpaid but sellers didn't use them.

MOST unpaid items were auctions and sellers knew going in that was a possibility if they chose that format. Why didn't ebay just change the 4 days for payment to 24 hours? Then leave it up to the seller if they wanted to extend that or cancel & relist?

And they STILL haven't done anything about the lack of payment options.

[ittybitnot]

And how does this help with "combined offers" exactly?

@toomuchstuffagain35 

Who knows??? We really have no information on how it is exactly supposed to work.  I guess while you, the buyer,  are waiting for your "combined invoice" anyone else who only wants ONE of those things in your cart (if the even go in the cart) can accept the offer made to them by the seller (or they sent to the seller) and pay (sooner than you)....making it the new (as suggested) 'you snooze, you lose' combined shipping program.  

Unless eBay is willing to actually DISCUSS this with both buyers and sellers we are going to have to wait for actual events and share information with each other to determine the procedure.  The TRIAL BY FIRE eBay implementation procedure. 

[ittybitnot]

BUT as the items remain active until paid, someone else comes along and just buys one of them? Then what?

@toomuchstuffagain35 

LOL... I am still thinking about this....the 'then what' may be buyers ranting about the BAD SELLER that accepted their offer then sold it so someone else while they waited for the revised invoice.  After all, the regular customer service agents have been telling unhappy buyers who have not had a good experience with this auto pay for full shipping price program that it is the seller's fault, the seller chose this. 

 Since it appears auto-billing will still take place at the three day mark(?).....who gets auto-billed?  Will the buyer who has  requested but is  still waiting for their combined invoice (at full price, or course) be auto-billed or the "other" buyer whose offers were also accepted and is still waiting?  or the buyer that made the highest offer and was accepted that hasn't paid yet in anticipation of two auctions ending in a couple of hours in which they are high bidder.....LOL...Putting more lipstick on the pig does not turn it into anything other than a pig with more problems.  

If I still sold here, the best solution would be for me to set those buyer requirements to NO (ignore eBay's pop-up warning on how I am inviting NPB problems),  advertise my listings as "buyer friendly" real combined shipping with no pre-payment source required, and be done with this mess for good (or until eBay claims everyone loves it so much they make it mandatory).   At least I wouldn't have to also deal with red donut reviews and be one of those responsible for running more paying buyers off for good!  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

devon@ebay 

Please read the blog post in my first post in this thread.

A couple questions:

Are these changes a test, or the beginning of a roll out?

Can you explain exactly how these will be implemented? Especially the one about the three day time period.

TIA!

[valueaddedresource]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

And how does this help with "combined offers" exactly?

@toomuchstuffagain35 

Who knows??? We really have no information on how it is exactly supposed to work.  I guess while you, the buyer,  are waiting for your "combined invoice" anyone else who only wants ONE of those things in your cart (if the even go in the cart) can accept the offer made to them by the seller (or they sent to the seller) and pay (sooner than you)....making it the new (as suggested) 'you snooze, you lose' combined shipping program.  

Unless eBay is willing to actually DISCUSS this with both buyers and sellers we are going to have to wait for actual events and share information with each other to determine the procedure.  The TRIAL BY FIRE eBay implementation procedure. 

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@ittybitnot  I couldn't agree with you more about eBay needing to actually discuss or at least provide information in a way that is public and accessible to all buyers and sellers when they are testing or making changes like this.

It's frustrating and disappointing that they won't communicate directly and that's honestly why I wrote about it even though details are very thin at the moment - like you said, it leaves us with no other choice but sharing experiences and information as things happen and hoping we can cobble together the details that way.

So far the "provide your payment method upfront and you'll have 3 days before being auto-charged to request combined shipping" test and the "you snooze, you lose - listing doesn't end until someone pays" test are being reported separately by different users, so it's not entirely clear to me whether they overlap.

With the 3 days to auto-charge test, when an auction ends, it does apparently send the winning buyer a notification and adds the item to the cart. In the cart there is an option to request to combine shipping as well as a note with a countdown that shows "Order will process automatically in x days, x hours, x minutes".

Hopefully the blues will provide some additional information and I'm still digging into and will update if I find out more as well.

[mindeyefirestorm.2]

There should be sellers and buyers rights ebay or facebook page..

I say keep emailing and calling them..

They will learn a lesson.

Without sellers and buyers they have nothing..

When I first started it was wonderful..20yrs plus

I may just get a cheap debit card use as card on file.

I noticed as much people list .

And look at completed auction majority doesn't sell.

There actions over years push sellers and buyers away.

I wish Elon, would buy ebay.

The current people who run it.

Don't have clue what there doing..

They have to realize this is 25yr plus company alot has changed.

Need go back to basics..

[valueaddedresource]

It looks like we may have a glimpse of what the "auto-pay after 3 days" test looks like on the seller side of things over in this thread:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Auto-pay-not-working-with-winning-High-Bidders/m-p/34169879/hi...

[hartungcards]

"I wish Elon, would buy ebay."

Now, there's the worst idea I've seen on here in a long time, and it's up against some pretty stiff competition.