ACCEPT OFFER... heads up

[sheba-knows-best]

Morning all

Just a quick heads up - possibly I have missed notifications and everyone knows about this apart from me...  Anyhow...

I accepted two offers this morning. There was a warning I saw above my 'accept offer' which I barely read the first time (but paid more attention to the second time) something along the lines of: this item will still be available to other offers until your buyer pays.

Anyway after accepting on the offer acceptance page, in pending, you can see the offer shows as 'awaiting payment'. HOWEVER the item is still available for sale. I even went and nearly purchased it on a different account. I rang concierge who were not aware of what was happening and thought it might be a glitch. She did check that the buyer had received a notification to pay. WHich she had.

When I got another offer (on a different item) - I paid attention - saw ebays warning - and this time when I accepted the offer, warned the buyer if she did not pay immediately, she could lose the item. She paid immediately.  The item is no longer for sale.

So - it seems to be a new thing - possibly just trialling? - when you accept an offer (even if it is a one off item) it remains on general sale until paid. When I next talk to concierge I will check whether the email sent to the buyer warns them if they do not pay, they may lose the item, otherwise it is going to lead to angry buyers...

Possibly this is a good thing, stops buyers feeling remorse going through with it anyway and then returning. Possibly it reduces unpaid items when they see something they like better after their offer is accepted. On the other hand, it feels a tad backward to not seal the sale asap.

My advice? When you accept an offer, if you see ebay's warning - tell the buyer to pay immediately or warn them they might lose the item.

[sheba-knows-best]

Just had another offer - this is the warning you are looking for (even with one off items).

Even if I accept - it does not go into 'sold items'/awaiting papyment'. The item stays live.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

One of the few things that I caught from the Open.  This is a new thing that I believe was announced then, though there may be a notification somewhere else.

Simply put, if you accept an offer and the buyer doesn't pay immediately, it stays available for other to be able to purchase.  Which honestly, I think is a good thing.  Happens far to often that buyers bid, change their mind then do nothing.

[vintagechinashop]

What's this. EBay coming up with a good idea. Am I seeing things. I think this has got to be a good thing especially when you have the buyers who take days to pay after making an offer   Well done eBay I think this is a positive step 

[m25jet]

Personally I can't help but feel that this is a bit of a bad move on eBay's part, as it has the potential to cause confusion, as well as unhappy buyers.  I used to sell on eBay myself until Managed Payments came in and then I decided to call it a day, but when I was a seller on eBay if I listed an item using the Buy It Now format and included the Best Offer option I would always use the option that eBay gave the seller to automatically accept offers above a certain price, and to automatically reject offers below that absolute minimum, the main objective being that if a buyer made a Best Offer that was equal to, or greater than the amount I'd set as my minimum acceptable amount, the offer would automatically be accepted and the buyer would immediately receive a message saying something along the lines of "Your offer has been accepted.  Please pay now."  Perhaps I was just lucky, but in all the years that I sold on eBay I never once had a buyer change his/her mind and try to back out of the sale once the item had been sold.

With regards to this new system that eBay has set up, I can just see that it is going to effectively reduce the Best Offer function to little more than an auction for the item where you can't even see the bids submitted by rival buyers.  In addition to that if more than one person submits a bid and they are serious about wanting the item, then I can imagine that they'd be pretty cheesed off to find that the seller has sold the item to another buyer without even getting back to them with a counteroffer to see whether a more acceptable price could be agreed upon!

In summary I really think that eBay should give more thought to this new process of making bids, as it looks to me to be likely to cause a lot of bad feeling from buyers if they get the impression that the seller has sold the item to somebody else when they had already made a contractually binding offer for the item.  Add this to the fact that eBay now demand that anybody making a Best Offer submit their payment details before the seller has even had a chance to consider the offer, let alone accept it, I just feel that this latest "improvement" is only going to make the Best Offer option even more unpopular than eBay have already made it.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You have just been lucky.  It happens regularly.  And is very annoying.

I really don't get how you are comparing a best offer, to an auction.

I'm sorry, but it's not even close.  

It's no different to going into a shop and offering to pay x amount and them accepting it.

You don't then walk out and come back a few days later to pay for it!

If you are a serious buyer, then you are placing a bid at a price that you are willing to pay.

If it's accepted, then they payment should be immediately.

Until it is accepted and paid, it is not contractually binding.  Either side is legally able to cancel a sale until it is paid for, unless there are specific contractual agreements in place.  Which is not the case, on Ebay.

[sheba-knows-best]

Add this to the fact that eBay now demand that anybody making a Best Offer submit their payment details before the seller has even had a chance to consider the offer, let alone accept it, I just feel that this latest "improvement" is only going to make the Best Offer option even more unpopular than eBay have already made it.

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Actually - I think it will work in tandem with that - if you already put your payment detais in, the sale should just auto pay, right? And be put in sold.

And if a buyer had made an offer (with auto pay implemented) and I sold to someone else first. They would never know.

Just for info, you don't have to automate payment before making an offer. That is a choice.

[padanpcparts]

The obvious problem there being that we don't all sit on our computers all day. You mgiht throw out an offer at 9pm, go to bed, go to work, come back...Oh, offer accepted. Great. I will pay for it. Wait my offer was accepted then someone else bought it? 

In honesty, offers are nearly always lower than the asking price so if someone else buys it all full price then as a seller I'm not going to be too upset. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

True, but they are also bringing in having to give payment details, which means that if you have done this, it won't be an issue. 

And to be honest, the majority of offers I get now are paid pretty much immediately.  You still get some that are obviously not on the new system yet, but this should disappear over time anyway.

This has been a big problem for me.  It is however reducing because of these changes.  And I'm pretty sure, that though there will be some that it effects adversely, the majority should benefit from it.

And once people are fully aware of this, it won't be an issue.  It just takes time, but it would be nice to see Ebay actually tell it's customers about this change.

[m25jet]

I see that you don't get how I am comparing a Best Offer to an auction, so let me explain further for you.  I was specifically comparing it to an eBay auction, not an auction held in a bricks and mortar auction house.

In an auction people make offers as to how much they're willing to pay for the item in the form of bids placed.  The highest bidder wins.  However, if the Best Offer function is now being set up for lots of people to submit Best Offers then this is making it similar to an auction in that the seller could receive lots of offers for varying amounts, the end result being that the seller is likely to wait until all the "bids" stop - ie:  the Best Offers - and accept the highest Best Offer made for the item, unless somebody cancels out the Best Offer option by deciding to use the Buy It Now option and pays the full asking price immediately.  I know that the two are not 100% identical, but the new method does leave the Best Offer function open to be treated pretty much like an auction, with the seller holding off of accepting a Best Offer until he/she receives what he/she feels is an acceptable offer for the item.  Therefore there are some similarities that result in it feeling like an auction, albeit one where you don't have any indication as to how much your opponents are bidding for the item as you would do on an eBay auction or in a proper bricks and mortar auction house.

With regards to going into a shop and offering to pay X for an item and them accepting it and you don't then walk out and come back a few days later to pay for it, this is true in most cases but there are some exceptions to this.  One example would be if you were buying something like a car.  Say, for example, the car's advertised for £6,000.00 but you negotiate with the seller and manage to get the price reduced to £5,000.00 owing to faults that will need rectifying in order to get the car past its next MOT.   The seller accepts the offer, you put a holding deposit down and make arrangements to return to the dealership at a mutually convenient date to pay the remainder of the balance and take the vehicle away.  Most people don't have the full amount in cash on them in that scenario,  so in this example offering to pay X and returning at a later date to pay the remainder of the balance would be acceptable, and does indeed happen on many occasions.

I completely agree with you regarding the point that if you are a serious buyer then you are placing a bid at a price you are compared to pay, and that if it is accepted then you should pay up straightaway.  Whenever I have bid on items or submitted Best Offers I have always paid up straightaway as soon as I see the notification flash up on the screen saying "You Won This Auction" or "The Seller Has Accepted Your Offer.  Please Pay Now."  However, I am still convinced that eBay are tinkering with things way too much, and often the end result is that they end up making things worse, not better.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I know exactly what you were comparing to.  You are just wrong.  Sorry to be blunt, but an auction is for multiple people making bids that gradually go higher (usually).

Making an offer on an item whether on Ebay, a shop etc, is simply making an offer to buy at a price.  No auctioning involved.

Each offer is made and accepted/declined on an individual basis.  It is not an auction in any way shape or form.

You have made the argument yourself as regards the car.  buyer pays, albeit a depost!  ie. same difference.

[sheba-knows-best]

A clarification that became apparent yesterday:

The new 'accepted but awaiting payment still on general release' sale ONLY applies to sales that you accept that were offered via a COUNTEROFFER (to your own offer obviously).

If you accept an offer that was made from a 'make an offer' (as opposed to a response to a counter offer), the sale moves into sold and is NOT still on general release.

Unless it's a glitch of course. 😁

It kind of makes sense because when you send out offers they can often be to a handful of buyers. Buyers have probably been 'bagging' the offer price (to make sure they dont lose it) whilst they make lower offers to every other seller under the sun. In contrast,  offers a buyer has to initiate themselves should be a price they have carefully considered rather than just snatched (one would hope, yeah right) 

[nkenterprises0224]

The trouble is , it doesn't show anywhere . It used to show in waiting for payment . Had 2 offers accepted and neither paid .

[r287decar]

This new ebay counter offer system is broken!

I have accepted 3 x counter offers over the past 10 days and not one person has completed their ebay purchase.

Of course you normally get timewasters on ebay, but 3 x times in a row is not normal.

Not being able to send the buyer an Invoice or even contact them directly about 'said item' makes this a broken feature.

When you send a the buyer an Invoice and contact the buyer, this normally helps push the buyer over the line. It helps form the moral contract, that makes the buyer pay.

This new system is giving buyers Carte blanche to hold my item hostage from any edits for 4 days! As they may be thinking, I'll wait to see if something better comes up.

[vintique*violet]

I have experienced this too -  eBay agent advised to  look at the order in managed offers , in the box at the bottom left it shows the buyers " pending offer" , the only way to remind the buyer you have accepted is to contact them via their page and send a message to inform them. A bit long winded, but it has worked. The item stays  available ( so does not show in orders ) until it is paid for, that way it reduces non payment apparently.  

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

I prefer it that way, I might get a better off.

It also gets rid of slow paying buyers.