Best offers made but then they don’t pay

[vintagechinashop]

im almost done with best offers 3 buyers this week made a best offer and then just didn't bother paying. Why do people do this it's so frustrating because you have lost out on another possible sale while you wait to be able to cancel and relist    One person even messaged to say she was being paid the next day and then dropped off the face of the planet. My blocked bidders list is ever growing. Anyone else find this frustrating? 

[technthread]

I agree but it could only work for offers sent to buyers that they choose to accept. To accept the offer they would have to pay at checkout which would work but once flaky buyers cottoned on that they don't have to pay immediately if it is us accepting the offer, there could be a tit for tat of offers being sent for the same sum from sellers wanting to force their hand. 

[laptopsparesrepairs]

Don't think there is a solution for best offer or where buyers can send an offer via mail, would not be practical to charge on making an offer to the seller unless there was the facility to pre-verify funds and automatically process on offer acceptance by the seller and not process if offer is declined or not responded to. 

That being said, for sellers sending offers to buyers I see no reason why it could not be made so that payment is required to accept and close the offer and complete the deal, its essentially the same as what happens with a BIN listing with Require immediate payment enabled.

[iew-signed-books]

"Require immediate payment" regarding best offers doesn't work - if you set the listing to automatically accept, say, £20 and they offer £21, they win the item but do not have to pay immediately which is quite ridiculous. And, often, they then never pay at all.

[bravergrace · Accepted solution]

Don't forget, that when you accept an offer, if the buyer DOES go to pay, eBay are flooding their page with "similar items at a better price".  This can seem - to the buyer - as if eBay are mocking them for letting you fleece them, and suggesting that they ought to buy a cheaper one instead.  It's bound to increase the number of non-payers. 

[bravergrace]

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@iew-signed-books wrote:

"Require immediate payment" regarding best offers doesn't work - if you set the listing to automatically accept, say, £20 and they offer £21, they win the item but do not have to pay immediately which is quite ridiculous. 

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It's inconvenient, but not ridiculous.  Especially if your buyer is not in the same time zone as you.  An Australian buyer might make an offer just before they switch their phone/computer off to go to work or to bed.  They won't necessarily know that you've automatically accepted the offer - not until the next day.  If someone else nips in and buys some of the stuff first, you could have a problem on your hands - especially if the buyer is trying to buy a set (matching clothes and handbag, identical presents for 12 grandchildren, or 6 books that make up a set).  They won't necessarily want to buy just part of a set. 

[iew-signed-books]

My experience has shown that, if an offer is automatically accepted by the system and they don't pay immediately, 99% of the time they never do pay. Nor do they respond to (polite) messages.

[elianajvintage]

I have just had an option when making a best offer to set up immediate payment.  If sellers accept my offers payment will then be made automatically according to the payment system I have chosen when setting it up. 

Of course this is not mandatory and doesn't sort out the issue of 'buyers' not making payment.

[simon191178]

Hi, 

I have thousands of items for sale and all on best offer. I would say about 70% is sold via best offer and I only get the odd non payer per year. Definitely less than 1/100. Maybe it's what I sell and why the items are being purchased that means I don't have hassles (generally schools, charities, small businesses).

[vintagechinashop]

Hey sorry, I do like but I have not got any money at the moment sorry.

I got this message today after 2 days of messages on a £5 item.  Clearly a change of mind which I don't have a problem with, although annoying, but I would prefer honesty not the above. Genuinely would this person walk into a high street shop walk around with the item without paying for two days then just put it back and walk out. This is basically what they are doing here. It just makes me angry and I don't think unpaid item strikes make any difference 

so another blocked bidder and potentially two more today as I had 3 best offers yesterday and only one has paid almost 24 hours later. I checked the feedback and one of them had positive feedback from another seller with the comment  best offer then did not pay. Maybe these people are genuine and flooded with better offers from eBay. If so EBay are actively promoting this behaviour and not punishing it 

[claycreations1]

I asked a seller to ignore my best offer because I bought a cheaper elsewhere.

The seller then proceeds to accept my offer, ignores my messages and refuses to cancel.

What should I do?

[douglaspuglas]

Why didn't you retract the best offer yourself using the retract offer button where you made the offer originally.

If you don't pay the seller can cancel the sale after four days and give you an unpaid item strike.

[claycreations1]

I completely forgot that I can do this myself.
I tried to communicate with the seller several times with no response.
Hopefully eBay will see this.
There is no need for people being ignorant to others.
I had to give cancellations and accept returns myself several times.
It is part of the process of selling and buying.
Thank you for the reply

[douglaspuglas]

If you only get one unpaid item strike it won't affect you.

Perhaps you seller will see your messages eventually if they check to see you've paid.

[vintagechinashop]

I'm the seller not the buyer. The buyer made the best offer not me. I accepted then the buyer didn't pay 

I'm not the one getting the unpaid strike

[douglaspuglas]

I know but I was replying to claycreations1 who revived your thread and posted asking as a buyer.

[oakley_home_and_gifts]

They do, but get banned pretty quick from being able to come back. 

[claycreations1]

Thank you to all that replied. 

I have already got in touch with Ebay customer services and hope this will be soon resolved.

Have a nice day

[asleepingdragon]

My experience of best offers is that the sellers just ignore them.  I never understand why they don't counter offer or reject but ... 

[carltoncamo]

This has happened to me twice in the last month and I'm just considering not bothering with using the platform.  There should be a system in place to stop this and eBay should honour the sale while they look into the high numbers of users doing this now.

[douglaspuglas]

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@carltoncamo wrote:

This has happened to me twice in the last month and I'm just considering not bothering with using the platform.  There should be a system in place to stop this and eBay should honour the sale while they look into the high numbers of users doing this now.

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There is a now a box you tick in buyer requirements so that buyers have to provide a payment method before they can make an offer.

If you accept the offer the money is paid automatically.

Here's a link to buyer requirements https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements 

There's a few downsides to it though like once the buyer does it once it applies to all future offers they make.

Plus there's no way to combine payment for multiple items or select click and collect.