eBay

theelench · ‎21-12-2023

It's not very often I make a Best Offer on an item but last night I found an item on an auction listing ending today. A vase I'd like to add to my collection.

As it had no bids, I wanted to offer over the Starting Bid hoping to avoid the risk of losing it at the last minute.

The problem is that the delivery method is by Evri Tracked and I know from past experience that the evri driver around here is likely to leave it at any nearby flat, or on the doorstep and never leaves a card to tell me where it is. So I messaged the seller to ask if they would send by RM and say I was happy to pay the extra for "Signed For".

I go to the "Make an Offer" form and find that ebay now wants to take immediate payment if the seller accepts my offer + the delivery charge for delivery by evri, which I will not use.

When I last made an offer, I'm sure that the offer was for the item only, without any delivery charge, which could be amended by the seller before payment.

Needless to say I didn't make any offer the way it is now. Is there any way around what seems like a step in the wrong direction??

douglaspuglas · ‎21-12-2023

Requiring buyers to provide a payment method before making an offer is something sellers are supposed to be able to opt into.

However sneaky eBay has also been turning it on without telling sellers.

You could ask your seller if they will turn it off for you.

It is located at the bottom of their buyer management page in their selling preferences.

They can get to it by clicking on edit next to "manage who can buy from you".

vikkipollardanddafyddthomas · ‎21-12-2023

This is a very recent change. I discovered a similar issue last weekend - not with the courier being used, but with being told I will be charged immediately should the seller accept the offer. If I only wanted 1 item from the seller this wouldn't be an issue but I wanted to make offers on 23 of their listings where postage would need to be combined and charged at £5.75 instead of 23 x £8 and don't want to have to lay out £184 on shipping in 23 transactions when the seller states it will cost £12 . I cannot see how this is going to benefit buyers or sellers.

vikkipollardanddafyddthomas · ‎21-12-2023

Ebay won''t allow me to edit my previous reply. I keep being told "authentication failed" . Another "improvement" ? The figure was wrong. It should say.

This is a very recent change. I discovered a similar issue last weekend - not with the courier being used, but with being told I will be charged immediately should the seller accept the offer. If I only wanted 1 item from the seller this wouldn't be an issue but I wanted to make offers on 23 of their listings where postage would need to be combined and charged at £12 instead of 23 x £8 and don't want to have to lay out £184 on shipping in 23 transactions when the seller states it will cost £12 . I cannot see how this is going to benefit buyers or sellers.

theelench · ‎21-12-2023

Thanks for your replies, unfortunately the seller hasn't yet replied to my messages and there's only five hours to go before the auction ends. So there's probably little chance that they will be able to turn off the instant payment requirement before then.

I prefer to sort out my delivery requirement before buying / bidding, so not sure whether to even bid unless the seller agrees to my request for RM delivery before the end.

BTW @vikkipollardanddafyddthomas when I get the "authentication failed" message I've found that whatever causes it can sometimes be cleared by leaving the thread (to Recent Posts or Notifications), then returning to it and starting another reply to the same post. The "You have saved content -- Load or Discard" message comes up. Click "Load" and often it will let you complete what you were trying to do.

kath3735_wxmjn · ‎21-12-2023

just been to check and yes they have ticked the box for me so i have now unticked it. This is why i like this site, i get directed to where e bay are doing sneakies!! Thank you all.

magpiecorner1 · ‎22-12-2023

Not a fan of this at all, but if the seller has combined postage ticked, all items bought in the same day will combine. I think only applies to offers made that day.

theelench · ‎22-12-2023

The seller messaged me to say they were happy to send with RM and to wait for them to send an invoice with adjusted postage if I won the auction, which I did.

So we got there in the end!!

iew-signed-books · ‎22-12-2023

This is not always the case - despite Eve Williams stating that they had listened and acted. Some buyers who submit an offer which is accepted still do not have to pay immediately - or at all, if they so choose. And I don't mean when making a counter offer, but submitting a simple best offer. The new system is an unfunny joke and totally flawed - as with most of the so-called new innovations.

vikkipollardanddafyddthomas · ‎22-12-2023

Not a fan of this at all, but if the seller has combined postage ticked, all items bought in the same day will combine

On reading what you state, I decided to test this and made offers on 2 of his listings this afternoon which he accepted. I got notifications for both and was charged within minutes for both and both included the postage charge. The seller said he wasn't given the opportunity to combine them so I won't be doing that again. He insisted he has combined postage ticked so I decided to click buy-it-now on 1 of his other listings rather than make an offer and wasn't forced to pay up immediately. I did the same for 3 more listings and was able to ask for a combined invoice for the 4 which he did with free postage so something is not right.

bittyboy101 · ‎11-01-2024

Sorry to hear this Elench.

I guess this is yet another change by eBay !

What will it be next ?... Will we be charged by eBay moment we win an Auction ??

I suppose this is because of all the people messing sellers around by bidding and winning an auction (or making/accepting the seller's offer) and then not paying...

theelench · ‎11-01-2024

I did read somewhere on here that ebay is thinking about it, by not allowing a bid to be made unless the bidder has a payment method on file, so yes instant payment when the auction ends.

There's another thread about this somewhere which includes a list of things that buyers cannot do at checkout if they agree to this instant payment scheme. Like using PP Credit, using coupons and to my dismay, that probably means I can't my nectar points either

Ebay just loves making itself more and more useless and unpopular.