Buyer submitted offer without paying?

[matt99b]

I thought eBay required buyers to provide payment details with an offer nowadays, automatically processing payment if accepted. However, I accepted an offer & to my surprise eBay says: "the buyer has not yet paid."

My questions are:

1. Why can some buyers submit offers without card details while others can't? 

2. If the buyer never pays and I have to relist, will I lose my 80% off fees offer? If so this potentially allows buyers to sabotage sellers during promotional offers which is odd.

3. If payment hasn't been taken then how come the listing has been removed from sale- one would have thought the listing would stay online until payment is taken, to avoid seller losing out. 

Cheers

[trishahock]

Surely most people have a payment method on their account don't they.

[easyloafer]

Ever since this was first happening to me if I accept an offer from a customer it goes into a 'pending' section in the Android app, the item is still for sale & the sale is not completed until the buyer pays.

I have the setting in question turned on but it makes no difference. When I have contacted CS they say it is a new system but also give conflicting information that defies logic.

This has been going on for ages, is there really no official line on it yet?

[eastern-lights]

---

@trishahock wrote:
Surely most people have a payment method on their account don't they.

---

Yes.

When I buy a buy it now, and go to checkout, I select from a choice of several payment methods how I want to pay for it.

I assume that where offers are concerned, ticking the box means that the buyer will have to make that selection before the offer goes to the seller, and payment will be taken as soon as the seller accepts the offer.

[sml192]

---

@easyloafer wrote:

This has been going on for ages, is there really no official line on it yet?

Ebay has updated the help page to reflect this new system now. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/buy-now/making-best-offer?id=4019&st=3&pos=1&query=Making%20a%20B...

Even if your offer or counteroffer is accepted, the item will remain available to other buyers. Selecting a payment method and enabling autopay when making your offer, will mean you pay for and secure the item as soon as the seller accepts.

[easyloafer]

So a seller can have the 'require buyers to provide payment method' setting on & a buyer that does not have autopay enabled can make an offer to that seller?

[trishahock]

I'm not sure but it seems that way yes.

[wildduck24]

No sorry you’re not that special as you can add me to the list of people this has happened to.  3 times in the past 2 weeks.  This morning also I had an item sell during the night which was on bidding.  This morning I couldn’t find it.  It’s in the unsold and the buyer has now paid and it’s still in the unsold.  Just lately there have been many odd things.  I have had 3 offers this week , all accepted, all been sitting in pending.  Then they run out of time.  Cannot contact them as there is no info for me to do so.  EBay say they are working on it.  Great, I have lost 3 sales.

[tifdu_4]

How do I get to this via the eBay app 

[wildduck24]

Happening a lot.  I have had this too.  5 times now.

[para-graph]

The answer is very simple: there were insufficient funds in the buyer’s account.