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

[sml192]

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

If you require buyers to pay automatically when making an offer then you need to go to your buyer requirements and make sure there is tick next to that option. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/bmgt/buyerrequirements

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.

Yes, if the buyer doesn't pay then you would need to wait to the next promotion to relist. 

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. 

Once an offer has been accepted the item is deemed to be sold and the buyer has 4 days in which to pay unless the seller has opted in to automatic payments. 

[tressygirl]

To add to the good advice given.

I just received a message from a buyer who accepted my offer then saw that rather odd message eBay leave '  Item No Longer Available'.

She messaged me confused whether she had bought the item or not, so wasn't yet paying.

I sent her an invoice confirming she had indeed paid and to ignore that misleading eBay message it just means others cannot  buy it because it had been sold to her.

I sent an invoice and she paid.

Others who haven't paid in the past apologise for the late payment thinking if an offer is accepted it means they've paid.

I have the instant payment switched off, it limits buyers the choice of payments to use.

Your item sold yesterday,  a buyer has 4 days to pay and eBay do send reminders after 48 hours.

I personally would send an invoice tomorrow thanking them for buying your item,  and would they kindly pay the invoice and the item can then be posted asap.

@matt99b 

[papso22]

Good advice, but each invoice resets the 4 day payment clock.

[tressygirl]

Yep,  it does,  but this particular buyer also said the Pay button was greyed out most odd,  sending an invoice she paid immediately.

Will bring this up , if my little grey cells remember,   to the Wednesday weekly chat.

[matt99b]

The automatic payment option is turned on but only works for some buyers not others 😕

[matt99b]

Is it a bug then? I have automatic payments turned on (see attached pic) but it only works for some buyers not others. 

 

[matt99b]

sorry for the repeat replies, I'm attaching screenshots- it's a mystery.

As you can see, I have 'require payment' selected, but if you look at the other screenshot, the buyer submitted an offer without making payment.

[papso22]

Maybe the buyer entered a payment method that doesn't work?

[matt99b]

Apparently if the buyer enters an invalid payment method, the offer can't be submitted. If I don't receive any information to the contrary, I guess I'll have to assume it's an eBay bug... frustrating for sellers with limited storage who have waited for the 80% off fees offer...

[sml192]

Yes, the buyer would be unable to make an offer if a valid payment method wasn't present.  However, it is possible that the payment method could become invalid in the period between the offer being made and being accepted.  I don't know if that would actually prevent the offer being accepted though. 

[matt99b]

If the payment method became invalid between the offer being made and accepted, the seller would still receive the funds, and eBay would pursue the buyer for payment. I know someone who experienced this before—eBay wouldn't let him use the platform at all until he paid the unpaid invoice. So, that theory doesn't make sense either. Once an offer is submitted, payment is pretty much "locked in." I don't understand how my buyer bypassed this setting. I suspect it's an eBay bug—there are quite a few nowadays. I remember the good old days when eBay "just worked." It was simple and manual, with nothing automatic. Constantly adding bloated functions over the years inevitably leads to overcomplication and bugs. I guess eBay is trying to clamp down on the influx of unreliable buyers in recent years, but unfortunately, when it doesn't work, it's the sellers who lose out.

[hettsville]

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@matt99b wrote:

If the payment method became invalid between the offer being made and accepted, the seller would still receive the funds, and eBay would pursue the buyer for payment. I know someone who experienced this before—eBay wouldn't let him use the platform at all until he paid the unpaid invoice. So, that theory doesn't make sense either. Once an offer is submitted, payment is pretty much "locked in." I don't understand how my buyer bypassed this setting. I suspect it's an eBay bug—there are quite a few nowadays. I remember the good old days when eBay "just worked." It was simple and manual, with nothing automatic. Constantly adding bloated functions over the years inevitably leads to overcomplication and bugs. I guess eBay is trying to clamp down on the influx of unreliable buyers in recent years, but unfortunately, when it doesn't work, it's the sellers who lose out.

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How can a seller still receive funds if the payment method became invalid?

It would be like the buyer had won and not paid.

I suppose it's possible the buyer made the offer with for example PayPal as their payment method then went into their PayPal account settings and revoked the ebay automatic payment.

Or made the offer with a debit card then removed and added the debit card back onto eBay.

Both are ways to stop automatic payments being taken.

But it's more likely another glitch.

Personally as a buyer I won't use automatic payments and as a seller I have it turned off.

I'd rather put up with the odd non payer I can give an unpaid item strike to.

As for automatic payments being applied to auctions it's the stupidest idea yet.

[matt99b]

"How can a seller still receive funds if the payment method became invalid?"

I just explained that the seller is paid by eBay, not directly by the buyer- this is why "eBay" appears on your bank statement. This is how the offer system works when you select "require payment when submitting an offer." eBay collects the funds from the buyer and sends funds to the seller more or less simultaneously.

If the buyer's payment method is invalid, eBay pursues the buyer for the funds since ebay already paid the seller. It also explains how ebay is able to offer the function "require payment when submitting offer". It also explains why you don't get funds deducted from your account immediately when you offer- only when offer is accepted. I know someone who experienced this—he couldn't use the platform until he settled eBay's invoice.

In my case, the buyer's payment method didn't fail- it just wasn't requested at the time of the offer. It's an ebay bug I think

[sml192]

You may be right but I would have thought that eBay would want to stop the item from being sent if payment hasn't been received from the buyer? 

[papso22]

Then it's a bug that only seems to be affecting you.

Ebay does pay sellers but only after the buyer's funds have cleared. 

[matt99b]

I don’t think you can say it only affects me unless you’ve talked to everyone in the eBay community—did you have a chance to do that? Not everyone posts about their problems online. If you look at my screenshots, you’ll see that it really did happen. I don't think I'm the only one experiencing this bug—I’m not that special 😄

[auntietootieblue]

Hi, this is also happening to me and has been happening over the last 3 weeks.  I've been on the phone to eBay numerous times and they haven't a clue what I am talking about.  I guess it's something to do with the June seller update that says they are testing payment options out and that's why it's not working.  This also coincides with my no sales over the last week.  I wish they would test new updates on someone else's account not mine because everytime they make a change it affects my account and I have to rebuild my standing in the algorithm which can take weeks and loss of sales

[auntietootieblue]

This is definitely not only happening to you as this is affecting me also and has been for the last 3 weeks.  

[auntietootieblue]

All my buy it now's have immediate payment required yet I have one now that has managed to buy a buy it now and immediate payment hasn't been taken.  I also had one this morning were it took over 5 hours for payment to be taken and I think that payment was only made because I emailed the buyer asking if she had paid, she then made payment so there's obviously a glitch with some accounts were immediate payment is not being taken because of this update they are rolling out which is mentioned in the June 2024 update regarding taking payments