I accepted an offer but haven’t been paid - what to do next!

[sandpiper434]

I accepted an offer three days ago from a buyer, and later messaged them politely to ask if they’d like me to post at the weekend so they didn’t have to wait until after the UK bank holiday. They replied saying they hadn’t decided yet whether they wanted the item. I wrote back - again politely - pointing out that under Ebay rules they generally have a commitment to buy once their offer has been accepted.

The listing has now ended without anyone else purchasing, and if the buyer doesn’t pay within 4  days I’d like to report it as an unpaid item. However, I can’t find any record of the accepted offer in my seller hub or orders. Am I looking in the wrong place?

i’d be grateful for any advice, and thanks in advance!

[**peaseblossom**]

You say the listing has now ended but when an offer is accepted the listing ends immediately.    So it sounds as if the offer didn't go through.    Offers have not been working properly for some time now.   If it's not on your orders list then it didn't complete correctly.

[sandpiper434]

Hi, thanks, but if you Google this you’ll find that auction listings remain open even when an offer has been accepted, until the buyer pays. 

[ear2fear]

I didn’t know that. You’re right, the auction only ends when the person pays. And if they don’t pay within 24 hours the offer is cancelled and the auction continues. You learn something new every day🤔

[sandpiper434]

Are you sure about the offer being cancelled after 24 hours?  Wow! So there’s no recourse now if people just decide not to pay? If so that’s yet another inconvenience to contend with.

[sandpiper434]

Under ‘offers’, it now says the status of the item is ‘awaiting payment’.  But it also says the offer has expired.  Obviously it can’t be both! Absolutely useless on Ebay’s part and very confusing.

[m25jet]

In view of the fact that the Best Offer option no longer seems to be functioning in the way that it should do perhaps it would be worthwhile considering excluding it in the future.  If you decide to list using the Auction format then when you set the listing up make sure that the starting price is set at a level that would ensure that even if you only got one bid and the buyer paid for the item you would still get the amount that you wanted once eBay had taken their cut of the selling price.  Same thing applies for Buy It Now listings - set the price at an amount that would ensure that even after eBay have taken their cut of the sale price the amount you were left with would still be an amount that you would be happy with.

If you haven't already done so by the time you read this response add the non-payer's User ID to your Blocked Bidders List in order to prevent him or her from wasting any more of your time in the future.

[jckl1957]

It is functioning the way it should do but Ebay have made changes.

The buyer has 4 complete days to pay. 

Offers are now valid for 96 hours and the item remains available to other buyers while the buyer considers the offer and thinks about paying.  So, a buyer can accept an offer but can be 'gazumped' if they don't pay promptly.

I don't know what will happen if the buyer decides not to proceed after they have said they will accept the offer.

Either the offer will just expire - as it would if a buyer did not respond.

Or, on day 5 (so 4 complete days after they accepted), the option to cancel using buyer did not pay will appear.

My feeling is that, even though they accepted the offer, it will not count as a sale so you won't be able to cancel using 'didn't pay'.

Make sure you do block them though!

[sandpiper434]

Thanks both, for your responses. I’ve spoken to Ebay and they say that even though there’s no order as such to cancel, I’ll still be able to report the buyer for non-payment. I’ll certainly block them, too.

[1956glyn]

I thought that someone can make an offer and its only accepted once the buyer has paid.

Until payment the seller can accept other offers in the meantime.     Ebay may have moved the goalposts again but thats my understanding.

[m25jet]

Having just read @jckl1957's comment "It is functioning the way it should do but Ebay have made changes.  The buyer has 4 complete days to pay.  Offers are now valid for 96 hours and the item remains available to other buyers while the buyer considers the offer and thinks about paying.  So, a buyer can accept an offer but can be 'gazumped' if they don't pay promptly" (which, I admit, is something that I wasn't aware of before), I've just thought of something else you may choose to do in order to try and prevent non-payment of offers submitted.

What I would suggest you do would if you want to include the Best Offer option on your listings would be to activate the option whereby the buyer has to submit his or her payment details in order to be able to submit an offer.  In addition to that if you decide that you want to include the Best Offer option set the listing up in such a way to automatically accept offers above a certain amount, as well as setting it up to automatically reject offers below a certain amount - that is, if this option is still available (it was when I used to sell on eBay, but then again, things may well have changed significantly for sellers in the time since I gave up selling on eBay, which was when they got rid of PayPal as the default means of receiving payment from buyers).  If it is still possible to set a listing up with those two options then work out how much eBay are likely to take as a percentage of the amount offered if a buyer were to submit an offer, making sure that even after eBay have taken their cut you'd still at the very least be left with the absolute minimum that you would be happy with, or perhaps even more, should the buyer offer you a greater amount.

In addition to the above set the maximum amount to automatically reject as being 1p lower than the absolute lowest amount that you'd automatically accept.  That way, given that any potential buyer who wants to commit to making a Best Offer would have had to submit his or her payment details before even being able to submit the offer, then by having the autopayment feature activated, if somebody commits to making an offer that falls within an amount that you would be willing to accept then the buyer's payment would be taken immediately, in which case there would be no more faffing around with waiting for the buyer to make payment if he or she submits an offer for an item you've got advertised for sale.

[sandpiper434]

Thanks for this but I think the autopay feature only works now if the buyer allows it to. My settings say they have to submit payment details, but even so payment isn’t automatic.

Also, just in passing, it turns out the Ebay agent I spoke to yesterday was wrong. I can’t even report the buyer for non-payment as they don’t appear in my orders list. It’s clear the ‘best offers’ feature is NOT working properly, otherwise an accepted offer would be showing up.