eBay Furtively Changes Payments Policy

by: Bidonmine

I have been using BIN on all my ebay listings for over 3 years. I got tired of all those buyers that never paid.  

by: VV

No where else in retail is immediate payment NOT required. About time this came to Ebay. Even when auctions end the payment should be immediate from the buyer. No money. No sale.

by: Truk

We sell mostly business to business many times the buyer is not the one who pays and may take a day to complete the sale.
This could harm us in a way we could not recover from
It hard for me to comprehend these are the people running a corporation the size of eBay how does that happen?

by: pace306

Truk ......

because eBay ONLY does whats best for them - regardless of what effects it has on its sellers.

eBay has gotten so big, that what its sellers need/what become unimportant.

Also, eBay needs to keep the numbers up for Wall Street. ANY trick or gimmick that they can use is one they WILL use.

If eBay was truly interested in helping sellers, they would make it easier for sellers to tailor their individual "store" and make it easier for THEIR buyers.

But eBay doesnt want/care about any of this. Its simply homogenize and bland down the site - so that it looks more "Amazon like" (but then stop complaining that "the other guy is SO beige" when you are doing it too.

Lastly, eBay is at a distinct disadvantage in the general ecommerce market. Sellers on eBay may have unique and individual items - that sell and make money - but the game "here" is Amazon vs Walmart (with Target looking to join in the fight).

There isnt an industry magazine or article that doesnt talk about it - and sales wise - eBay is a joke (volume wise if nothing else, dollar wise for sure, and stock price with out a doubt).

eBay MUST (in their minds) try and sell more non special items.  When people look for sundry items, for common items - and thats the BULK of online purchases ..... they DONT go to eBay.

I had a client that looked at Ziploc bags. The prices on eBay "retail" were 2-3x MORE on eBay then Amazon (and even LESS with PRIME)... and its those sales that eBay wants BADLY.

But with such BAD relationships with its sellers, manufacturers and Google - its not ever going to happen.

One day when eBay wakes up and starts to work WITH its sellers and not against them - then maybe things will change. Til then its more secret changes in the middle of the night .. "cause we felt like it".  

by: spooky

VERY IMPORTANT - is this for ALL transactions? Auctions should not be included as most folks use a sniper bid and are not even aware they have won for hours if not a day or 2!

by: Tinker Belle

I do not endure anywhere near the trouble with ''non-paying'' buyers, that I do with having to spend time revising separate, individual orders for items that can be shipped together, and should have been handled with a multiple item, ONE PACKAGE purchase in the first place.

Non-paying buyers? Only a very very few and all I do is send a reminder; then if no payment, cancel the sale and relist.

MORE IMPORTANT -- Instant Payment also significantly messes up the SALES TAX I must charge in my home state.  The law is that I must collect and remit sales tax BASED ON THE BUYER'S TAXING JURISDICTION.  Taxes range from around 6% to 11% in our state.

Ebay only allows ONE tax percent choice so I registered 8% which is the rate for my home's area. NOW, with INSTANT PAYMENT, ANY sale gets charged MY home rate - 8% - regardless of what rate the buyer is supposed to pay~!!

In fairness, if the buyer should pay less tax than I do, I refund the difference, BUT if s/he is supposed to pay more, I have to eat it! unless I want to risk an angry customer telling them they owe me an additional _% sales tax ?? The amount is usually small, but after a while it adds up!

INSTANT PAYMENT should never be REQUIRED !!! by eBay or anywhere else.  

by: Tinker Belle

@spooky - Sniping is irrelevant - the winning bid registers with eBay and you get an email from eBay that you've won. It doesn't matter how the winning bid is placed.  

by: epuise

I have NEVER had a problem GIVING BUYERS TIME TO PAY... as long as the BUYER CONTACTS ME & ASKS for it... I despise the new "no communication" / "no response at all" from these new "shoppers... a SELLER can be poorly rated on "no/poor communication"... why are "buyers" exempt ?

by: toolguy

@ pace306

You seem to think eBay is off course or don't know what they're doing.

psssst, they make almost $8 billion a year in PROFIT. They're doing better then ever from there point of view. . .eBay has more cash then common sense!

by: mcposty

I hate people who think because they sell 1000 products and have less then 10 non payers in 2 years that it's not a problem. Lol as if they represent the whole of the universe.

The company I work for gets 5 to 10 a day.

by: Disgruntled_Seller

It is a definitely a killer of time for the seller. As an example, this morning one customer had 20+ purchases all paid separately instead of using cart. Our BIN customers have always been able to BIN, BIN again and then payout when done or request a total. Our customer of course gets refunded when we combine his purchases, but he loses the Paypal base fee and eBay's cut of the commission of the shipping on each refund since we are not going to eat that. We loose about 30 minutes of time doing this.

by: RKTOYS

I've rarely been in a super hurry to be paid.  The kind of hoops I have to jump through to get PayPal to deposit in the business bank and the business bank to transfer to my real bank make that kind of pointless.  That said, I've never seen a real benefit to the delay either.  Getting people to buy two toys is really hard and God help you if they have to hit two listings to get them both.  It's sad because I see so many complaints about shipping costs but they won't buy enough to get over that fixed cost or get free shipping.

by: Don Wagner

That's a shame - will definitely affect my buying habits.

by: Stig of the Dump

eBay said, "have your buyers use the cart and ensure your combined shipping rules are set up so that it's automatically being combined for your buyer."

Can anyone tell me, what combined shipping rules are these? I know if they buy 2+ of the same item I can discount shipping on the additionals, but if they buy 2+ different items, there are no automatic combined shipping rules I know of.

by: Toledo Maude

Ebay sales are so slow, that after each of these covert under the cover of darkness ill conceived policy changes from eBay's ''crack MBA'' management team, I wonder why they even bother or the purpose of having a ''crack MBA'' management team. I guess the boys and girls on ''mahogany row'' need the MBA team to join them for lunch and justify the high priced California hotshot chefs.  

All of my eBay listings are collectibles with a make an offer option.  When the infrequent slow payer finally does pay, the usual comment is: ''Sorry, did not check my E-Mails after making an offer''.  

Could be that or more likely, the buyer did not check the shipping charges and were less than happy seeing the actual high shipping charges.  After a few days go by and eBay sends the nonpaying buyer a note on the consequences of ''nonpaying bidder strikes'', payment is receive capping off another ''eBay Happy Ending'' and wonderful buyer's experience.

To all of those lucky sellers who lives are complicated with orders for multiple items, I am envious.  Once in a ''blue moon'' does a buyer ask me for combined shipping.  Like having a buyer pay with a check, another lost eBay benefit.

by: The Grey Fox

Don't have a problem with this. As far as I know, eBay was the only e-commerce site that DIDN'T require immediate payment. I've never used RIP because eBay policy was to allow buyers a couple of days to pay and I didn't want to chase off customers with a more stringent policy. We do have customers who buy multiple items at once. If my combined shipping rule doesn't take effect for some reason, I'll refund the buyer the excess shipping. I realize eBay still gets commission on the full amount, but that's pennies. And when you give a buyer back their money you didn't deserve, you've made a friend for life.

by: Marie

@the grey fox

I don't think there is an objection to having IPR.  Sellers have always had the choice to choose IPR on their listings.  

For me and many others I am strongly against Ebay FORCING us to use IPR.  If I wanted to use IPR [which I do on about 1/2 my listings].  They are getting way to far UP my business.  I don't feel they have the right to force this.  They are a VENUE, NOT my Boss!!!!  If I don't want IPR, then I should not have to use IPR.  MY CHOICE NOT EBAY'S!

I certainly agree with you about combined shipping.  I do exactly what you do and have for years.  It works just fine for me and as you say, I've gain many repeat buyers because of it.

But the FORCED IPR IMHO will significantly reduce buyers purchasing multiple items and/or we are going to get a bunch of single purchases to the same buyer and then we have to clean up that mess.

If Ebay feels the answer to non paying buyers is IPR, then why not just have a campaign encouraging seller to use it more.  It is perfectly fine for a VENUE to do that.  It is NOT perfectly fine for them to FORCE us to use it.

by: Snapped

@ Greyfox - re: ''I realize eBay still gets commission on the full amount, but that's pennies.''

To be sure, a single given sales episode where such unilateral 'rebate' should ethically be made won't break the bank, but...

Question:  How MANY of MY (or anyone ELSE's) ''pennies'' would need to be stolen by eBay's associated to topic lack of ethics before it DOES become a issue worthy of concern?  

Follow up: How many of yours?

While thinking:  consider - How many 'multi-item' purchases are made this way (now to be made MORE inconvenient) across the venue on a given day?  Given that an average refund might be $10 (means 100 of those ''pennies'' retained in unearned fees per event), those pennies add up.  And the difference between sustained profit and business ending loss is, for many sellers, a matter of single percentage points.

by: BuildingMyOwnSite

@Snapped:

YES, It is the tiny amounts of a few pennies at a time, that have built the ENTIRE profit structure of the internet.

Resulting in the TEMPORARY increases in the bottoms lines, that pay the bonuses to the CEO's.

In the 1960's & 1970's These guys would have been run out of town, for theft of shareholder wealth.  Now shareholders are looking for 1 of 2 things.  Either:

Higher stock prices.
OR
Volatile stock prices.

Depending on how long they are in it for, and whether or not they like to sell short.

by: 1st Armored Div. 1971-1973

I am already being badgered by buyers complaining about having to pay immediately for items when they plan on a multi-item purchase. My failure rate is less than 1%. It is not a big deal to me if a buyer does not pay. It is a big deal to me keeping the other 99% happy. This sucks...