What the hell has ebay done with accepting best offers as a seller?

[Ericc5Bears]

A few days ago, something weird started happening with some of the items I was selling via best offer. A buyer would send an offer and I would accept it, but the listing wouldn't end. Instead, it would essentially give a 24 hour timer for the buyer to make the payment at the agreed upon price. If they don't, the item just remains active like the offer never happened. So an example that happened yesterday:

Seller sends a $400 offer on my item listed for $499 OBO
I accept it
Listing doesn't end, 24 hour payment clock starts
Buyer just ends up not paying and the offer expires

As a seller this seems like an absolutely awful change. Some buyers take more than 24 hours to pay which I (and I imagine most other sellers) have no problem with. Also, it doesn't seem like ebay is giving buyers non-payment strikes for this since the listing doesn't end so it essentially gives buyers a get out of jail free card. "Oh wow, he actually accepted that offer? Let me double check comps real quick.....yeahhh actually seems like I overpaid a bit let me just let the 24 hours run and not pay." Plus what the hell happened to auto charging buyers when an offer is accepted? I've now had about 5 of these "offer accepted item not ended" situations and none of the buyers were auto-charged. Luckily 4 of the 5 paid a few hours later but as mentioned earlier, one person also just didn't. This is clearly rolling out on a somewhat limited basis as not all of the offers I accept are operating like this but it seems like a disaster so far.

[ThatGuyPal]

I haven't seen the issue but yeah that does sound pretty bad. Especially the non-payment as now if a player is approaching some milestone a buyer can basically "layaway" the card and then hit buy if the player hits milestone. Vice versa if something happens in the game negatively they have a get out of jail free card as you said. The ONLY advantage I can see is if listing does really remain active and there is no type of hold for the offer, someone may just hit the full buy now price in meantime but that's doubtful and if a player has a good game the offerer will likely jus be sitting waiting to hit buy.

[Bob Ross]

Yep, happened to me last week on a ton of my items. I accept an offer from a buyer, then it's as if that creates an "agreement" so that the buyer can make sure they want the item, then checkout if so at the agreed price. All the while, the item stays live for everyone else to buy too.

One buyer got p1ssed off at me when an item we agreed on an offer, someone else bought it while the item was still live.

It's maybe the worst change on ebay of all time.

[fabiani12333]

Yeah, that's basically one-day layaway. It gives the buyer the option to not pay with no consequences. The autopay feature was much better for sellers.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

One buyer got p1ssed off at me when an item we agreed on an offer, someone else bought it while the item was still live.

Hmm -- that's a good thing for buyers and eBay if the item sells for more. It's up to the buyer to pay the Best Offer price ASAP if they want the item at a discount. Otherwise, they could have paid the BIN price just like everyone else.

[AwesomeBrian]

Happened to me, I thought it was a glitch

[GuacamoleCards]

Do you have "require immediate payment" selected under "Payment Policy" in the Pricing Section?

[PrinceVegeta]

Lost multiple sales to this as well. Very cool

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

Hmm -- that's a good thing for buyers and eBay if the item sells for more. It's up to the buyer to pay the Best Offer price ASAP if they want the item at a discount. Otherwise, they could have paid the BIN price just like everyone else.

This appears to be correct and what they're testing. I assume that on the buyers side, the price of the item changes to the "agreed" price for 24 hours while it stays live at the regular ask price for everyone else.

Originally Posted by GuacamoleCards

Do you have "require immediate payment" selected under "Payment Policy" in the Pricing Section?

I sure do.

Originally Posted by PrinceVegeta

Lost multiple sales to this as well. Very cool

Always fun. Fanatics beating us over the heads with price gouging and watered down products wasn't enough. Now ebay is doing weird stuff.

[msucollector4]

It is incredibly annoying, and I don't remember advertising this change.

[pokemaniac]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Yep, happened to me last week on a ton of my items. I accept an offer from a buyer, then it's as if that creates an "agreement" so that the buyer can make sure they want the item, then checkout if so at the agreed price. All the while, the item stays live for everyone else to buy too.

One buyer got p1ssed off at me when an item we agreed on an offer, someone else bought it while the item was still live.

It's maybe the worst change on ebay of all time.

Almost happened to me a month ago. Luckily, I was near my phone when the seller accepted my offer.

[Promethius88]

The best situation is that if the buyer makes an offer and the seller accepts, there is an automatic payment set up. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be happening.
I'm probably in the minority here but I like it. Gets frustrating when you accept an offer or send an offer that is accepted, then the buyer goes 4 days and doesn't pay. Had that happen way too often. I also don't think it should take any more than 24 hours to pay for an item that obviously you were interested in so much that you made an offer. As a buyer, I'm all over that and making payment as soon as possible.

[johnscards]

Interesting. All the offers I send to sellers are autopaid as soon as the seller accepts. Maybe that is a buried setting or something? I don't get any option to wait 24 hours to pay, it's all automatic.

[prospectorgems]

Originally Posted by johnscards

Interesting. All the offers I send to sellers are autopaid as soon as the seller accepts. Maybe that is a buried setting or something? I don't get any option to wait 24 hours to pay, it's all automatic.

Same and I don't even have auto-pay turned on but every offer that's been sent and accepted by the buyer they auto-pay.

[Ericc5Bears]

Originally Posted by Ericc5Bears

A few days ago, something weird started happening with some of the items I was selling via best offer. A buyer would send an offer and I would accept it, but the listing wouldn't end. Instead, it would essentially give a 24 hour timer for the buyer to make the payment at the agreed upon price. If they don't, the item just remains active like the offer never happened. So an example that happened yesterday:

Seller sends a $400 offer on my item listed for $499 OBO
I accept it
Listing doesn't end, 24 hour payment clock starts
Buyer just ends up not paying and the offer expires

As a seller this seems like an absolutely awful change. Some buyers take more than 24 hours to pay which I (and I imagine most other sellers) have no problem with. Also, it doesn't seem like ebay is giving buyers non-payment strikes for this since the listing doesn't end so it essentially gives buyers a get out of jail free card. "Oh wow, he actually accepted that offer? Let me double check comps real quick.....yeahhh actually seems like I overpaid a bit let me just let the 24 hours run and not pay." Plus what the hell happened to auto charging buyers when an offer is accepted? I've now had about 5 of these "offer accepted item not ended" situations and none of the buyers were auto-charged. Luckily 4 of the 5 paid a few hours later but as mentioned earlier, one person also just didn't. This is clearly rolling out on a somewhat limited basis as not all of the offers I accept are operating like this but it seems like a disaster so far.

Funny enough the guy who offered $400 on the $499 card a few days ago and ended up not paying made the same offer again today. Since he had a lot of feedback I accepted again and this time messaged him informing him of the new change and the fact that he has to pay within 24 hours or else the offer expires. He messaged me back shortly after thanking me for the heads up and told me he wasn't even notified the first time around that his offer had been accepted and just assumed it had expired so he re-offered it. He then paid a few minutes after responding back to me. Could be a lie but based on the fact he has a ton of feedback with no mentions of not paying and the fact that he paid almost immediately after I messaged him I'm inclined to believe that he legitimately didn't even know his offer had been accepted the first time.

[imbluestreak23]

The full blown bend over backwards Amazon style approach caving to buyers demands is getting ridiculous.

Did have one go in my favor as some idiot bought a card last night, auto paid, put in a cancel request and bought another copy I had up for $20 more because he "liked it better." <<-- rare beneficial exception to the cancellation annoyance.

[pokemaniac]

Originally Posted by Ericc5Bears

Funny enough the guy who offered $400 on the $499 card a few days ago and ended up not paying made the same offer again today. Since he had a lot of feedback I accepted again and this time messaged him informing him of the new change and the fact that he has to pay within 24 hours or else the offer expires. He messaged me back shortly after thanking me for the heads up and told me he wasn't even notified the first time around that his offer had been accepted and just assumed it had expired so he re-offered it. He then paid a few minutes after responding back to me. Could be a lie but based on the fact he has a ton of feedback with no mentions of not paying and the fact that he paid almost immediately after I messaged him I'm inclined to believe that he legitimately didn't even know his offer had been accepted the first time.

Originally Posted by imbluestreak23

The full blown bend over backwards Amazon style approach caving to buyers demands is getting ridiculous.

Did have one go in my favor as some idiot bought a card last night, auto paid, put in a cancel request and bought another copy I had up for $20 more because he "liked it better." <<-- rare beneficial exception to the cancellation annoyance.

This also hurts honest buyers. Like the guy above mentioned, I was lucky that I was near my phone, but I had no idea that he had accepted my offer until I checked the listing again. Even so, it's also possible someone else could have swooped in and bought the card after my offer was accepted. You may want to start sending dms to those sending best offers as it's possible they're completely unaware.

[Ichi]

I've had this occur a couple of times, and I believe it autopaid for the buyer after 24 hours.

I don't really like it, it's giving too much leeway to the buyer to second guess and back out. Why the hell am I accepting your offer if you don't have to pay? You make an offer, pay the price, and we can move on.

[theleica]

As a buyer, this just happened to me for the first time and it really confuse me. I put an offer on a video game for my son and I got a counter offer. I clicked Accept and I had no clue I bought it.

It is pretty odd this new system. I only realized I bought it checking my email just now so I went back into the eBay app and and went to the cart and above the cart it said pay for this item before somebody else buys it or something of the sort.

So by accepting the counter offer that was sent to me, I’m not obligated to buy it? I paid for the item so I fulfilled my end, but this is just weird. And I can see how a seller this is gonna be horrible.

Edit : I should clarify a little. When I clicked accept I figured I was just gonna get charged. Like normal. Because when I made the offer, it asks for my PayPal account or however I’m gonna pay. So I can see why as a buyer you wouldn’t know to pay because in the past, you would click accept and be auto charged

[TimBuckTwo]

Yes I have seen similar and even called them on it. Reason being was that after the purchase with best offer acceptance I wanted to relist because I had more of the same item but it came up with you can't because the listing was still active.

My thoughts, it keeps the listing active at higher price in anticipation of someone buying it at higher price and then they make more money on the fees.

[imbluestreak23]

This is what happens when more millennial MBAs graduate, are hired, and asked to squeeze out more profit for the publicly traded company.

Late stage capitalistic market. Tough to mount a competitor, moat is too large.

[DynaEtch]

Every single time I make an offer as a buyer, and have made a lot over the last week, it requires payment method for automatic payment, which is then finalized soon after acceptance. So idk. Whatever it is, I’m not seeing it, as either buyer or seller.

If the seller-accepts-offer was within a chain of negotiations originating from a sellers offer, then yes the buyers offer may not require immediate payment (e.g. seller sends offer, buyer counters, then seller accepts).

[Archangel1775]

If it stays live at the regular price , I don't see a problem with it. Once buyers figure it out, they are more apt to pay right away

[theleica]

A little bit more insight. This happened again this morning.

A seller sent me an offer. The only two options are go to check out and decline offer.

If you click go to check out, you have I guess technically agreed to buy the item although you have 24 hours to check out and anyone else can buy the item within that time period.

So as a seller, if you are sending offers to people that save your listing and they click that it shows up as somebody bought your item. I think although the buyer hasn’t committed to buying it.

[MJGOAT23]

eBay must be thinking this helps the seller by motivating the buyer to complete the transaction right away, so as not to lose the deal. It can backfire and annoy a customer if someone else swoops in but I don't like how the listing is locked while another buyer contemplates completing the purchase so I see this as having some merit. I'll add that this should be automatically disclosed by Ebay on any offer correspondence.