New option in Seller Preferences/Blocked Buyers setting.. Require buyers to provide a payment method

[intimewithmusic]

Hi.

  Maybe you're aware but I found out today there's a new setting in Blocked Buyers under your Account Settings/Seller Preferences. 

"Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer."

The default is set to ON but you can turn it off. This may explain why a recent poster had a lady make an offer on an auction item and the system would not put her offer through.  I believe this new setting is in response to the Seller demand for automatic payment when an offer is accepted. It is causing many buyers to be upset because it doesn't allow for combining items into one shipment. 

  You have to decide if it will work best for you to turn it off or leave it on. The default setting is ON.

Just letting you know. Peace & love!

IT

[reallynicestamps]

Does that apply only to Blocked Bidders, including those Blocked automatically for Strikes?

Or is it all bidders?

Possibly eBay has noticed how many UIDs there are now that they are handling most of them automatically after four days. 

[msau4301 · Accepted solution]

Thanks very much for posting this! I think I may be the lady you are speaking of! You are right I believe that IS the reason my perspective buyer was getting so frustrated and leaving me many messages blaming me for the problem, saying it wouldn't work for her.  I just looked mine up and it is set to on (and I don't remember seeing it before either).

For now I think I'm going to leave it that way. I can see she was blocked from bidding on the same item (tried four separate times) - reason listed "too many unpaid item strikes".

This woman seemed pretty kooky, was very rude, not to mention messaged me like she had nothing else in the world to do. She was eventually able to place a bid....but then today lost out to someone else (woohoo!) but then started giving me **bleep** again....messaging me again every few seconds to see "what I was going to do about it".  I think maybe I'm better leaving these types as far away as possible!

[intimewithmusic]

A great many Seller Preference settings have been released in the US. One of them, unless you toggle it off (Default is "ON"), is that your phone number is made available to buyers. This setting is in the seller Settings/ Communications With Buyers choices. I am on Ebay Canada. When I checked to see if that had been implemented in my settings the page kept coming up as " It's Not you It's Us". 

Best to keep an eye on this or ask Tyler about new Seller Settings if you are curious.

IT

[intimewithmusic]

My understanding is if a bidder submits an offer,

before the offer is presented to the seller who has their setting turned to ON,

eBay will ask the seller for a payment method prior to forwarding the offer to the seller. 

(sorry for the "run on")

Immediately the seller accepts the offer the buyers payment is complete and the sale is complete meaning that final value fees, the transaction fee, and if applicable, the international transaction fee will also complete. 

If the buyer wishes to buy 3 or 4 items then each offer, upon acceptance, will incur all of the above fees individually even if the seller can fit everything into the same shipment. 

[reallynicestamps]

Since the Best Offer he gave includes whatever the shipping was (and it can't be changed), then the seller has choices.

He can send a partial refund of the total shipping cost.

He can make a counter offer that allows for the reduced shipping cost.

EG Three items listed at $10 each with $5 shipping.

Best Offer $7 each with $5 shipping.  Total $26.

But shipping will actually only cost the seller $5.

Counter offer $2 each on two of the items and $7 on the third all with $5 shipping. Total $26.

The first is easier to understand.

[intimewithmusic]

Hi. For some reason I still can't get into my "Communication With Buyers" page to see the other new options. I've been locked out all day. I think eBay implements the new stuff in rashes of accounts. apparently other sellers have access. 

I keep offers short & sweet.  I don't even add messages to counter offers anymore. For me it seems like less is more.  Maybe it's my kind of items but I rarely get an offer from anyone who wants to "dicker". It's "fish on" or maybe one counter and then it's in the boat or gone bye bye.  What works for me is just swapping a price when your standing so close to the cash register.  It's differerent if you are communicating through the msg system.

I think your point about partial refunds is important. I can only speak for myself but I assume a lot of sellers do partials and sacrifice their FV fees just to move on.

For example I recently sent a NOS Wynonna Judds black T shirt to a US buyer for free. I noticed it had previously unseen damage (acid rot) when I packed it. this is something that is currently riddling the t shirt industry. I communicated to her and sent her photos. She still wanted the shirt. She was willing  to pay to have it shipped. Acid rot renders the item unwearable but she wanted to frame it so I sent it for free. If I charged her for it then on arrival she could say NAD as I told her about the problem on the phone not through msging. 

Rather than cancel the order, reprice it as free and do a private listing I refunded what she paid for the shirt. I would have had to destroy the shirt anyway.  I could have retained the fees paid but I personally don't want to do a song and dance over a few bucks with a customer who is working with me that well. I actually included some other bits of memorabilia with it.

Ebay is keeping a lot of FV fees due to partial refunders like me. I suppose that comes from 25 years in brick & mortar and doesn't apply to online but it does apply to one's conscience.  She was very happy. It cost me about $4.50 all said and done and she had a great experience on eBay. 

Of course by doing that for her I greatly reduced my chance of receiving negative feedback.  I guess I won't find that out until she gets the shirt! 🙂

[msau4301]

I'm with you in terms of sometimes taking a small loss and doing something that make's someone "very happy". My concience is always in play (as is my overthinking!) but I know some of those happy customers can easily become regular customers. I'd guestimate at least 60% of my sales are repeat customers. I have a handful (maybe 4 or 5) who have been with me for almost my entire selling time here (about 8 years).

Even if they don't come back there is always karma!