eBay

007steveb16 · ‎10-26-2013

Anyone have any experiance getting a negative removed in a case of a buyer very obviously leaving negative feedback in response to a UID being opened against them?

rose-dee · ‎10-31-2013

Pierre, I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've worked in retail as well as many years in the service industry, where clients are regularly permitted weeks, sometimes months to pay (with accumulated interest).

I have no problem with the concept at all. In fact, I had no problem with it earlier on in eBay, when "layaway" or extended terms were workable within the construct of eBay's policies at the time, and I openly offered this in my listings.

My argument was that -- unfortunately, but necessarily -- eBay has skewed its policies to favour a quick-pay, quick-turnover, quick-resolution mode of commerce. This is why I say that these days, unless you're in a situation with large volume or a bigger pocket book, largesse in payment terms on eBay is less feasible for the average "smaller" seller, and less safe for the average buyer. I'm sure this does not apply in other commercial or retail arenas, but it does clearly seem to be the direction eBay wants to go. My point was: why buck the eBay tide anymore?

pierrelebel · ‎10-31-2013

"why buck the eBay tide anymore?"

eBay is going the way of e-commerce where instant payments are expected. That is what those new larger sellers offering their wares at retail prices on eBay are expecting and demanding.

And the vast majority of eBay sellers are following.

However, there is nothing preventing a seller to offer longer terms of payment to a specific buyer in specific instances. Yes, the buyer may lose "protection" (for what it is worth) and both buyers and sellers may lose access to "feedback" (again, for what it is worth).

rose-dee · ‎10-31-2013

Pierre, I did wonder if this was the reason Paypal introduced the "Pay After Delivery" feature - to satisfy buyers who weren't willing or able to pay for their eBay purchases immediately.

However, that Paypal option seems to have disappeared. I'm not sure what happened, but I would have liked to be able to suggest it as an option to any buyer who was looking for a longer payment term (i.e. credit) that I'm not personally in a position to offer.

pierrelebel · ‎10-31-2013

From PayPal Help pages:

With Pay After Delivery, you don’t have to pay for your purchase until after you receive your item. Only certain purchases offer Pay After Delivery as a payment method. If it’s available, you’ll see the option on the Review Your Information page during checkout. There is no fee to schedule a payment using Pay After Delivery.

When you use Pay After Delivery, we pay the seller right away, so there's no delay in sending you the item. We withdraw the payment from your bank account 14 days later.

You still have full coverage on your payments. If you don’t receive your item or the item isn’t what you expected, just let us know by reporting a problem in the PayPal Resolution Center. If you report the problem within 14 days of making your purchase, we’ll put your payment on hold and you won’t pay until the dispute is resolved.

Note:

You need a confirmed bank linked to your PayPal account to use Pay After Delivery.
If there isn’t enough money in your bank account to complete your scheduled Pay After Delivery payment, we’ll use your backup payment method. We make two attempts to debit your bank account for a payment before we use your backup payment method.
If the Pay After Delivery option doesn’t appear during checkout, it’s not available to you yet. We are in the process making this feature available to more customers in the near future.

pierrelebel · ‎10-31-2013

Also, from the forum:

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/About-Payments-Archive/Pay-After-Delivery-why-not-available/td-p...

rose-dee · ‎10-31-2013

I checked the Paypal discussion string you linked, but I didn't see any informed poster actually indicate why it seems to turn on and turn off for the same buyer, for no apparent reason.

I've used it myself - it was being offered just about every time I went through the payment process from eBay a few months ago, then only haphazardly, and finally not at all. I thought perhaps that because I decided to pay immediately in the majority of transactions, the P.A.D. option got "turned off". I don't think purchase price was an issue -- these purchases were mostly around the same dollar value, from different sellers though. I really have no idea now.

Until Paypal makes this option consistently available (and preferably also gives the buyer some information in advance as to whether, and how much, credit will be extended), I won't be recommending it to my buyers.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-31-2013

I had heard rumors a while back about Ebay coming out with a new way of doing things in that if someone buys something, it stays available for someone else to purchase until payment is received. I like this, I do think there are some minor downsides to it, but I think this would be a positive thing overall. Perhaps it works better in certain problematic categories though.

There is a question in my mind about how eBay will be able to tell. For example, if the buyer pays by money order, it takes a while for the MO to arrive. What happens if the item sells again before the MO arrives? There needs to be more flexibility. (I prefer all my payments to be PP, but there are those, especially in the antiques category, who prefer MOs.

About “layaway”, taking a month or more to pay. The reason we so rarely see this offered anymore is that most people have credit cards and layaway is only necessary for those who cannot qualify for a card. And of course a few old fogies who cannot understand a changeover that happened thirty years ago.

Thing is............... Generalizing from your kind of buyer to mine does not work and that's what posters are trying to do

Very true. I’m lucky because book buyers tend to be able to read and will.

This is where many eBay sellers see it differently as most of their sales and marketing experience is limited to the online world (eBay and possibly other venues) with most expecting payment within hours or a few days.

True. But what was normal decades ago is not true today, necessarily.

Also, before a vendor gets those 30 and 45 days terms on payment he has to prove himself. Our auction house does not ship to most of our buyers until we are paid, but there are also a few buyers, mostly dealers, who pick up their purchases as they go out the door and send cheques, even post dated cheques, later. But again, they have track records.