buyer wants to make instalments

[lshealshea1234]

my buyer wants to make instalments. how do I set this up? thanks

[femmefan1946]

Tell him to go to his Paypal account and attach a credit card.

Then he pays you through PP and the payment is charged to his card.

He can then pay the card off at his leisure.

This is what credit cards are for. If he can't qualify for one, you have no obligation to help someone who is such a credit risk out.

The advantage to him is that he gets the item immediately, since you are paid immediately, and not weeks or months from now when he finally completes payment.

Frame it as an advantage to him.

Do NOT send the item until it is completely paid for.  Do NOT mark the item Paid until it is completely paid for.

Frankly I would also Block the customer. His eyes are bigger than his pocketbook.

[xeposter]

I have no idea what instalments are my myself...I looked it up in "Help & Contact," But didn't get any results. Did you mean "INSTALLMENTS?" Is "instalments" a typo?

Alex

[femmefan1946]

It means making several small payments over a period of time.

Sometimes called 'the never-never' or 'layaway'.

"Installments" is an acceptable alternate spelling. Like 'picnicking' or 'aluminium'.  (I'm a retired copy editor. Who makes typos. )

[dmil8030]

Hello 'lshealshea1234', 

<< my buyer wants to make instalments. how do I set this up? >>

It sounds like the buyer is asking about a lay-away plan.  There is no official way to go about it, -- ebay is not really

designed for that.  

Did the buyer give you any indication about how much or how often the payments would be?  She may be used to 

doing this in local shops where she lives.  Many stores offer a lay-away plan.  

If she has a paypal account attached only to a bank account, she can add a credit card to her pp account and have 

the payment made that way.  Then, she pays off the card in installments.  

If she does not have a paypal account but does have a credit card, she can simply use her card at the checkout and 

pay off the card balance in installments.  

If she does not have a credit card, she may be perfectly responsible and reliable but very young.  Young people often 

do not have cards and it is wise to wait until after college graduation to apply for one.  

Otherwise she ought to be saving up her money in installments so that when she comes to ebay she is armed and 

ready to buy.  

Personally, if it were me, I would urge her to either pay for it somehow  or cancel.  Even if you agree to take regular 

paypal invoice payments until it is paid for, she may change her mind at some point and want all her money back.

If the item has "sold" already you will have to pay fees on it right away even though you have no idea when or even if 

you will finally see all the money.  

Ultimately you must make your own decision on what to do about it, since you will have to live with the results.  

I wish you all the best. 

[xeposter]

I understand now. Thanks for telling me 🙂

Alex

[pocomocomputing]

I thought eBay.com had Bill Me Later

http://billmelater.ebay.com/

Now part of PayPal and is called PayPal credit.

[dmil8030]

<<I thought eBay.com had Bill Me Later   http://billmelater.ebay.com/

 Now part of PayPal and is called PayPal credit.>>

Yes, that may be something the buyer has used previously.  Perhaps she expected to find this option at the 

checkout and did not, and subsequently inquired with the seller about how to arrange for installments.  

From the ebay link you provided, however, the option is not available to Canadian sellers:

"Bill Me Later is available at eBay sellers based in the U.S. with the following category exceptions: . . . non U.S. sellers". . .

It's not well worded, but it may be that the buyer did not see the option and wondered why, not realizing that 

a seller in Canada cannot use it. 

[femmefan1946]

 She may be used to 

doing this in local shops where she lives.  Many stores offer a lay-away plan.  

I've worked in stores that did that.

What the customer does not realize is that the store is getting paid immediately.

The contract goes to a finance company (we used Household Finance) who get the payment or payments. If the purchase is not paid in full by the end of the term there were huge interest charges, around 25or 30% annually if I recall correctly.

The finance company pays the store less than the total for the purchase-- again about 85% of the purchase price if I am remembering right.

So if you bought a living room set for $1000, the store would get $850. If you did not pay the finance company $850 at the end of the 12 month contract, they would charge you $1250+ to pay it off, although this would usually turn into monthly payments.

Which means, I think, that the finance company makes a loan of $850 and gets a return of $400+ on it.

It is not the responsibility of the seller to finance an aspirational lifestyle unless you can figure out a way to charge her nearly double the original price.

[retroman_studios]

PayPal gives me the option to "Pay After Delivery" which schedules a payment 21 days after a transaction, useful for when a transaction goes bad.

But other than that, in Canada we've never had any official lay away plan on eBay, too risky.

[lady.stark]

It is possible to set this up in PayPal. You will need the email address of the buyer, which is usually sent in eBay's email when the buyer has committed to buy the item. You then create an invoice. Near the bottom, you can tick off a box that says something like "Authorise partial payment". Click on that. You can then set up the minimum amount you want as a first payment. Then the buyer can pay the rest according to your agreement. Once the invoice is paid in full, you can mark the item as paid in eBay and ship (if it is an eBay transaction of course).

I did this once and it worked fine (it was not an eBay transaction though).

[mcrlmn]

The unfortunate aspect is that by the time the final payment is made, eBay's estimated delivery date is near or elapsed.

The buyer may inadvertently answer the dreaded feedback question, 'No'.

eBay would probably reverse the defect, but it would be a pain having to go through the process.

[hlmacdon]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

Tell him to go to his Paypal account and attach a credit card.

Then he pays you through PP and the payment is charged to his card.

He can then pay the card off at his leisure.

This is what credit cards are for. If he can't qualify for one, you have no obligation to help someone who is such a credit risk out.

---

This. Ebay is not a kmart layaway plan. Bad enough with buyers who expect 1-3 weeks as reasonable timelines to make payment.

[xeposter]

If you do use installments, be careful if the buyer says they will send you "monthly" PayPal payments after you send them the item. You never know...they might never pay for it once they get it.

Alex

[lady.stark]

---

@mcrlmn wrote:

The unfortunate aspect is that by the time the final payment is made, eBay's estimated delivery date is near or elapsed.

The buyer may inadvertently answer the dreaded feedback question, 'No'.

eBay would probably reverse the defect, but it would be a pain having to go through the process.

---

This estimated date is only beginning when payment is made. So if the seller only mark it as shipped once the total payment has been made, the "countdown" starts from that date. Not when the buyer won the item. At least, that is how I undertand it. If I'm wrong, this is total nonsense from eBay's part.

[lady.stark]

---

@x..e wrote:

If you do use installments, be careful if the buyer says they will send you "monthly" PayPal payments after you send them the item. You never know...they might never pay for it once they get it.

Alex

---

The seller will ship the item once and only once the full payment has been made. It would be very unwise to ship it before that.

[pierrelebel]

"If you do use installments, be careful if the buyer says they will send you "monthly" PayPal payments after you send them the item."

I do not think items sold on eBay are meant to be sold by installment with the seller carrying the risks.

Now, in the "real world" it is not unusual for some businesses to sell large lots with payments spread over a long period of time.

Several years ago when i started disposing of my excess inventory I sold a $10,000 lot to a reputable dealer with $2,000 down and $2,000 a month paid through post-dated cheques.  It was a great deal all around as he sold most of the inventory over that period of time and paid me with the cash flow generated by his sales.

I almost had a similar but much larger deal late last year but, unfortunately, the buyer could not provide satisfactory evidence of credit-worthiness.

[sylviebee]

A buyer just emailed asking if she could make 2 payments if I accept her offer on a higher end purse.

I'm OK with that, but does anyone have any tips on how to deal with a sale like this within the confines of the eBay system?

[pjcdn2005]

I'm not sure if this is what you are asking but you would have to send a paypal invoice and then manually mark the item paid once it had been paid in full. Late shipping etc wouldn't go into effect until the item had been marked as being paid.

At one time the Paypal user agreement stated that there was no buyer protection when an item was paid in installments..I think..but am not sure that there was or is something similar in the eBay rules too but  I haven't looked for it on either site lately so the wording might have been taken out.

[sylviebee]

Thank You PJ. I was trying to figure out if I could change the eBay invoice to be half of the selling price for the first payment but I don't think so.

I'd have to get her paypal address and invoice from there both times.

Makes sense.