I just attempted to make an ebay bid. It appeared to require me to authorize them to go ahead and charge my paypal account 1 hour after the auction closes, rather than notifying me that I have won and letting me close out the purchase. Is this new? Did anyone get an announcement that this was coming?

This must be a new "feature" they are testing. It does not appear to be for all auctions at this time.

Some thoughts...

It's not unheard of for auction houses to require a deposit or CC on file to be able to bid, not too different that that.

As a seller, there is about a 5% deadbeat rate on auctions. People just don't pay. So, I don't have a problem with this, but I would have to see if that hour allows for combined orders if you win more than 1 auction.

If it's optional, I don't see me using the service. But, I sure would for any high dollar item that is likely to not be a combined order.

Finally, it might stop sniping services dead in their tracks, or at the very least create a whole new system where you might have to trust them with your payment information.

Ed

I've never seen nor heard of this for auctions.

When making an offer now I do have to preapprove the payment method if the offer is accepted, which doesn't really bother me, except if you are making multiple offers in a row to the same person (i.e. if your offer is immediately and automatically rejected) you have to reauthorize each time.

If they implement something similar on bids that negatively impacts sniping that will be very bad for sellers -- at least in the short term.

The part about not telling that you won is weird. Sounds more like a technical glitch.

I have been seeing the pre payment agreement on some auctions for over a year, especially on BOs.

It seems to be a feature the seller can run as an option. It certainly is not on every auction.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

When making an offer now I do have to preapprove the payment method if the offer is accepted,

Yes, the last time I made an offer, the purchase went right on through immediately instead of me getting a notification that yes, the seller had accepted the offer. I was surprised.

Hmm, I have a couple of high dollar auctions running right now. I didn’t have that option as a seller to require that. I wonder if ebay is doing it without the seller’s knowledge.

Ebay now has this new thing where if you place an OFFER and if the Seller accepts it, Ebay immediately charges your credit card or Paypal.

It never used to be like that. In the past, they'd send you an invoice.

Happened to me last week.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
Ebay now has this new thing where if you place an OFFER and if the Seller accepts it, Ebay immediately charges your credit card or Paypal.

It never used to be like that. In the past, they'd send you an invoice.

Happened to me last week.

I’ve seen that forever from a buying perspective. From a selling perspective there is a tiny little box we check somewhere in the listing to require immediate payment. I don’t like that feature. If a person sees a card they really want today, but don’t get paid until Tuesday(or whatever), you lose a sale IMO. They may spend their money elsewhere between now and Tuesday. I’m sympathetic to folks needing a new paycheck for new disposable income.