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.

I tried placing an ebay bid today, and for the first time it happened to me.

Ebay is now demanding that you provide the credit card info up front when you place a bid.

What happened to getting the invoice first and then you select which card to use ?

It hasn't happened to me. Ebay already has my payment info at sign-in. They ask again?

I have seen the flag about making an offer and it going through automatically if the offer is accepted. It's great for the seller and it works for me as a buyer especially if I make the offer late at night and I don't get back until after work the next day. The item might already be in the mail.

quote:

Originally posted by David R:
I tried placing an ebay bid today, and for the first time it happened to me.

Ebay is now demanding that you provide the credit card info up front when you place a bid.

What happened to getting the invoice first and then you select which card to use ?

Here's the catch! The seller doesn't get paid until 4 days later. This means that eBay can make millions of extra dollars a year on the interest they earn between getting paid immediately and then doling out the payment to the seller days later. They are after all, a publicly traded company and always looking to improve their bottom line.

quote:

Originally posted by promoking:
Here's the catch! The seller doesn't get paid until 4 days later. This means that eBay can make millions of extra dollars a year on the interest they earn between getting paid immediately and then doling out the payment to the seller days later. They are after all, a publicly traded company and always looking to improve their bottom line.

Not too sure about 4 days to wait before you get the payment as a seller. With my recent sales I have been able to transfer the money left after fees about 48 hours after the sale. There has been another new feature included though. The money is no longer automatically transferred to my bank account. It goes into my eBay account where it can be used to buy more stuff or pay eBay fees. I get the option to transfer it to my bank account. The transfer does happen pretty much straight away so it isn't all bad

Yeah, I had no delays with payment going to my bank; payment was in there the next day after transfer. I guess it depends on your bank, perhaps.

As a seller I love the pre authorized payment. Even if I set up a price I'll automatically accept, the amount of times I've had to wait around for payment is irritating, plus the non-payers even in that scenario. And, as a buyer, no longer waiting around for a seller to accept the offer and send out an invoice.

However, I did discover an unusual loophole recently. I sold an item on Best Offer, and the payment should have been taken from the buyer immediately, and it wasn't. I contacted the buyer and he said if it hadn't gone through he'd pay me manually the next day. That didn't happen, so I contacted ebay and suggested to them that the payment bounced. OH NO, that doesn't and CAN'T happen, but we'll investigate further.
2 days later the buyer manually paid, no problem. 2 days after that ebay got back to me and said the reason the automatic payment didn't go through was because the buyer had insufficient funds. So it DID bounce. I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say the buyer didn't know he was down to zero on his debit account or his wages hadn't cleared when they should have, but it was a confusing, strange transaction. Therefore, ebay can authorize a payment, but there's no indication to them if the funds are actually available to pay until the transaction is actually attempted on offer acceptance.

You can change your payment method in your settings. It's a bit of faffing around, but if you see an item you want, you can change your preferred payment, then when you put an offer in, it will be in your new chosen method.