Ebay Automatic Payment
 

I don't know if this has been discussed. I went to bid today on ebay, and it would not allow me to bid unless I confirmed I would allow automatic payment after winning an auction. I'm sure every seller will feel good about this; I know a lot of people fail to pay. But it bothers me. I've never retracted a bid or not paid. Does this bother anyone else?

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As a seller, I think I'd rather it not be there. While it may help to curb shill bidding, it will also discourage bidders who would have otherwise paid.

As a buyer it doesn't bother me

The only personal downside I can see is that I sometimes use cashback referral links to pay for items in my eBay cart, but I have to either click through manually or activate a browser extension. That's not an option when the process is automated.

Don’t care as a buyer

Love it as a seller. Have had too many things go unpaid.

As a buyer, if I was buying a single item, I would be fine with it. However, if I were bidding on multiple items w/o free s/h, this option would discourage me from bidding due to the hassle of having to reach out and contact the seller for a s/h discount.

I would welcome it as a buyer if it's an option that I elect to choose. When you want to make an offer and there is no other way but to accept allowing this automatic payment, I hate it.

+1 My only small complaint is having to move cash to my account without knowing if I won. Weirdly the only account I have ever had hacked is my ebay/paypal bank account and it has been hit multiple times. So we only keep a small amount of money in it and just transfer money into it when we buy stuff.

Me to! You try to get a combined shipping invoice and it tells you the buyer doesn't have combined shipping but in the descriptions most say they have combined shipping discounts so you have to contact the seller and go through all that nonsense. Ebay doesn't exactly have brilliant management.

I'm committed to the card I won anyway, so no big deal for me.

A couple of less steps for the transaction on my end as a buyer.

Set it and forget it, in many ways.


Butch T.

Not sure why it’s all that disturbing. It just makes your offer self-executing if the seller accepts it.

The seller can turn off this feature if they don’t want it. And if this feature sticks in your craw, then you can always decline to make an offer on pieces that require your payment data in order to make an offer.

As previously stated, buying multiple items from the same seller with combined shipping is impossible this way.

Gotcha. I guess I don't buy multiple items very often, at least not when making an offer on a BIN item.

Seems like your only hope is to contact the seller to try to work out a deal on a group of items with combined shipping. Most sellers are willing to communicate and if it means landing a sale, then they're typically happy to chat about the possibilities. Obviously this is more work, so I suppose that's still a hassle.

The other alternative is to live without combined shipping. Or just don't buy from sellers who require your payment deets when you make an offer.

Yes, have to request the fixed invoice and it’s a crap shoot on if the seller will acknowledge it

With all of the issues with eBay shipping combinations, etc., I decided to add the shipping costs to the card price and just do free shipping. Makes life a lot easier and since eBay dings me for a fee on the shipping anyway, doesn't set my teeth clenching as much as it would as a separate charge, which is irrational yet still effective.

As for the OP, I definitely prefer the autopay option as both a seller and a buyer. I don't like to sweat a sale or spend more time arranging a payment. I have a dedicated credit card set for my buys, which I pay off every month, so it isn't a cash transfer issue either. FWIW, whatnot requires it and it is silky smooth for a seller. You never even worry about tracking whether the card has been paid, you just know it has if the sale goes through.

If I'm bidding, and this decreases the amount of other people bidding on the item, I'm all for it.

If I'm selling, and this eliminates or significantly decreases the possibility of someone accepting one of my offers and not paying, I'm all for it.

I seldom run auctions. Nearly all of my listings (mainly vinyl records and comic books) are set to BIN. So, from my perspective, the prospect of less bidders "fighting it out" at the end is irrelevant.

There are likely some people with valid reasons for taking umbrage with this move. For example, combined shipping might take a little extra effort and a small amount of communication. Overall, though, this move seems like a positive step.

I imagine it will be looked at in a manner similar to the authenticity guarantee program. No matter how helpful it might be for the vast majority of users, there will be a few whose situation makes the whole thing a PITA. And, of course, there will some users for whom there will be no significant impact. However, it's change...of some sort...on some level. They'll gripe and grumble, b*tch and moan, complain for months...

Not sure if I'm alone here but what bothers me is just that I've found this feature to be buggy. I've updated the information for the auto-pay to a new account many times only to have it keep reverting to an old account. Can't seem to figure out if I'm doing something wrong, or if it's a bug in the system. The old account is now non-existent, so I'm worried the next time I bid on something my payment may bounce.

It’s great.

Use a credit card. Then you don’t have to worry about “moving money around” in case you dont win/offer isnt accepted.

Plus you get rewards. Pay off the balance in a day or two when the charge goes through.

Not sure why everyone doesn’t do this. Rewards + another level of security using a CC makes it a no brained.

The other day I bought 11 Barry Larkin cards from the same seller, all sold in auction format. $4.50 shipping per card. If multiple items bought, each additional item cost 50 cents. I would have never bid on these cards if I was going to be subjected to $50 shipping that I may or may not get back. And in my case, $50 came to more than the 11 cards totaled.

My card has also been hacked multiple times when I pay directly through Ebay. It has never been hacked through PayPal. My wife's credit card has never been hacked, but she also doesn't use Ebay. So we know that Ebay is the problem. Ebay is not safe for financial security. Since the last time my card was hacked, two years ago, I've only ever paid through PayPal. With that option removed through automatic payment, I have very little confidence that ebay can keep my informaiton secure.

I was opted in to this also, I have my auto-payment set up with a credit card thru Paypal. I don't trust ebay either and this way I don't have to.

Yesterday I made offers on 5 cards with the same seller. I sent a note asking if he would make me 1 listing for the 5 cards so he saved on transaction fees. He accepted all 5 offers and combined shipping - no problem.

I didn't see that it could link with Paypal. That makes it slightly better, but doesn't resolve the issue of combined shipping.

Another time I bought multiple items from the same seller was with Greg Morris Cards maybe two years ago. He had a 1991 Topps Desert Shield set break. I bought 20 or so cards of the Cincinnati Reds. I don't know if I would have done that without combined shipping.

What if you were outbid in the final second on 10 of the 11 Barry Larkin cards? I imagine you would have been none too happy to have to pay $4.50 shipping for a single card that only cost a couple of bucks. With the automatic payment in place, you would have had no choice, that’s the way it would have ended up. Do you think there are very many sellers out there that would have sympathized with you and cancelled the sale for you and refunded your money?

Was this a bid or an offer to "buy-it-now"?

As a seller I turned off "Require Immediate Payment" hoping it makes it easier for the buyer.

As a buyer I will often purchase eBay gift cards from Target.com since I get 5% off. If I have to set my payment before the eBay transaction I can't easily use a gift card.

it was for a current auction still running.

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I've paid $5 shipping before. that's just the way it is being a Reds collector in WA State.

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If I'm getting several items from the seller. Hate it.

It's a pain to do the shipping discount & a few sellers never gave the refund/discount after saying they would...

I once bought about 12 York Caramel cards on ebay. The total for all 12 was something like 300-400 dollars. The seller had something like $12.99 shipping on each card. I called him and he wouldn't combine the delivery. I got separate boxes and he got a neutral feedback.
As for auto pay, it's fine with me. Sometimes ebay will charge right after the sale and other times I have to pay manually.
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Dang I’m trying to pay for a card right now and eBay says I have insufficient funds - I have funds to buy this card a dozen times - I reentered my bankCard information and it still says I have insufficient funds - Also says try again later so I guess I’ll try again later ( I sent the seller a note )