Ebay Started Autopaying On Winning Bids
 

I won a couple of cheap items on Ebay today and noticed this notification started showing up at the top. It says my credit card will be automatically charged in an hour. This is great. It means it will be harder to shill bid, have buyers who don’t pay or are slow to pay, etc. Seems like a step in the right direction.

That's fine for some, perhaps, but not for all. Other people use more than one shipping address and unless they are immediately available within the hour to make sure things are processed in the best way, this will be an inconvenience. Listings that end late at night will be a problem.

Is this happening to everybody? Are there any workarounds?

It has happened to me several times. So far in each case it has just saved me a step, but I can see how it might be problematic in some cases

Another reason fleabay is going to annoy people. I think it's a bad idea. For me, it's pretty straight forward, I generally use the same payment method and shipping address, but I can see how this is going to screw people up that like to change things up here and there.

This is no issue for me but of course I will still criticize eBay over it.

+1

I do feel however 24 hrs would be much better to start off with than only an hr, before it auto charges. I can already see a lot of issues ahead of this, especially with 1 hr.

Def a step in the right direction.

Its happened to me for awhile
Though no big deal as they have my CC on file
which I would use if they didn't autopay

On lots I sell, I have the option to request immediate payment, I decline it.
& I'm fine waiting a few minutes to a few hours to get regular payments

How will it work when people frequently lock their cards until they are ready to use them?

I've been charged instantly, it probably has been only on best offers.

This is especially problematic when you buy multiple items from a seller and want to request a combined shipping invoice. If the auctions don't end within an hour of each other, or if you aren't available to deal with the auction ending process immediately, you're screwed.

I have a seller from whom I have bought several hundred items from over the past years and who always combines shipping and states so in the listings. Will the seller have to refund the additional shipping costs?

Sounds a lot like everything else I buy on the Internet. Buy, pay.

The idea that people lock their credit cards until the moment they are going to make a purchase is a new one on me.

Last week, an expensive item I was looking at was a buy-it-now with the option to make an offer. I made an offer, and eventually the seller accepted my offer. Rather than go through the normal payment process, it was auto-paid with PayPal, without any intervention on my part. I was taken back, and found that there was in fact a new question in the best offer submission whereby I authorized eBay to complete the payment if the offer was accepted. This is indeed something new and potentially dangerous. More eBay f-ing tinkering. It never stops.

They will ultimately have to come up with something less problematic. It's ridiculous that they could not envision all the problems this will end up causing. Additionally, automatic payments should always be the choice of the person paying, not the platform.

I see it as good. Helps address the many issues with non-paying bidders, shilling, etc..., and has virtually no downside. Every complaint I've seen in this thread basically amounts to people not wanting to take the time to change their settings if they need an exception (e.g. use a different address, or different payment method). It's not hard to go into your settings and change those defaults BEFORE bidding. No need to worry about how long you have after the auction if you do your due dilligence before bidding. Is it slightly more inconvenient for a few buyers? Sure. Will it affect most of us? No. And will actually be more convenient for those of us who simply want our default address and credit card to be used all the time. Compare that slight inconvenience to the major benefit to the whole auction process, and you have a winning decision here.

Auto Pay
 

I have had it happen plenty of times on wins and it never bothers me. My CC and shipping address don't change. Just makes it easier for me but I can see a few issues (that look like they can probably be avoided). I have no problem with auto pay....
.
and a card...Count Dracula

Do you tend to use the same settings all the time? I am guessing "yes". If you didn't, you'd realize that changing your various settings on a lot-by-lot basis is not as simple as you claim. If you tend to pay using the same method and have your items shipped to only one address, then this won't affect you in the slightest. Read on so that I may illustrate how inconvenient this is for people not in this position:

At least in my experience, whenever you change your method of payment and shipping address settings, they apply to all your upcoming purchases. Say that you have items from more than one seller ending when you're usually asleep, or when something during the day prevents you from being on top of matters within an hour. What if you wanted to pay for one win using PayPal and another with your CC? What if you required one purchase to be sent to your home address and another to your p.o. box? I face these quandaries frequently--many times a week. While this may be the minority, I definitely know that plenty of other customers deal with similar problems. Also, before anyone says, "Why not send everything to your p.o. box? Problem solved!", please keep in mind that not all people's p.o. boxes are local to their place of residence, not to mention that items shipped via courier can not be delivered to USPS or Canada Post p.o. boxes.

eBay has been experimenting with different versions of "Autopay" for auctions since early 2023. For Buy-It-Now transactions, they started versions of autopay in 2021. Many threads about it on different forums since they started rolling out the different versions.

As a seller and buyer - I am all for it. I agree the time allotment for auctions should be at least 24-hours before autopay kicks in to allow for changes to your address or combine shipping costs, but a bidder should not be able to bid and have no obligation to pay within a stated time-frame - or not at all.

For "Buy-It-Now" transactions, payment should always be immediate.

I think that eBay should give the buyer 24 hours to pay. Then it should automatically be deducted from their account.
If a buyer decides to cancel after purchasing, then buyer should be penalized and automatically charged a penalty fee. This of course, will cover lost fees & time that the seller has lost.
This will prevent cancellations shortly after a buyer has won. It will also prevent non payments.

Like I said, it's inconvenient for a tiny minority of buyers to address a major problem with ebay as a whole. I'm sorry you require such inflexibility with your purchasing methods. But the exception should never dictate the rule.

I started seeing this regularly when CC’s started offering the option. It’s a handy feature that slows CC fraud.

Combined shipping
 

I agree with giving eBay no credit ever, but…

Having just got back into the hobby, I went a bit wild with eBay over the past 6 months. I’ve been hit with every auto pay experiment they have. I get the “what if I ship to another location” thing (I don’t, and eBay charges tax in all states so it’s not the same as the auction houses), and I’ve actually been more annoyed to find out a few days later that I need to hit a button to process payment on my standard card.

What I have seen is that it has auto compiled lots from the same seller and automatically reduced shipping. When I budgeted for a “final” price, I calculated shipping individually, so it was a really nice surprise to find out that I saved a lot of money across 7-8 common auctions.

Just my experience. Still hate eBay, but until people start bringing more common or esoteric Washington Senators items to card shows, that’s where I am to close holes in my collection!

This would have been "splendid" back a few years ago when my email was compromised.
Paypal thought a couple $400 payments to someone somewhere in Africa was totally normal for me.

Got the CC company to fix it eventually. Weird that they had to let the fraudulent charges go through before they could do anything.
Changed emails, much stronger passwords, added 2fa.
Week later....

2fa question came through at 3 AM. With a one hour window to deny. :(
Again PP wouldn't do anything.

Neither Ebay or PP is trustable. And 2FA is worthless.

Once I win an item I usually see if seller has anything else I like so they can combine shipping. Where I have had autopay, I don’t do that. It also seems like sellers can opt out as it does not happen all the time.

Sweet pickup on that Nicklaus!

Good on eBay, hopefully this helps with bogus bids.

Me too. I am a big believer in automating away cognitive effort. eBay asked me to set up the autopay option for my auction wins and I was happy to do so. I have a CC dedicated to my card activities and the shipping addy hasn't changed in years, so it makes it easier for me to snipe and pay without further involvement. As a seller I LOVE it. Chasing winners is a real PITA and there is usually at least one a month who doesn't pay. I had a pretty big auction item go unpaid recently. I had to run the damn auction again, and it closed for 10% less than the first auction. Cognitive effort. As for combined shipping, I don't require immediate payment on a BIN, I ask people to wait for an invoice. If someone happens to overpay for shipping, I will refund any overage. It is a bit of a hassle but it makes customers happy to get it back, even if they were OK with the purchases at full freight; I am not. You do get a real dumb one every so often. One guy bought about 20 cards from me, BINed and paid them all before I could send an invoice, got mad about the shipping, and refused my offer to refund 19 of the shipping costs, opting instead to cancel every purchase.

As a seller it's nice to have to option to make people pay right away on best offers. It's pretty common to receive an offer, accept it, and then take the time to message the "buyer" a few times and then a week later you relist it.

lol

Accept it because it's not going away. That's the E-Bay way..

I use the same Ebay as my dad, and sometimes I get items sent to my mom's house or my brother. This new autopay took all of that away because it didn't give me an option of payment or address. It also gets charged to him as well. I have passed on numerous items since this started, choosing to buy them elsewhere if available or just not buy at all. So yes, there is a downside and it sucks.

Maybe if someone has over 2,000 transactions like we do with 100% positive ratings the entire time, you can trust us to pay. Just a thought

If you can’t pay for something in an hour don’t bid on it. Problem solved.

For what it's worth I won a handful auctions over the span of about 2.5 hours with Greg Morris this evening and was able to wait to combine them together.