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 Replies: 7 / Views: 746 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1326 Posts |
I first noticed this as a seller. I don't know exactly how ebay refers to it. After a set time ebay automatically collects the payment from an auction winner with no need for an invoice on my part. When I bid on something myself recently, ebay signed me up for this. It seemed like I had no choice so I followed the steps. Later I won an auction and I was told I would be charged after so many minutes if I waited to pay. I'm a fast payer anyways, so normally something like this wouldn't concern me. The problem I have concerns when I win multiple auctions from a buyer that combines shipping. Many sellers require buyers to pay on the same invoice to get combined shipping. As a seller I'll give a partial refund after the fact, but as a buyer I'm concerned. I haven't tried to contact ebay yet. Does anyone know if I could opt out of autoPayment? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2213 Posts |
Yeah it's something that ebay has implemented. I don't care for it either. I use PayPal on ebay. I went to my PayPal account and turned auto payment off. Sometime later I bought on ebay and it got turned back on. I went to PayPal to turn auto payment off again for ebay and I couldn't find that as an option anymore. Maybe PayPal only allows turning off auto pay if you don't use a specific seller for awhile, don't know. I assume the best thing to do is ask a seller if they refund shipping for multiple lots before you buy. I don't know if it would work to delete payment info after each time you buy then re-add it which would be a hassle. See these: https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/ar...-one-help240https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a...d-p/34230692Edited by livingwater
10/28/2024 4:55 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1326 Posts |
Thank you, livingwater. I still think I will contact them.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6449 Posts |
My guess is that this is partly designed to prevent the Buddy Reserve Price strategy, where a strawman account makes a high Max bid, and if nobody beats it, the seller cancels the sale and immediately relists the item. Now ebay can force the item sale through to completion, which at least earns their 13.75% fee. I have been hit with this multiple times as a buyer lately. It's annoying on low cost coins, because ebay is forcing the 30¢ per transaction fee multiple times. As pointed out above, you are also placed into a position where the seller has to optionally refund the shipping charges for combined shipping. I think it would be especially noxious for anyone selling large numbers of very low cost coins, because the business model falls apart if every transaction is hit with the 30¢ fee. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1326 Posts |
Good analysis, Brandmeister
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2213 Posts |
That's a good point Brandmeister, trying to reduce shill bidding. I suspect it's happened to me several times when I lost the bid but the sellers contacted me saying the highest bigger backed out. Those shilling, conspiring could still work around auto pay by transferring money to each other, shill buyer requesting order cancel and refund I suppose
Edited by livingwater
10/28/2024 7:08 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6449 Posts |
Quote:
I suspect it's happened to me several times when I lost the bid but the sellers contacted me saying the highest bigger backed out. That sounds about right. They are essentially shopping to see what the highest real bidder offers. Sometimes sellers will use a strawman auction just to get a feel for what people are realistically willing to bid on an item. Shady all the way around. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
My recent problem with ebay came after a complete hard drive crash. When I went to the library to download info on my sales, the automated reply was that ebay detected I was signing in from a different location and denied me service, in spite of the fact that I had used the correct password. Naturally they downgraded my status for failing to ship ASAP. |
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Replies: 7 / Views: 746 |
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Posted 10/28/2024 6:08 pm
