eBay is renaming its Unpaid Item Assistant to “Preferences for items awaiting payment.” Previously available only to high-volume sellers, the tool for managing deadbeat buyers is now open to all beginning in early April – in fact, it appears to be required.
“If you attempt to file an unpaid item case in the Resolution Center after this update takes effect, you’ll automatically be redirected to Seller Hub to cancel the transaction directly using the “Buyer hasn’t paid” reason,” eBay noted.
Here’s how eBay explains the new process of dealing with deadbeats:
“Starting in early April 2021, we’ll begin introducing a new cancel function for unpaid items. You’ll no longer have to file unpaid item claims or send payment reminders. Instead, we’ll proactively remind buyers if they have a payment due, and you’ll be able to manually or automatically cancel an order if the buyer hasn’t paid after 5 calendar days.”
The new process for handling Unpaid Items (UPIs) is quicker, according to the announcement of the change included as part of the Spring Seller Update (“A quicker, more streamlined way to handle unpaid items”).
When asked in the discussion boards how it was quicker, a moderator explained:
“Today, Sellers can open a UPI case on Day 2 and we give buyers 4 days to pay. If there is no payment, sellers can close that case starting on Day 6. The new cancel flow will allow sellers to cancel the order on Day 5, one day quicker than today.“
“I don’t really care about quicker,” one seller replied, “I just wish eBay would close the loophole allowing buyers to file INR (Item Not Received) when they don’t pay.”
“Agreed,” responded another, “and also credit the FVF automatically, please!!!”
That’s a reference to the fact that eBay requires sellers to request a credit for the fees it charged them instead of automatically refunding commission fees when a buyer hasn’t paid.
It’s not clear if that’s still the case – in the FAQs, eBay states:
“Will my fees get credited if I cancel the order because the buyer hasn’t paid?
“Applicable fees may be credited, in accordance with our fee credit policy, if you cancel the order because the buyer hasn’t paid.”
But the fee credit policy, which states sellers may qualify for a fee credit, hasn’t been updated, since it states: “If the buyer still hasn’t paid, you can close an unpaid item case after 4 days to receive a final value fee credit.” (Remember, sellers won’t be able to open Unpaid Item cases after the change rolls out next month.)
Note that those enrolled in Managed Payments will not receive a fee credit for the fixed-price portion of the selling fees, meaning every eBay user who buys something and doesn’t pay costs a seller 30 cents in addition to time and aggravation.*
*Update 3/9/2021: Thanks to the comment below, we realize that must not be the case – if the buyer hasn’t paid, there is no transaction fee, thus non-paying buyers don’t cost the buyer 30 cents.
The announcement includes the following FAQ:
“Can I handle unpaid items manually?
“If you would like to handle unpaid items manually, you can do so by changing your “Preferences for items awaiting payment” at any time. You can also manage unpaid items at the buyer level through “block buyer” preferences.”
The FAQs also address an important question raised by sellers about the change: “Can I block buyers with previous unpaid item cancellations?”
According to the FAQ, “Each cancellation with a “Buyer hasn’t paid” reason will be recorded against that buyer. You can stop purchases from buyers with more than two unpaid item cancellations using your “Buyer management” preferences. Buyers with excessive cancellations for “Buyer hasn’t paid” reason may be suspended for abusive buying practices.”
You can find the “New cancel function for unpaid items” page that was announced as part of the eBay Spring Seller Update here.
Be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you think. Will the new UPI tool save you time and aggravation?
Why should Ebay be able to keep the $0.30 transaction fee when no transaction has been processed? That is just another scam by Ebay to steal money from the Sellers under the guise that Paypal used to always keep it. But Paypal only kept it once the payment HAD BEEN MADE, now Ebay is charging fees for items that the buyers don’t even bother to pay for, which means Ebay is now charging Sellers a fee for a sale that does not ever occur. Just another way of collecting an insertion fee so they can continue to pad their bottom line despite no sales happening.
Way to go Ebay, Stealing from the Sellers once again. Would not be surprised to see Ebay designate part of each day for employees to log in under new accounts to record a bunch of purchases that never get paid for, but which then earn ebay the equivalent of an insertion fee on each of them and since the buyers information is no longer available to the Seller until paid for (as I remember it) once again Ebay can pad their poor months with these fake transaction charges. I really hope their auditors dig into those a little deeper than they have in the past or ebay plans on the doing. It is also a nice Sales Tax free income for Ebay so they do not have to report it anywhere.
Looks like Iannone is no different than Wenig was when it comes to stealing from the Sellers pockets.
@Silver Ice King: Thanks to your comment, I realize I must be mistaken about the fee – if the buyer hasn’t paid, there is no transaction fee, thus non-paying buyers don’t cost the buyer 30 cents. I’ve updated the article to clarify. Thanks!
In 2021 – this ENTIRE issue is %100 BS.
eBay:
1) shouldnt charge sellers ANYTHING until a buyer pays – NOT buys – then the 30 cent issue or any other charge wouldnt even have to be dealt with
2) sellers shouldnt have to deal with this at all – it should be automatic. Buyers get X days to pay – if they dont – THEY get charged a fee for wasting eBays and the sellers time + holding up selling that item. If a buyer buys but doesnt pay, it removes that item from the listing flow. Why should a seller loose just because a buyer changes their minds? Maybe they would have sold it to someone else! Its another case of eBay being AFRAID of the buyer. When it comes to sellers – eBay will try and charge you a fee even if you DIDNT make a sale on eBay – but when a buyer does it – its OK, right thieves?
3) ALL eBay sellers should have payment terms ON FILE. You buy something – your on file payment method gets used. If you change your mind in X time – then it can be reversed. OTHERWISE its considered a sale/bid and it becomes “legal”
None of this is hard – unless you are a braindead ex Wally World exec OR you are just an outright thief.
Its 2021, when will eBay stop playing 1984?
The real change here that no one is talking about is the “Unpaid Item Strike” that shoppers get when they do no pay. Ebay sellers can set up their buying requirements to block buyers with a small number of strikes over a given time period, I use the minimum of 2 strikes in 12 months. But checking your Buyer Requirement Log you can see how many potential buyers are blocked from buying from you. Checking today I see 16 different accounts (they are anonymized like feedback is) being blocked in the last 60 days.
Are these deadbeat buyers now being pet off the hook with just a cancelled transaction? Can they leave feedback on a cancelled transaction? With an Unpaid Item Strike, buyer could not leave feedback after the case was closed, and any feedback left earlier would be removed.
I still get the occasional unpaid item, as I do not have Immediate Payment Required because I get a lot of multiple item sales, and many from overseas, and its hard for buyers to request a combine shipping invoice with IPR. To let these scofflaws off free would be an injustice to eBay sellers/
I also would like answers to the question you pose, e.g. “Can they leave feedback on a cancelled transaction?”.
Doesn’t this part of the article above address the question re blocking deadbeats?
“According to the FAQ, “Each cancellation with a “Buyer hasn’t paid” reason will be recorded against that buyer. You can stop purchases from buyers with more than two unpaid item cancellations using your “Buyer management” preferences. Buyers with excessive cancellations for “Buyer hasn’t paid” reason may be suspended for abusive buying practices.””
And here’s what eBay’s website says about feedback, I should have included that above:
“If you cancel an order because the buyer hasn’t paid, we’ll block that buyer’s ability to leave feedback and, if they’ve already left feedback, we’ll remove it.”
@Ina
I hate to say this, but we all know how Ebay still looks at the buyers as their customers and Sellers as Noise, so does anybody really think that Ebay is going to punish any of their potential buyers when their history since Donohoe took over as CEO is to always have the buyers back? Ebay has recently continued to say they are adding Seller protections but all that has been is lip service and when it has come to acting on what they say will happen it depends entirely on who you happen to get as your customer service rep or on how much negative publicity the seller causes for Ebay. But Ebay is never going to block buyers from being able to purchase on their site because they still depend on all of the scammers and other bad buyers to generate to much of their revenue. As long as the buyers have followed through on a majority of their purchases Ebay is NOT going to do anything to them, which is why the wording is “May be suspended for abusive practices”. Sellers are going to remain nothing but NOISE as long as Ebay is only worried about their stock price and their investors as this also effects their bonuses!!!
“Unpaid Item Strike” fine idea, but with buyers able to have several ID’s at any given time, all but useless. Like most eBay “seller protections”
There’s an easy answer and solution and Ebay knows it. They just have not implemented it. CHARGE the credit card immediately once the bid is won or the offer is accepted. Simple, easy. Posh and Merc do it, why not ebay?
“…why not ebay?”
At the top of the eBay-benefitting list of reasons is that these ‘non-consummated transactions’ contribute to eBay’s market-critical GMV metric.
Without these unpaid sales, EBAY would not have closed-out 2020 pegging an otherwise bizarrely perfectly round number of $100.0bn in GMV.
The major problem with these so called “changes” is eBay’s registration program. Most sellers just block the offending buyer, expecting that eBay will prevent futures transactions with this buyer. Unfortunately the problem is that eBay allows several ID’s attached to the same bank account, address or PayPal account. Sellers block one, and the same buyer is at it again. This is a known problem that eBay is well aware of and as it has shown in the past, has no intention of fixing. Simple solution, One ID attached to one bank account.