eBay is gauging sellers’ attitudes toward making immediate payment a requirement for some fixed-price and auction listings.
According a survey it recently sent to customers, eBay is considering whether to require immediate payment on all fixed-price listings that state shipping costs upfront and offer an instant payment method like PayPal, and for auctions that get winning bids from shoppers who have signed a one-time billing agreement that would allow eBay to automatically collect payments at the end of the auction.
In the survey, eBay asks sellers how interested they would be in such a feature, and how many times in the past six months a buyer has bought an item and not paid for it. However, sellers disagree on whether such a requirement would be a good or bad idea.
Rebecca Miller, an eBay seller of more than 12 years, says requiring immediate payment makes sense.
“Why shouldn’t a buyer pay immediately after they win something?” she asks. “They obviously wanted the item. Why not move the process along—and get it into their hands—as quickly as possible?
“I agree that eBay has never addressed the nonpaying bidders properly… which is why I’d want this implemented and tried”“Businesses need that cash flow to stay in business!” she continues. “If someone doesn’t want to pay for an item right away, then maybe they shouldn’t bid on auctions, and should just look for items with a Buy It Now option when they are ready to buy.”
Other sellers aren’t so sure the requirement would help solve the problem of deadbeat buyers.
“I just wish eBay would address the problem buyers only,” writes a seller who goes by thebuybox2011, in an eBay forum discussing the survey. “Make them put up payment info after they have proven they will be a hard payer. Let those who pay go about their business.”
Another merchant, known as gopetersen, notes he avoids listings that require instant payments. However, a few sellers, like rrr555, agree with Miller.
“[I] agree that eBay has never addressed the nonpaying bidders properly… which is why I’d want this implemented and tried,” the seller writes on the thread. “I might be wrong, but, to me, this is the perfect solution. I don’t know how many good buyers would quit over this, but there is one thing that I’d be sure of: The buyers who stiff or are very slow to pay would really hate this policy idea. And that reason alone would be good enough for me to try it.”
Currently, sellers can choose to require immediate payment on fixed-price listings and auctions that have the Buy It Now option for no additional fee, eBay notes. With this option, sellers can require immediate payment be made through PayPal before a listing can officially end, eBay notes.