Put Immediate Payment Required On Listings

[crafters_corner]

News from Gazza


3,456,143 Live Listings
Welcome to the eBid October Newsletter. A busy month is coming to a close. We've spent it mostly building two new functions that we will be bringing to eBid in the next few days.


Firstly is a pretty useful addition, "eBid Lists". On each listing details page you will see a new "Add to List" button that will allow you to add the listing to an eBid List, you can name the list as you wish and choose to keep it private, for your own information and use, or public. Public lists will be known as "Collections" and will be shown around the site to help promote groups of items, things that interest you or simply items you think others will be interested in. All will be managed via the "My eBid" > "My Favorites & Lists" page.


Secondly we'll be introducing our "Require Immediate Payment" system for the first time. In its initial guise it will be used by first time buyers on eBid to help in the reduction of non-paying bidders. If payment by the brand new buyer isn't received or contact made within a fixed amount of time the sale will be nulled and the listing placed back to its previous state. Sellers can turn the function off or on from within "My eBid" > "My Defaults". We will adapt and tweak the system as required and take all feedback we receive into consideration as normal. In future versions sellers will be able to add it to individual listings for use by already registered buyers.

Brilliant! Thank you, Gazza. This is a much-needed feature. Have just had a newbie who obviously has no intention of paying - this will, hopefully, sort the wheat from the chaff.

[MPS16]

....This is a much-needed feature...

My first action will be to turn the function off from within "My eBid" > "My Defaults"

[crafters_corner]

I sell very little on here, so multiple buys won't really be a concern. But I can understand why others would not want the feature.

So, now you have a CHOICE

[gazza]

My first action will be to turn the function off from within "My eBid" > "My Defaults"

Can you expand if possible.. Good to hear all input and perhaps things we haven't thought of.

Thx.
G

[tony41]

My first action will be to turn the function off from within "My eBid" > "My Defaults"

So will mine.

For Gazza's information

You asked MPS16 why they would turn off the immediate payment function. So I'll give my reasoning why I will turn the function off. I have already given most of my reasons in post 88 in this thread. I still think that a cart or basket system would be much better, as these systems are used on many online buying sites and therefore buyers are accustomed to the concept. The normal procedure is to go to checkout at the end of a buying session and paying. Items placed in a cart could be time limited so that items are not held almost indefinitely in a cart. A seller could insist on immediate payment as soon as the buyer closes the cart. This normally happens anyway.

There is already confusion for some buyers who use BuyNow. I have had buyers who buy an item, pay for it including postage then repeating the process time and time again. Some buyers will become even more confused confused under the new system if some sellers insist on immediate payment and others do not. It seems that the new system is a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

[crafters_corner]

Some buyers will become even more confused confused under the new system if some sellers insist on immediate payment and others do not. It seems that the new system is a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

Why will they? I'm sorry to make the comparison to the TOS, but I use this option for ALL BIN sales and it works perfectly well.

I have no problems at all with non-payers using this system, whereas I have had yet another newbie on here who seems to think that payment is not required.

Surely the simple answer is to turn it off.

[TiasTreasures]

I'm happy to hear it will be available to the sellers who need it.

When this is implemented, I hope the default is "OFF" or sellers like me may be caught unaware. I also hope it is prominently displayed at the top of the listing page so buyers are sure to see it before they buy.

Like MPS16, I will make sure the option is turned off.

My reason is simple. Most stamp buyers need time to browse through over 5,000 listings and I don't want to rush them. The shipping discount for multiple items is often substantial. And unlike some sellers, the rare non-paying buyer is not a problem for me. eBid makes it easy to relist the item and get my FVF reversed.

[crafters_corner]

I'm happy to hear it will be available to the sellers who need it.

I fully appreciate that this facility is not needed/required by all sellers and the default should be "OFF".

Thank you for seeing it from both sides.

[deanosaur1972]

I agree that the shopping cart would be the way to go.


Gazza, I think it would help if this was opt in rather than opt out.... Those sellers who will use the immediate payment need to have that detail automatically displayed on each of their listings. It needs to be transparent to buyers from the outset.

The following is the behaviour of a 'not so untypical' newbie from this month who made there first purchases:



So 4 sessions with an average time of 34 minutes - total time spent on just my listings was therefore over 2 hours. So if they were to do that with a seller that requires immediate payment they would have put in hours only to get the message after the first purchase that immediate payment is required. That could then affect all sales that other sellers would potentially get because they would think it would be the same scenario.

Opt in (rather than opt out) and a transparent message on listings that require immediate payment.

[JanetB]

As far as I am aware, when a customer purchases an item, they receive an automatic email notification from eBid with the items details including payment buttons to pay - I think this has been the problem for some of my customers when they keep purchasing multiple items and paying right away for each one as they go along, instead of waiting for a combined invoice from me giving them reduced shipping costs - I get the impression they think I am requesting immediate payment from them. Is it not possible to leave out those payment buttons altogether?