Layby - is it possible on Australian eBay?

[tourterelle33]

Is there anyone out there successfully offering their buyers layby through the current Australian eBay systems?

Afterpay is not the answer for every buyer.

Once upon a time I used to tell my buyer to 'buy it now' but NOT pay - so I would get the buyers phone number at least (used to get email address) so layby conditions and payment information could be arranged - BUT, it now seems that the buyer must 'confirm and pay' otherwise it goes nowhere.

It used to work ok - eBay got their fees (I'm not trying to avoid fees) - I'd tell the buyer to ignore the payment reminders sent by eBay, and I'd have my contact information to  proceed with layby arrangements.

Would love to hear if anyone has found a way to offer layby - particularly to new buyers you have never had prior interaction with.

Thanking you!!

[*sons_and_daughters*]

Seriously, give it a rest. You have no idea. Especially no idea how frustrating it is for sellers that are affected. There are more than what you realise. If it doesn't affect you, you are very lucky. I tried for over 3 years to get it fixed, so it's not a case of not being able to find the right person. By that stage, I'd had spoken to pretty much everyone. It can't be undone, so please stop saying it's a "bug" or some other glitch, because it isn't.

[countessalmirena]

If it’s happening to some sellers and not to other sellers, and if there’s nothing obviously tying those sellers together (and there is not, apparently), somewhere in the labyrinthine workings of the bad much-patched and played-around-with code/architecture of eBay there is a reason for it happening.

CS reps can’t help.

Managers can’t help.

Most coders employed by eBay can’t help (almost certainly).

No one is suggesting it’s deliberate.

It is real, though… and I can only imagine how frustrating it is for those affected. When it’s clearly not universal, and other helpful people are suggesting remedies (all tried, nothing fixes it), and some suggest it’s the seller’s settings (when it’s not), the affected sellers must feel stuffed to the gills with exasperation, and as though there’s salt in the immediate payment wound.

To find out why and how, specialist coders would have to examine every line of code and possibly rebuild from the ground up. I don’t think anyone expects that this will happen – particularly not when (in my opinion) poor patching and revising and coding in isolated sections (frequently for no good reason) has created a messy IT tangle in the first place.

It’d also be a hard problem to identify/isolate, given that it’s not affecting the majority of accounts. Without easy identification of the problem, how can it be fixed?

[arctoph_49]

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@domino-710 wrote:

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@arctoph_49 wrote:

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@*sons_and_daughters* wrote:

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I am one of those seller's where immediate payment was forced upon me. Many calls and chats and they couldn't remove it.

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I did mention bugs. I didn't say that it does not happen. What I meant is that it is not supposed to happen, so it is not "forced" upon sellers. They could not remove it because they were not smart enough to know how to do it or what was going on, not because they didn't want to remove it.

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Oh brother. lol

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I am not your brother, kid.

I just said what another member (countessalmirena) later said, but in a more succinct way.

And Sons etc. - I DO understand your frustration and you have my commiseration. I would be upset too if it affected me. I was just saying that eBay apparently can't solve this problem and that they did not change the rules or impose immediate payment, not that the problem does not exist or is irrelevant.

[arctoph_49]

No one is suggesting it’s deliberate.

No, but I thought that the way he expressed himself meant that, saying that eBay forced immediate payment upon most sellers years ago. Sorry if I misinterpreted it.

It’d also be a hard problem to identify/isolate, given that it’s not affecting the majority of accounts. Without easy identification of the problem, how can it be fixed?

It is the same with the other problem in the cart that I have mentioned (when sellers indicate each additional item is free or $1, or whatever they indicate). It does work for some sellers, but not for others, so how can the problem be fixed? I have heard sellers say they tried everything and contacted eBay several times- it just does not work for them.