topic Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in.... in Selling

Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

have_red — Wed, 21 May 2014 07:00:23 GMT

Ive recently in the last few months received a few e-cheque payments which have ended up not clearing. Ive had another one today. Im aware its because the buyer has insufficient funds to honor the e-cheque. Maybe Im old fashioned but I cant understand why people seem to be buying when they dont actually have the money to buy? I cant imagine knowingly sending off a cheque with knowledge that it may or may not clear.

Does anyone know if these cancelled e-cheques end up affecting the person who sent them? As in does their bank record them as dishonored cheques or payments?

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

some999 — Wed, 21 May 2014 07:48:04 GMT

I'm guessing you have opened an unpaid item dispute!

Enough of those will affect the buyer - hopefully, IF ebay follow their own rules on the number a person can accumulate but they then only have to open a new account & off they go again.

I keep getting buyer who buy & don't ever make contact, not even a response to a dispute.
Only had a couple of echecks & they have eventually cleared - guess I was lucky.

I would also assume that paypal would limit or suspend their account but who knows --- in typical ebay/paypal style I tried to search for the answer as I was curious & this was the result ---

"Sorry, our online help is temporarily unavailable. We’re working to fix it right away. You can use the help links listed or try your search later."

GOOD OLE EBAY/PAYPAL - bump up the fees & reduce the service!!!!
The service has gone down hill badly since 6 May!

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

phorum_junkie* — Wed, 21 May 2014 08:09:45 GMT

Some banks, especially the small ones like CUs, charge a dishonour fee same as they would for writing a bounced cheque.

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

digital*ghost — Wed, 21 May 2014 08:11:44 GMT

@have_red wrote:

Does anyone know if these cancelled e-cheques end up affecting the person who sent them? As in does their bank record them as dishonored cheques or payments?

According to a buyer, whose eCheque recently failed, they were charged dishonour fees by their bank, but even if so, I can't say if all banks would charge fees.

I never had a single failed eCheque in 5 years until the last couple of months where I've had 4 - the thing that annoys me the most is that as soon as it fails, the order reverts to free postage for some weird reason. Only one buyer (the one mentioned above) actually responded to my query and resent payment (after I'd sent a new invoice with the postage added back on), but I'd be pretty ticked off if an eCheque failed and the buyer paid again with free post.

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

daniellebradydesigns — Thu, 22 May 2014 07:11:06 GMT

I've had 4 echeque payments fail in the last month. Zero in the last 2 years before that.

Only one buyer responded and made payment. Although they did give me attitude about it like it was my fault or something.
The rest just go to UPID and I never hear from the buyers at all. There does seem to be an increase in echeques failing though.

Given enough strikes the buyers lose out in the end on sellers with their blocks in place.

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

sookie-snackhouse — Thu, 22 May 2014 07:59:40 GMT

I'm guessing that some pay by e-cheque because they think it will be marked as paid & the seller will send as normal before it clears or not.Possibly the same thing with bank deposit.Buyer marks as paid doesn't mean it's paid.I know a seller that has had a few bank deposit people who expect the item to be sent as soon as they mark as paid.Many of them string it out,probably waiting for free items before the unpaid item dispute starts.

Maybe I'm just feeling cynical today.

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 23 May 2014 13:30:09 GMT

I never mark e-cheques as paid, I wait for PayPal to do that automatically. Then I know it's cleared. I will then message the buyer and let them know payment is cleared and I will now post their item. The thing that gets me with e-cheques is the differences in times they take to clear. The one that cleared today only took 3 days, but one a couple of months ago took almost 3 weeks.

I also don't mark bank deposits as paid until I see the funds in my account. If they are a repeat buyer, funds appear almost straight away, if not, it's usually 1-2 days. I message the buyer thanking them for their payment and I will post as soon as I see the payment in my account. Once it's there, I then message them again to let them know its appeared and I will now post their item.

Not sure what I'd do with a failed e-cheque, I haven't encountered that one yet!

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

Anonymous — Fri, 23 May 2014 15:04:02 GMT

If people pay by cheques and they do not clear then that person who sent it will more than likely be charged a dishonour fee of around $35-$45.

Not exactlly sure of the exact amount the dishonour fees are as I don't pay by cheque.

Some people are probably dishonest and pay by cheque hoping you'll post out the item before you cash the cheque and find out there's nothing there, but alot of it is probably impulse buying, someone sees something they like and just have to have it and pay by cheque hoping there pay will be in their account before the cheque clears or sometimes they just make an honest mistake with how much cash they really do have in their accounts.

I impulse buy all the time, but then again I actually do have money in my account and I never ever pay by cheque.

But if you hate getting these e-cheques then don't accept them as a payment option and that way you'll never have to worry about them bouncing. 🙂

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

davewil1964 — Sat, 24 May 2014 07:10:32 GMT

The only way you can refuse to accept them is to require instant payment.

Which brings its own headaches.

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

porcelainforyou2 — Sat, 24 May 2014 08:18:32 GMT

Thanks for the warning - I was unaware of the reversion to 'free postage' following a failed / dishonoured eCheque.

Re: Cancelled e-cheques doing my head in....

porcelainforyou2 — Sat, 24 May 2014 08:28:48 GMT

I do exactly as you do re eCheques and bank deposits in terms of marking the item as paid or posting the item. It is the safest way, although I have obviously been lucky (so far) and none of the many eCheques which I have received over the years have bounced, although I have had numerous "non-payers" who made no attempt to pay.

On a separate but related subject, if a buyer makes a 'typo' when paying on the internet by direct / electronic bank deposit, it can take several days for the funds to 'bounce back' into the buyer's bank account (assuming that the incorrect BSB / account number is not by coincidence a 'real one' belonging to somebody else!), and the buyer is not notified by their bank. When buyers have gone through check out and marked that they have paid by bank deposit, if the payment does not appear in my online banking statement after a few days, I email the buyer and ask them to please check their bank statement to look for a "bounced back" payment. The few times this has happened, the seller has apologised and re-paid with the correct BSB & account number. When buying and paying by bank deposit to save the seller PayPal fees, I usually copy & paste the BSB and account number to avoid this happening to me...