topic Re: eCheque Failure in Selling

eCheque Failure

digital*ghost — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 01:09:16 GMT

Is anyone else experiencing a high rate of eCheque failures at the moment?

I ask because all three of the eCheques I have received in the last week have failed - two were from the same buyer, though, and when they replied to my message they said it was a PayPal issue (i.e. they had plenty of funds, but PayPal weren't clearing the payments anyway). This particular buyer is actually on my BBL (for non-payment) and used another account to make the purchase, so the history isn't too crash hot, but I've now received notice of another eCheque failure from a different buyer.

I know it could just be a coincidence, but thought I'd check to see if this is a genuine issue affecting others before I decide how to proceed with these cases.

Re: eCheque Failure

daniellebradydesigns — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 01:30:27 GMT

While I don't get a lot of echeque payments, the last 4 I've received in the period of say 6 weeks, have all failed, where the buyers have had to try and repay. A couple of buyers didn't even know why it went through as an echeque as they had funds in their PayPal accounts and had never had payment go through as an echeque before. So I'd say there may be an issue.

Re: eCheque Failure

robinsonmarineparts — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 01:52:35 GMT

I haven't had one for a couple of weeks, it was ok.

Re: eCheque Failure

digital*ghost — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 01:53:23 GMT

@thebowlerhat2012 wrote:
While I don't get a lot of echeque payments, the last 4 I've received in the period of say 6 weeks, have all failed, where the buyers have had to try and repay. A couple of buyers didn't even know why it went through as an echeque as they had funds in their PayPal accounts and had never had payment go through as an echeque before. So I'd say there may be an issue.

Thanks 🙂 , sounds like theres a number of different issues surrounding eCheques at the moment. 😕

Re: eCheque Failure

daniellebradydesigns — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 02:08:58 GMT

Welcome. There usually is an issue with something lately

Re: eCheque Failure

lyndal1838 — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 03:58:36 GMT

It is not just echeques either Digi....I have had more glitches with paypal in the last few weeks than ever before and that is only as a buyer.

First there has been the issue of actually being able to complete a payment without having to wait anything from a few minutes to a few hours to try again.

Then there has been the problem of changing the funding source.....I always use my debit card but it often goes through as an echeque from the same account. I only found this out recently when I paid for several Immediate payment items from the UK. Always in the past these sellers have marked the items as Sent within 24 hours. These last items have taken 4-5 days to be marked as sent. When I asked about this I was told they received echeques which took days to clear....but I have a credit card attached to paypal as well as the debit card on my bank account so echeques should clear immediately.

I think some of the ebay Gremlins have gone on holidays to paypal.

Re: eCheque Failure

digital*ghost — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 07:59:48 GMT

@lyndal1838 wrote:

I think some of the ebay Gremlins have gone on holidays to paypal.

Now that's a frightening prospect!

It's bizarre that an immediate payment required purchase was processed as an eCheque, of all things, because that requirement is supposed to actually prevent purchases with eCheque payments. o_O

I hope this doesn't become too common, at any rate - lots of potential for frustration on both sides.

Re: eCheque Failure

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:12:49 GMT

I'm confused (not hard!!). Do e-cheques just spawn themselves? I thought you had to send one yourself. I wouldn't know how to send one! I wonder if that's why an item I bought last week hasn't been posted yet........?

Re: eCheque Failure

digital*ghost — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:28:27 GMT

Generally, if the buyer uses a bank account as the funding source (so no funds in the PayPal account, and/or no back-up like a credit / debit card) the payment will be an eCheque, but that's technically supposed to be the only time they happen. I have heard before that sometimes an instant payment is processed as an eCheque inexplicably, so it may be the reason for unusual delays in postage, but I've never experienced (or heard of) eCheques failing even with funds available, and if it's happening with a few buyers, I can only presume it's a PayPal issue rather than an idividual bank rejecting the debit.

Re: eCheque Failure

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:31:54 GMT

That's weird, because most of my payments for goods come from my bank account, yet all but this one from last week have been posted within 24 hours. Would I know from my end if it turned into an e-cheque? The $ sign is blue, unlike the pending symbol it shows when people have paid me with one.

Re: eCheque Failure

digital*ghost — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:38:20 GMT

Do you have a credit or debit card attached to your account?

I have a debit card, and if there are no funds in my PayPal account, then the payment process from my end as the buyer is identical to an eCheque (PayPal debit the funds from my account within 24 hours), the payment is received instantly by the seller. If I didn't have the debit card attached, then it would be processed as an eCheque.

I can't say for sure what you would see from the buyer's perspective, only that there have been a few reports of that happening, where it shows as an instant payment for the buyer, but an eCheque for the seller. I suspect that's happened with one or two of my payments in the past, after noticing a seller took a few days longer than normal to post (payment showed as instant on my end, but I didn't verify with the seller, though).

Re: eCheque Failure

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 11:02:38 GMT

My bank account is my default for taking money from if PayPal is empty and my credit card is the back up if the bank account is empty (which it never is).

I wonder what happens then if part payment is made from PayPal and part payment is taken from bank account, because there wasn't enough left in PayPal to cover the full payment?

Re: eCheque Failure

cq_tech — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 13:22:33 GMT

If you have a credit card registered as a backup, the payment will go through as instant, but if not, it will become an e-cheque.

Re: eCheque Failure

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 14:37:32 GMT

Thanks CQ, that would probably explain why everything is posted 24-48hrs after I pay. The item i bought last week, might just be a slow seller, or it may have been posted, but not marked as posted.

Re: eCheque Failure

cq_tech — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 14:44:50 GMT

More than likely, sheep. If your payments were going through as e-cheques, they wouldn't be posted for a good 5-7 days.

Re: eCheque Failure

clarry100 — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 19:47:55 GMT

We haven't had an echeque for a couple of weeks now.
We have only ever seen one result in failure.
We did have one some time back where the buyer asked when we were going to mail their item. We responded saying when the echeque clears. They had no idea what an echeque even was and said they would contact PayPal. Anyway it did clear and we mailed the item and never heard any more about it.

Re: eCheque Failure

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 23:59:51 GMT

I've only received a few e-cheques and most cleared inside a week. One however took nearly 2 weeks to clear. I assumed (until yesterday) that they buyer had deliberately paid that way and wondered why they would use that method when it was so slow. I wonder now if the buyer didn't even know it had been sent that way! I never received bad feedback or trashed DSR's because of it though.

The few times I have received them, I've sent the buyer a message thanking them for their payment and I will post as soon as their e-cheque clears.

Re: eCheque Failure

clarry100 — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 06:34:22 GMT

Yes since that one of ours where the buyer did not even know what it was we now send a message something like yours so they know we have received an echeque.

That way they know about the reason for the delayed postage and will take further action if it bothers them.

Re: eCheque Failure

digital*ghost — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 01:59:37 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
all three of the eCheques I have received in the last week have failed

Make that the last 7, probably 8 (I have one that is still showing as being processed, but the buyer has contacted me and said on their end, the payment has been refused).

Not a single eCheque has cleared in the last 3 weeks - definitely something wrong there.

Re: eCheque Failure

clarry100 — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 04:22:13 GMT

We had one last week that ended up clearing on Friday.

I contacted the buyer and politley let them know that we would be delaying postage until the echeque cleared.

Never heard anything until Thursday night when they contacted us asking if we could please mail the item as it was for a birthiday gift.

Since it cleared overnight, we just mailed it the next morning (Friday) anyway.

But in a case like this if we had said no we will not mail it until it clears then you risk bad FB becasue you have a cranky buyer on your hands.

If its a low cost item (which ours mostly are) then we would be inclined to mail it out if asked I think.