No joke, it was apparently trialled from 17th May til 26th June and is now being implemented on all ebay sales. Some will still have the old checkout until it is fully implemented.
Buyers have no option to pay later, it is apparently to stop non paying buyers. But it is affecting sales big time. I've been on ebay for over 12 years and I was totally confused when I attempted to purchase 17 items from 1 seller, seller was happy to combine postage. But when I attempted to buy the items I found I had no choice but to pay for each item individually, so I didn't buy them. So how confused will new ebay shoppers be.
At the same time I had a buyer wanting to combine items from my ebay store and was having the same issue. So I phoned ebay about it, at first the ebay rep thought we were pressing the wrong buttons and eventually she informed me that this will be how the new checkout will be for everyone. The buyer has to pay individually including postage costs, if they don't pay there is no sale. The seller can then refund the overpaid postage and then the seller has to contact ebay for a credit on the fees for the overpaid/credited postage.
This sounds very complicated and it turned me off buying the 17 items I wanted to purchase, so how many other buyers are turning away because they don't like or don't understand the new checkout system.
Try it if you don't believe me, click on buy it now and you will see it takes you directly to the ebay checkout, there is no longer a COMMIT To BUY button, you either pay or there is no sale. It's to stop the non-paying buyers, but what about the buyers who want to buy lots of items and don't want to have to pay all those individual postage costs in the hope that the seller will refund the overpaid postage.
Hoping ALL buyers & Sellers that aren't happy with this new system will contact ebay to voice their opinions. I think it's promoting off ebay sales, buy 1 item contact the seller or buyer and do the rest of the deal another way. Not that I'm promoting off-ebay sales, but if I thought of it I guess all others will too.
Hoping Ebay will see some sense and revert back to the old checkout system. Maybe bring back the ability to NEG non-paying bidders to get rid of the time-wasters rather than fiddle with a system that has worked for over a decade.
No doubt there will be some that think this is a good idea, but if you actually try it as a buyer you will see how fumbled it is. On-line shopping should be as stream-lined as possible, having to pay and then wait for a refund is definitely not stream-lined.
