This is in relation to "immediate payment required" appearing in the listing's payment section, despite the seller never selecting it as an option, as opposed to preventing eBay from forcing a buyer into immediate payment under other circumstances.
The stuff in the spoiler is for potential clarification / troubleshooting purposes, but I don't know how relevant it is or whether it contributed to the problem, just including it in case it helps someone figure out something with their own account / settings.
Anyway, the main point is I had "immediate payment required" appearing on some of my listings, despite it not actually being selected in the payment options (I have bank deposit as a payment option, so it should be impossible), but I was able to remove it by editing the listing, actually ticking the box to require immediate payment (because at this point, the setting wasn't selected at all), submitting the listing, then revising it again, unticking immediate payment, re-ticking the appropriate boxes for bank deposit and submitting the listing again. (Note: ticking then immediately unticking immediate payment, then submitting did not work for me, sadly, it required two separate edits).
I should be able to bulk edit the ones I find... but finding them is the tedious part since the option is not actually officially selected anywhere in my settings - hopefully if this is affecting other's listings, this method works for you as well.
Spoiler
I do not use business policies in my store - all my postage stuff is done manually, but I'm dreading having to bulk edit all the different listings in a few weeks so I thought I'd look at setting some up, and opted in earlier this evening. However, it wouldn't let me edit any of the policies and when I checked some of my listings to make sure they looked ok, I noticed "immediate payment required" was now showing on some - I do not know if this was appearing before or after opting into business policies, however I have never used immediate payment before at all, so there shouldn't have been any policies with it implemented (there was 10+ pages of individual policies though, going back to when I very first started selling and could charge less than $2 for a large letter ).
I decided to opt back out, there was no change to the listings saying immediate payment required. I've only checked a relatively small amount so far, but it appears to be applied randomly on both old and new listings, which have various postage costs applied (which would have meant separate policies were created for them when I opted in to business policies).
@countessalmirena wrote:
But none of that helps with unwanted immediate payment being imposed on listings... except perhaps in the sense that, before one starts out on a comprehensive search to discover what (if anything) may be triggering Immediate Payment Required on some listings, one has to be properly nourished and strengthened with all of the appropriate nutrients, so that it's probably best to begin on a full stomach.
With coffee.
The whole "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" thing came about from religion and an advertising campaign; it's healthier to eat when you're hungry, and I generally don't get hungry until the late afternoon. My issue is more with balance than timing, particularly because I am a lazy cook right now. 
I'll report back anything I find, anyway, re: the payment settings.
Just went to check mine and in Payment from buyers it it says Yes next to Display "PayPal Preferred" on my
listings.
It is also the only section that can't be edited/changed as that option isn't there anymore.
To follow up I went to business policies to confirm the ones I have set up for PP payments
Both of mine don't have the box ticked as per example (after ticking PP it still stays blank).
So according to those settings I don't/shouldn't have immediate payment required
My other account doesn't have business policies and it also doesn't have Require immediate payment with Buy
It Now box ticked (I've always presumed that the buyers just pay straight away).
I will now try and keep a better eye on it just to see how it works.
I can always make up a listing for a small nominal price and if immediate payment with Buy It Now is "forced"
I can refund and if it doesn't force the immediate payment I can just mark it as paid.
I've got plenty of free listings available (0 out of 40 used).
That way you can see it from a buyers perspective.
@go-tazz wrote:
That way you can see it from a buyers perspective.
The problem is most buyers who experience issues with a seller's listings won't contact them to let them know, they'll go elsewhere unless that seller is the only one with the item they want, because it's just easier than messaging a seller, waiting for a reply, organising a workaround etc.
My target demographic generally just wants to buy and pay, which of course immediate payment would be fine for if it applied universally, and eBay made it more intuitive to continue shopping once someone has clicked buy or add to cart (hence why I have a bee in my bonnet about eBay selectively adding it to some listings, albeit a small, annoying bee ).
I really wish they just had 'Add to cart" as the main button on listings, and - if they insist on retaining 'Buy It now' (and its variations) - I'd rather there was a smaller link / button that was "express checkout this item now" or something (like other sites), to make it super distinct and clear that they will serve different functions - i.e. one is to browse and purchase multiple items, one is to quickly purchase a single item.
If they did that, I'd abandon bank deposit and switch to immediate payment, no question.
One of the main problems is that the Aus boards get ignored and eBay gets no insight on some of the problems
that can/do occur (this has been an on going problem and nothing has fixed it and yet you've just posted a
couple of simple solutions).
The main problem could be though that eBay don't think in simple solutions and might/are trying to find a
solution that will/could make the problem even worse or don't believe that this is broken.
This needs fixed but they only fix things that aren't broken and then tend to break them as well.
eBay and normal could/should never be used in the same sentence.
