So, how often have you had an eCheque payment bounce?

[justajunk]

Over the years, I have probably had a few dozen buyers pay for their items by eCheque. This always make me very nervous as I often wonder whether I should just send the item instantly to avoid low DSR for Postage Time. After all, I had never had an eCheque payment fail.

Or at least until this afternoon. Yup. Received an email from PayPal to say that the buyer's bank refused the eCheque payment.

I have decided to open an Unpaid Item Case and I have sent the buyer an email explaining what has happened and why I feel obliged to open the case. The buyer only has one feedback (and that's a seller -- not a buyer) so I have no idea how much they will understand about the situation.

I remember a couple of months ago that there was some hooha here over multiple eCheque failing. But that was two or three months ago, not recently, right?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

[davewil1964]

Never.

But I will never post until payment clears, which is in accordance with Paypal policy.

Message your buyer advising you will post after payment clears, then advise when you post.

[kopenhagen5]

Consider an e-cheque as not paid. Only send after PayPal has cleared the payment and state it is safe to send.

If you are concerned about buyer thinking it is slow postage, with an e-cheque I always send the buyer a message advising the payment may take 3-5 business days to clear due to being an e-cheque.

Then when it clears I send another message to say the item was posted today as the payment cleared today.

[justajunk]

Thanks for that, Dave. Yes, I told the buyer something that effect in the message I sent... that I will post once I have confirmed that I have received their payment.

Have you had any eCheques lately? This is the first eCheque that I have had since June or July... which makes me wonder whether the glitches mentioned by others in September might still be in effect.

[justajunk]

Thanks for that, kopenhagen. Yes, I do all of that, and in fact, I go one step further and advise about eCheque payment delays with every invoice that I send.

My big concern this time is there might be a super big delay if the buyer has pay by eCheque three or four times before it goes through successfully.

[clarry100]

We rarely get them but have never had one bounce. And were will never mail until it clears.
Were always send a message to the buyer to tell them about what will happen.
Those who respond never know it has happened. Seems odd. We had one who bought two items and paid in separate transactions. One was echeque. When we messaged her she had no idea. Then she asked to cancel the echeque which we did. Then she paid again with instant payment. So I don't understand why these happen at all.

[davewil1964]

Haven't had one for yonks.

Certainly pre-September.

[digital*ghost]

I haven't had one for a little while, but it wasn't that long ago 90% of the ones I did get (9/10, to be exact) failed.

One buyer communicated and said it was the bank refusing the debit even though there was plenty of money in the account to cover their purchase, but I didn't hear from any of the others, so it's hard to say whether the same issue was causing all failures. 

[twofussy]

I had an echeque bounce a week ago, the buyer has paid again with another echeque so i have to wait another 5 days to see if this one clears or bounces again, patiently waiting.

[justajunk]

Hi digital*ghost. Interesting to hear that they didn't all fail... that would seem to suggest that it was not a universal problem with eCheques, which is what I am worried about here. I guess I will have to see what the buyer says if/when (s)he replies... I have had no response so far to the initial message I sent a few days ago thanking them for "beginning the payment process".