Unpaid Item Assistant is USELESS and Part of SNEAKY Policy to Push Paypal

[waddingtonfirstaid]

Since March this year I have had 4 occasions to call or write to eBay for help as a result of the Unpaid item Assistant failing to trigger when a buyer does not pay. Today I heard the truth about what is going on.

The Unpaid Item Assistant will only trigger IF you promote Paypal as the sole payment vehicle. It will not work if buyers fail to even use the checkout regardless of payment option. It will not work if a buyer uses the checkout and selects to pay via cheque, money order or direct deposit and then fails to do so.

It did not work in March when I had a non-payer but eBay helper said it was due to not setting the preferences to use it (even though I already thought I had it set). It did not work in May when I discovered the drop-down list no longer supported the trigger after 7 days. So we set it to 5 days. It did not trigger in July. Apparently eBay had changed the code linking with combined payments prefs and for some reason it was showing 3 days but never triggered anyway. So it had to be hard set again but this time to 4 days. This month, it never triggered again and I'm told this time around it will only trigger if transactions use Paypal.

For the non-believers, I can post transcripts to support what i say.

Well what a sham and what a complete con. It should trigger if the checkout has never been run by the buyer or the seller. It should trigger if the $ payment symbol is not set by the buyer or the seller. But NO, eBay want to push Paypal don't they?!

I'll not list for 2 months in protest once my current listings end. They disgust me no end.

[lyndal1838]

It doesn't take Einstein to understand that an automatic system must be activated in some way and ebay have chosen to use the paypal portal to be this trigger.  It is the only way it can be fair to a buyer and the only way that ebay have of knowing that the item has not been paid for.

Why should a buyer have an Unpaid Item dispute opened against them because they have not used paypal.  It is very easy for a seller to forget to mark something as Paid.

[putney32]

that has always been the case .  . no 'news' there.

right from when Unpaid Item Assistant was introduced, it was ever only for sellers who ONLY offer Paypal as a payment option

so

you have 2 choices

only offer PayPal

or

do the unpaid item disputes yourself (as many sellers do).

[waddingtonfirstaid]

Poor excuses I'm affraid. If the checkout process hasn't even been touched by the buyer then there is no reason why the Unpaid Item Assistant shouldn't trigger. You people offer way too many excuses for eBay, it's pathetic. I'm looking for a site that does the best it can for sellers and not pretend that a function is worthwhile when it has so many catches. It took 5 months and many eBay help personnel to also discover they didn't know this themselves!

[digital*ghost]

I honestly don't understand why this has to become a sneaky eBay / PayPal thing, especially because the UPI assistant works with ALL electronic payment methods allowed (PayPal, credit card, ProPay, Moneybookers, or Paymate).

There are actually a lot of ways that payment can be made without the buyer going through checkout, so that wouldn't be a 'safe' trigger. The idea of the UPI assisstant is to have everything automated - if it was available when the seller had other manual-processing options, like bank deposit, cheque, money order, there would still have to be a lot of manual input from the seller (deferring the case opening if they live in a remote area and want to send a Money order etc). Realistically, and this is just IMHO, while it can be used by anyone, I think it's intended for higher volume sellers that aren't interested in payments via cheque, money order etc, or having to do any chasing around for unpaid items.  

All that being said, it is pretty pathetic that eBay couldn't figure out for several months why the UPI assisstant wasn't working, as anyone who reads the info about it on the help page can see it only works if you only offer electronic payment methods. 

[tstore]

Let's see how many negatives a seller would get if they used Bank Deposit and an unpaid item dispute initiated  ... If buyer pays Wednesday and pays Friday via bank deposit an unpaid item initiated on a Sunday. I don't think that is right .. 

[davewil1964]

Four NPBs in 5 months. I can understand your angst at having to manually open so many cases. Next thing you know your buyers will want you to give them reminders. Another 5 seconds a month that you'll never get back.

[waddingtonfirstaid]

This has been flagged as inappropriate: Condescending reply directed personally that adds nothing to the thread let alone a solution. Why should this person belittle OP just because he cites 4 unpaid occasions? He/she doesn't even have anything they are selling so how would they appreciate how frustrating it is?

[waddingtonfirstaid]

As I already flagged, that condescending comment added nothing to the discussion and pretty well typifies how demoralising the forums become when people like myself try to become proactive to make this place better but get these types of replies. Although I mentioned 4 ocassions, when you sell items that are not paid for, the string of communications to the non-payer usually goes on for weeks (messages, finding the buyer's details, emails, phone call attempts, rechecking time frames so you are sure you have everything correct and you are allowing enough time). When you put misguided faith in an automated system that is a complete failure, then you can add more time to each event and every lengthy exercise becomes excruciatingly painful!

[waddingtonfirstaid]

The simple solution to the point you make here is, if the buyer flags to pay via bank deposit, then the automated unpaid item assistant allows 3 extra days. But eBay don't want to do this, they only want to push Paypal.