e-Check payments - Why must I accept them?

[apat09]

Why does ebay not allow me not to accept e-Check payments? It should be the sellers choice not to accept them or not. I get uptight when buyers use them to manipulate  prolonging  payments. 

[mtg-c4rdm4n]

Buyers dont use it to prolong payments. Its the same as any bank transfer, takes 3-5 business days to clear..

And why not except it.

Id much rather take an echeque over no payment at all.

Youve made the sale, the payments pending, its a no stress situation. Well at least in my opinion anyways.

[tstore]

It is prolonged as most bank transfers done before the cutoff time appear the next morning (or same day, same evening). Buyers then mark you down DSR stars for postage because of this. Payment initiated date also appears as the payment date in eBay when it clears, not when it has been processed - many new eBayers do not realise payment is not instant either and had a few nasty buyers who message me 'where is the item?' 'Why has it not be marked posted' etc.

[digital*ghost]

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@apat09 wrote:

Why does ebay not allow me not to accept e-Check payments? It should be the sellers choice not to accept them or not. I get uptight when buyers use them to manipulate  prolonging  payments. 

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If you offer PayPal on eBay, you have to accept them (there is a setting in PayPal to prevent them, but not for eBay payments). But, if you sell on eBay, you don't have to offer PayPal - the alternatives are Paymate (always CC funded) and direct credit cards if you have a merchant account, so you do have a choice.

Unless the buyer doesn't have enough funds in their bank account to cover the payment, the money is taken from their account within 24 hours, so from their perspective it's not a way to prolong payment, but a safer method to pay for an item where their only other choice might be bank deposit, and for the most part it just delays postage, so while the (completely unnecessary, IMO) clearance delay can be a bit inconvenient, this is a service for the buyer that you have to provide as part of offering PayPal on eBay.

That being said, it's not unheard of for buyers to intentionally pay without having enough funds, and I know that could get quite frustrating if it happens regularly. I've had a few do that with bank deposit payments, too (that is, tell me they've paid when they haven't, but at least with a PayPal eCheque they can't do what several have done in the past with bank deposit - intentionally pay less than the total due). 

[putney32]

I like echequ payments, unlike payments made via a c/card on paypal, an echeque payment cannot be done as a ''chargeback'' weeks or months down th line

echeque good

[ajarnjenny]

I don't mind if they pay with an e-cheque, but I do mind when they email you the next day saying that they have noticed that their item still says 'unshipped', and you offer 1 day shipping, so why haven't you posted it?

[i-once-was-bump]

d*g it takes at least two days from the Paypal transaction to when the funds are taken from my bank acocunt and when receiving an e-cheque as a seller it has taken 3 or 4 days to get the email from Paypal that it is OK to post the item.

However when I make a payment it states it is instant because of the credit card back up.

[digital*ghost]

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@i-once-was-bump wrote:

d*g it takes at least two days from the Paypal transaction to when the funds are taken from my bank acocunt and when receiving an e-cheque as a seller it has taken 3 or 4 days to get the email from Paypal that it is OK to post the item.

However when I make a payment it states it is instant because of the credit card back up.

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Could be dependent on the bank, I guess - I haven't paid with an eCheque in a really long time but I do sometimes fund from my bank account (with debit card as a backup so it's processed as instant) and my balance goes to that "half-way" stage immediately where my balance is still the same, but available funds are less the amount sent. 

Paper cheques take a few days to clear because there's a physical item with a signature that needs to travel to the issuer's bank to be verified - no such thing has to happen with an electronic payment via PayPal, so the processing and clearance times are completely unnecessary, IMO. 

[gem-boy-g]

I always send a message to echeque payers thanking them for their payment and pointing out that it takes a few days to clear, then tell them I'll let them know when the item is posted.

[*crikey*mate*]

question: when someone pays by eCheque, doesn't this show up on their info page?