Unpaid item assistant and PayPal echeques

No primary category set

I don’t get many payments via PayPal echeques, which is a relief as they still take 5-7 working days to clear – in real terms that’s about 10 days as it will always include a weekend. However these days there’s an added problem as I have eBay’s automatic unpaid item assistant turned on.

Whenever I have an outstanding echeque there’s always a note added by eBay warning “Payment has not been recorded. Unpaid Item Assistant will file a case of this transaction based on your setting“. The thing is payment has been recorded, it’s just not cleared.

I don’t want an unpaid item opened whilst an echeque is waiting to clear, as it’s bound to annoy the buyer who has initiated payment. It’s a manual process to add the buyer to the unpaid item assistant preferences to ensure that a case isn’t opened which destroys the benefits of an automated process.

Echeques are, and have always been, a pain point for both buyers and sellers. They take far too long to clear which can’t be conducive to high detailed seller ratings and isn’t a great buying experience.

The one small point in echeques favour is that unlike credit card funded payments once cleared they can’t be reversed by the buyer through their bank, their only option is to open a PayPal claim. However that is little benefit to me as I’m always covered by PayPal seller protection in any case and quite frankly I can’t remember the last time I suffered a chargeback, let alone lost one.

If eBay are going to continue to allow payment by echeque then the least they should do is to exclude them from the automatic unpaid item process once the are initiated until they either clear or bounce.

15 Responses

  1. I can’t work out how an electric transfer of payment can take 10 days to clear at its supposed to be instant. I wish the EU could make use of themselves and look into it.

  2. Chris a Simple solution would be!

    Turn it off and make all you listings instant pay, this will also stop those dreadful e-checks.
    The people who can’t manage instant pay will contact you and do a direct sale….

    It’s not a very friendly feature and it’s not like your shifting loads on ebay.

  3. no idea how ebay do things but I know nowt gets fixed or sorted in our business unless it hurts our pocket cos were too busy fighting our way thru the million other emails from sniveling whinging moaning arseholes

RELATED POSTS..

Hampers.com - Scaling from 400 to 10k orders at peak

Hampers.com – Scaling from 400 to 10k orders at peak

Waiting to fail - Slow finance harms online retailers Get early access to credit with multifi

Waiting to fail – Slow finance harms online retailers. Get early access to credit with multifi

How Suri grew to £10m in two years staying true to their sustainable credentials

How Suri grew to £10m in two years staying true to their sustainable credentials

Yodel Doubles North West Capacity with New Huyton Depot

Yodel Doubles North West Capacity with New Huyton Depot

How to reach international buyers with B2B Ecommerce

How to reach international buyers with B2B Ecommerce

ChannelX Guide...

Featured in this article from the ChannelX Guide – companies that can help you grow and manage your business.

Register for Newsletter

Receive 5 newsletters per week

Gain access to all research

Be notified of upcoming events and webinars