eBay bid failed due to 'No linked PayPal account'

[Mr Curta]

Apologies if this has been discussed before.

I placed a late bid on an item eBay yesterday, but it was refused with the message: 'No linked PayPal account.' Of course it was too late to do anything about it so I watched helplessly whist somebody else got a rather good deal (my bid was more than 100% higher than the price that the item sold for).

This is the first time that I've come across this issue, apparently it's a setting that a vendor can stipulate but I can't see anything in the listing to indicate that it was a requirement.

I'm struggling to see much of a benefit to the seller. A linked account doesn't guarantee payment and in this case considerably more proceeds could have been achieved from the sale. I suppose it proves that a bidder does have a PayPal account but surely the worst that can happen is a non-payment relisting.

[adzman808]

Apologies if this has been discussed before.

I placed a late bid on an item eBay yesterday, but it was refused with the message: 'No linked PayPal account.' Of course it was too late to do anything about it so I watched helplessly whist somebody else got a rather good deal (my bid was more than 100% higher than the price that the item sold for).

This is the first time that I've come across this issue, apparently it's a setting that a vendor can stipulate but I can't see anything in the listing to indicate that it was a requirement.

I'm struggling to see much of a benefit to the seller. A linked account doesn't guarantee payment and in this case considerably more proceeds could have been achieved from the sale. I suppose it proves that a bidder does have a PayPal account but surely the worst that can happen is a non-payment relisting.

I thoght that eBay specified that paypal had to be a payment option.

ebay will want people to pay with paypal as they own it, and get a percentage out of it.

The seller might just feel happier staying within the woolly cotton world of paypal and ebay.

Indeed the worse than can happen is a non-payment relisting, but possibly the seller experiences a lot of buggering about before it gets to that, and it takes both parties to agree to a cancelled transaction (or a set amount of non-payment time to pass)

So if the buyer (speaking generically, I’m sure you’re on the level, but the seller doesn’t know that) says, I’ll do a balance transfer to you, but not now, when I get paid. The seller has to wait. If after some time the buyer hasn’t paid, but doesn’t want to cancel then the seller is a bit stuck with an item s/he wants sold

Without knowing what the other buyer bid, you cannot know you’d have won.

If bidder one bids a 1000 on a 100 item

then bidder two will need to bid more than a 1000 to win

If there’s no bidder two, then bidder one wins for 100

Seeing something sell for (say) 100 and thinking you could of won it for 101 isn’t necessarily accurate.

[Mr Curta]

Just to clarify, I do have a PayPal account, the issue is that it isn't 'linked' to my eBay account which is a feature eBay promote, presumably to encourage payment by PayPal.

Although I may well have not won the auction, if I hadn't the seller would have more than doubled his money. The item sold for £114, my bid was £274.

[deryckb]

I had this a while ago, some people have because they get ghost bids.

"I'm a seller that uses it. It cuts down on the amount of sport bidding and scams that happens on our auctions. Nothing like having kids during the summer months overbid on your items as a game and not pay and it costs us time and ruins the others bidders confidence in us. So i rather lose a few bids this way that refuse to link their accounts but still sell my items at a lower profit then to have many unpaid for items that actually costs me more time and keeps me from getting a regular income. "

[Mr Curta]

I had this a while ago, some people have because they get ghost bids.

"I'm a seller that uses it. It cuts down on the amount of sport bidding and scams that happens on our auctions. Nothing like having kids during the summer months overbid on your items as a game and not pay and it costs us time and ruins the others bidders confidence in us. So i rather lose a few bids this way that refuse to link their accounts but still sell my items at a lower profit then to have many unpaid for items that actually costs me more time and keeps me from getting a regular income. "

That makes sense.

[hughtrimble]

I don't think it's about the benefit for the seller, rather eBay want as many people to link their accounts as possible, so they'll make life harder for you if you don't.

I don't have them linked due to eBay's lack of decent 2FA system. But I have yet to be impacted by this as I've not bid on anything since unlinking them, so I appreciate the warning that it may cause issues.

[Neil.C]

That's quite disturbing.

I buy loads of stuff off ebay and although they always ask if I want to link accounts when I use Paypal I always ignore it and have never had a problem with buying anything.

[Harry Smith]

Just to clarify, I do have a PayPal account, the issue is that it isn't 'linked' to my eBay account which is a feature eBay promote, presumably to encourage payment by PayPal.

Although I may well have not won the auction, if I hadn't the seller would have more than doubled his money. The item sold for £114, my bid was £274.

Actually even if you bid £274 it would not have gone that high unless another bidder bid higher than that, even by a few pence. You might have got the item for £114.50 for example.
I (and probably many others) always bid a few pence over my maximum bid eg. £247.99

[Alansmithee]

ebay will want people to pay with paypal as they own it, and get a percentage out of it.

Paypal became a separate company in 2015.

[hafle]

And ebay are soon to take a step back from PayPal and prioritise a new payment system.

[Mr Curta]

Actually even if you bid £274 it would not have gone that high unless another bidder bid higher than that, even by a few pence. You might have got the item for £114.50 for example.

Indeed (although I think that increments are at £2.00 at that point); that's what I'm finding rather annoying about the whole thing!

I buy loads of stuff off ebay and although they always ask if I want to link accounts when I use Paypal I always ignore it and have never had a problem with buying anything.

Me too, never a problem before. It is something that the seller has to opt-in to (for now at least) so is unlikely to happen very often but it's the first that I've become aware of it.

[adzman808]

Paypal became a separate company in 2015.

indeed. But the apple didn’t fall far from the tree

It was announced on September 30, 2014, that eBay would spin off PayPal into a separate publicly traded company, a move demanded in 2013 by activist hedge fund magnate Carl Icahn. The spin-off was completed on July 18, 2015.^[45][46][47]Dan Schulman is the current President and CEO, with former eBay CEO John Donahoe serving as chairman.^[44] On Jan 31, 2018 it was announced that, "After the existing eBay-PayPal agreement ends in 2020, PayPal will remain a payment option for shoppers on eBay, but it won’t be prominently featured ahead of debit and credit card options as it is today. PayPal will cease to process card payments for eBay at that time." <sup>[48]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal</sup>

[ralphy]

IIRC on eBay your seller settings can also preclude anyone from bidding if they haven't lodged details of a debit/credit card.

R

[sprite1275]

Ebay is great. I have not gone near it in years but wanted a sat nav that's made for my new motor. Anyway this descibed as "Practically brand new. Think it has been used once. All accessories included. Cables still in sealed packet"

Attachment 13831

Sent from my [device_name] using TZ-UK mobile app

[Mr Curta]

Having first consulted the TZ collective as is only right and proper, I decided to message the seller. I'm pleased that I did, his response is below.

Hi,
Unfortunately over the past three months I've had a 'troll' bidder that registers a new name on the last day of the auctions, places a high bid and then deregisters after the end effectively destroying the auction. It is incredibly annoying and after contacting eBay they suggested adding this extra security. I have basically had to add all the controls available to try and prevent this and yet even yesterday they hijacked four of my auctions (all watches). I'm sorry if it prevents you from bidding (honestly I am - I too am a collector and have had quite a few Curtas in my collection never found an Alpina though!) but I have to do all that eBay suggests as they are currently trying to trace this troll. To give you an idea of the extent yesterday they killed £800 of my auctions - luckily this is a personal collection and not a business but I do worry about the image it gives when genuine bidders lose out - I can't even offer the item to the second bidder as eBay automatically kills the auction once the bidder deregisters and removes the bidding history.
I hope that explains why the settings are on - my hands truly are tied on this,
All the best

[ralphy]

Having first consulted the TZ collective as is only right and proper, I decided to message the seller. I'm pleased that I did, his response is below.

Sounds a decent guy.

R

[Mr Curta]

There's a satisfying postscript. The item that I had attempted to bid on was one of the sales that had been hijacked by the disruptive bidder mentioned by the seller in Post #15. We've agreed on a mutually agreeable price (a fair bit higher than what the item had originally 'sold' for), and have struck a deal.