You may have heard about eBay’s global issue – their site has frequent glitches for sellers. One example is buyers reporting “check” being the chosen payment method when that wasn’t even an available option for the product they sold.
In fact, the eBay policy page mentions that checks, money orders, and wire transfers are almost never allowed for most purchases on their site. If you look deeper into the issue, it turns out that eBay has been struggling to keep its Managed Payments aspect functional for quite a while. But what is this function, and what is it intended to do?
What is eBay’s Managed Payments Function?
Between 2018 and 2021, eBay slowly started implementing eBay Managed Payments. It was an internal system intended to process buyer payments for sellers, rather than using their previous PayPal payment processing method.
Here’s the basic summary of how this process was supposed to work:
- The user is prompted to input a link to their checking account as well as other relevant personal information upon registration for an account on the site.
- Using this, eBay Managed Payments would deduct two small fees from the initial payment (one for processing, the other for commission) before sending the buyer’s payment to the seller.
- Funds would be transferred to the seller within a few business days.
What Went Wrong?
While there were technical glitches with eBay Managed Payments on both ends, it seemed to affect sellers the most. Other than the aforementioned issue where it said that “check” was the selected payment method when that wasn’t even an option, there were many other glitches that negatively impacted eBay user experience.
Since many eBay sellers don’t have any businesses outside of eBay, they rely on money arriving on time when they have a payout scheduled. So it’s a big problem for these eBay users when the account holder finds that they won’t be able to access their payments when expected, and there will be a delay before the money reaches their account balance.
Payment Hold Status
Some sellers reported that they would receive notifications regarding eBay Managed Payments saying that their accounts had been put on payment hold status, seemingly out of nowhere. Regardless of how long they had been a seller, they would now have to wait until the item was marked “delivered” before the payment would go through and the money would go to their bank.
This eBay payment issue caused problems for the sellers, as they depended on the money from their buyers. Similarly, sellers who had been part of the program for years and made hundreds of sales would spontaneously get a message saying that their payments would be on hold until delivery for their next 25 sales.
There were many people reporting this issue or others much like it, where eBay would hold seller funds for no reason other than a glitch in the eBay Managed Payments system. Their payouts would get declined and they would get no explanation, even when they called customer service. All customer service seemed to say was that it was a widespread glitch and that they were working on fixing it.
Eventually, an eBay moderator said that their payments processor finally confirmed that all payments were put out successfully, and sellers should now be able to access their payouts. According to this moderator, sellers can access payouts when expected once more, with no additional delays other than the 1-4 business days it can sometimes take when transferring funds to your bank account.
Unsatisfactory Customer Service
Another big issue that sellers and buyers alike seemed to have was that eBay’s customer service was a bit lackluster. The higher-ups at eBay didn’t handle these situations as well as users thought they should have, either. This made sellers even less enthusiastic about using eBay’s Managed Payments system.
One of the main complaints regarding this aspect of the ordeal was that eBay never seemed to take accountability for the problems, as far as the users could tell. And eBay has, in fact put out quite a few statements saying that the issues were due to the banks, their previous PayPal system, and even the sellers themselves on occasion.
Mostly, the sellers didn’t seem surprised at the glitches in the Managed Payments system, since eBay has had “glitches” like this in the past. Some said that the situation wouldn’t have seemed so bad if they weren’t forced into using eBay Managed Payments with minimal advice or customer service support for how to use it.
How to Manage Your Finances as an eBay Seller with Unreliable Payouts
If you’re an eBay seller, you probably rely at least a little bit at getting your payouts when you’re scheduled to. Unfortunately, the frequent glitches and lack of quality customer service offered by eBay makes it difficult to know for sure when the money will reach your bank account. There are other eCommerce platforms that you could try, but switching your online store to a whole new platform isn’t necessarily the easiest solution.
Instead, look into a service like Payability. Payability understands the importance of reliable and steady income. That’s why we offer options like Payability Instant Access.
With Payability Instant Access you have access to accelerated daily payouts as soon as the next day. The only requirements you have to meet in order to qualify are proof of $10,000 per month in sales and 3 months of recorded sales history.
An additional business tool at your disposal is Payability Instant Advance. It helps you improve capital and, in turn, grow your eCommerce business. Those who qualify can get up to $250,000 to put towards inventory and marketing to help give their virtual business an extra boost.
Payability also has a wide variety of helpful blogs that anyone can access for free to get game-changing business and eCommerce tips. Whether it’s advice on taking your eCommerce to the next level, information that can help you understand the difference between debt financing and equity financing, or anything in between, you can find the information you’re looking for at payability.com/blog.
For sellers that need reliable weekly payouts and have been disappointed by eBay’s unreliable payment methods, Payability would be happy to help. Even if you aren’t an eBay seller, we’d be happy to help you receive reliable income if you meet the requirements. So don’t hesitate! Click here to apply now.
