BOBpay checkout needs to be looked at and altered.

[Designer Jewels 10]

Hello all.

 

One thing I have found to be happening more and more frequently, which I think need addressing on the BOB checkout system. The "optional" BOBpay payment method for sellers is forced to be accepted by a seller if the buyer decides that is how he will pay.

 

A buyer checks out, and the seller has NOT opted to accept BOBpay as one of their acceptable payment methods. However, more and more frequently buyers just ignore a sellers acceptable payment and just decide "I will pay via BOBpay regardless if the seller accepts it or not". To be honest, that is not on.

 

When that happens. BOB does not assist the seller in this case, and just states that "the order has been paid", and the sellers must just accept it. In my opinion, if the system does not get altered, then a seller should reserve the right to request that BOB pay the incorrect payment back to the buyer, and only ship an item once the payment is made via one of the acceptable payment methods as listed in the legally binding contract of the auction payment policy of each seller. I believe that is our right as sellers, to refuse a payment which has not been made in accordance with our policies.

 

Now I do not have any problem with BOBpay, but leaving the system like this will only lead to more and more buyers abusing the system and "paying by their terms", not the terms stated in the auction.

 

Buyers will pay "how they want to" regardless of a sellers policy and it must just be accepted by the seller. If you purchase an item in a physical store, you can only pay via a means which the store accepts, correct? BOB should be the same, whereby a sellers store policies cannot just be changed by a buyer as he sees fit. A business has the right to decide what methods of payment are acceptable to them, regardless on whether the business is in a physical location or online.

 

An easy solution to this is to edit the checkout so that the BOBpay option does not show on the checkout page unless the seller has selected it as an acceptable payment method.

 

I can see this becoming a very big issue in the future as more buyers realize that a seller must just "put up with it" if he decides he does not want to make payment within the sellers payment policies.

 

The bottom line is, when a buyer bids or purchases a product on BOB, he is entering into a legally binding contract to complete the purchase ACCORDING TO THE SELLERS SPECIFIED POLICY. This "loophole" in the BOBpay system allows a buyer to disregard this contract (knowingly or unknowingly).

 

This should be sorted out before it becomes a major issue.

 

Look forward to hearing what Cuan and the rest of the BOB staff think?

[Guest MacMuffin]

I have a different opinion on this. Generally in a retail environment I have a number of options for payment - i.e. different credit cards, cash, sometimes (bank-guaranteed) cheques and even proof of payment via EFT (not very common, but I did those types of payments with non-retail chains to get better pricing as they save on credit card charges).

 

In your specific case you chose EFT in your bank-account directly. In my opinion this is less convenient and more risky than chosing bobPay. At least with bobPay you will get your guaranteed payment confirmation with 30 minutes. With regular EFT (unless the buyer and you bank with the same bank) you will face delays of up to 48 hours. Some banks don't show properly if this was an EFT or a cheque (in which case you have to wait up to 7-10 days).

 

I just verified on both our test and production systems, that if a seller does not have bobPay selected, the checkout option will not display this.

 

I am more intrigued, why you chose EFT (which requires you to wait up to 48 hours if the buyer banks with a different financial institution) bobPay?

[lilythepink 11]

From the beak again, for MacMuffin ...

I have not elected to have buyers pay me via the BoBPay system because I believe it will get confusing if wrong amounts are paid to BoBPay and I then have to negotiate with BoBPay AND the buyer, i.e. a third party becomes involved. I believe it is easier for me to manage my sales without third party involvement - but that is just my point of view.

[donovink 10]

Hi,

 

Only saw Macmuffins comment as I completed so the question has been answered

[Guest MacMuffin]

Hmmm... assumption is the mother of all.... MISTAKES. I was wrong with my previous email and corrected it.

 

If a seller does not have bobPay selected, that payment option is not shown (applies to both auctions and buynow's). I did confirm this by testing those scenarios in our environment.

 

Speaking to our finance guys, I heard that many buyers are used to bobPay and then disregard any seller instructions. A buyer will then go ahead and do a bobPay transaction with wrong details (perhaps a correct item id or order id and in some instances the name of the seller). In such cases our system matches those transactions and makes the funds available to the seller.

 

@DesignerJewels - can you please elaborate how this happened to you, as I do note that you only have EFT selected. It would then appear that a buyer paid in the wrong way (i.e. EFTed into bobPay instead of your account).

 

Please PM me a trade-id and more specifics. The system does however work as it should and there is nothing wrong with the way payment options are presented (i.e. we only show what you as the seller selected).

[qball 12]

Whilst we do understand your frustration in this regard, sometimes this is out of our control. If the buyer already has our banking details from another order from another seller who accepts bobPay, they might simply use these details again, or have them saved in their internet banking as a beneficiary - this unfortunately is beyond our control, and if funds are received into one of bobpay accounts it will be credited to the sellers' bob account.

 

If you do not have the bobPay facility selected, the buyer will not see this option and in most cases will not make payment via the bobPay system, however, as we can clearly see, there are instances where sellers simply choose to make payment with the details they already have - we unfortunately have no control over this.

 

We also get buyers paying money into our seller fee payment account (the account sellers are requested to pay their fees into). This causes all sorts of problems, as sometimes the buyer uses the sellers username, and we assume it is a payment for the seller's fees, not a purchase. It is sometimes impossible to track some of these payments too, especially if the wrong account is used and the wrong reference. Unfortunately we have to deal with this and explain to the buyer the correct way of doing it, so as to avoid future problems.