No seller should have to contact a buyer in regards to a third party payment issue. The system as it is now is what is confusing buyers because it is unclear when a payment is unsuccessful.
The change that is being proposed makes everything much more straightforward for everyone involved. If a buyer is notified (by Folksy, automatically) that there is a problem with their payment they know to try again or to contact PayPal or Folksy for help. There is zero difference between this and what currently happens except it removes the need for the seller to get involved in something that they have no direct control over.
If there is an āotherā option for those who want to accept non-PayPal payments as well then I donāt see what the issue is in changing the way it works.
As I said earlier, as long as the āotherā option button is added, and as long as buyers are notified of a payment not being received, any change would be welcomed. Sadly, this is not what James proposed in his original post. But yes, an ideal solution all round, if these options were included.
Iām all for change if it works, the original proposal still worries me though xx
No no no. I have a constant stream of customer orders which come through as, and are, genuine orders which for one reason or another have failed somewhere between the Paypal and Paypal notifying Folksy that payment is made.
These are real orders which the customer 80% of the time thinks has gone through and in the other 20% hopes has gone through. Orders I want my customer to have and which my customer wishes to receive. If it happens to me then it does to other people as well.
Iāve seen quite a number of sellers on here saying that they ignore the notifications if the money doesnāt follow. Iāve also seen a number of sellers complaining about non-payment and also a number who complain they are not selling enough.
I Never ignore the non-paid notifications, I always send helpful and friendly (I think )advice to the customer and we sort it out.As I said previously Iāve only had 2 real non-payers.
I have had several ānon-payersā who have accidentally mis-typed their emails into Folksy. This means they do not receive the Folksy you have placed an order email and if their payment drops out they canāt get back in to pay it as they have no email with the link. I know about these and sort them out simply because when I send them the helpful you have not paid email it bounces and I thnk endeavour (and Iām pretty good at endeavouring) to work out the proper spelling for the email and I send it again.
You really must not assume that everyone who buys online has to have as much experience on a computer as those who have grown up with them or in my case had 30+ years in professional IT,
Those of you who assume technology and using the internet is easy for everyone - please, consider yourselves lucky if it comes easily to you, as it doesnāt to everyone. It may seem like it should be simple, if you can do it easily, but everyone has stumbling blocks - some people canāt get to grips with driving, burn everything they cook, canāt spell, canāt dance. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and rather than being intolerant of people who struggle with paying on line we should be helping them!
Iām not fussed either way I am only usually interested with the actual PayPal email. So I know I have payment and I am OK to send said item out.
Maby it could be a way of re wording the āā¦ Has just brought your workā to something less like you have had a sale (I canāt think of anything of the top of my head)
As it looks like its helpful to some and not to others
Iāve only had two no payers I emailed them and no reply in a few days so deleted them
Do the items go out of sale it they are in someoneās basket? As if you donāt receive the email items might be hidden from people who may actually want to buy something.
Hi Sara! Just wondering, do you wait for cheques to clear before you release the item? Iāve never had anyone ask to pay me by cheque but wonder how to avoid the ārubber chequeā scenario if that happens.
Very true! There is an assumption that everone has a computer and a printer and knows how to use one without that necessarily being the case. Maybe itās not as important when youāre talking about online shopping, but lately people have had to register to vote online, even if they had been registered in the past on the old system. I find that quite worrying.
I have Never had anyone default on a cheque. I trust my customers to send me the cheque, I tell them so and also that nobody has so far defaulted. The cheque always arrives and doesnāt bounce.
I really think that in sales situations like this a bit of trust does not go amiss. Most people are honest.
could it be that the first e-mail the customers get saying āthanks for orderingā is what may be adding to the non-payment situation? it may be causing them confusion (some my even think they have paid if they do not read the whole e-mail) and changing this/removing this may perhaps improve the experience for customers and cause less confusion for them about paying.
after all on most online shops you get the āthanks for orderingā etc e-mail after you have paid.
Thanks Joy and Sara! I think that because cheques are still available for people to use as payment and we are all here in the business of offering things for sale, itās inevitable that all of us will be asked if we will accept a cheque at some point. That being the case, I thought I should have some idea about what to do as and when that occurred. Itās really encouraging that neither of you have encountered any problems and I think that I would accept a cheque in payment as I know how I feel when a shop tells me I canāt give them a Ā£5 note or they wonāt accept my card for under Ā£5. Thereās a fabric shop in my area I sometimes use and they have definitely lost sales from me on occasion because of this policy. I donāt think itās right to dictate to customers how they should pay (as long as the do pay ).
I do like to receive the folksy email when a customer has tried to buy and might not have completely understound the procedure so have left thinking they are have paid etc etc.
That way if I then donāt receive the confirmation from paypal I can send a gentle email along the lines of
Thank you for your order xyz once payment is received I will post item xyz out to you. If you are experiencing a problem at check out please let me know.
This does happen not every one that doesnāt pay has changed their minds so I would want to have the opportunity to assist those customers who require help. Without that folky email I would have no idea someone might be trying to make a purchase.
Please admin donāt assume just because customer failed to pay it was due to a change of mind this is not always the case.
all items should be available to buy unless they have been paid for. The person who attempted to buy my cat ears the other day has not responded to my email, so Iāve cancelled the order, because I have paid Folksy for the listing and it should be available for sale unless the actual purchase has taken place.
At this point we still feel that the perception of people not buying is a problem that we need to address (it is constantly flagged up as an issue in the forums and gets misunderstood and amplified negatively and we feel affects the brand reputation) and that we can create an improved way to manage communications with buyers who - for whatever reason - have not paid but intended to. PayPal offers a range of ways to pay now (and cheque based / offline payments have to be handled through messaging anyway). Private sales are usually handled through personal communications / messages so feel like a separate issue.
Weāll continue to digest your posts and feedback on them next week.
The system as it works now is particularly bad for makers of one-off items as an item is removed from sale for a minimum of 24 hours in the case of non-payment where the buyer doesnāt respond.
Definitely a recipe for lost sales (and lost commission for Folksy too).
@Beledien Hi Melanie, you can cancel an order immediately and do not have to wait 24hrs. This changed quite a while ago now, in response to seller feedback.
Still, in the event of non-payment it makes it difficult for me as a seller to know how long I should give a customer to respond to an email asking them if they need help to complete their order ā¦
Or I can cancel the order straight away and send the buyer an email to let them know there was a problem and the item is available to re-order. To me, this seems like a waste of my time since in a system where sales were only complete when paid for then presumably the system would automatically deliver a message to the customer if there is a problem during the order process.
Thanks for giving the matter consideration. The three sellers that disagree strongly with this are all on your top seller list right now. I am generally quiet on the forums and just read with interest, but this time, I felt I had to say something. If you are going to prevent our customers from buying through Folksy and paying by cheque or postal orders, we will lose sales, and you will lose commission and possibly some of your best sellers. I hope that you have a good weekend too, but after your latest message, mine may be taken up finding a new selling platform.
You say that off-line payments have to be handled through messaging anyway, but only from the point of sale at the moment. Your theory is fine, but if Iām stuck in town when a buyer asks me to remove an item from sale, and it sells before I get home to remove it - a customer is lost, if I do manage to remove it for them - you lose the commission as it didnāt go through Folksy. Buyers need to be able to purchase through Folksy and pay by cheque I hope now that you arenāt about to make that impossibleā¦
Just thought Iād point out, that nine out of my last thirty orders didnāt pay by Paypal, but all went through Folksy. Losing 30% of my sales isnāt a happy thought, hopefully now you may see why Iām fighting this change so strongly. x
)advice to the customer and we sort it 
).