An integral part of the sale of an item is the buyer paying for the purchase. eBay controls the available electronic payment methods that are available to buyers on each marketplace. The buyer chooses how they want to pay. eBay handles the payment from the buyer, and the seller will receive the sales funds through a seller payout to a bank account.

After the item has been paid for and shipped, the seller can also use CompleteSale to update the paid and shipped status.

Holds on payments

Under certain conditions, a seller's order funds may be held by eBay.

The hold status of an item is returned in the TransactionArray.Transaction.Status.PaymentHoldStatus field of the TransactionArray.Transaction containers.

The responses of the following calls include the TransactionArray.Transaction.Status.PaymentHoldStatus field:

  • GetItemTransactions
  • GetSellerTransactions
  • GetOrderTransactions
  • GetOrders
  • GetMyeBayBuying
  • GetMyeBaySelling

For more information, refer to Payments on hold

Non-paying buyers/bidders

In some cases, the buyer might not complete the item's purchase at all or to the satisfaction of all of the seller's requirements. When this occurs, eBay recommends that the seller communicate with the buyer about completing the payment. If the buyer does not respond/does not pay after four calendar days, the seller can cancel the order and relist the item.

After cancelling an order due to non payment:

  • The seller will be eligible to receive some listing fee credits, including the Final Value fee. Refer to Fees and Credits for additional information.
  • If the buyer has already provided Feedback, this Feedback entry will be removed, regardless of whether it was Positive, Negative, or Neutral. Refer to Feedback for additional information.

  • If the item had been offered through an auction listing, the seller will have the option of offering the item to another eligible bidder on the ended auction listing.

    This offer can be made as a Second Chance offer. Refer to Second Chance Offers for additional information.

  • The non-paying buyer will get an Unpaid Item strike, and these strikes may affect their ability to make additional purchases on eBay.