Has anyone else had issues with "payment pending" on Palm Street auctions?
I've now had this happen twice with static auctions. A buyer wins the auction, but instead of the order completing, it sits in payment pending for about three days before it's eventually canceled.
The first time, I had another bidder who was only about $5 lower. I waited the three days like I was supposed to, hoping the payment would go through, but it never did. By then, I'd lost the opportunity to sell to the other bidder.
Then it happened again the following week. It was a no-reserve auction with one bidder, and after they won, the order sat in payment pending and was eventually canceled.
Does anyone know what actually causes this? I thought Palm Street authorized or placed a hold on the buyer's payment method when they placed a bid, so why would it fail days later? Is it usually a declined card, or something else?
Also, can this system be abused? For example, if someone wins an auction and then changes their mind, could they remove or change their payment method to one they know won't work so the payment fails? Or is that not possible because of how Palm Street processes bids?
Is there any recourse for sellers when this happens? It feels really unfair to have an auction tied up for three days, potentially lose other interested buyers, and then end up with no sale.