eBay

josur-6822 · ‎05-28-2022

There needs to be a way to set up our accounts, to where bidders with a (0) items purchased history cannot bid, I've had to relist and re-promote 3 items that people with a 0 bid on and then never pay and certainly never communicate, I'm certain I'm not the only one having this issue and there should absolutely be a number to call when trying to address "help" on ebay, I mostly maintain my account from my phone and there is no viable way to make DIRECT contact over issues

house*of*paws · ‎05-28-2022

Hi @josur-6822

Although many sellers feel as you do ... eBay will never allow sellers to block new members. [What would be the point of trying to attract new members ... and then not allowing them to bid when they join?]

It's mainly newbies who like bidding on auctions ... the very people who are least likely to be aware of the rules that require payment upon winning an auction.

Sellers who get tired of nonpayers should switch to listing items as Buy It Now with Immediate Payment Required. That way their listings will stay active until someone actually pays for the item.

mtgraves7984 · ‎05-28-2022

Moving forward, I'd suggest Buy It Now, Immediate payment required. For what it's worth, I have successful '0' sales often.

maxine*j · ‎05-28-2022

Imagine going into a store and being told you couldn't buy anything because you'd never bought anything before.

You started on eBay at zero, just like the rest of us. Your very first transaction here was as a buyer, at you had zero feeback when you made that first purchase.

If you find non-paying bidders a problem, use a fixed price format with immediate payment required.

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pburn · ‎05-28-2022

@josur-6822

There is no need to contact eBay's customer service for an unpaid transaction. There's nothing customer service can do about it.

There are, however, a number of ways you can reduce or avoid nonpaying customers. Perhaps you've already relied on a couple of them, but here's a list of approaches you can utilize:

List all items as fixed-price, immediate payment required. Do not list with the auction format.
Remove the "best offer" option from your listings or decline each offer manually--no matter how tempting it appears.
Make sure to use the new cancellation process for members who don't pay within four full days (cancel on day five). A strike for nonpayment will be recorded on their account. The cancellation process can be done manually or you can set it to cancel for you automatically.
Set your Buyer Requirements to block any member with two or more strikes in the last twelve months--the most restrictive setting.
Add the member id to your Blocked Buyer List.

Utilizing these tools will help eliminate unpaid transactions.

eBay is rolling out a process that requires immediate payment on offers, as announced in the 2022 Winter Seller Update and the 2022 Spring Seller Update, both of which can be accessed on the Seller News board when posted and on the Seller Update Archive after some time has passed. It's in your best interest as a seller to keep abreast of this Seller Updates. Perhaps they'll apply this same requirement to auction winners some day.

Good luck!

luckythewinner · ‎05-28-2022

@josur-6822 wrote:
There needs to be a way to set up our accounts, to where bidders with a (0) items purchased history cannot bid

There are 165 million active buyers on eBay.

Every one of them - including you - started with 0 feedback.

Sellers have posted here for decades asking for this. and thankfully eBay continues to ignore those requests.

BTW there is no reason to contact eBay about nonpayment - they cannot do anything you cannot do yourself. Just cancel the transaction as "Buyer has not paid" when the buyer's payment window has closed and the option becomes available to you.

a_c_green · ‎05-28-2022

@josur-6822 wrote:
There needs to be a way ro set up our accounts, to where bidders with a (0) items purchased history cannot bid, I've had to relist and re-promote 3 items that people with a 0 bid on and then never pay

There's no point in using auction format on a new retail item with a generally known retail price. Just set the price you would like to get for it, don't use the Make Offer option, and set the Immediate Payment Required option (look in the Preferences area to find that), and then no one can snatch your item off the market without actually paying you for it first.

maxine*j · ‎05-28-2022

@luckythewinner wrote:
... Sellers have posted here for decades asking for this. and thankfully eBay continues to ignore those requests...

Yep, and people who have had bad transactions with 8-feedback buyers think they should be able to block anyone with feedback under 10, and people who've had trouble with buyers with 73 feedbacks think they should be able to block buyers with fewer than 100, and on and so on.

It's just amazing how many people think they can retail without risk.

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soh.maryl · ‎05-28-2022

If bidders with a (0) items purchased history were not able to bid, how would ANY new bidders ever come here? And, if it were set up that way from the beginning, where would eBay be now?

Yes, it's disappointing when bidders do not pay, but eBay offers sellers a solution to that problem. I assume you're cancelling, specifying "buyer did not pay" as the reason.

You do not have any need to call -- you simply do as suggested above.

Most sellers who've been here any length of time simply accept the fact that there will be non-paying bidders and act accordingly when that happens.

maxine*j · ‎05-28-2022

@soh.maryl wrote:
If bidders with a (0) items purchased history were not able to bid, how would ANY new bidders ever come here? And, if it were set up that way from the beginning, where would eBay be now?...

I always imagine a huge new mall, with a security guard stationed at the entrance. He asked each person who came to the door if that person has ever bought anything at the mall before. A "no" answer meant the person was not allowed to enter. Of course, everyone had to answer "no." The mall sits vacant and crumbling, covered in kudzu and with field mice the only beings roaming the store aisles.

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albertabrightalberta · ‎05-28-2022

@josur-6822 wrote:
There needs to be a way to set up our accounts, to where bidders with a (0) items purchased history cannot bid, I've had to relist and re-promote 3 items that people with a 0 bid on and then never pay and certainly never communicate, I'm certain I'm not the only one having this issue and there should absolutely be a number to call when trying to address "help" on ebay, I mostly maintain my account from my phone and there is no viable way to make DIRECT contact over issues

Let's look at this from another angle.

Some buyers won't purchase from a seller without a minimum of 10 or 25 feedbacks as a seller. Such a buyer will look at your feedback, see just 4 feedbacks as a seller and will hit the back button and find a "better" seller with higher feedback.

If there are enough buyers who move on to more experienced sellers, how will you get to that 10 or 25 seller feedback level?

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor

itsjustasprain · ‎05-28-2022

@josur-6822 wrote:
There needs to be a way to set up our accounts, to where bidders with a (0) items purchased history cannot bid

Oh come on now. If there ever was a rule like that it would be less than 5 minutes before someone opens a selling account for paper clips at 5 cents each and all the zero feedback bidders suddenly start investing in paper clips just to boost their feedback counts. (Realistically there are already accounts doing basically that.)

Your task is not to screen out zero-feedback bidders but to know how to deal with nonpayers regardless of how much feedback they may or may not have.

femmefan1946 · ‎05-28-2022

1.) Don't use auctions. EBay's "brand" is as an auction site, but over 85% of transactions are Fixed Price. To keep up the brand facade, eBay defaults newbies into auctions, which buyers don't like.

2.) Use Fixed Price. Set the price at what you want to get.

3.) Or set it a bit higher and opt for Best Offers. Then set acceptable/ not acceptable parameters.
4.) Use Immediate Payment Required on your Fixed Price listings. Your listings will stay visible for 30 days or until someone actually pays.

5.) NOTE- an accepted Best Offer will end the Immediate Payment Required.