Non-Paying Bidders /Buyers are getting out of control

[tsmtmiller]

It is at the point now where close to 50% of people making purchases are not paying. More needs to be done to STOP this insanity. Every time I get a sale, its a game of will they pay or not. What is eBay doing to protect sellers from this abuse? Ebay cannot continue to allow buyers to do this.   

[chapeau-noir]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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@joliztoyco wrote:

Isn't one of the main RULES of Ebay is, if you win an auction, you're responsible for paying for it?
Did this somehow become optional? 

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In theory a buyer is responsible, in reality they can simply not pay. That is how it has been on eBay since 1995.

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But it used to be three defaults on payment and they were kicked off the site.  I remember clearly filing for a non-paying buyer (now euphemistically called "unpaid item", as if the item is supposed to pay for itself) and the ID becoming NARU shortly after.

[dbfolks166mt]

I already do everything that ebay offers to reduce bad buyers. My BBL is already getting pretty long. I wait 4 days or more, and I do have 2 non-payment strikes set, although I think this should be ONE not two. 

About the only other thing you could do would be to eliminate the use of OBO on the BIN listings.

[reallynicestamps]

Isn't one of the main RULES of Ebay is, if you win an auction, you're responsible for paying for it?
Did this somehow become optional? 

Of course that is the rule.

There is a rule about running red lights too.

In both cases, those breaking the rules are punished.

If a purchase goes Unpaid for 96 hours, the seller can cancel it and get their fees (if any) back.

The deadbeat gets a Strike, and Strikes make it more difficult to buy on eBay in future.  If "enough" Strikes are accumulated, the deadbeat may have his buying account closed or may become ineligible for the Money Back Guarantee.

[byrd69er]

It only takes two words to fix this problem....Buy It Now.

[dbfolks166mt]

It only takes two words to fix this problem....Buy It Now.

     That's actually 3 words. It also takes a few more, immediate payment required and no OBO. 

     Of course that doesn't stop the buyer from canceling the item or simply requesting a return once they have received it. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

It only takes two words to fix this problem....Buy It Now.

     That's actually 3 words. It also takes a few more, immediate payment required and no OBO. 

     Of course that doesn't stop the buyer from canceling the item or simply requesting a return once they have received it. 

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Those are different issues, though. 

[bronte171]

I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve had 7 cancellations for non paying bidders out of 43 items in the span of 6 months, which is more than the total number of NPBs I’ve had in over 20 years on EBay! Despite my reporting each scofflaw and setting my buyer requirements as stringently as possible, it continues to happen. Oh, and the scammers too. I recently had a woman with over 1,000 feedback list an undeliverable address. It sat at the post office awaiting pickup for over a month before they automatically shipped it back to me. The day it arrived back she emailed demanding her money back! Luckily EBay denied her very spurious claim. All for a $13 item that netted me something like $7!

[dbfolks166mt]

     I can understand the issue with non-paying  buyers on auctions a lot can happen between the time a bidder places a bid and the auction closes. For BIN, which most of your listings are, simply eliminate the OBO and turn on IPR. I use the auction format almost exclusively these days but when I was using BIN it only took me about 6 months to quit using it. Too many crazy low ball offers, non-payers.............. It just wasn't worth the headache. 

     EBay is, as others mentioned, supposed to be making IPR an option on offers but not sure that has been fully implemented yet. You may want to turn off the OBO until such time as that is fully deployed. Of course you may trade non-payers for cancelation requests. 

[roetzel77]

I totally agree. My sales are right at 50% non payment. It’s ridiculous and eBay’s policy is so lax that it is completely ineffective. There are so many auction winners not paying that you will never see any change. There needs to be some restitution setup through PayPal or eBay where any bidder has to have a way of penalizing the non paying buyers for not following through. First incident would be a $25 charge, 2nd goes to $50 and so forth. These funds would be released to the sellers for all the time and hassle to cancel orders, block them, relist and then pray it doesn’t happen again. eBay use to be stronger and support the sellers more but each year it seems to get a little worse. Before long eBay will be worthless like Craigslist is now for selling. The only strong help platform is Mercari. When they don’t pay they actually help and you can speak to a representative. You will never get an eBay live person. I think everything’s automated. Anyhow, I need ebay to supplement my income but if it keeps slipping then I will have to cut my losses. Too much effort to get zero return. I’ve been with ebay since 2001 and seen a lot of changes but here lately it’s increased dramatically in buyers doing what they want with no accountability. For now I have to fight the process and take the lumps but I am close to jumping ship. I wish all you guys and gals future luck with your sales. We need all we can get!

Sean

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi @roetzel77  It is alarming to hear about your experience with increasing non-payers. Had a suggestion to throw out as  food-for-thought.

Took a look at your Completed listings for the last 90 days. Out of 80 Sold, i counted 22 (or 50% of) those listings had ended with one bid. That is a good indication that they could have done well in a fixed-price format vs. auction.

More fixed price offerings could also improve those sales among a buying population that increasingly wants their item now, and lacks patience to wait. It could be a meaningful strategy in dealing with multiple rival listings that the buyer will see centered on your item’s listing page, potentially tempting them to abandon your auction in favor of a Buy It Now.

The enormous advantage with fixed price is, of course, that a seller can enable Immediate Payment Required (as long as Best Offer isn’t included) which puts a full stop on non-payers.

You may have already considered this as an alternative in combatting the problem. What were your thoughts? Even if it is a temporary measure, you could always resume auctions when the non-payers or sport bidders move along to plague someone else.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi again @roetzel77  forgot to add that i see you have Buy It Now on your auction listings, which is great. But there is a downside to that—the Buy It Now will disappear after the first bid is made, leaving you still vulnerable to Non-paying buyers. With a regular Buy It Now (fixed price) listing, that won’t happen.