non paying bidder

[yooner-ama]

Its day 4 of auction close and buyer still has not paid. I sent payment reminder yesterday morning. Can I cancel transaction now or do I have to wait until exact time of auction close which is aprox 2:30. Thanks

[eleanor*rigby]

@yooner-ama 

In order to cancel for non-payment and assure the "buyer" receives a strike on his/her account, follow the procedure for unpaid item cancellations on this eBay help page:

Resolving unpaid items with buyers 

There's a lot of misinformation being posted on the discussion boards about this process, so please make sure you read the page yourself and bookmark it for future reference.

ETA:  I see you asked this same question back in May and received an incorrect answer. All the more reason to read up on it yourself.

[yooner-ama]

Thanks for the link. This helps

[eleanor*rigby]

@yooner-ama 

If you have specific questions about the process after you've read the page, just post again on this thread.

Good luck!

[yooner-ama]

Ok so Im still a bit confused. I just sent the buyer another invoice, its day 4. From me this time not ebay auto invoice. To be clear. After I send the buyer  another reminder invoice ( on day 4 ) I must wait another 4 days before I cancel transaction then? 

[releasethekraken_1 · Accepted solution]

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@yooner-ama wrote:

Ok so Im still a bit confused. I just sent the buyer another invoice, its day 4. From me this time not ebay auto invoice. To be clear. After I send the buyer  another reminder invoice ( on day 4 ) I must wait another 4 days before I cancel transaction then? 

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No, sending an invoice doesn't reset the payment clock.

You must wait 4 full 24 hour periods from when the auction ends before you can cancel for nonpayment. So if your auction ended 4 days ago at 2:30pm, you must wait until after 2:30pm.

[a_c_green]

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@yooner-ama wrote:

Ok so Im still a bit confused. I just sent the buyer another invoice, its day 4. From me this time not ebay auto invoice. To be clear. After I send the buyer  another reminder invoice ( on day 4 ) I must wait another 4 days before I cancel transaction then? 

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You don't have to wait another 4 days after invoicing, no. eBay will let you manually cancel the sale on the fifth calendar day (i.e. tomorrow, in this discussion) from when the listing ended, crediting your fees and giving an Unpaid slap to the deadbeat buyer. You can also choose to have the cancellation done automatically, in which case it will be cancelled precisely 96 hours (and a minute or two) from when the listing or auction originally ended.

eBay says that you can cancel manually on the fifth day, though my own experience with the automatic process as of a couple of weeks ago is that the automatic acts sooner than that, at the actual end of the 4-day (96 hour) time period within which payment was expected.

A little off-topic, maybe, but I would not recommend invoicing a buyer anyway, except on request (such as for a combined purchase and/or discounted Shipping). Invoicing acts to lock in your Shipping charge without considering whether the buyer may select a different Ship-To: address at payment time, in which case you might find yourself out-of-pocket for a Shipping cost that's higher than what you invoiced. Also, eBay is sending plenty of reminders for the buyer to pay, so it's not like he doesn't know that he's got a bill due. He'll be getting plenty of annoy-o-grams from eBay about that, so you don't really need to pile on.

[yooner-ama]

Ok good to know thanks! 

[glasser]

I usually send a friendly reminder sometime after day 3.  and then give another day.  Some international buyers can be a bit slower to pay. Some could be time differences. For example an EU buyer, the auction ends a 2 am their time, they get around to paying the next day at 9 pm their time and then its 3 am my time so by the time I see it feels like 3 days have gone by.

[eleanor*rigby]

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@yooner-ama wrote:

Ok so Im still a bit confused. I just sent the buyer another invoice, its day 4. From me this time not ebay auto invoice. To be clear. After I send the buyer  another reminder invoice ( on day 4 ) I must wait another 4 days before I cancel transaction then? 

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@yooner-ama 

Did you read the page I posted the link for? Did it say anything about having to wait another four days after sending an invoice?

[yooner-ama]

No. it didnt. My invoices used to specify that the buyer has 3 days to make payment.  

[downunder-61]

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@yooner-ama wrote:

No. it didnt. My invoices used to specify that the buyer has 3 days to make payment.  

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Don't bother with invoices. Buyer bids, buyer wins, buyer doesn't pay after 4 days, seller cancels "Buyer did not pay" DONE

[coolections]

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@yooner-ama wrote:

No. it didnt. My invoices used to specify that the buyer has 3 days to make payment.  

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No one would read that. Just wait the 4 days and let Ebay handle it. Sending invoices is actually a waste of time.

[yooner-ama]

I think Im stuck in the early 2000’s. I remember customizing my invoices and sending out asap. 
My customized invoice from way back stated buyer has 3 days to make payment. So I believed I was sending buyer that same one. Time to update my ebay playbook! 

[a_c_green]

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@yooner-ama wrote:

I think Im stuck in the early 2000’s. I remember customizing my invoices and sending out asap. 
My customized invoice from way back stated buyer has 3 days to make payment. 

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Yes, that was valid back in the days when the eBay-mandated minimum payment window was two days (although you still had to wait at least four more days after filing the Unpaid dispute before you could close it). My own limit was four days before filing.

It's now a four-day minimum payment window, up from two, although you can now slam it right away after that.