removing old auctions where buyer didn't pay

Question

I seem to have a lot of deadbeat buyers on this current ebay journey. This wasn't an issue 15 years ago. I'm assuming it's because they know they hold the power and they can give a seller made up negative feedback and ebay doesn't care. So now I've got a bunch of auctions that were "won", never paid or any contact returned. I am relisting and reselling the items but these deadbeat auctions are there everytime I give feedback. I want them gone and I most certainly don't want to accidentally give...

woodland_gnome · Answer

The sanctions for a cancellation for non-payment (after 4 calendar days from the transaction or the most recent invoice sent) are the same as they were under the old Unpaid Item Dispute: a "strike" (though eBay no longer uses that term) that counts towards the Buyer Requirement a seller can set to block anyone with 2 or more strikes in the previous 12 months (or less), protection from bad feedback (impossible to leave after the strike, can be removed--if not automatic--if posted before), and it affects the buyer's general buying limits.

The biggest difference now from then is that sellers no longer have the financial incentive to do so since under Managed Payments the Final Value Fee isn't charged until the buyer pays (under the old payments it was charged immediately and the seller had to go through the process to get a fee credit), so not as many are doing it, so the Buyer Requirement that blocks serial deadbeats isn't as effective since they aren't getting as many strikes.

ETA: I don't know whether or not an unpaid cancellation removes the transaction from the list of transactions awaiting feedback, but it does prevent you from actually leaving feedback for that transaction since neither party can leave feedback for a transaction cancelled for non-payment.

eburtonlab · Answer

After four days you can cancel the transaction for nonpayment to give the buyer a strike and prevent feedback from being left. If you cancel earlier or for other reasons, the buyer will not get a strike.

Add the user to your Blocked Buyer List to prevent that particular user from bidding on or buying any more of your listings, regardless of what other sellers do.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/blocking-buyer-ebay?id=4082

Be sure to set your Buyer Requirements to preemptively block bids or purchases from users with two or more unpaid item strikes in the last year. There is also a setting to require a payment method in advance for bids or offers, though it is not clear if that is applied to all possible bidders or offerers.

You can avoid unpaid items by listing your item for a fixed price with immediate payment required and by not accepting offers.

Not sure if there is a way to remove those listings from your items awaiting feedback, though. Better to avoid such buyers in the first place by requiring immediate payment or requiring a payment method specified in advance to place a bid or make an offer.