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What to Do with Bad Faith Buyer and Bad E-Bay Customer Service
Summary: gdodds58 expressed frustration over a buyer who repeatedly failed to pay for an item on eBay, using multiple screen names to mislead sellers. They were surprised to find the Resolution Center unhelpful and sought advice. eastlaneave provided a detailed response with steps for canceling the sale, blocking problematic buyers, and managing seller settings. gdodds58 appreciated the guidance and humorously noted the buyer might have anti-capitalist motives, wishing eBay would remove such users.
Are there really no human beings working at E-Bay to assist sellers when a buyer leads them on for weeks promising to pay (using multiple screen names) and never pays? Is E-Bay truly that empty inside that it leaves it to sellers to band together to help themselves and just make things up as they go along based on common experience?
It was my understanding, reading on the E-Bay site a short while ago, that E-Bay had a nominal reimbursement policy for bad-faith buyers.
This buyer, as I've discovered, using multiple screen names, has reneged on several purchases before this one yet has a high rating. I never read the negative comments because of all the stars. I've been bending over backwards, giving him extra time, offering to pay half the VAT for him and ALL the shipping fees. After 2 extensions, he has once again failed to close the sale and not responded to two emails.
Making matters worse, when I try to use the Resolution Center, the purchase of my item ($1,100), doesn't even appear, which is very odd and frustrating. See attached photo.
Any suggestions?
eastlaneave
Mentor1 month ago@gdodds58
I am sorry that happened, it's frustrating when buyers don't pay.
-- If it has been 4 days (96 hours) and the buyer has not paid, the order can be canceled for "Non-payment".
This process refunds your final value fees.
Website
https://www.ebay.com/mys/sold
To the right you should be able to select Cancel Sale from the drop down list.
Chose the reason 'Out of Stock'
(apologize to the buyer who will be disappointed)
App
Selling Icon at the bottom
> Orders
> Click on the order title to reach Order Details
>At the bottom blue drop down list, select Cancel Order and follow the steps.
Help Pages
-- Here is a help page where you can learn more, and you can cancel right here, just click the picture of your item and follow the steps.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/sellers-can-cancel-order?id=4136
TIP: When the sale is canceled for non-payment, the buyer gets a "strike". This is a hidden thing, but with enough, the buyer will be removed from eBay. And you as a seller can block these bad buyers, see the settings below.
To help avoid non-paying buyers in the future, here are some settings to consider:
1) You can block buyers with prior unpaid purchases:
Set your Buyer Requirements to –
- block "buyers" with x number of unpaid purchases (2 in 12 months is the most strict)
- block "buyers" who live in a place you do not ship to.
- Update block settings for active listings (and future listings)
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
2) Make sure to exclude all the continents/countries you do not want to ship to.
https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf/excludeRegions
3) You can also block a specific Username that you had a bad experience with
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock
4) Enable the new Buyer Payment Requirements here: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
✓ Auctions: Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid
✓ Offers: Require all buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer
5) Turn on Immediate Payment Required for all Fixed Price Listings.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/immediate-payment-works?id=4151
6) If you want your non-paying sales to cancel automatically at 4 days, you can enable that here:
https://www.ebay.com/Cancel/Preference/UnpaidPurchase
gdodds58
OP1 month agoThanks much for the thorough and helpful response. This is all great information. I found some of it myself in bits and pieces on the website, but most of it is news to me.
The notion of me apologizing to this fellow made me laugh out loud. He seems to drag out non-purchases as a way of entertainment. From some of the screen names he uses, it may be an anti-capitalist thing and E-Bay would be low hanging fruit for such mischief. I wish there was some way to contact E-Bay directly to recommend that all of his screen names be deactivated and he be blocked from their system. He's a virus.
Thanks again,
G.