Buyer not paying fee
I feel that eBay should charge a non-pay fee to a buyer that does not pay for an item. This should be in the terms and conditions to bid on item on eBay. That fee should be shared by eBay and the seller. Just my suggestion. There may be some legality to doing so but I know, if I purchase/bid on items at a live auctions I will be charged a fee if I do not pay for what I bid on.
10% or more would be good.
We lose on sales when this happens as we have to start the auction all over again and may not get the same results.
18 comments
deltilogical
·2 years agoE-commerce doesn't work.
Ebay is not a business platform.
The powers that be are eliminating cash and physical markets = this is the future. it is death.
albertabrightalberta
·2 years ago@nwnook
FWIW, for the way you have your listings, there's no reason why you should EVER have an NPB (non-paying buyer)!
You don't have auctions and all are fixed price listings. Just make all your FP listings IPR (immediate payment required). An item isn't considered to be sold until the buyer's payment goes through.
You'll never have NPBs again!
nwnook
OP2 years agoTrue, but I still think eBay should consider a fee for non-pay buyers. We do some auctions but most are buy it now
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoIf I was a potential buyer coming to eBay for the first time and I was required to provide payment details to open an account I absolutely would not ever comply.
Every once in a while I encounter a site that requires creating an account just to look around, I immediately exit and never return.
Putting ANY roadblocks of this type in place would really be the end for eBay. New buyers are the lifeblood of eBay and anything that discourages new users would be suicidal.
eBay is NOT Costco and never will be.
I don't see what good that would do, eBay can't force a buyer to pay for their transaction so whst makes you think eBay charging nonpayers a fee will make them pay.
Nope will never happen.
You as a seller have tools at your disposal to prevent non payment.
Don't list using auction style.
List Fixed price only and require immediate payment.
Set up your buyer requirements to block buyers with 2 unpaid item strikes in 12 months.
And to require a payment method for making offers, once you accept their offer you get paid automatically.
If you have nonpaying buyers be sure to cancel those transactions after 4 days for nonpayment. This will give the buyer an unpaid item strike. You will also recoup your selling fees when you cancel for nonpayment. Then you can relist, you lose nothing.
chevymontecarlo88
·2 years agoâ˜ï¸This as well
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoThis fee will serve to reduce the number of buyers, just as the auto-pay does.
Ebay auctions already suffer from too few bidders for a real auction to occur.
I understand why Ebay needs to keep the auction format, but it has always had problems with non-paying bidders and always will because those auction die-hards are looking for a bargain, and bidding online gives them too much time to allow buyer's remorse to set in.
The software cost of creating a method for fees to buyers would be high for the low volume of fees and likely to be implemented in a half-***ed manner.
gurlcat
·2 years agoAs @dbfolks166mt demonstrated, there is a practical reason why such a fee could bite you in the butt, at least as things stand with eBay's (other) policies. And yeah technically there are those seller settings which would prevent ever having non-payers ..... but they also disgust a lot of good paying buyers enough that they refuse to bid on any listings that have that requirement.
Just in THEORY I fully agree with you. There is no other merchandise entity I have ever heard of where someone can simply pledge to pay for something and have that pledge trigger a 4-day hold on the item, where nobody else can buy it and the seller can't back out without penalty. In all other circumstances the buyer must either pay a non-refundable deposit or face harsh consequences for failing to pay. Like for instance the online storage unit auction site I occasionally bid on -they give only 24 hours to pay, and if you don't, you're banned, period.
My opinion all along, since way before they even started trying this card-pre-auth fiasco, was that the 4-day window was simply too ridiculously long! 24 hours is plenty of time for the buyer to realize they won the auction or had their offer accepted, lift their fingers, and do the clicks.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoAs @dbfolks166mt demonstrated, there is a practical reason why such a fee could bite you in the butt, at least as things stand with eBay's (other) policies. And yeah technically there are those seller settings which would prevent ever having non-payers ..... but they also disgust a lot of good paying buyers enough that they refuse to bid on any listings that have that requirement.
Just in THEORY I fully agree with you. There is no other merchandise entity I have ever heard of where someone can simply pledge to pay for something and have that pledge trigger a 4-day hold on the item, where nobody else can buy it and the seller can't back out without penalty. In all other circumstances the buyer must either pay a non-refundable deposit or face harsh consequences for failing to pay. Like for instance the online storage unit auction site I occasionally bid on -they give only 24 hours to pay, and if you don't, you're banned, period.
My opinion all along, since way before they even started trying this card-pre-auth fiasco, was that the 4-day window was simply too ridiculously long! 24 hours is plenty of time for the buyer to realize they won the auction or had their offer accepted, lift their fingers, and do the clicks.
I have always felt that they approached the non-paying issue from the wrong side when they came up with the auto-pay feature. They should have approached it from the buyer side and forced the auto-pay feature on those buyers who are new and have 0 feedback and those that have xx number of non-payment strikes. It would have avoided the retaliation from the well established buyers since they would continue to operate as normal.
chevymontecarlo88
·2 years agoI have always felt that they approached the non-paying issue from the wrong side when they came up with the auto-pay feature. They should have approached it from the buyer side and forced the auto-pay feature on those buyers who are new and have 0 feedback and those that have xx number of non-payment strikes. It would have avoided the retaliation from the well established buyers since they would continue to operate as normal.
â˜ï¸Yes
gurlcat
·2 years agoI just a couple of butt-draggers in a row (one paid after almost 3 days, and the other failed completely, timed-out cancelation). They both had hundreds of feedbacks and the one that timed out was also a seller, so they knew how carppy they were being.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoI just a couple of butt-draggers in a row (one paid after almost 3 days, and the other failed completely, timed-out cancelation). They both had hundreds of feedbacks and the one that timed out was also a seller, so they knew how carppy they were being.
I generally have no issue with those that may pay a little late. Unlike BIN items a lot can happen between when a bidder places a bid and when they actually pay. Since all of my auctions end on Sunday and it is summer a lot of people are engaged in other activities and may be away from the internet as odd as that may seem.
I always message a non-payer before I add them to my BBL to see if there was a reason they never paid. Some never respond but over the years a lot have. One buyer had died, family notified me months later, a few had ended up in the hospital, some had been displaced because of natural disasters and others for a multitude of other reasons. In several cases the buyer apologized and ultimately ended up repurchasing and paying for the item with no issues.
gurlcat
·2 years agoI had a hard time deciding how much (if any) of our threaded conversation to quote. -I decided 'all' just because the point I was addressing was only about the relevance (or lack thereof) of a buyer's experience level and reputation, as potential programming criteria for whether they should be required to provide payment method before bidding/offering. I probably should have acknowledged that newer accounts would surely show a higher statistical likelihood of slow/non-payment, but I couldn't resist offering my 2 most recent exceptions to the rule, because they literally just happened, like within the past week, ha.
But I also should have clarified that those 2 buyers were not auction bidders but offer-makers who had their offers immediately accepted because of my automation settings. So they knew immediately, unlike an auction bidder who placed a bid (say) 6 days before closing. Yet eBay mandates the same 4-day minimum payment allowance, regardless of format, realistic expectations of awareness time, and the various 'life' factors that you gave examples of.
Now shifting topic slightly, from statistics and programming to the more basic concept seller autonomy (and/or lack thereof) ... your statement "I generally have no issue with those that may pay a little late" -to me that is the real crux of what I have beef with -not with you, but with eBay homogenizing our "issues". -What a seller would call "late" is bound to vary wildly, depending on all sorts of factors, like how soon they really need that money, to how soon the item likely would have sold if a slow-paying buyer hadn't seized the exclusive right to buy it (or how much faster the $1-less-bidder might have paid if they had won).
Now yes, eBay DOES grant autonomy in the "how late" direction, that is, a seller can set their preference to allow MORE than 4 days to pay. I recall at least one seller here who said they do that (can't remember how many more days) because they ran tons of auctions every day of the week, for coins. -Now that makes total sense, for a couple reasons: 1. With so many payments coming in every day, no single slow/non-payer was going to cause them any real hurt, and 2. With shipping costing no less than ....what is it now, $4? for a single coin, not a penny more for 2, 3, 4 coins, maybe a few pennies more for more than that ..... it made perfect sense for him to allow bidders plenty of time to win as many coins as they could, or try to at least, thus driving up winning bid amounts. For him, there was sense that anyone could recognize to allow a Monday winner of 'this' coin to wait to pay on Saturday, after they succeed or fail to win another coin they also wanted, which closed on Saturday.
But for a seller like me, combined shipping is virtually never a factor. Even if/when a buyer wants more than one of my items, they can make as many offers as they want within the same day and I'll combine their orders. And when I run auctions it's only 1 or 2 a week, starting and ending on Sundays. So there is just nothing on my end "making" them wait to pay when they see that the item is theirs to pay for.
So this is why I think it's wrong for eBay to deny sellers the autonomy of having a payment window SHORTER than 4 days. Why can't I make that decision myself, based on my own categories, business practices and needs?
For anyone reading and wondering, yes I am aware of the option to have all sales BIN/IPR.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoBut I also should have clarified that those 2 buyers were not auction bidders but offer-makers who had their offers immediately accepted because of my automation settings. So they knew immediately, unlike an auction bidder who placed a bid (say) 6 days before closing. Yet eBay mandates the same 4-day minimum payment allowance, regardless of format, realistic expectations of awareness time, and the various 'life' factors that you gave examples of.
I would be a bit miffed with the buyer in the situation you described. They were/are obviously sitting at the computer or on the app and new instantly.
gurlcat
·2 years agoYup, and same goes for when a seller sends out offers. If a buyer accepts it, they KNOW they accepted it at that moment, and the item is "theirs" ..... to pay for. But even that gets them 4 days to stall or change their mind.
I remember seeing threads a couple months ago about a thing eBay was trying out, where seller-sent/buyer-accepted offers did NOT take the listings down, so if they wanted to stall that was fine but other people could still see and buy the thing, for the original listed price. I thought that was AWESOME but it must have been a failed experiment somehow. Sigh.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoOK so I am a buyer and I place an early bid on an item but before the auction ends I find the item cheaper elsewhere or I simply change my mind. I know that if I don't pay I am going to get hit by your proposed non-payment fee so I pay for the item, you ship it and upon receipt I simply open and NAD claim or worse yet a chargeback. You can either accept the return and pa for the return shipping, accept the return and allow me to keep the item. If you do not respond I will ask eBay to step in and they will fully refund me and allow me to keep the item.
Why don't you simply turn on the auto-pay feature for auctions or use BIN/IPR. To turn on the auto-pay feature in your account settings under selling preference edit the Managing Who Can Buy From You and check the following two boxes.
janet9988
·2 years agoWell can't buyers still do the same no matter at what point they pay?
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoWell can't buyers still do the same no matter at what point they pay?