Buyers Don't Pay
I decided to turn my buying into selling. I have in excess of 120 items there now. So far I've sold 6 items. However, 1 of those the buyer never paid and I had to cancel and now there is a second that has been 24hrs without payment and I fear I'm in for the same problem again of non-payment. Not great odds IMO. How common is it for people to buy and never pay? Am I in for a world of pain and why doesn't eBay take a harder line with people who buy but don't pay? I always feel like there are zero consequences for both bad sellers and bad buyers.
24 comments
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoEBay has just recently re-activated the ability for sellers to require the buyer to provide a payment method before they place a bid which is in essence the equivalent of immediate payment required for BIN listings. There are pro's and con's to activating this preference the biggest one being the complexities of combined shipping however it is an option you can utilize. What eBay probably should have done was made it mandatory for any buyers with more than 2 non-payment strikes.
In your seller preferences under selling preferences, manage who can buy from you activate the following 1 or two buttons.
campanaelia
·2 years agoIt looks like the OP has many problems with sellers too.
ajs_coins_and_alchemy
·2 years agoOuch, no kidding!
lakefor94
·2 years agoI can't imagine having that many issues with purchases.
baydealz
·2 years agoCorrect, there are no consequences. you're simply frustrated as a seller, just to find out 'it was too good to be true.' If not 'too good,' you could just relist and someone else will pay. The bigger risk, which others are facing is that they do 'pay,' but then do a chargeback. This should be illegal. But ebay supports them and automatically returns the money.
fashunu4eeuh
·2 years ago@baydealz wrote:
“The bigger risk, which others are facing is that they do 'pay,' but then do a chargeback. This should be illegal. But ebay supports them and automatically returns the money.â€
Hi @baydealz
Please pardon me for challenging your last statement (shown in bold above). It is a bit off-the-mark.
By “them†i believe you are referring to buyers. In that sphere, when it comes to chargebacks, it is the buyer’s financial institution that judges the circumstances, not eBay. eBay has no authority in a cc payment dispute, and therefore is not “automatically†refunding a buyer.
In a chargeback, the buyer is essentially (and deliberately) bypassing eBay’s dispute process, by going directly to their credit card in an attempt at forcing a refund. If anything, part of eBay’s role is that of supporting the seller. In the “Handling Payment Disputes†policy, eBay outlines the steps necessary for the seller to prevail. See link below.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/handling-payment-disputes?id=4799#:~:text=The%20payment%20dispute%20could%20take,to%20pay%20a%20dispute%20fee.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoIt happens, even with fixed price that you have sent an offer to as a follower of a listing that has accepted it. There are consequences for non-payers. Whatever you do, don't send them a second invoice, as that starts the clock ticking again and extends their time to pay. When they don't pay, cancel the transaction and cite buyer didn't pay. If they accumulate enough of them ebay will limit them or shut them down.
Good luck with your selling account!
luckythewinner
·2 years agonow there is a second that has been 24hrs without payment and I fear
Buyers do not always pay the same attention to a purchase as a new seller does. eBay gives buyers several days to pay, so you need to stop watching and worrying about possible future non-payment.eBay will tell you when they pay.
If your buyer pays after 72 hours, you will have wasted 72 hours of time/energy/emotion/worry/fear over nothing. This is a business, so do not allow strangers to use up your emotional resources.
That being said ...
There is no enforcement mechanism for payment for auction listings, but for Fixed Price listings you can set "Immediate Payment Required" to force buyers to pay when they purchase.
june_elizabeth1971
·2 years agoI've only had a couple in the past handful of years that didn't pay. Not much you can do about other than to block them from your ads. I block people if the don't pay or make some stupid reason why they want to return something. It amazes me how people will buy something without reading your ad description thoroughly and then claim you misrepresented your item. Blocking seems to be the only remedy for someone that doesn't pay. Won't stop the next person from doing it but at least you won't have dealings with the person that you had to block ever again
soh.maryl
·2 years ago"Blocking seems to be the only remedy for someone that doesn't pay."
That's not exactly true. Yes, you should block. But also, you should be cancelling after 96 hours of nonpayment, citing "buyer didn't pay". That buyer gets a "strike". Sellers can automatically block ANY buyer who has two strikes in twelve months. Are you doing that?
soh.maryl
·2 years agoUnless your listings are marked "Immediate Payment Required', any buyer has 96 hours to pay.
If that doesn't happen, you can cancel, citing "buyer didn't pay" as the reason. eBay offers you recourse for nonpaying buyers. Use it.
BTW, there ARE consequences for both buyers and bad sellers. Do a little more reading.
mam98031
·2 years agoWhen you need to report a buyer or seller for some other reason, here are the places to go and do that.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/reporting-issue-buyer?id=4084
https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicid=4022
Sellers are evaluated every month and if they aren't meeting the requirements Ebay has set forth for sellers, then they get the appropriate sanction for not meeting expectations. As a seller you should be aware of these so you make sure you don't end up in trouble.
blueladybug_820
OP2 years agoI'm doing everything I can. With the first buyer I sent an invoice, and reached out several times about it asking if they were OK and when they would like to pay. They were silent until I cancelled it 4 days later for 'non payment'. Immediately after that the buyer wrong 'heeeyyyy, sorry, I was just looking'. I was furious at that, because they'd submitted an offer to me, that isn't 'just looking' and takes a number of steps and there was no apology or anything. But I was professional and just said nothing.
This buyer I'm three days in now and my invoice I sent remains unpaid, and the message I sent asking if everything was OK and if they still wanted the item went unanswered. I'm stuck for 4 days knowing full well I the buyer probably isn't going to pay. When 33% of buyers in my early days don't pay it's very discouraging.
mam98031
·2 years ago@blueladybug_820
I'm doing everything I can. With the first buyer I sent an invoice,
You shouldn't do this. Ebay automatically sends the buyer an invoice. But when a seller does it, it resets the 96 hour clock for when you can file a Cancellation for non payment.
and reached out several times about it asking if they were OK and when they would like to pay.
That is WAY TOO MUCH communication. That is close to spamming and the buyer is certainly not going to like that. Ebay automatically sends a message to a buyer that hasn't paid on day 3.
You need to STOP with all these emails. And some point it will result in you getting some nasty feedback. It simply is too much.
I'm stuck for 4 days knowing full well I the buyer probably isn't going to pay. When 33% of buyers in my early days don't pay it's very discouraging.
It is 96 hours from the time they purchase the item or 96 hours from the time you sent them the last invoice.
This is a common problem with auctions. Consider fixed price listings.
baydealz
·2 years agoSound advice - less is more. Canceling a sale isn't an issue, let the time just lapse, close it and move on. But let the time run (possibly only a concern on seasonal items, like Christmas) instead of you doing the canceling (there are strikes against that).
mam98031
·2 years agoI agree with this post, I don't agree with part of your previous post when you said "Correct, there are no consequences. " That is often said simply because the consequences are visible to you, but that doesn't mean consequences didn't exist, it only mean Ebay didn't give you access to the information.
You might find my post #5 informative for you.
Also in your other post you said "The bigger risk, which others are facing is that they do 'pay,' but then do a chargeback. This should be illegal. But ebay supports them and automatically returns the money." Which is completely untrue. I'm unsure where you are getting your info from, but this is really wrong.
Ebay does NOT automatically refund a buyer who files a Chargeback. Likely what is confusing you on this is that they put the funds on hold in your MP account, but the money isn't moving from you to the buyer. There is time allowed to actually process the Chargeback. Which you need to know Ebay has ZERO control over Chargebacks, Ebay has to abide by the decision of the Credit Card Company.
Chargebacks are NOT "illegal" it is the process in which someone puts into dispute a charge that appears on their credit card.
gurlcat
·2 years agoIt is SO frustrating when they not only don't pay but just stay radio silent. They basically have your item held hostage for all those days because you can't relist it or do anything else with it until their time has run out. I think 48 hours should be the limit, but really there's no excuse not to pay as soon as winning. They either have the money or they don't, and if they don't, they shouldn't bid. I've accidentally forgot about a couple of auctions I've bid on and didn't hear my phone notification saying I won, so delayed paying for up to maybe 12 hours or so, then felt mortified that I made the seller wait that long.
It's not just the money or having a hold on an item with no collateral, it can also cause a problem with the shipping of the item on time, according to eBAy. I'd go into details but it's complicated.
I do agree with Mam about emailing ..... or at least about repeat emailing. If they don't respond to one, they won't respond to two, three, four, etc. But I think it's worth doing ONCE. My system has worked very well for me. -I don't do anything for 48 hours, then I send a simple, friendly message saying something like, "Congratulations on your win. Do you still want this item?" (I leave the word "pay" out of it, as some would take it as greed, when really I just want some communication about whether we really have a deal here or not). Fairly often I have received payment shortly after the message, or at least a reply, with whatever excuse for not paying yet, and when they will pay.
Not too long ago I sent that 48-hour message to a buyer for an item she had won for $185. She immediately replied, apologizing and saying she needed to cancel. I said no worries, cancelled the sale, relisted the item as a Buy It Now for $239 and it sold that same night, PAID. So not only did I make more money, I probably saved myself days of more waiting, since that auction winner showed no intent to communicate her need to cancel until I asked.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoAny buyer has 96 hours to pay unless your listing was BIN IPR.
If you cancelled after that, citing buyer didn't pay as your reason, that's all you can do.
There will always be buyers who do not pay or who take their time. eBay gives you options when that
happens. Use them.
PS: Quit sending invoices. That just extends the time they have to pay. Did you know that?
mam98031
·2 years agoNot if the seller has the options that @dbfolks166mt shows in the post above checked in their Buyer Requirements for those two types of purchases.
mam98031
·2 years agoAs others have told you, non payers happen more with auctions than it does with fixed price listings. So you may give some consideration to trying our more fixed price listings.
You are learning some of the down side to selling. Some customer issues can take quite a bit of your time to resolve sometimes too.
" Am I in for a world of pain and why doesn't eBay take a harder line with people who buy but don't pay? I always feel like there are zero consequences for both bad sellers and bad buyers. "
How do you know that to be true? Because Ebay doesn't tell you what they have done when you report a non paying buyer? You will be forever disappointed if you think Ebay is going to share with you private account info about another member. But because they don't report this to the rest of us, does not mean they are doing nothing.
Our job is to report a buyer or seller that has broken some rule or done something sketchy. Then Ebay can investigate and/or keep track of the complaints and sanction members as needed.
For buyers that don't pay. Make sure you have your buyer requirements set to the strictest possible rule which is 2 in the past 12 months. That setting will block a buyer from purchasing from you if they have 2 or more non paying strikes in the past 12 months. So if sellers file the Cancellations and have this requirement set, those repeat offenders won't be able to buy from any of the sellers with this requirement set.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoThis may be getting fixed shortly read the following discussion link. Trying to find some more information on this but I have not seen an official announcement from eBay nor have they changed the policies.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Auto-payment-now-mandatory-for-AUCTIONS/td-p/34489537
campanaelia
·2 years agoIn the link you posted the OP posted in that thread too, stating that 2 auctions out of 6 had non-payers. In this thread she says it was one out of 6.
I also checked her completed auctions and all of them had zero bidders. The only item she sold was a BIN listing, see the link below.
These are also her only 2 posts in the community ever. Seems to me someone is trying to create hysteria about non-payers to push this new version of auto-pay, just a thought.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Auto-payment-now-mandatory-for-AUCTIONS/m-p/34491016#M488844
https://www.ebay.com/bin/purchaseHistory?item=126469653100
lakefor94
·2 years agoDitch the auctions and do fixed price listings with immediate payment required.
onefootflipper
·2 years agoDon't run auctions. Sell everything fixed price. Problem solved.