Non-paying bidders
I really think eBay needs to bring back some sort of punishment for buyers that bid, then disappear - won't answer requests to cancel the item. They just keep it tied up for four days keeping the seller from getting it back in front of REAL customers! I have 3 at the moment and generally have 1-2 a month. I'm not a high volume seller, so it really hurts my sales.
16 comments
reallynicestamps
·3 years agobid then try to get me to ship it to him for free by complaining about expidited shipping not being needed.
Because of his demands you can Cancel the sale "at buyer's request".
You can also Report him for making demands that are not covered in the listing.
psfhobbies
·3 years agoHave had 3 NPB this month which is more than any month in the past years. Only one I know why.Because he thinks its 1965 and I can ship 2 pound package for $5.00 2000 miles away. What he did was bid then try to get me to ship it to him for free by complaining about expidited shipping not being needed.. I lowered by 2 bucks and was gonna send it by the new ground rates..that wasn't enough for him I guess...He has 3 remarks in his feedback about not paying his bids but yet he keeps doing it. This place is going downhill bad this year.
onefootflipper2
·3 years agoI looked at your listings and I have no idea why you would be using auction format. Not a single item you have is really appropriate for auction format and looking at your solds the overwhelming majority of them only got one bid.
Also I saw a pair of jeans in there with $58 shipping. Probably a mistake there.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoBidders are not (yet) buyers.
If you are listing with Auctions, which make up less than 15 % of transactions, you will get more non-payers than with Fixed Price.
And with FP you can even add Immediate Payment Required, which leaves the listing visible until someone pays.
Don't use Auctions.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoBidders are not (yet) buyers.
If you are listing with Auctions, which make up less than 15 % of transactions, you will get more non-payers than with Fixed Price.
And with FP you can even add Immediate Payment Required, which leaves the listing visible until someone pays.
Don't use Auctions.
I use the auction format almost exclusively primary for time management reasons. Do I gen non-payers sure on occasion but I get few returns because the buyer changed their mind, found it cheaper elsewhere. I cannot remember the last time I had a request to cancel an order, generally with an auction the bidder/buyer knows what they want .
The other thing that most sellers never consider when they complain about non-payers is that with BIN you can be sure the buyer is sitting at their computer or on the app when they make the purchase and are alive and kicking when they do/did so. With an auction that runs xx days a bidder could place a bid early in the timeline and a lot of things can happen during the time prior to the auction ending. Sure there are sport bidders but people die every day, more wind up in the hospital from accidents or health problems, family emergencies, natural disasters, etc. I have dealt with situations dealing with a lot of these situations and a lot of times the original bidder buyer wound up buying the item once they were able to do so.
eburtonlab
·3 years agoI really think eBay needs to bring back some sort of punishment for buyers that bid, then disappear
eBay allows sellers to preemptively block user accounts with two or more unpaid item cancellations in the last year.
Unfortunately that only works if sellers are willing to wait four days to cancel for nonpayment; if not enough sellers follow through, the nonpaying users avoid getting the necessary strikes that would lead to the account being blocked.
coolections
·3 years agoEbay just rolled out a new feature making buyers give a bank account/cc before bidding. I do not think it is completely out yet so we will see. It may be just for making offers though.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoEbay just rolled out a new feature making buyers give a bank account/cc before bidding. I do not think it is completely out yet so we will see. It may be just for making offers though.
There are pro's and con's to this it will be interesting to see how things shake out. It may stop a lot of the sport bidders but they may also simply request to cancel the order immediately after the auction closes. In which case they have no strikes and simply keep on bidding and keep on canceling or they may just receive the item and open an immediate return request.
deltilogical
·3 years agoAuctions are useful for many reasons. Ebay was built on the democratizing of auctions and making a global buying audience available to anyone.
We are paying for this service. Ebay should be making the site secure for sellers as well as buyers. Nonpayers should not be allowed on the platform.
It should be zero tolerance. Or, Ebay makes the seller whole because they won't secure the site for us. I don't agree with an immediate payment requirement, but I thought everyone was required to supply when registering a cc or bank account that should be dinged at the time of nonpayment.
cypress.grove
·3 years agoForget auctions and use buy-it-now with immediate payment required. Saves a lot of hassle. Auctions only work out if you have rare items not otherwise listed on eBay.
erin_suzy
·3 years agoI had a non paying bidder last week and I did the chat feature to talk to an Ebay representative. He informed me that when I sent another invoice, and every time we invoice, it resets that 3-4 days. So after that time passes it'll show the button to cancel the order. Once it cancels and shows they didn't pay for it, the person receives a "strike" on their account according to this staff member.
soh.maryl
·3 years agoSo you had to call an eBay rep to find that out? Was this the very first nonpaying bidder you have ever had? All you needed, after 3 days of nonpayment, was cancel on day #4.
There is no need to contact an eBay rep. And now you know not to keep sending invoices. Hope you will keep this in mind when/if this happens again.
erin_suzy
·3 years agoAm I being scolded? 😆 I posted that so she knows they DO get a strike on their account. I have had them before but it was long ago and they change rules all the time. I called (chat I mean) because the cancel button for non payment does not appear right away. I could have canceled earlier but they only allowed 3 reasons like out of stock etc. and none of them are for non payers. We can call (or chat with) a representative if we want to, that's why they are there.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoI could have canceled earlier but they only allowed 3 reasons like out of stock etc. and none of them are for non payers.
There are two types of 'cancellation'. The others (Buyer Request, Problem with Address, Out of Stock, etc.) can be made sooner, but the customer can leave Feedback and in some cases the seller gets a Defect.
You can set your Seller Preferences to automatically Cancel Unpaid Items after 96 hours have passed.
But the slow payer does have 96 hours to wake up and pay up.
The 'Cancellation' includes a Strike for non-payment. The deadbeat cannot leave feedback.
This is a change from the earlier Unpaid Item Dispute which could not be automated, allowed the same 96 hours for payment (48 hours for US-based sellers), and then demanded the seller wait another 96 hours before manually closing the Dispute.
You can decide if this is an improvement or not.
heckofagame
·3 years agoI had my first non-payer in two years this week. It happens.
ckimodog
·3 years ago@taranna
Sorry for your situation. I know its frustrating. Honestly, the best thing you as a seller can do to put a halt to this behavior is to list all your items at a fixed, buy it now price, immediate payment required and NO best offers. I stopped using auction style listings years ago due to what you are experiencing. Now when I have a sale, I always get paid.
Buy it now is the way to go.
Best of luck and Happy Selling!