Buyer does not pay

[hatten1946]

I have had four items "SOLD" in the last few days that the buyers never paid.  After four days I did relist the item, one item had it occur twice.  Can that buyer just continue to bid and not pay for the items.  This appears to be  an issue.

[quiltgeek]

When you get to the 5th day after the listing ends with a buyer, but they haven't paid, you can Cancel the transaction with the reason "buyer didn't pay".  The transaction is ended, neither the buyer or seller can leave feedback (or it's removed if already left) and the nonpaying buyer gets an Unpaid Item Strike on their account.

As a seller, you can set the Unpaid Item Strike buyer requirement to 2 unpaid item strikes in the last `12 mpnths to block nonpaying buyers reported by other sellers from bidding/buying on your listings.  You can also block these nonpaying buyers from contacting you via the Contact Seller button in your listings.

[woodland_gnome]

You should block anyone who doesn't pay, retracts a bid, asks you to cancel a bid or transaction, or otherwise presents a problem.  You block particular buyers by adding their ID to your Blocked Bidder/Buyer List.

You block (or limit) certain classes of buyer by setting your Buyer Requirements.

Go to the Site Map (link at the bottom of this and most ebay.com pages) Sell Section (use the shortcut at the top--it's a long scroll down) and you'll find the link to that and several other useful seller tools. The Buyer Requirements are at the bottom of the page you are first taken to when you click the link to the BB/BL.

To keep the scammers and other deadbeats from committing to buy your item (and tying it while you go through the unpaid item process) don't use auctions or Best Offer. List as fixed-price Buy It Now only and set the BIN to Immediate Payment Required. (I'm not familiar with the new listing tool to be able to tell you where (and how (you probably have to click a "show more options" link somewhere)) to find them on that form)

eBay is experimenting with requiring pre-authorization for payment when a buyer makes a Best Offer but that's just an experiment and not applicable to all buyers (as a seller you can opt out--it makes combined shipping discounts difficult to impossible--or into the experiment in your Buyer Requirements). Otherwise auctions and Best Offer (and some Buy It Now) allow the buyer to promise to pay in order to scam you. Note that anyone requesting you to contact them outside the eBay message system (email or text or phone) is almost certainly a scammer trying to get your contact information (e.g. to send you a fake payment message).