A strategy used by some low ballers...

[sin-n-dex]

I've noticed this in collectables. You get one offer for one item that might be a little low, but you're still making money and maybe it's something you want to get rid of, so you agree to the offer.

They purchase, and don't pay, because they want to add to their order and take advantage of a combined shipping discount.

This is then followed by a dozen ridiculous offers that you can't even consider. The one guy a few years ago offered me 50% of all my listed items and sent tons of offers (when best offer was enabled, before I knew about the minimum threshold for me to see the offer).

The next time this happened was a few months ago. He negotated a low price on something that I was unsure the value of (so his price sounded fair). He didn't pay, wanted to combine. And every day there after he sent another ridiculous offer, once offering me $10 for a coin I had listed for $100 with an explanation of how much silver the coin has and why I should accept the offer.

The issue is, they haven't paid, I don't like to cancel orders without good reason. They want to add to their order, and I'll add anything that I get a decent offer on. So I don't want to block them while I have their unpaid order, but at the same time I'm not adding to the order if the offers are not reasonable.

The BBL does happen after they pay, at that point I consider the transaction closed and I'm good to ship. (Few people have tried to add things after the paid, unless they were buying with a phone, like one customer gets 5 stamp lots from me every few months and pays one at a time because he doesn't know any other way). So with that, I figure I'm safe to BBL and by the time I'll hear from them again they will have moved on.

(The BBL also prevents people I don't want to sell to from receiving my offers, which is the other reason, if they're watching stuff and get offers, they'll come back). I had that happen once when a difficult customer came back because I unknowingly sent him an offer on a banknote. He was difficult because he emailed me 50 times for a $20 transaction (about only the one item, these were not emails with other offers or the possibility for me to make more sales). The second time I sold to him he sent another 50 messages about his package and I made sure to BBL this time.

C.

[divwido]

Have you seen the Resolution Center?  It's time to file an unpaid item dispute.

Bottom of the page on the right under Help and Contact.

[magic*moonbeams]

I get your issue 100%...

I had someone do that to me, IDK, 10 months ago maybe?

They made an offer, I accepted... Then they made a bunch of low ball offers, which yeah, with Covid and wanting some money to come in, I accepted, even though when I saw them I was using some expletives in my mind...but I just kept thinking, because I offer free shipping on most items... it will save me in the end on the shipping costs, and yeah, I'd like some money right now... )

They never paid.  I opened cases for unpaid items, then they sent me a message asking for more time, that they lost their job...

I will NEVER call someone out on something like that, because God forbid it's true... but come on, you lost your job and are still buying things from me in the mean time?  They said they lost the job because the place closed...

Ok... but then stop looking for things to buy if that is the true case.

I never cancel orders on UPI's....  I just wait the 48 hours, then open the case.  The next immediate thing I do is block them at that point.

Because there seems to be no option to cancel where is shows that it's the BUYERS decision.... so I'm not playing into that..  You can get your UPI strike, not that they matter anymore... but then at least it's on the buyer, not on me.  You gotta do what you gotta do to survive around here 😞

[femmefan1946]

The issue is, they haven't paid, I don't like to cancel orders without good reason. They want to add to their order, and I'll add anything that I get a decent offer on. So I don't want to block them while I have their unpaid order, but at the same time I'm not adding to the order if the offers are not reasonable.

He didn't pay for the first order.

He is making offers on other items.

But he didn't pay for the first order.

Don't Cancel.

Not all sales are worth having.

I'd consider sending ONE message, telling him you will make a listing for him that can only last for 24hours.

That listing, you tell him, will be the (Unpaid) purple grommet, the three (unpurchased) green grommets, and the single (unpurchased) red grittet.

The FixedPrice/ Immediate Payment Required will by $XXX.xx.

And the shipping on all five item together will be $X.xx

If he agrees, make the special listing. (I use the customer's ID as the title.) He has the 24 hours to buy and pay. No negotiating. Immediate Payment Required.
If he doesn't pay within the deadline, close the listing and BBL.

You still have the Unpaid item, but by now you can open an Unpaid Item Dispute.

If he does not pay that within the 96 hour deadline, he gets a Strike, you get your FVF back, and he cannot leave feedback.

The advantage to you is that he cannot leave feedback on a UID.

The problem with a cancellation is that the buyer can leave FB.

My system takes longer (up to eight days), but in my opinion, avoiding bad FB from a high-maintenance buyer is a feature not a bug.

[sin-n-dex]

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@divwido wrote:

Have you seen the Resolution Center?  It's time to file an unpaid item dispute.

Bottom of the page on the right under Help and Contact.

---

They eventually end up paying, but not before annoying me a whole lot with ridiculous offers. When I get tired of their messages I just respond to each one "I don't accept your offer".

Oh, and when I say eventually end up paying, this is after a week... Generally I wait that long before filing an unpaid dispute against anyone. (And pending on the situation, sometimes I send a note before I take it to the resolution centre since I've come to learn buyers don't like the UPI being filed against them.)

C.

[sin-n-dex]

Usually the "more items" are just things I have listed and the idea is to negotiate a price for each one. This works with 95% of all buyers and generally I have no problems.

I think my issue is that by the time I get very annoyed, I feel it's a bit too late to do anything.

And when I say they haven't paid, I mean they haven't paid while making other offers. Generally speaking they end up paying. (Except that one guy from a few years ago who didn't want his coin if he couldn't have 25 more coins at half price). The guy with the $10 offer on a $100 coin did pay, and I think he was trying to get more items between paying and my scheduled ship date. So I was putting up with him for a few days while waiting for Sunday evening to come around.

It's just a tough situation to be in to have sold something (money received or not), and then have problems with the buyer after they purchase. Against my better judgment I let the guy who sent me 50 messages about his package purchase again, figuring he was just a little anxious and next time it would be better. But then his package got delayed in Baltimore and he sent 5 messages a day telling me the package is lost and I need to refund. After 10 days in Baltimore it started moving again. But by then I blocked him.

C.

[showmecurrency4u]

i do auctions  and i  say please do not make offers,  and in 20 years on ebay i have never received an offer for more that what i paid for the item.(not retail)  if i had BIN i would  never allow people to make offers because of the history of very low ball offers.  I have sold 100,000 plus items  on ebay and 90+ per cent of the items start at 1 cent.  

[magic*moonbeams]

Yeah I'm the same way, I'll take stuff just so long all the while getting more and more annoyed...

Like, if you buy one thing.. and then you want to buy several other items... contact me about ALL of the other items you want in one message, don't keep trying to add stuff on, like "oh yeah, I want this too now..."... no lol

I don't know, the things people try to pull on me, I could NEVER imagine trying to do to someone else, that's just not how I conduct business or myself in general.  😕

[femmefan1946]

if i had BIN i would never allow people to make offers because of the history of very low ball offers.

I use BIN for some items-- usually ones where DH is the owner and he wants an auction.

So when it doesn't sell after a week, I make a Fixed Price with BIN.

And set the parameters for automatic acceptance and refusal. 

Sometimes the difference between Accept and Refuse is as little as a penny.

The good part of this is that I never see the truly lowball offers because eBay sends a polite refusal automatically.

At least, I think it's polite.

[dannydigital76]

This is exactly what happened to me this week. They were so nice I felt bad to deny their low offers.

Wow I got played Lol.

Live and learn.

[house*of*paws]

@dannydigital76 

Thanks for the info … but this is a 2-3 year old thread, which is likely to be closed.

[lacemaker3]

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@dannydigital76 wrote:

This is exactly what happened to me this week. They were so nice I felt bad to deny their low offers.

Wow I got played Lol.

Live and learn.

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This thread is almost 3 years old, and the information in it is now out of date.

Buyers now have to pre-authorize payment when they make an offer, so offers are paid for automatically. This is no longer being tested it applies to all offers on eBay.com.

Buyers can no longer wait for other offers or listings before they pay, or expect combined shipping discounts, or use coupons or PayPal Credit for offers. Each accepted offer is automatically paid individually.

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.