Big surge in Nonpaying (International) Buyers

[me.and.my.cat]

I've been periodically selling on eBay since 1998.  I had a 2 year hiatus from selling and recently returned, selling primarily vintage costume jewelry.  I notice that a large number of my sales are going abroad.  I have also found that in 2 months, I experienced 6 nonpaying bidders, 5 of them registered abroad!  Until this year, I never experienced a nonpaying bidder giving rise to a sale cancellation.  My friends tell me they too are experiencing this, and to my surprise, eBay does not penalize bidders with a bad bidding track record.  They certainly did so in the past, but I had a bidder with 10 nonpayments.  Why does eBay permit this bad behavior? Surely it will discourage sellers from increasing their presence on eBay...This is a real disappointment!

[reallynicestamps]

eBay does not penalize bidders with a bad bidding track record.

EBay does penalize members who get Unpaid Item Strikes,

The deadbeat gets the Strike when the Seller opens an Unpaid Item Dispute.

Recently eBay changed the UID system so the Dispute is opened automatically after 96 hours, giving the Strike immediately.

In the past the seller had to open the Dispute manually  after 96 hours( 48 hours for US based sellers) and then wait another 96 hours to close the Dispute manually and give the Strike.

So the waiting period is now only 48 hours total and automated.

Strikes are not publicly visible, but we can set our Buyer Requirements/Seller Preferences to again automatically Block deadbeats with Strikes.

If you can see " a bidder with 10 nonpayments." I am going to guess that 10 sellers had left false positives rather than open the Dispute, give the Strike, and get any fees they might have incurred back.

Which does not hurt the deadbeat, is not seen by most sellers, and is not used by eBay to assess the account.

Since you have only been gone for two years, you don't have to be told that over 85% of transactions here are Fixed Price. You may not know that you can add Immediate Payment Required to the listing and it will remain open for purchase until someone actually pays.

[buyselljack2016]

International !!!!!!!   Could be they are having a problem with paying.

[kensgiftshop]

Some sellers would rather violate the feedback policy by leaving negative comments in buyers feedback, which does nothing but make the seller look bad.

If sellers would cancel the orders for nonpayment, most sellers would have them blocked if they get two or more UPI's in the last year.

[dbfolks166mt]

     It could be that this is a side effect of the EIS program. Looking at your current and sold listings those were only posted with domestic shipping. For example on the following item. 

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     With the EIS transition foreign buyers still see the items but there is also a message in the listing as well as the shipping section that may be causing them to bid on item without knowing the shipping cost or post sale failing to, or not understanding how to contact the seller to get the shipping cost. One of your current listings if a buyer in Sweden happened to be looking at it. 

[soh.maryl]

eBay has changed the dispute process so that a case is opened AUTOMATICALLY after 96 hours?

Have always thought that a seller had to actually set his buyer requirements for this to happen, so now it's automatic and seller has no control over how soon a case is opened?  

[reallynicestamps]

There are two errors in my response.

The period that all sellers wait is now 96 hours.

The "automatic" opening does have to be set by the seller, and the default is four days (96 hours).

Thank you for the opportunity to correct this.

[dryophelia · Accepted solution]

@me.and.my.cat 

Those who leave negative comments in a positive rating for a buyer are part of the problem. 

On the first 25 feedback left for others, I see 4 buyers that should have received a nonpayment strike. 
Instead, the seller has opened themselves up to four policy violations, if reported. 

Had strikes been issued to those who didn’t pay, those buyers would be one strike away from being blocked by sellers who don’t want to do business with habitual nonpayers. 

[slippinjimmy]

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@me.and.my.cat wrote:

I've been periodically selling on eBay since 1998.  I had a 2 year hiatus from selling and recently returned, selling primarily vintage costume jewelry.  I notice that a large number of my sales are going abroad.  I have also found that in 2 months, I experienced 6 nonpaying bidders, 5 of them registered abroad!  Until this year, I never experienced a nonpaying bidder giving rise to a sale cancellation.  My friends tell me they too are experiencing this, and to my surprise, eBay does not penalize bidders with a bad bidding track record.  They certainly did so in the past, but I had a bidder with 10 nonpayments.  Why does eBay permit this bad behavior? Surely it will discourage sellers from increasing their presence on eBay...This is a real disappointment!

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Your listings only offer shipping within the USA

You do not block non-US buyers

This means that International buyers can purchase your items but because there is no specific shipping they cannot pay.

If you wish to ship internationally you must specify the shipping charge to the countries you want to ship to.

Bottom line, the problem is not with the buyers it is with the way you have set up your listings.

If I change MY location to the UK this is what I see on your kitty brooch

[me.and.my.cat]

In my selling preferences I have chosen that I do not ship internationally. These international buyers have agents with US addresses. This is a common practice and those locations for these agents are either in Oregon or Delaware. We see this all the time. However, they ultimately I shipped to China, where the registered user resides, and I know of no way to block that. Do you? 

[me.and.my.cat]

Thank you so much for that information and yes, I have opted into the immediate payment required for buy it now fixed price. However, I find that in many instances, I get a better sales result on the auction and a higher volume of accomplished sales. As you point out, it is more fraught with issues.So I have been reporting unpaid sales to eBay because I do not want to be charged a fee but for some reason my sales are not being canceled by eBay and I have to go in and cancel them afterwards on the fifth or sixth day. I have reviewed my Settings with an eBay rep and we cannot find out why this is happening. My friends get automatic cancellations on day five of nonpayment and I do not.

[slippinjimmy]

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@me.and.my.cat wrote:

In my selling preferences I have chosen that I do not ship internationally. These international buyers have agents with US addresses. This is a common practice and those locations for these agents are either in Oregon or Delaware. We see this all the time. However, they ultimately I shipped to China, where the registered user resides, and I know of no way to block that. Do you? 

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Your listings are all Fixed Price, turn on Immediate Payment Required and you non-payers will be a thing of the past.

You should also dump the Best Offer, eBay does have a new system they are testing that requires pre-payment when making an offer but it is not yet universal so if the issue of non-payment is related to offers then stop offering that option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/immediate-payment-works?id=415...

[soh.maryl]

You are welcome.  I did hesitate before replying.  Have found on several occasions that there are sometimes responders who don't want to be questioned and/or corrected.  Just did not want any sellers to assume that this would happen automatically.  

[soh.maryl]

As mentioned, there is no way a seller can block international buyers who use freight forwarders.

And also, as probably mentioned, the seller is responsible for the goods only until it's received by the FF.  

[me.and.my.cat]

I report every nonpaying buyer to eBay. I do so not only to make them aware of the non-paying buyer, but to avoid being charged a selling fee