Buyers Not Paying

[gladsong777]

I have had several buyers recently who won one of my items but never paid.    Are any of you having the same problem?  I have blocked the buyers who did not pay, but I suspect some might have several accounts.  

[fashunu4eeuh · Accepted solution]

Hi, consider going to fixed price with Immediate Payment Required. (No Best Offer as well, as that voids an IPR setting.)

Looking at your sold listings, the wide majority, by far, shows your won auctions garnering but a single bid each. That is a strong indication that your switching formats would be successful, and likely would improve your sales too.

Auctions are best suited for high demand-low availability goods, OOAK items, some collectibles, computers and other devices, and coveted designer things. 

Today’s shopper wants their item now. With auctions they obviously must wait. During that lull, some abandon the auction, finding similar priced goods available immediately (sometimes lured by eBay showing competitor’s items on the same listing page as your auction).

[reallynicestamps]

I hope before you Blocked them, you also opened an Unpaid Item dispute and had the transaction cancelled.

This can be made automatic.

Could someone show the OP how? I did it a long time ago, and forget how.

Those deadbeats get Strikes and cannot leave feedback.

And most sellers also have an automatic Block on deadbeats with Strikes so you are helping the selling community.

[12345jamesstamps]

I have maybe 500+ blocked buyers. I did auctions in the past and might do more soon. I love it when a buyer wants to bid or buy something and they wonder why they are blocked. 

I actually had a bidder who had 2 accounts in the past who out bided himself and had 24 retracted bids from him. He got a deal of course. But I blocked not him but the entire country...it was a small island country I won't miss on buyers. 

[mam98031]

Sadly this happens for too often, especially on auctions.

It is VERY important that 96 hours and 1 minute after the auctions ends, if there is no payment PLEASE file for a Cancellation selecting the reason as Buyer didn't pay.  This is so important.  It helps all your fellow sellers too.

Coupled with that, make sure your site preferences for Buyer Requirements is set to the strictest possible setting.  Which is 2 unpaid strikes in the past 12 months.

If we pull together and everyone does these, these buyers will be prevented / blocked from purchasing on the site when they have too many strikes.  But we have to work together!!!!

[dbfolks166mt]

     I use the auction format almost exclusively for a number of reasons. The non-payers are just something that you have to deal with on occasion. I much prefer a non-paying buyer who may have changed their mind or found it cheaper elsewhere as opposed to a BIN transaction where the buyer waits for the order to arrive and then immediately opens a return request or a NAD case. 

     That process takes a LOT longer than the 4-5 days it takes to deal with a non-payer and relist the item. Plus it may actually also cost you for the return postage and potentially the eBay fees. 

[emhbarman]

ME AS WELL. THE ISSUE COULD BE ADDRESED BY EBAY IF THEY WOULD CHARGED A SMALL FEE FOR NOT PAYING. I RUN ALOT OF AUCTIONS, BUT THAT MAY HAVE TO CHANGE TO RID MYSELF OF THIS ISSUE.

THESE PEOPLE ARE LIKE PARASITES.  

[mam98031]

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@emhbarman wrote:

ME AS WELL. THE ISSUE COULD BE ADDRESED BY EBAY IF THEY WOULD CHARGED A SMALL FEE FOR NOT PAYING. I RUN ALOT OF AUCTIONS, BUT THAT MAY HAVE TO CHANGE TO RID MYSELF OF THIS ISSUE.

THESE PEOPLE ARE LIKE PARASITES.  

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There is no need to yell at us.  We are all sellers and understand the issue at hand.  All caps denote yelling.  We understand you without it.

Ebay is in the process of testing a fix for this issue.  Similar to the test they are doing on Offers.  The buyer is required to supply a payment method when they extend the offer or bid on an auction.  Again they are testing this at this time.  Not all buyers are in the test.  Hopefully in the near future this will apply to all transactions.

[jerseyboymusic]

Buy It Now, Immediate Payment Required works EVERY TIME!

[mam98031]

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@jerseyboymusic wrote:

Buy It Now, Immediate Payment Required works EVERY TIME!

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Yes it does.  You are absolutely correct.  But in some categories Auctions work very well and if those sellers went to all GTC listings with IPR they may lose money.  Auctions is a valid method of a listings, therefore Ebay needs to safeguard that the seller is actually going to get paid.  It is not too much to ask IMHO.

[midwestdistributors]

YES!! I'm also seeing an uptick in non-payments and can't figure out what the heck is going(!?) I've been selling on eBay for 30+ years and it used to be I would only get 1 or 2 non-payments per year, but now I'm seeing 1-2 non-payments per month, which  I consider odd/curious given I haven't changed the way I list my eBay items. I really hope eBay comes up with a solution soon, that helps crack down on the rise in non-payments.  

[midwestdistributors]

Excellent advice!  I want to do this but how/where does one need to go to set the "Buyer Requirements to the strictest possible setting of 2 unpaid strikes in 12 months"?   If you can post a direct link, it would likely get a lot more people to follow through. 

[reallynicestamps]

given I haven't changed the way I list my eBay items.

Which may be the problem.

Customers have changed, the internet is no longer and exciting and mysterious thing, but how we buy socks.

For delivery tomorrow.

Auctions are now only useful for collectibles not for mass produced goods.

Switch to Fixed Price/ Immediate Payment Required, your listings will remain visible and available until someone buys.

If you want the thrill of haggling/auctions, add Best Offer.

Be aware that BO purchases are less likely to be paid than other Fixed Price sales, and that BO ends the IPR.

You have a pretty good idea by now of how much you want for your listings. Go with that experience.

I base this on selling here since I was a child of 50 back in the 20th century.

Ummmm-- just noticed that you left money on the table with those Manic Panic sales. This is a cult item and I believe the company went under. (Nope just checked and they are back.)

With an auction you were trusting that at least two people would be looking during the short interval the dye was listed.
I  used it myself when it was only available in specialty (punk/goth) shops, and as I recall it was over $20 a jar.

[midwestdistributors]

Buy-It-Now is ok but I move a lot more items when I use bid-style auctions & add a buy-it-now option. 

[midwestdistributors]

Depends on the type of items one is selling. With the items I sell, my items sell for higher prices + I'm able to move more items faster in bid-style auctions, especially with the buy-it-now option turned on.