Can't even report a serial bad buyer anymore?

[anjie234]

I have a situation with a buyer and would appreciate any input you may have as

to what to do next. This person made an offer on an item, and I accepted it.

They immediately requested to cancel saying she "made a mistake".  That's fine,

except they made this SAME EXACT offer before on the exact same item, and

requested the same thing! How can one mistakenly do that?

Anyway, I messaged them and just explained eBay policy about offers, and asked

them how this is happening. They got SOOO inflamed! And several nasty messages

followed.

When I looked at her feedback, she has 100% positive...   However when I looked closer,

I saw that some sellers (unable to leave negative feedback) chose to reveal in the

comments that this person habitually does this like some kind of a game!

I figured I'll just let it go, in which case eBay automatically cancels the sale and gives them

an 'Unpaid Item strike'.  

The sale has not yet been canceled and is in "Awaiting Payment", But today I received a few more nasty messages from them. And NOW they have given me a NEGATIVE feedback!!! When I click on "Report this buyer", the options are so specific and there isn't one that would be correct!  At the top it says "If your buyer hasn't paid, please open an unpaid item case."  When I click on that, I'm taken to the normal Cancel an Item page where the only reasonable option is "Buyer requested a cancellation".  It's NOT going to give her an unpaid item strike!!  They buyer just gets their way, and nobody will know what they are really up to. AND I have a tarnished feedback rating!!!       What can I do?

[nobody*s_perfect]

It's 4 full days, i.e., 24 hours x 4 = 96 hours.  To the exact minute. So if you accepted the offer in the evening, then the option for "Buyer hans't paid" will appear later this evening.

[anjie234]

Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

Buyers use offers to shop for the best deal. They make offers to a bunch of sellers, and them only pay for the best deal they find. It has been a flaw since offers were introduced.

Wow! I did not know this. Never had this problem before.

Lecturing and antagonizing people who have power over you is foolish.

Yes I agree with that statement, however, I don't believe I lectured or antagonized. I also didn't think they had "power over me".  So, yeah, I was a fool I guess!

You have probably not waited the appropriate amount of time to cancel for nonpayment. I believe you can only do that on the fifth day after the date of the sale or the most recent invoice you sent, whichever  is later.

Policy says "4 or more calendar days after date of purchase".  Purchase was 6/1. Today is 6/5. 

And the policy also says even when you send an invoice, it's 4 or more days from date of purchase.

(Someone else also said it was 5 days after your invoice, but that's not what I read).

Yes, I suppose I should have just canceled (again) and added them to blocked buyer list. 

At the time I thought then they get away with what they are doing and nobody knows...   

However, now they are getting away with it anyway and I have a big, fat negative on top of it.

Yes, YES... live and learn.

But it sure is total **bleep** that all buyers have a 100% positive feedback rating!!

[anjie234]

I'm a little surprised that the buyer who did not pay was still able to leave negative feedback. 

Thanks!  Yeah, me too!

[inhawaii]

The purchase was made on 6/1, and since the policy states that a cancelation due to non-payment can

be made 4 or more days after the date of purchase, I should be able to do that today (6/5), right?

Wrong,

Wait 4 days: 6/2 6/3 6/4 6/5.

Cancel on the 5th day: 6/6.

The buyer has 96 hours to pay.

You can cancel for non-payment 96 hours and 1 second after the sold date.

If you sent the buyer an invoice (reminder to pay) that time re-sets and gives them another 96 hours to pay.

If I choose option #2, it is not reporting an unpaid item 

If you choose option #2 you are canceling because the buyer asked you to,

you are NOT canceling for non-payment.

[anjie234]

Thank you so much! I appreciate your input.

Was it a formal buyer cancellation request through eBay's system within an hour of accepting the offer?

or did the buyer send an eBay message asking you to cancel?  It makes a big difference 

NO!  It was NOT a formal buyer cancellation request! I did not receive anything from eBay.

It was just a message from the buyer.  I am hoping that it does make a difference.

Yet for some reason, I am not presented with the option (reason for cancel) of "Unpaid Item".

Why do you think that is?

Sale was 6/1. Today 6/5. policy says 4 or more days after sale

[inhawaii]

---

@anjie234 wrote:

NO!  It was NOT a formal buyer cancellation request! I did not receive anything from eBay.

It was just a message from the buyer.  I am hoping that it does make a difference.

Yet for some reason, I am not presented with the option (reason for cancel) of "Unpaid Item".

Why do you think that is?

Sale was 6/1. Today 6/5. policy says 4 or more days after sale

---

To cancel for non-payment you must wait the required amount of time.

If the buyer sends you a message to cancel, you cancel for the reason: Buyers asked to cancel.

[ckimodog]

@anjie234 

Hi Anjie-

So sorry for your situation.  It's hard enough to make sale these days let alone having some sport buyer/bidder annoy with this nonsense.  Make sure you block this person:

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock/

Have a better day. 😉

[nobody*s_perfect]

---

@anjie234 wrote: ... for some reason, I am not presented with the option (reason for cancel) of "Unpaid Item".

Why do you think that is?

Sale was 6/1. Today 6/5. policy says 4 or more days after sale

---

It's 4 FULL days, i.e., 96 hours.  If you accepted their offer at 8:30 PM on 6/1, then the option to cancel for nonpayment will show up tonight at 8:30 PM.

[wastingtime101]

---

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

---

---

It's 4 FULL days, i.e., 96 hours.  If you accepted their offer at 8:30 PM on 6/1, then the option to cancel for nonpayment will show up tonight at 8:30 PM.

---

We went round-and-round on this topic with Tyler from eBay a while back. Unless there's a more recent update that I missed (which is entirely possible), what he came back with was:

Using the automatic process the system will cancel after 96 hours (if your settings are to cxl after 4 days).

Using the manual process the option won't appear until the end of the 4th calendar day (after midnight). Whether the buyer purchased at 3 am or 3 pm would not matter - seller can't cancel until that 4th full calendar day ends, in other words: the morning of the 5th day.

I know OP said something upthread about letting the system do it automatically, but if that's the case, why do they keep posting about trying to do it manually? Confusion in there somewhere.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yes, very confusing. I haven't had a nonpayment in ages, so I can't speak from experience about the waiting period.  Maybe the OP can check this and verify the policy for everyone's clarification, some time before midnight (if they aren't set to automatic).

[femmefan1946]

When I click on that, I'm taken to the normal Cancel an Item page where the only reasonable option is "Buyer requested a cancellation". It's NOT going to give her an unpaid item strike!!

This was a dumb move on eBAy's part.

The "cancellation" is still giving the deadbeat a Strike.

For some reason someone decided to change the name-- maybe to justify the existance of their job. "See boss! I contributed!"

The UID process has improved because now instead of taking eight days (four* before the UID could be opened, four to close it) the entire Dispute takes only four days. (automatically closes when opened) and we can set up our preferences to open these Disputes automatically after Day Four.

You can cancel at the buyer's request immediately , with no blowback to either you or the customer.

You can wait four days and cancel as Unpaid.

The deadbeat gets a Strike.

The item relists automatically. (I think.)

Those false positives are from foolish sellers who did not use the UID cancellation.

Foolish because we can set our Seller Preferences/Buyer Requirements to automatically Block deadbeats with Strikes for non-payment.

*US -based sellers could open the UID in only two days.

[wastingtime101]

If it helps, here are direct quotes from Tyler:

On the manual process:

"You are able to cancel a transaction for non-payment after 4 complete calendar days from the commit to buy/winning the auction. For instance: if an item ended with a winning bid on the 1st, you could cancel for non payment the morning of the 6th. This is different from the old process, where it was 4 days to the second (essentially a 96 hour clock)."

On manual vs automatic process:

"A manual cancellation for non-payment can be sent on the 5th calendar day without payment. If a member has their 'automatic' preference turned on [...] the notice was sent after the 4 days (to the minute)."

and

"when I've looked at this in the past, we found that manual sends were on a 'start of 5th day' and Auto-opened situations were 96 hours +1 second."

For added fun @nobody*s_perfect 😆, confirmation with a handy chart explaining how sending an invoice resets the clock if you use the manual process, but does not reset the clock when you use the automatic process:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Buyer-did-not-pay/m-p/32795667#M1966946

[anjie234]

The purchase was made on 6/1, and since the policy states that a cancelation due to non-payment can

be made 4 or more days after the date of purchase, I should be able to do that today (6/5), right?

Wrong,

Wait 4 days: 6/2 6/3 6/4 6/5.

Cancel on the 5th day: 6/6.

The buyer has 96 hours to pay.

You can cancel for non-payment 96 hours and 1 second after the sold date.

----------------------------

Ahhhh   yes!!  Thank-you very much!

PS) Re:  "If you sent the buyer an invoice (reminder to pay) that time re-sets and gives them another 96 hours to pay."   Someone else said that as well, but I have been unable to find that in help.

[anjie234]

Yes, very confusing. I haven't had a nonpayment in ages, so I can't speak from experience about the waiting period.  Maybe the OP can check this and verify the policy for everyone's clarification, some time before midnight (if they aren't set to automatic).

Unfortunately, I cannot clarify this because

1) I do have it set for automatic. AND I had it set for 7 days! (which I have now changed to 4)

2) This situation has been RESOLVED! (I KNOW I'm gonna get flack from you all for this, but...)

I sent the buyer a message (below). They revised and apologized for the trouble.

I cancelled the order as a "buyer requested", and then I added them to my blocked buyer list.

So, they won't be reported...  which stinks (they wouldn't have been reported nor faced any consequences anyway!  And I have learned a lesson!

If buyers have excessive canceled orders, they will be subject to the consequences outlined in our Abusive buyer policy / Order Cancellation abuse.

I never said I wouldn't cancel this order.
But now you've gone and messed with my feedback score! 

** If you retract that negative, I'll cancel this order. **
I'll send you a request through eBay. And I'll do it only once.
(Because eBay should know what you are doing).
But, let's just settle this.

[anjie234]

Thank-you dear!  I appreciate you!