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EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

Anonymous
Not applicable

I filled out and checked off all the boxes and dated and filed the form (years ago) which includes rules for bidders. Below is my copy of the form. See “buyers that have two cancellations of unpaid purchases “

 

I just experienced a bidder who over the past year has been permitted to place bids even though he has refused to pay for literally hundreds of transactions.  This can be seen by negative/Positive feedbacks from sellers. I contacted several sellers  to see if in fact the buyer paid,  he didn’t several sellers cancelled purchases or use cancel automatically. 

 

eBay claims that unless sellers have escalated alerts that cause “Strikes”  that non-payments are not recorded.  The buyer must have  two “Strikes” for non-payment,  it isn’t enough just to not pay and have purchases automatically cancelled by sellers. 

 

 I am a seller for 22 years, Non-payment is non-payment, that eBay refuses to honor the terms and makes non-payment mean something else is alarming.

Sellers are not alerted that bidders do not pay. This is hidden information eBay refuses to provide.

 

 As  a seller, if I  say I do not want any buyer with more than one non-payment (cancellation)  within a year bidding on my auctions that has to be pretty clear.

 

 

. I always thought that a contract goes like this and I am quoting a law book here.

“A contract is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties to do something in exchange for something of value. When someone makes an agreement, the parties rely on the bargain that was agreed on. If one party doesn't follow through on its promise, it can cause financial losses for the injured party.

A “breach" is a failure to perform a contractual promise. This could be a failure to pay for goods or services, failure to perform a job on time, or delivery of a different product than what was promised. Depending on the terms of the contract, the person who didn't breach the contract, (the non-breaching party), can sue to get money for losses caused by the breach“ 

 

 

I am contracting with eBay to post my auctions and I as a seller have agreed  to terms  for buyers and make them clear in writing as seen below. 

if eBay refuses to honor the terms a seller sets on bidders by making up a rule that includes A buyer must have more than one strike for non-payment with-in a year, wouldn’t they have to issue strikes for non-payment regardless of who reports a bidder?

 There is nothing about “Strikes” in our terms, After all refusal to pay is refusal to pay there are no Grey areas in refusing to pay.  Automatic cancellations are obviously cancellations showing buyers refused to pay.
Items are automatically cancelled by most sellers as it saves time. 

 

I think it is time to take eBay to task for an agreement deliberately clouded by terms that eBay changes using some hidden information that is clearly abusive to sellers.

 

Sellers have  to spend time recovering fees by filing with eBay  that involves our time for something that eBay caused by masking their own private definition of non-payment.  Why not automatically cancel transactions when one does not pay. In order to have a Strike it costs sellers a great deal of time to go after buyers. What a waste of time. 

 eBay says a “strike” means non-payment

I think non-payment is non-payment.

 

I use automatic cancellations so these should be recorded why aren’t they? 

 

Since when does not paying have anything to do with a strike?

Who decides this?
As a seller I expect that when I contract for those who do not pay to be blocked from bidding they should be blocked from bidding.


So I am out about $550 and I have to spend half an hour recouping my fees because eBay refuses to honor my terms. I must spend this time so I have proof there is a strike against the buyer. WHY?   This isn’t the first time and that is why I recorded, dated, and copied my form below. This is why I use automatic cancellations. 
nowhere does eBay state automatic cancellations don’t 


As sellers we do not need eBay pulling the wool over our eyes by changing non-payment and cancellation to “strike”. Then not counting cancellations as “strikes”. 

 

 

 

 

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Message 1 of 19
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18 REPLIES 18

Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

A hundred sellers can leave the buyer a positive feedback that says he didn't pay (which by the way is against ebay policy)  but  if they don't do the right thing - cancel the sale for reason "buyer did not pay" the buyer  will not get the 2 strikes needed.  If sellers did the right thing this wouldn't happen.

 

Just curious. How are you out $550 because a buyer didn't pay?

Highway Patrol - Junior Brown
Message 2 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

If all sellers reported the buyer for nonpayment then you wouldn’t be having this issue.
It’s not eBay’s fault that sellers either don’t want to follow through with reports or are unaware that they can report nonpayment simply by canceling for same. 
So just because you see feedback stating nonpayment doesn’t necessarily mean those nonpayments where ever reported.
I’m with @inhawaii,  how are you out $550? 

Message 3 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

"Since when does nonpayment have anything to do with a strike?"

"Who decides this?"

Nonpayment is the reason a buyer receives a strike.

If/when a buyer has not paid for 4 days, the seller, by cancelling the transaction, using "did not pay" as the reason, the seller, in conjunction with eBay, "decides this".

 

Message 4 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid


@Anonymous wrote: .... I contacted several sellers  to see if in fact the buyer paid,  he didn’t several sellers cancelled purchases or use cancel automatically. 

 

eBay claims that unless sellers have escalated alerts that cause “Strikes”  that non-payments are not recorded.  ...


This is the first time I've heard of this arrangement and if it's true, it's ridiculous. Where does eBay say that strikes only count if they are filed manually and not if the seller has set up their site preferences to cancel the transaction automatically due to nonpayment?

Message 5 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

I think what the OP is saying s that ebay only counts a strike as a strike.

A positive feedback that says "buyer didn't pay" does not count as a strike.

Highway Patrol - Junior Brown
Message 6 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

Of course the feedback doesn't count as a strike.  But the OP said, "I contacted several sellers  to see if in fact the buyer paid,  he didn’t several sellers cancelled purchases or use cancel automatically. ..."  and "it isn’t enough just to not pay and have purchases automatically cancelled by sellers. "

 

To me, that very long post seemed to be saying that for the purposes of the buyer requirements block, eBay counts strikes only  if they were done manually not if the seller had set up automatic cancellation (the new version of the former "Unpaid item assistant"). Perhaps the OP can come back to clarify what is the issue they are presenting here.

Message 7 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

Ebay's settings don't always work very well. Case in point, a couple years ago, I had someone who would repeatedly attempt to purchase my BIN items, then try to renegotiate the price AFTER click on BIN. Then wasted my time sending me nonsense messages. I stopped responding and added him to my blocked buyers list, but a year later he was still able to message me through my listings and attempt to buy. Flagging his messages achieved no result. I guess eventually he finally gave up.

 

There are lots of apologists for Ebay's stupid decisions over the past 10 years, but I think some of the changes, namely the inability to leave negative feedback for bad bidders/buyers, is terrible. Basically sellers have no recourse because ebay is so desperate for quantity over quality of buyer they would rather make sellers miserable than get rid of abusive bidders/buyers.

 

I wondered why hardly anyone leaves feedback for me the past few years on my sales. Eventually I got it. Feedback now is worthless. Ebay doesn't ban bad buyers like they used to and you can't even warn other sellers about them with poor feedback. Positive feedback without the possibility of neutral or negative is meaningless.

Message 8 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

How did you contact other sellers? I thought purchase history had been hidden for years.

Message 9 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

use your bidder block list for non-payment buyers. 

Message 10 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

I just experienced a bidder who over the past year has been permitted to place bids even though he has refused to pay for literally hundreds of transactions. This can be seen by negative/Positive feedbacks from sellers.

 

EBay does not use feedback to assess member accounts.

If the Seller does not open and win a formal Unpaid Item Claim, the buyer does not get a Strike.

Every one of those Sellers is to blame for your quandry.

Message 11 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid


@az93 wrote:

How did you contact other sellers? I thought purchase history had been hidden for years.


If sellers left feedback for the buyer, we can look at the buyer's feedback "received as a buyer" and see who the buyer purchased from. 

 

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor

Message 12 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid


@Anonymous wrote:

 

eBay claims that unless sellers have escalated alerts that cause “Strikes”  that non-payments are not recorded.  The buyer must have  two “Strikes” for non-payment,  it isn’t enough just to not pay and have purchases automatically cancelled by sellers. 

 

 I am a seller for 22 years, Non-payment is non-payment, that eBay refuses to honor the terms and makes non-payment mean something else is alarming.

Sellers are not alerted that bidders do not pay. This is hidden information eBay refuses to provide.

 

 As  a seller, if I  say I do not want any buyer with more than one non-payment (cancellation)  within a year bidding on my auctions that has to be pretty clear.


As a seller for 22 years, I'm surprised you aren't aware that sellers have to give NPBs a non-payment strike for their non-payment. Otherwise, ebay has no way of knowing that a buyer didn't pay nor does ebay read feedback to see which sellers violated the feedback policy by leaving non-positive comments for those buyers.d

 

As for your last sentence above (in red), you can't set a block for someone with just 1 non-payment cancellation within a year. The minimum is 2 unpaid strikes.

 

@Anonymous wrote: 


So I am out about $550 and I have to spend half an hour recouping my fees because eBay refuses to honor my terms. I must spend this time so I have proof there is a strike against the buyer. WHY?   This isn’t the first time and that is why I recorded, dated, and copied my form below. This is why I use automatic cancellations. 


@Anonymous 

You aren't out $550. The only thing you're out is the profit you may have made had the buyer paid for the item and the time you have to wait for another sale. You still have the item so there's no loss on that.

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor

Message 13 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

The thing  with the block "settings" is that there is a way around it. Someone added to our BBL's, with the block contact check marked, will still, if they know how, be able to contact us. It an eBay "flaw". Also beyond that, they of course can just get another buyer ID.

Message 14 of 19
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Re: EBay ignores seller terms and allows bidders with multiple non-payment strikes to bid

@wallacerog wrote:

Ebay's settings don't always work very well. Case in point, a couple years ago, I had someone who would repeatedly attempt to purchase my BIN items, then try to renegotiate the price AFTER click on BIN. Then wasted my time sending me nonsense messages. I stopped responding and added him to my blocked buyers list, but a year later he was still able to message me through my listings and attempt to buy. Flagging his messages achieved no result. I guess eventually he finally gave up.

 


It's important to know how eBay's features actually work in order to maintain the appropriate expectations from their use.

 

Blocking a member from messaging you blocks only messages sent through  through one of your item listing. Blocked members can still send messages via your profile page and/or your feedback page. The block has never excluded all avenues of contact. eBay is a buyer-centric platform, and eBay wants buyers to be able to contact sellers. Period. That's the way eBay designed and that's the way they want it to work.

 

It's unfair to criticize a feature that is working exactly the way it was designed just because one is unaware of how eBay intends that feature to work. 

 

Not everyone who provides clarification on an eBay policy or feature is an "apologist." Some are just more informed on how some of these things actually work; for example, I don't apologize for knowing how the member communication block works.

Message 15 of 19
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