eBay

Anonymous · ‎04-01-2023

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”.

toomuchstuffagain35 · ‎04-01-2023

The same way a gambler "lost $550" because he failed to place a $2 bet in time?

"If a product doesn't sell, raise the price" - Reese Palley
"If it sold FAST, it was priced too low" - also Reese Palley

a_c_green · ‎04-01-2023

@Anonymous wrote:
Why not automatically cancel transactions when one does not pay.

@Anonymous : That's easily arranged. Go to your Preferences for Items Awaiting Payment page (here) and set the slide switch on the right to "Automatically cancel unpaid items." Below that, set the pulldown menu to select the number of days you will allow for payment. (I set the minimum of 4.) If your buyer doesn't pay within 96 hours of the time the purchase was made, it will be automatically cancelled and the deadbeat receives an Unpaid slap. I see you already have the tightest restriction set on your Unpaid buyer limit.

@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.

What may have happened there is either that the sellers cancelled their sales as Buyer Requested, or they simply did not wait the full 96 hours required by eBay, which means that when they did cancel the sale, they would not have been offered the Buyer Did Not Pay reason that results in an Unpaid slap on the buyer. For that to register (i.e. for the Buyer Did Not Pay reason to be offered as a selection), the seller must wait for payment a minimum of four full days before cancelling.

@Anonymous wrote:
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.

Okay, I see your preferences settings in the screenshot you provided, but that form does not set automatic cancellations; that is for screening prospective buyers in future sales. (You can see the results of your screening settings on your Buyer Requirements Activity Log (here).) For automatic cancellations, you need to activate those on the Payment Preferences page I mentioned previously (here).

wallacerog · ‎04-01-2023

"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."

Basically what you said here is that it's always wrong to criticize eBay's design.

I know exactly what their "design" is and made specific reference to it in my criticism.

The inability, in the current day, to fully block a serial abuser from repeatedly harassing me shows profound ignorance by eBay of how the world works in 2023. If, as you say" eBay prefers it that way then it rises to the level of willful negligence rather than simple ignorance.