How do I get rid of this guy?

[baantiques]

I've posted about him before.  He's been my biggest buyer, he's probably spent $10k in the last 8 years.  Up until the last year or so he's been a good customer. The problem now is he comes in and scoops up all my auctions with no bidders at the very end, and then much of the time doesn't pay.  Last summer at one point he owed me $1500, all of which I had to write off and relist.  Then he bought them again.  And didn't pay.  Currently he has 9 outstanding auctions in addition to the 5 I canceled late last month because of non payment, totaling about $300.

I'm sure he gets non payment strikes and has his account suspended, but he just opens a new account.  His original account had over 25k feedback but now he has different accounts, all with very low feedback ratings.  I have my listings set to not allow anyone with non payment strikes but he always seems to have an account that can get past that.  It's like playing wack a mole - I can ban and report but he always has an account that he can use.  I'd have to count for sure but I think I've seen 8 or so in the last year.

I'm not sure what to do here.  He's costing me money and wasting my time.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

@mam98031 

He didn't say he HAD 20%, he was quoting the old business credo that 80% of your issues come from 20% of your customers, so you do whatever you can to whittle away at that 20% who cause issues before they can.

[mam98031]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

@mam98031 

He didn't say he HAD 20%, he was quoting the old business credo that 80% of your issues come from 20% of your customers, so you do whatever you can to whittle away at that 20% who cause issues before they can.

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20% is still WAY too much.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

In your opinion, but that's what the Pareto rule says.

[mam98031]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

In your opinion, but that's what the Pareto rule says.

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Isn't most everything posted an OPINION.  Because mine is different than others doesn't make mine any less important or even accurate.  But YES it is my opinion.  I have absolutely NO problem stating that.

IDK what the actual percentages are for Ebay sales.  Ebay doesn't likely publish them.  They might, I just haven't seen them.

But speaking for my own experience, I don't come anywhere close to having problems with 20% of my transactions over the 20+ years I've been here.  For me it is more likely closer to 1-2%.

[baantiques]

I would rather get paid.  Yes, I waited almost a month, and in the past I have canceled after the minimum time.  However, he had 10 purchases and had been paying for a couple at a time.  Those two were the oldest  and the last two.  I figured I'd give him a chance to pay since he'd been paying for items.  In the past he'd not paid for ANY, so I figure the situation was improving.  Evidently Ebay is going to keep this guy around, and I don't mind selling to him if he pays.  If he starts not paying again, I'll go back to canceling after the minimum.  

[mam98031]

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@baantiques wrote:

I would rather get paid.  Yes, I waited almost a month, and in the past I have canceled after the minimum time.  However, he had 10 purchases and had been paying for a couple at a time.  Those two were the oldest  and the last two.  I figured I'd give him a chance to pay since he'd been paying for items.  In the past he'd not paid for ANY, so I figure the situation was improving.  Evidently Ebay is going to keep this guy around, and I don't mind selling to him if he pays.  If he starts not paying again, I'll go back to canceling after the minimum.  

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Ebay likely allows him to continue to purchase because sellers such as yourself are NOT reporting them for non payment.  So this is likely because of sellers that they are still around.  Sellers that allow them to do just as they have done to you.

[baantiques]

I think he does this to other sellers, and I think they DO report him and block him, which is why he always has a new account I've never seen before.

[mam98031]

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@baantiques wrote:

I think he does this to other sellers, and I think they DO report him and block him, which is why he always has a new account I've never seen before.

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Then you should be reporting that to Ebay.  They can link the accounts and they can link the bad behavior if sellers are filing the proper cancellation for non payment on the buyer.

[baantiques]

Update.

No action has been taken by Ebay.  Apparently when they say "we're going to take action, but we won't tell you what action we take or when we take it", what they actually mean is they won't be doing a thing.

He had been paying, but in the last two months he hasn't been.  I've been canceling with buyer hasn't paid as the reason, which in theory reports his actions to Ebay, and then blocking.  But he keeps buying.  I now have a list of 19 accounts he's used to buy from me.  Only the last few seem to be active.

I'm going to try keeping a better eye on bidders and cancel his bids and block.  Of course if he snipes, this won't be possible.

[mam98031]

That would be a normal response from Ebay.  I believe that was explained to you earlier in the thread.  Ebay does NOT share private account info.  They wouldn't tell someone else about a sanction taken on your account and they aren't going to tell you about a sanction taken on someone else's.  That does NOT mean "what they actually mean is they won't be doing a thing", but what it does mean is they aren't going to tell you.

[baantiques]

In this case, it means nothing was done, because nothing was done.  

[dbfolks166mt]

     Not sure if you ever resoled this issue but eBay is testing a new seller option that you can possibly turn on in your account settings. As to how well this is working is a TBD and there are tradeoffs for doing so. If you want to try to turn it on in your account settings, go to selling preferences and edit your buyers. At the bottom you can turn on the option. As to whether it works at the moment is questionable as I believe the seller and buyer have to both be in the test pool. 

[netbestdeals]

There is the possibility that his account has been hacked and is being used by someone else. His would be the type of account that would be desirable to a scammer. An old account with lots of trust built in and you are left with needing to waste time and loose money to deal with it and with your history with the owner of that account, you are reluctant to take action. I could be wrong but that many years of a certain behavior then suddenly acting completely the opposite leads me to believe you are not dealing with him right no, only his account. 

Good luck I hope you get this figured out. 

[mam98031]

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@baantiques wrote:

In this case, it means nothing was done, because nothing was done.  

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And what I've tried to explain to you is you do NOT have that information.  Ebay doesn't share it.  You assumed they haven't because you see no evidence of it.  Ebay has many ways to sanction buyers and sellers.  Most of which are not visible to another member.

I know how frustrating this can be.  But closing someone's account is not the only way Ebay has to sanction people.

[femmefan1946]

Last summer at one point he owed me $1500, all of which I had to write off and relist.

You don't have to write them off.

You should be opening Unpaid Item Disputes after 96 hours have passed.

And set up your Seller Preferences/Buyer Requirements to automatically Block bidders with Strikes for non-payment.