How do you buy and not pay for four days?

[losth_61]

I had someone supposedly buy something from me and my add no longer appears on the list.  I don't know how it is done but he has not paid and according to ebay rules anyone can buy something and not pay for it for  4 days.  How do you do that?

Part of what I read is confusing.  It reads that if they have not paid within the four days after they purchase, that it will automatically relist.  Then I also read that I can cancel the order but it looks like if I do that the listing will still have 4 days from the date of cancelation to post.  For me, that would be 7 days if I cancel his order today.  Is that right?

I think this is a problem that is unfair to sellers.  If someone buys something and doesn't pay for it, the add should have a sale pending comment and then someone should still be able to buy it now.  Buy it now is the only way I have ever bought anything on ebay.

[luckythewinner]

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@losth_61 wrote:

I had someone supposedly buy something from me and my add no longer appears on the list.  I don't know how it is done but he has not paid and according to ebay rules anyone can buy something and not pay for it for  4 days.  How do you do that?

Part of what I read is confusing.  It reads that if they have not paid within the four days after they purchase, that it will automatically relist.  Then I also read that I can cancel the order but it looks like if I do that the listing will still have 4 days from the date of cancelation to post.  For me, that would be 7 days if I cancel his order today.  Is that right?

I think this is a problem that is unfair to sellers.  If someone buys something and doesn't pay for it, the add should have a sale pending comment and then someone should still be able to buy it now.  Buy it now is the only way I have ever bought anything on ebay.

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You are confused.

If a buyer has not paid by the 5 day, you cancel the transactions citing non-payment and you can immediately relist it. 

[chapeau-noir]

@losth_61   I agree that it's outrageous that buyers can just string sellers along like this, but that's the way it is here.  You can find the procedure for dealing with this here.  It's essential that you file promptly for 'buyer didn't pay' so that this buyer gets a non-payment strike. Experienced sellers have their buyer preferences set up so that any buyer with two non-payment strikes in a rolling 12-month period is blocked from purchasing from them.

Setting immediate payment required gets rid of time wasters.

However, since the buyer does have four days to pay, it's the rule to give them that period of time.  Don't send invoices or reminders - eBay already does that.

[ebooksdiva · Accepted solution]

If you want buyers to BUY IT NOW and pay immediately, you need to make with listing immediate payment required.

 How Immediate Payment Works  .

If your buyer doesn’t pay you can cancel the transaction stating buyer didn’t pay. 
How to Cancel Transactions  

Place your buyer in your Blocked Buyers List. 
Blocked Buyers  

Non paying buyers get a strike for every transaction they do not pay for when sellers cancel for non payment. When buyers get 2 strikes within 12 against their account for non payment, they are blocked from bidding and buying.

[ckimodog]

@losth_61 

Honestly, I personally do not recommend the auction style listings for new sellers due to the fact that new sellers are targeted and are scam magnets.  Most catch on to the scam attempts...however many do not.   ☹️

Tagging on with @ebooksdiva Diva...buy it now, immediate payment required and NO best offers.  You'll accumulate feedback and get more serious buyers who will pay you.

Sorry for your situation. I know It's frustrating.  

Happy Selling!

[coolections]

It is so easy to buy and not pay you would not believe it. There is a way to stop people from doing that. On your listing you will find a box to click stating immediate payment required and that will never happen again.

[iamalwaysright]

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@losth_61 wrote:

I had someone supposedly buy something from me and my add no longer appears on the list.  I don't know how it is done but he has not paid and according to ebay rules anyone can buy something and not pay for it for  4 days.  How do you do that?

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Easy. By not caring.

[byrd69er]

I think during that four days of waiting for someone to pay for an auction, after 24 hours a Buy it Now should appear. Someone should be able to come along and take it at the winning bid price. Enough of these non-paying people. Maybe if they knew an item could be snatched out from under them after 24 hours as a result of their non-payment, things would be different. Sellers shouldn't have to wait extended periods to be paid, nor get items back on the market to those who will pay.

[maxine*j]

The payment time harkens back to the days when everything sold at auction on eBay, and when sellers could be, and often insisted on being, paid with money orders or checks.

So, in the first place, people entered their proxy bids and did not then hang around the computer at all hours of the day and night, including weekends, to learn if their bids won (or lost).  It's still an issue, since the world has 24 time zones, remember. 

If they won and had to get a money order, that couldn't be done at the drop of a hat.  Or if the seller would take a check, they still had to write it, find an envelope and stamp for mailing, get it mailed. 

So, it's a legacy thing.  Maybe time to change it, but in the meantime anyone who finds the four-day thing too much to bear can simply list everything at fixed price, immediate payment required.  And, in fact, I think the percentage of sales on eBay that are at auction is now down below 15%.

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[chapeau-noir]

So, in the first place, people entered their proxy bids and did not then hang around the computer at all hours of the day and night, including weekends, to learn if their bids won (or lost).

I remember being caught flat-footed on this.  From the beginning I either just entered my  maximum and then forgot about it, or used a sniping service because I wasn't about to hang around to see if I "won" something.  But because I worked evenings I also used to list my auctions when I got home (I trained in the mornings and didn't have much time) so they'd end at about 1:00 and 2:00 a.m.  It never occurred to me that people actually hovered around their devices waiting.  I learned my lesson when one of my auctions was featured in an early (about 2000? 2001?) "how to eBay" article written for an east coast newspaper.  My ID was not mentioned and the reporter had great things to say about the smoothness of the transaction among other bits, but she did mention the oddness of the ending time, and she had to set an alarm to get up to get her bid in.

I wrote her to thank her, told her what was up, and after that tried to launch things before I left for work.

Never was I so happy as to get rid of auctions after the lustre wore off, though.

[inhawaii]

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@losth_61 wrote:

How do you do that?

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It's very easy provided the seller does not require immediate payment.

You simply buy something and wait 4 days to pay for it.