eBay

beerman_1001 · ‎08-23-2019

Had a lot of 6 Cutco brand knives. Had an auction for all 6. Sold for $300. Winning bidder had 0 feedback. Didn't pay. I sent an invoice after 4 days. Waited 2 days before I threatened a Non-pay case via PM. Bidder sent the following eBay PM:

I was wondering if I would be able to cancel the order? I just got eBay and had no idea how it worked. I was messing around trying to figure out how bidding worked and accidentally bid. Is there something we can work out?

I was annoyed, but not yet mad. 2nd placed bidder ALSO bid $300. Sent 2nd chance offer. No response. Sent 2nd chance offer to 3rd place bidder-$225. No response. Now I'm getting mad.

Re-listed and broke into two lots of three knives. Now the ORIGINALLY WINNER, who sent me the PM asking me to cancel, HAS BID ON ONE OF THE TWO LOTS. STILL HAS ZERO FEEDBACK.

At this point, I'm furious. At winning bidder, for jacking up original auction, then waiting 5 days before indicating they weren't going to pay. At both back-up bidders. At at winning bidder with 0 feedback, for having the nerve to bid again.

Do I have ANY sort of recourse? Or do I have to bend over and take this??

myangelandmyprincess · ‎08-23-2019

If the auctions are still active I would cancel that bidders bid and block them

“Birth certificates show that you were born. Death certificates show that you died. Photographs show that you have lived.” -Unknown

luckythewinner · ‎08-23-2019

@beerman_1001 wrote:
Do I have ANY sort of recourse? Or do I have to bend over and take this??

"Recourse" is a pretty vague term. Can you give an example of what sort of "recourse" you might be looking for?

After the bidder canceled the first time you had the opportunity to put that bidder on your "Blocked Bidder" list, but you did not do that. You also had the opportunity to use what you learned form that first auction to set an acceptable fixed price instead of running more auctions.

But given the current situation, some option you have available to you are to (a) cancel the bids and block the bidder; (b) end the listings; or (c) relist them as fixed price with immediate payment required.

But if by "recourse" you are hoping to find some way to "punish" the buyer or to force them to honor the bids in the first auction that you chose to cancel, you are pretty much out of luck.

myangelandmyprincess · ‎08-23-2019

Also in the future I wouldn't worry about sending invoices eBay sends emails reminding buyers to pay already. I wouldn't send emails threatening to file a non paying bidder. After two days I file a non paying bidder if I haven't heard from the buyer I close it in four more days if I still haven't heard from the buyer.

“Birth certificates show that you were born. Death certificates show that you died. Photographs show that you have lived.” -Unknown

emerald_door · ‎08-23-2019

Did you let the Unpaid Item Dispute run its course? If so, the non-paying bidder got a strike on his account and your final value fee was refunded.

At this point, you can cancel his bid and block him. If you cancel the auction at this point, you'll be charged a final value fee because it had a bid.

You could also send the bidder a message before canceling his bid, asking if he intends to follow through.

totoro470 · ‎08-23-2019

If you know the relative value of the items (especially from attempting previous auctions) I'd just do "buy it now" instead of auction. Problem with auctions it's much easier for competitors to keep the items off the market for longer periods of time. With buy it now, you can require immediate payment which will alone eliminate the possibility of this happening and even if you don't require immediate payment you'll be able to get the listing back up more quickly.

beerman_1001 · ‎08-23-2019

I originally DID DO a BIN and some OTHER kook purchased, who then asked to cancel-something about they wanted to pay with some sort of eBay gift cards rather than PayPal. I gave them a few days and they indicated there was some sort of issue and so I moved on. Since I had a bunch of interest, I decided to try an auction starting at $1-just to see what happened. The auction went for almost 3 TIMES what I had the original BIN for-so I was overjoyed. And then jackass #1 (winning bidder with zero feedback) fails to pay. And doesn't let me know for 5 days-then back up bidder, who ALSO BID $300 doesn't contact me when I've given them a 2nd chance offer, etc. etc. etc.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎08-23-2019

@beerman_1001 wrote: ... #1 (winning bidder with zero feedback) fails to pay. And doesn't let me know for 5 days ...

You didn't have to wait around for 5 days. You could have filed the unpaid item claim when he didn't pay after 48 hours.

reallynicestamps · ‎08-23-2019

Did you cancel the original sale or did you open an Unpaid Item Dispute?

Personally I would have communicated less, since eBay already billed the deadbeat. I send a note on Day 3 and go to a UID on Day 4. We non-US sellers must wait 96 hours to open a Dispute), or I might act sooner.

SCO don't often work after two or three days.

Better to Block the deadbeat and relist as soon as the Dispute closes.

You have no reason to be mad at the non-responsive SCO bidders. They may have found the product elsewhere. They may be suspicious of SCOs, which are the reason eBay gave for masking bidder names.

I would suggest that you cancel the deadbeat's bid, and add her to your Blocked Bidder List.

I would also suggest sending a polite message to the underbidders giving the numbers and titles of the new auctions. It won't hurt and you may get their bids.

Most of the UID cases we hear about are from Auctions, which are less than 15% of transactions, and even those mostly have a Buy It Now option.

Add a BIN to your new auctions, after cancelling the deadbeat's bid.

And when the auction doesn't sell anyway, since you know the eBay value of the knives, make the next listing Fixed Price/Good Til Cancelled/Immediate Payment Required and it will stay active until someone pays.

sin-n-dex · ‎08-23-2019

@beerman_1001 wrote:
Had a lot of 6 Cutco brand knives. Had an auction for all 6. Sold for $300. Winning bidder had 0 feedback. Didn't pay. I sent an invoice after 4 days. Waited 2 days before I threatened a Non-pay case via PM. Bidder sent the following eBay PM:

I was wondering if I would be able to cancel the order? I just got eBay and had no idea how it worked. I was messing around trying to figure out how bidding worked and accidentally bid. Is there something we can work out?

I was annoyed, but not yet mad. 2nd placed bidder ALSO bid $300. Sent 2nd chance offer. No response. Sent 2nd chance offer to 3rd place bidder-$225. No response. Now I'm getting mad.

Re-listed and broke into two lots of three knives. Now the ORIGINALLY WINNER, who sent me the PM asking me to cancel, HAS BID ON ONE OF THE TWO LOTS. STILL HAS ZERO FEEDBACK.

At this point, I'm furious. At winning bidder, for jacking up original auction, then waiting 5 days before indicating they weren't going to pay. At both back-up bidders. At at winning bidder with 0 feedback, for having the nerve to bid again.

Do I have ANY sort of recourse? Or do I have to bend over and take this??

1. Block anyone you don't want to deal with after they make you angry

2. If your auction is active cancel his bids (after you block him)

I sent a message to a buyer once that said "you don't get to win the auction, not pay, and then try and get it for a better price after I've relisted it".

As for the second and third chance offers... they can see it's a low FB (although probably not a zero, just less than whatever you need to get one star), and they might think it's a shill. I had that happen once that a zero bid up the auction on something very expensive and then wanted to cancel. Put me between a rock and a hard place because the second place buyer's high bid was exposed, and he was dealing in industrial computer equipment so he would be my ideal buyer. I ended up cancelling the zero (because he called eBay to whine), and I ended the auction to send to the second high bidder after his bid fell to be right above the previous third place bidder when zero was cancelled.

So I do get your frustration, if something's too hot for auction you might want to list with fixed price and immediate payment required. Then your second and third place bidders won't think they've been shilled when they go and buy.

C.

beerman_1001 · ‎08-23-2019

I DIDN'T wait for 5 days. You misunderstand- I sent invoice after 2-3 days (auction ended on Sunday), gave that a few days, then sent PM indicating that I would file the Non-Paid Item case if he/she didn't communicate and at THAT POINT, they got back to me. Had they A retracted their bid after they realized they made a "mistake" or contacted me RIGHT AWAY after auctions's end, then I'm thinking I could have made an IMMEDIATE 2nd chance offer to the 2nd place bidder-who bid the SAME $300.

This person has gypped me out of the $300 bid that THEY MADE AND SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR, kept me from having a decent chance of selling it for the same price to the 2nd place bidder, and now stands to pick up some of the same items for a SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCED price.

reallynicestamps · ‎08-23-2019

So you neither cancelled, nor opened a UID?

You will be paying the FVF on your $300 non-sale unless you do one or the other.

In addition, that deadbeat can pay at any time and you would have to complete the original transaction, unless it is ended by UID or cancellation.

This is business, not personal.

Not every transaction will go perfectly.

Getting angry doesn't help.

File the UID.

Cancel the deadbeat's bid.

Put her on your Blocked Bidder List.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎08-23-2019

@beerman_1001 wrote:
I DIDN'T wait for 5 days. You misunderstand- I sent invoice after 2-3 days (auction ended on Sunday), gave that a few days, then sent PM ....

That sure sounds to me like at least 5 days elapsed before you took any action such as filing the unpaid item claim. If you had filed it after 48 hours, your buyer might have told you then that they didn't intend to pay.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎08-23-2019

@reallynicestamps wrote: ... I would also suggest sending a polite message to the underbidders giving the numbers and titles of the new auctions. It won't hurt and you may get their bids.....

That could hurt. Unsolicited messages like that fall under eBay's definition of spam and the seller could get in trouble if a bidder complains. If the bidders are still looking, they will find the new listings.

pargran3 · ‎08-23-2019

It sounds to me that it was at least 5 days of useless dither also. Including threats??? Really?

For those that may find themselves in a similar situation, bidder does not pay (do not send an invoice after several days, eBay already did that when the auction ended), file Unpaid item dispute after adding the "winner" to your blocked bidder list. Close dispute when the bidder still does not pay. Get fees back. THEN relist.

No offense to the original poster but that is a train wreck of how not to handle a non paying bidder. As stated, anger and "I have been done wrong" attitude gets you nowhere. Just follow the steps that are in place. Every seller is going to run into something like this.

Radine