I Learned Something Today that May Help Others

[thelongball]

I had a Tuff time with a Sale today and by the time I figured it out I wasted a hour of listing time.

 So that everyone knows - When you go into settings and choose to block buyers that have non paid strikes in the past, IT DOESN'T Stop Them from Buying. It stops them from being able to pay. 

   I had mine set at 2 strikes in a 12 month time frame. I had a sale come thru and the person contacted me saying they couldn't pay because I don't ship to them. I couldn't figure it out to easy until asking him if he purchased anything but didn't pay for it. He said it happens alot and almost happened here. Had he just walked away without contacting me, I'm sure I would have given him a non pay strike also. 

  He said when it happens he just goes to someone else to buy what he wants and doesn't bother even contacting the 1st person. 

 I now think this may be one of the reasons we have so many non paying customers now a days. Because the block doesn't stop them from purchasing, just paying. I'm taking the block off as its not doing what I thought it would and it may have cost me legit sales along the way. It sure hasn't stopped the increase in non paying bidders and it may be even making it worse. 

[heckofagame]

That doesn't sound right. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

That's because it isn't. The OP is wrong.

[downunder-61]

It isn't right. If the buyer has 2 strikes they can not bid nor buy. OP needs to check the settings

[gloryglorygifts]

Something is off with your settings. You may want to check them because the blocked bidders shouldn't have the option to contact you either. 

[thelongball]

He did and like I said it was how it happen - once I eliminated the block his payment went thru

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hello,

Hmmm…The block list’s purpose is to stop them from buying or bidding, (See the policies below.), not just prevent them from paying at check-out.

By any chance did you check the box that says “Apply above settings to active and future listings” when you were setting up your Buyer Requirements”?

But looking a little more closely to what you said: 

“I had a sale come thru and the person contacted me saying they couldn't pay because I don't ship to them…”

It could be this buyer could not pay because of his location, not as a result of having non-payment strikes. Have you set up any shipping exclusions?

Additionally, it is possible he may not have non-payment strikes (despite admitting he abandons sales) because the sellers whose sales he failed to pay did not take the time to wait 96 hours to cancel the sale with “buyer didn’t pay.”

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/blocking-buyer-ebay?id=4082

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/setting-buyer-requirements?id=...

[thelongball]

My settings were just like the above picture which is correct as I was told.  The buyer was in the US with both buying and shipping addresses.  I didn't have him on my blocked list. He was able to buy and contact me. But what he couldn't do was pay. Once I unchecked the 1 st line starting with buyers who caused, he was able to make the payment. So if that cleared the payment, it had to be the issue.  So maybe there is a glitch in eBay right now as like you I always thought that it worked as it should. I just know with the 1 st boxed check his payment could not be made. He said he had happen once before and that the seller had to fix it for him but didn't know what they did to fix it. I'm sure he had strikes as he said when the message comes up saying seller doesn't ship to you he would just walk away from it.  By walking away from it and no payment made, I'm sure he gets another strike. 

[redmodelt]

I have had this happen to me. I bought something from seller in Mid-West, I am in Oregon. Bid and won, went to pay and got a message that seller did not ship to my state or something like that, so was unable to pay at that time. Let 24 hours go by and try again, no problems everything went fine. 

Point is, could be a system glitch that just happened to clear itself the next time they went to pay. 

The 2 strikes had nothing to do with what happened, as was said, they would not have been able to bid/buy in the first place. 

[a_c_green]

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@thelongball wrote:

My settings were just like the above picture which is correct as I was told.  The buyer was in the US with both buying and shipping addresses.  I didn't have him on my blocked list. He was able to buy and contact me. But what he couldn't do was pay. 

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Just to be clear: at the time he first contacted you, before you made any changes to your settings, your item was showing as Sold, and he was showing as the buyer on your Sold page; is that correct?

Your original post says that the problem he saw had to do with you not shipping to his location. That particular problem could indeed block payment as the correct Shipping charge could not be applied.

Can you post the listing number in question?

[mcdougle4248]

@thelongball 

Please take a look at the thread here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Report-eBay-Technical-Issues/Buyer-can-t-pay-for-item-because/m-p/3384... 

Your account may be experiencing a technical issue.  In the above-linked thread, eBay staff stated,  "It looks like there is a sitewide ticket open for the issue of buyers are unable to checkout due to an error, "We're sorry, this seller does not ship to your location". I will have the Tech Board updated shortly to show this issue. If anyone is running into this they can reach out to customer support and let them know that they are running into ALERT14779 and this will have your account added to the open ticket."

[thelongball]

Thank You as I just had another customer having a hard time paying getting a message that says I don't ship to their state. Your help was the best as its defiantly not my settings. And I'm not wrong as I know when something is messed up. All the experts have to say is I'm wrong. Its not about who's wrong or right. There are glitches today is what is wrong. 

[thelongball]

He said it wouldn't even let him pay saying I dont ship there and now I just had another one saying the same thing but they were able to pay. Thanks for your help but it seems like its a eBay Glitch day. I knew it had nothing to do with my settings. The first customer was able to pay after I unchecked the block I had though.  He said he had another seller who had to do something also to fix it. 

[mcdougle4248 · Accepted solution]

@thelongball 

You are welcome!  It is definitely a technical issue on eBay's side.  I hope you will report it to eBay customer service using  ALERT14779.   I also hope the issue is resolved quickly...what a mess!

[thelongball]

Done and the lady on the phone with me was absolutely outstanding as she acknowledged the issue and said they are working to get it fixed as fast as possible for all involved. Its one of those messes that takes us away from the important business at hand. Listing more merchandise makes everyone money. Putting out Fires takes you away from making money. Like that in any business.