Iphone keeps selling over and over with no payment

[cocobeanyboy]

I have been selling here for over 10 years, although this is the first phone I have tried to sell.  It sold 5 times! 4 times payment was not made, 4th time buyer paid but didn't mean to buy it. After he received it he claimed it was defective when in reality, he did not get a SIM card nor carrier!  I had to pay for his return shipping! I listed it again, there were 3 bids (two were by the losing bidder). Winning bidder appears to be brand new to Ebay. I welcomed her and reminded her to pay within 2 days. No payment and tomorrow is the first day I can cancel the purchase. I will go to the original bidder to see if they still want it. I am betting no, since they probably already moved on. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? I don't see how anyone can profit from this? Are there people just messing with us for some weird reason?

[rosszonebricks · Accepted solution]

It's a high 'scam' item, so you get bonus points for not falling for the fake 'you've got paid' scam.

If you are running an auction for it, my recommendation is to just do a fixed-price listing with immediate payment required.

Or the other recommendation would be so sadly 'just don't try and sell phones on ebay'.  Look for selling to you locally as an alternative options that is safer.

[ebooksdiva]

Why is this happening? Not sure but, maybe it could be what you say in your listing that is turning buyers off. 

"Back on the market as 3 (!?!) buyers in 4 auctions failed to pay and the 4th one paid but didn't mean to buy it. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT! Please don't bid if you aren't sure."

[sextons-sweet-deals]

sell as pick-up only / pay then or just donate.

rosszonebricks is correrct.

[cocobeanyboy]

UPDATE: You can look at my latest attempt, which ends soon. I listed for 3 days only which cost me a dollar, didn't realize, oh well. Removed my opening comments about how many times buyers had failed to pay. Raised the price while offering free shipping. Will report here when it is a done deal. Fingers crossed!

[gemarakop_trading]

Doing something again and again and expecting different results is stupid. Sell as buy it now 

[soh.maryl]

List at fixed price, IPR.  And lose that statement about how many times it's been sold already.

[dbfolks166mt]

     You kind of know the value of the item there are a lot of these that have been sold. As others suggested this may be better suited for BIN immediate payment required with no OBO option. FYI as a side note as others mentioned cell phones are HIGH target items for scammers. If you are going to sell one make sure you copy down the IMEI number in case of a scam. You can report the IMEI number to the blacklist which basically renders the phone useless to the buyer. 

[cocobeanyboy]

Thanks, keeping the IMEI number just in case...

[cocobeanyboy]

FINAL  UPDATE.  PAID!   😺  Shipping tomorrow. Thanks for all the helpful comments.  The one that called me stupid, not so much.

[duffy4444]

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@cocobeanyboy wrote:

FINAL  UPDATE.  PAID!   😺  Shipping tomorrow. Thanks for all the helpful comments.  The one that called me stupid, not so much.

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@cocobeanyboy:

   It's doubtful this will be your final update. Your problems are not over yet - they're just going into a different phase or risk when you ship a heavily-scammed iphone out of your control...you've been warned a lot here by very seasoned sellers. Now let's see what happens next.

   Consider yourself very lucky indeed by beating the incredible odds IF the sale actually goes thru legitimately without a shipping scam, INAD, INR, return scam, or the ultimate scammer's victory of a credit card chargeback.

   Instead of doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results, educate yourself by going thru a few hundred posts here about the heartbreaking complaints of sellers who sold an iphone and lost it in addition to their payment for it being refunded with no recourse.

   On the brighter side, I really love your image of a beautiful Siamese, one of the most intelligent and playful pets around. That's my cat of choice.

Cheers, Duffy

[albertabrightalberta]

Totally OT but interesting! 

My own phone just died and while I was ordering my new phone, they asked if my hubby would like to upgrade his iPhone SE for free. The new phone would be a 14.  

Knowing that nothing is "free," I waited for the catch but so far, haven't found one! 

The new iPhone 14 is free with a trade-in of the SE. (Monthly payment for the 14 is the same as the monthly credit for the trade!)

I consider myself an experienced seller and would NEVER sell a phone on ebay. I either do trade-ins  with VZ (as described above) or donate at my credit union where they overhaul phones and send to active military overseas.

[albertabrightalberta]

BTW, buyers can ONLY receive positive feedback and positive comments. Buyers can report non-positive feedback which can cause a seller more aggravation than non-payment. 

[cocobeanyboy]

Cheers to all of us!  That's my dear departed Coco. Best boy cat I ever had.

[soh.maryl]

Just a suggestion:  Sooner or later, a buyer is likely to report you for those positive feedbacks with negative wording.  That will get you a defect.  eBay will remove the wording, but leave the + mark.  

The way to handle non paying bidders has been outlined here.  Why not go the right route?