NON-PAYMENT FOR WINNING BIDS-I HAVE 3 THIS WEEK

[pickme2749]

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH BIDDERS? SOME HAVE FAVORABLE FEEDBACK, BUT DIDN'T CANCEL BIDS-JUST NEGLECTED TO PAY. I WISH THAT THEY WOULD DO THE HONORABLE THING AND AT LEAST CANCEL THE BID.

[dbfolks166mt]

     It's always difficult to understand why buyers/bidders don't pay. You mentioned bidders so my assumption you are referring more to auctions than BIN listings. I use the auction format almost exclusively and do not have the auto-pay feature enabled and on occasion I get a non-payer. 

     I always reach out to the non-payer to find out if they will tell me why they did not pay for the item. Those that don't respond within a week I put on my BBL. Others have responded that they wanted to cancel their bid but did not know how to withdraw it. Those I provided with the help file on how to do so. Some have responded that they never received notification from eBay they had won or that the eBay messages went into their SPAM folders. A number of these I worked with on getting around the issues and they ultimately purchased and paid for the item. 

     I had one buyer that actually died before the auction ended, the family contacted me. I have had others that were impacted by family emergencies and simply had more pressing things on their mind. Many of those actually repurchased and paid for the item. I have had several impacted by natural disasters where they were forced from their homes and/or lost internet capability. In a couple of really sad cases the individuals homes were destroyed and there was no place to actually ship the item to and they would have had no place to put it anyway. 

     Auctions tend to have a few more nuances than BIN items. With BIN you can be sure the buyer is sitting at their computer or on the app when they make the purchase, no so much with auctions. 

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

I have my (mostly Fixed Price) listings set up to automatically cancel Unpaids after 96hours have passed.

The deadbeat gets a Strike.

This moves the unpaid transaction from the high anxiety category into the annoying category .

Best Offers are more like Auctions in that neither the buyer nor the seller is necessarily at their computer when offers are made.

I had two Unpaids  in one week last month, my first in probably years, both from overseas customers who bought apparently without figuring out how to pay.  (Your credit card works internationally, buddy!) .
And one on a hobby site which still uses Paypal, from an American customer.

The main annoyance was eBay nagging me to leave feedback for the deadbeats. As if.

[pickme2749]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT. AT LEAST I'M NOT ALONE!

[rosemary6525]

it is pitiful, in my opinion, how ebay handles auctions. If you bid, you should enter into a binding contract and be charged. I suppose it is fair to allow a buyer to cancel a bid? But to bid and win and then NOT have to pay is a joke. YES I no buyer gets a strike blah blah they have 100% FB cause they never sold, just bought. I am not sure if, it is ebay wanting to force all listings to BIN like FB Marketplace or their hatred toward sellers, especially small ones. I think it a bid should be binding and a payment method in place and buyer be charged. I am now on a string of buyers winning auction and NOT paying. I do better with auctions as my BIN listing just seem to gather watchers and nobody buys it. I guess they think everyone plays this SEND AN OFFER **bleep** If I would take less, I know how to setup a best offer

[ebooksdiva]

@rosemary6525 

Sellers have tools at their disposal to prevent nonpaying buyers and bidders. 
1. Blocking bidders with 2 unpaid item strikes in 12 months.

2. Requiring a method of payment before placing bids.

Sellers of unpaid items should also be doing their part by cancelling orders after 4 days for nonpayment. This will not only recover fvfs it will also help other sellers who have requirements set as mentioned in #1 above. 
If you aren't doing what I've outlined above you are part of the problem.

See Buyer Management 

[ebooksdiva]

Old thread.