No payment and response buyer, what is the purpose? I cancelled, wise? What to do now?

[herm4321]

Hello,

Have been a happy buyer for years, and now decided to sell something for the first time.

Buyer bids a little low, I ask as little more, accepted and sold, without any further communication, and no payment after two days (I would normally write some accompanying text, and would pay immediately, but ok). Buyer does not responds to later emails either, and then I cancelled.

Looking at the the buyer's "positive" feedback carefully, it lists two or three times "does not pay, no communication". I just learned now that sellers cannot leave negative feedback, and are not allowed to leave this kind of text in the feedback either, but it is very informative of course.

Probably I have been not so smart to cancel the order, maybe should have filed as unpaid.

Two questions here:

a) What may be the purpose of the buyer of this sort of actions? Am I already trapped by my cancellation?
b) How to proceed wisely?

Thanks for all your help, and, wow, ebay selling is quite another business than buying :).

Best Regards.

[tdumonde2014]

When a buyer doesn't pay or communicate, you open an Unpaid Item case. You never cancel a transaction unless asked to do so by the buyer. Who cares why they didn't pay, would knowing why change the experience?

[herm4321]

@tudmonde. Thanks a lot, and needless to say your quote is quite appropriate for me :).

But now given the fact that I did cancel, anything to be prepared for next?

[herm4321]

@tudmonde. And knowing why would not change the case, sure, but could help in being prepared for possible upcoming buyer tricks. And just out of curiosity too.

[tdumonde2014]

Any customer who asks you to call or text them, or to include gift cards is a scammer. Never change an address for a buyer and never let a buyer use their "shipping" account. Never sell anything that you can't afford to lose.

[herm4321]

Thanks for all the advice with respect to future buyers, helpful!

Without further notice, I then assume that with the current buyer I need not to be worried anymore: nothing was shipped, nothing that the buyer paid, so nothing they can ask me to refund, and the buyer is out of possible tricks.

Although, what if the buyer rejects my cancellation and then pays still? The same risks as usual then, but I will try to be prepared better for that. What I do understand is that the address in the PayPal transaction should be the same as the address I will actually do the shipping to. If the PayPal address is different from what the buyer specifies, I should still send it to the PayPal address to be safe, even if the buyer disagrees?

[johnrj1226 · Accepted solution]

You are in the Netherlands and MAY have different policies/procedures than those for the US but maybe not.  You need to check them out. 

  But based on US policies/procedures here is what would happen

1.  Because you cancelled the transaction w/o buyer OK first you earned a strick on your sell - not a good thing especially for a new seller.

2.  If you are using a fixed price listing you can select an Immediate Payment Required option for you listing - this really helps eliminate non payers.

Here is a link from the US   Help & Contact for your ref.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/immediate-payment-works?id=415...

3.  Here is how to handle an unpaid case in the future

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/payment-policies/unpaid-item-policy?id=4271&st=12&pos=2&query=Unp...

[kiss-3]

   I have had four different buyers in the last month make offers, which I accepted, but each buyer did not pay or respond to messages. 

   As already stated, the only thing you can do is:  send invoice, send a simple/courteous reminder and if buyer does not respond in two days, open an Unpaid Item case.  E-bay will then educate the buyer on their responsibility's when making a bid/offer and try to get the buyer to pay up. You have to sit tight for four days during this time, until you can relist said item.

   This whole process hardly seems fair to the seller, to keep their merchandise in limbo for almost a week. If a buyer has not paid in two days, then obviously the buyer no longer wants the item. Why not allow the item to be released after the two days? 

   This nonpayment after bids/ offers, seems to be a new problem/pattern immerging, as I have noticed several posts on the community board about it. In my last four experiences, it has been newer buyers. I speculate, because of the increase of new on-line shoppers the learning curve will take awhile. 

[herm4321]

@johnrjl and ksbourn, thanks a lot, really helpful information/experiences. 

"This nonpayment after bids/ offers, seems to be a new problem/pattern immerging". Still wondering what's behind. Simply the kick of "buying" something without the expenses? Annoying sellers because you regard yourself as not having been treated well by other sellers in past? What else? I thought it would be the first step of a buyer to scam, but that seems not the case.

[bonjourami]

its called sport bidding.

[herm4321]

@bonjourami. Thanks, and found a post under "Working strategy for "sport bidders"". Very good to know, except that this buyer had plenty of feedback (instead of the characteristic 0), so maybe more "types" should be defined 🙂

[lasti52]

I see that the status quo is to file an unpaid item claim against the buyer, but what if they are having second thoughts and really don’t want the item?  Let’s say you file the claim, the buyer is forced to pay.  What’s to prevent the buyer from filing a retaliatory INAD to get their money back?  Now the seller is losing money and product. Wouldn’t it be better for all parties to allow the seller to cancel?

[nobody*s_perfect]

If a buyer has second thoughts, they had two fill days to contact the seller to request the cancellation before the seller can open the unpaid item claim.

[ed8108]

In selling on eBay you will likely encounter people comfortable in having a sense of entitlement to change their mind, cancel their purchase or not pay.

Realize manny brick & mortar stores simply allow their customers to return most any merchandise purchased for a full refund.

Realize that some buyers may not have even bothered to study up on buying policies that govern eBay transactions

When you have a less than happy selling experience there sometimes is little you could have done to prevent it from happening, & move on to your next eBay sale.

Wishing you Good luck with future sales.

[johnrj1226]

The non paying person (theoretically not a buyer or a customer just a shopper or game player) is not forced to pay any thing not even a Yankee Dime" if the seller opens a NPI case.  Opening an NPI case simply gives the potential buyer 96 more hours to "pony up" and then the seller can close the case and get full FVF, that  have already been add to their eBayy account) credited to their account and the buyer gets a "ding" on their record that no one can see except eBay folks.