Non-Payment .. But Can't Leave Buyer Negative Feedback

[bugzybunns]

A "buyer" agreed to purchase one of my items, (won by bidding), but then fell off the face of the earth -- NO replies to messages I sent, I received NO payment, NO reply was ever given in response to a CASE that I opened against them... The only feedback button available to me was for positive -- which I would NOT leave for a deadbeat "buyer".
But NOW (after waiting, being ignored), I close the case -- and eBay's system won't allow me to leave any feedback on the item at all.
This person earned & deserves NEGATIVE, but I could not leave it.... WHY??!

[pikabo-icu]

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@bugzybunns wrote:


Bottom line on this, in all seriousness, is that as a buyer, I've never had to concern myself with receiving negative FB, since I pay right away, and communicate (when helpful/needed) with the sellers that I purchase from.
As a seller, I've never had a buyer flake on me, the way that the "buyer" did, on the transaction I referenced. (I guess I should consider myself fortunate.)

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YES you should..

I've only been selling for 3 months and it's happened to me 5 or 6 times already..

Currently awaiting payment for an item the buyer made an offer on.

Offer made, accepted about 20 mins later- next day, still no payment.. 

It's become all too common here...

And if by some miracle they pay after I open the UPI case, I might get neg FB and can still only praise them.. Seems reasonable & fair huh? SMH!

[city*satins]

@stumpp wrote:

This is to bad... I have had two winning bidders in the last 10 days and now won't pay. I sent notices to them before filing an uppaid items claim.  I usually give them more time to pay than I have to, becaues there be some personal issues going on at their end, but one winning bidder, actually replied with a message of "can't do it, sorry" Now I can't leave them a negative feedback so other sellers can block this buyer. This is the second time that this buyer has bid and won only to not pay.  I checked their feedback and see another case of nonpayment. Of course the seller had to click on the positive button, because the negative one was not available while your making a nonpayment claim. After you finally give up, and realize that the claim will have no effect on the dead beat buyer, you close the claim, and move on. Then you can't leave any feedback at all. No way was I going to leave negative feedback for this buyer under the green light of a positive sign. I want other sellers to see the big red light. So this is the buyer ID - BEWARE of them!! 

Sellers like me have long ago stopped looking at buyers' feedback received profiles to see whether the buyer pays.

I prefer the current way where the buyer who has repeatedly received unpaid item strikes from eBay, is automatically blocked from bidding.

But to take advantage of this, as I do - you need to go to your SITE PREFERENCES (My eBay/Selling/ACCOUNT/Site Preferences/Buyer Requirements) and set your automatic blocks so that buyers who are chronic or frequent non-payers never get to buy from you in the first place.

Do NOT leave a negative comment under the GREEN LIGHT of a positive for a buyer. This is a policy violation and if reported by the buyer (which it commonly is, as buyers know that it's not allowed)  eBay will keep the positive, remove the comment, and sanction the seller for doing it. So don't do it.

[sewdoctor]

Sorry to disagree
But the system is FLAWED and either eBay does not know what to do about it or is too embarrassed to admit it was a mistake or they just want it that way.

I did read the buyer's feedback and found 5 "positive" remarks that were indicating NON-PAYMENT, and I already had my preferences set to block for non-payment, (although set to the default setting which I have now changed to the max). So that did not help me. And he does have 100% positive feedback score.

I called eBay to express my concern and to try to make them aware of the issue and how unfair I felt it is.

She explained the no negative feedback policy, which I had totally forgotten about, which I also said that I felt that was totally unfair to sellers.

I asked if she could look into the issue and his history and she did and told me that "he has a lot of unpaid strikes" (her words) and she counted more than 7. She did say don't worry action would be taken.

Had I not seen the negative comments in the positive feedback I would not have made the call. And not have realized how poorly the system is working, or how bad this buyer was.

So, in my opinion,  the system does not work as intended and I agree with the other poster that if not a negative then another column is needed, possibly "feedback declined" or even "neutral"  anything other than "POSITIVE".

[viviere]

Completely agree with sewdoctor! Ebays system does not work and is flawed! Not only are sellers forced to deal with buyers who can change their mind at the drop of a hat, buyers remorse... the seller has to actively police and block them from even participating. What we don't understand is without sellers being able to leave negative feedback for bad buyers, how would sellers know the buyer is bad? You can't tell from just looking at their shiny 100% positive (**bleep**) feedbacks. We use the blocks for bad buyers but wonder why are these buyers even allowed to participate?

[dghamilton]

Ebay's system sucks! I have had three non-payers this week! I am so **bleep** that EBay doesn't allow negative feedback. eBay begged me to come back after two years of not selling and I am going to quit again. eBay really sucks and Amazon is getting just as bad. Buyers are the problem and EBay and Amazon are the enablers. Sellers have no recourse in any of this and we are getting screwed. I am just tired of losing money.

[savanna.dance]

An in general comment: Sellers if you're seeing "non-paying buyer" comments in feedback, it's almost a 100% certainty that the sellers leaving those comments did not open UPI cases against the buyers, therefore, the buyers did not get the much deserved non-payment strikes, leaving them free to move on to other sellers.

Use the tools eBay had provided to deal with non-payers. Set your blocks, open UPIs. EBay does not look at buyer feedback.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Ditto what savannah said. Those sellers are doing you a disservice by breaking the rules. Once a UID is closed, no feedback can be left by either side. All they did was vent their anger.

Some sellers need to grow up. This is not middle school. This is a business. We're not here for playground retaliation or writing bad things about people on the bathroom walls. Sellers should treat it like business and keep their emotions out of their transactions. It's bad for business for ALL of us.

Oh, and those sellers who broke the rules, millions of good buyers will not buy from them. If they break Ebay's rules, why would I expect them to be ethical with me? That is an absolute dealbreaker for me. I will not transact with scammers or entitled rule breakers.

[paradude54]

I had a non-paying bidder last month.   I sent numerous messages...no response, no payment, no anything.  I opened a case on him and did receive a refund and re-listed the item, but I couldn't leave negative feedback for this dirtbag.  And jus to top off the aggravation, AFTER he didn't pay me, he received 1 postive feedback from someone else, so he's still active, still has a 100% rating with 76 transactions.

I have to wonder just how many times this dirtbag hasn't paid and no one can leave negative feedback for him?!  I attempted to contact customer service to find out exactly why I couldn't leave negative feedback and it just takes me in a circle, never allowing me to actually contact what humorously passes for "customer service."

Ebay used to be a pretty decent place.  Not any longer.  EBAY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!

[kh-ornesh]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!