What can you do about bad buyers?

[getsit4u]

I actually have this issue with EBAY. 

I sold and item to someone with a 100% rating. It was an auction. 

They did not pay and did not even respond to my messages about paying or cancelling the order. They ignored me completely. 

I looked at their feedback and even though they had a 100% positive rating there were a half dozen sellers with the same complaint as me. 

Ebay does not penalize them or allow sellers to mark the feedback as "not paid" 

The fact that they keep a 100% positive rating is false and misleading to sellers.

They should fix it.

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

Sellers have been unable to leave negative or neutral ratings for buyers since May 20, 2008, so all buyers have loverly 100% feedback.  How fortunate you are to have never had occasion to notice this before now.

Don't bother sending messages to buyers who haven't paid. Just cancel the transaction after 4 days, or set up your site preferences to do this automatically.  

[brightlightbookseller]

Cancel after 4 days using "Buyer has not paid" and they will receive a strike.  Set up your account preferences to do that automatically, and to block buyers with the minimum number of strikes in the longest timeframe (I believe that's 2 strikes in a year).  That is how eBay does something about this.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@getsit4u wrote:

Ebay does not penalize them or allow sellers to mark the feedback as "not paid" 

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Ebay DOES allow sellers to mark their orders as unpaid but you have to wait until 4 full days have passed since the listing ended. Then you go to the order, click the dropdown box and click "Buyer has not paid for the item." 

Case will close, buyer will get a non-payment strike and if enough sellers cancel for non-payment, the buyer will be unable to shop on ebay in the future.

But sellers MUST cancel for non-payment! 

[titipeo]

eBay does give you the option to filter out buyers that have unpaid strike against them, thus rendering them unable to purchase from you. Check your selling preference and look in there. Seeing this buyer has had numerous unpaid comments as you mentioned, he is most likely flagged as such. 

As for the positive feedback, never believe what you see. Sellers are not allowed to give negative or neutral to buyer, thus feedback is rather one sided and bias. 

[kensgiftshop]

Those other sellers would rather violate Ebay policies then use the tools Ebays provides for when a transaction doesn't go as planned.

If those sellers had canceled the orders for nonpayment, the buyer would be blocked by most sellers.

[femmefan1946]

Have you ever put something in your supermarket cart, then decided not to buy it?

The shelf stocker who has to retrieve the item and put it back where it came from was annoyed.

But when it comes down to it, you still have your item.

Relist it.

Block the deadbeat. Add the automatic Block against deadbeats with Strikes.

Ebay does not penalize them or allow sellers to mark the feedback as "not paid"

You have to open an Unpaid Item claim.

The buyer gets a Strike which makes it harder to bid or buy on eBay. He cannot leave feedback.

You get any fees returned.  You can leave positive feedback or no feedback. Go for the latter.

[dbfolks166mt]

     This happens with the auction format and others provided some good input. You also have no idea what may have happened to the buyer between the time they bid on the item and the auction closed. They could have changed their mind, had a natural disaster in their area, had a family or medical emergency, died...... 

     Simply add the person to your BBL and move on it's just a part of a sellers life on eBay.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@kensgiftshop wrote:

Those other sellers would rather violate Ebay policies then use the tools Ebays provides for when a transaction doesn't go as planned.

If those sellers had canceled the orders for nonpayment, the buyer would be blocked by most sellers.

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@getsit4u 

When an unpaid item is closed out for non-payment, NEITHER party can leave feedback.  The sellers who left the policy-violating "negative" feedbacks are the main reason this buyer is able to continue.

Closing out unpaid cases gives the buyer a strike and two of those will block that buyer from bidding or buying from most sellers. If you haven't already, block buyers with two strikes in 12 months in your buyer requirements: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements This is the tightest restriction. This only works if sellers file the proper unpaid item closures and sets their buyer blocks.

[amricons]

EBay buyers can change their minds at any time. 

[soh.maryl]

Yes, but there is a penalty for doing so after the buyer has committed to the purchase.

The seller can, as others have stated, cancel the transaction, citing "buyer did not pay" as the reason.

The result of that is that seller is refunded his FVF and is free to relist.

The buyer gets a nonpayment strike.  Two of those in twelve months will land the buyer a preferred spot on the "do not deal with this person" list of many, many sellers.

And, those sellers who left positive FB with negative remarks? They are part of the reason that the buyer is still able to buy.  The appropriate response to a nonpaying bidder is cancellation.  

[euro-cycling]

Sold two phones this week. Both were purchased by deadbeat buyers who either refused to pay or even respond, or messaged immediately saying they 'found a different phone' and want me to cancel their winning bid.  Ebay has made it so insufferable for sellers that I'm done selling on ebay after 20 years of this issue getting worse and worse.  Ebay gives all the power to buyers and screws over sellers in the process.

[dbfolks166mt]

Sold two phones this week. Both were purchased by deadbeat buyers who either refused to pay or even respond, or messaged immediately saying they 'found a different phone' and want me to cancel their winning bid.  Ebay has made it so insufferable for sellers that I'm done selling on ebay after 20 years of this issue getting worse and worse.  Ebay gives all the power to buyers and screws over sellers in the process.

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     I would much rather have them ask to cancel than to receive the item and open a return request or a NAD. 

[itsjustasprain]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Ebay does not penalize them or allow sellers to mark the feedback as "not paid"

You have to open an Unpaid Item claim.

There are no Unpaid Item claims anymore. The equivalent of that now is to cancel after four FULL days have elapsed. After 4 days the Buyer Did Not Pay reason for cancelling will appear. Select that reason when cancelling and the deadbeat will get an Unpaid slap. You can set up your preferences to have that done automatically: 

https://www.ebay.com/Cancel/Preference/UnpaidPurchase 

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

You can leave positive feedback or no feedback. Go for the latter.

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You can no longer leave feedback after cancelling as Unpaid. But since the deadbeat has an Unpaid slap on their record it will have an effect on their account in future which is really what you want.

[house*of*paws]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

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@kensgiftshop wrote:

Those other sellers would rather violate Ebay policies then use the tools Ebays provides for when a transaction doesn't go as planned.

If those sellers had canceled the orders for nonpayment, the buyer would be blocked by most sellers.

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@getsit4u 

When an unpaid item is closed out for non-payment, NEITHER party can leave feedback.  The sellers who left the policy-violating "negative" feedbacks are the main reason this buyer is able to continue.

Closing out unpaid cases gives the buyer a strike and two of those will block that buyer from bidding or buying from most sellers. If you haven't already, block buyers with two strikes in 12 months in your buyer requirements: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements This is the tightest restriction. This only works if sellers file the proper unpaid item closures and sets their buyer blocks.

I also was under the impression that sellers leaving negative comments about nonpayments were NOT giving nonpayment strikes … but I discovered that that can do both.  ☹️

A seller explained once that they filed cancellations immediately after leaving the feedback … and their comments weren’t removed. They’d only be removed if the buyer specifically asked eBay to remove it.

[I reported that seller … and their numerous feedback violations were removed … but I don’t think eBay did anything to prevent that from happening again.]