eBay

justadragonhere · ‎01-04-2019

Hello eBay community. I've been a member of eBay since the late 90s. This is my first post to the community, so hello all!

I never remember things being this bad with zero feedback bidders. I've seen an overwhelming number of zero feedback bidders in my auctions lately. They fight each other to bid up the item and then they consistently either do not pay, or they do not pay on time. They are usually international bidders outside the US in either South American or African countries.

You used to be able to block bidders under a certain feedback rating. Now it seems I can only find one, well-buried setting which allows me to block members by name. That's great, but it doesn't help me since I don't know who these people are before they bid and waste my time and money. Oh, and I can block buyers with unpaid item strikes, but again, these are zero feedback bidders or negative feedback bidders. And you can block them only if they've had unpaid item strikes within a maximum of 12 months! Please, these people are not working to build their feedback or community ratings - their usernames aren't sticking around long enough to develop any history. They're just signing up for new accounts every day.

My questions:
-Is eBay doing anything to fight these folks?
-What exactly are these people achieving by bidding on random items and then just not paying? No one has tried to scam me - they simply aren't paying and aren't responding to communication, forcing me to initiate non-paying bidder processes.

-What do you do as a seller to prevent this? Is there any selling format where I can require instant payment? I'm not a big seller, but I occasionally sell an item or two when I feel eBay is the place for that.

emerald40 · ‎01-04-2019

Use fixed prices immediate payment required.

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emerald40 · ‎01-04-2019

Use fixed prices immediate payment required.

castlemagicmemories · ‎01-04-2019

Lots of zero feedback buyers shows the site is growing, with the potential of increased sales, possibly in response to all the commercials Ebay has been airing.

It was never possible to block bidders with a less than a certain feedback number. You could block for those with -1 but since buyers can't get negatives, that would only block a new seller who wants to buy.

The most popular unpaid block blocks those with TWO unpaid item strikes in one year. So in other words, if they have two in a month, they are blocked. If they have two in two weeks, they are blocked. If they have two in three months, they are blocked. And so on and so on. There is no waiting for the year to elapse. A year means they are blocked for a year.

You can list fixed price, immediate payment required. Over 80% of all listings here are fixed price, IPR. No more no pays. But if you list at auction, you are subject to non payment happening.

justadragonhere · ‎01-04-2019

Guess it's just time for me to update my eBay habits, thanks. Really could have sworn you could block people by feedback score in the past, but I'll have to look that up another day.

cherry*fizz · ‎01-04-2019

No, you couldn't block them. You could and I think still can block them from bidding on more than one auction in X amount of days or something like that. Blocking low feedback bidders completely would be stupid for eBay to allow. How else do you think we are all going to get new buyers? People complain about slow sales all the time here. Well, how do we all expect an increase without an increase in buyers? They have to start somewhere. And if everyone said they will not sell to a buyer until they have say 10 positives, how would that buyer accomplish that if no one will sell to them?

oaklandmaryland · ‎01-04-2019

Probably a bunch of reasons:

Buyer's don't care about being blocked by sellers or Ebay as it's easy to just open up a new sight.

Buyers like this know they cannot receive negative feedback.

Buyers KNOW that they can return items or empty packages knowing that they will get all monies back just by claiing NAD.

International buyers know they will never have to return items because high shipping means the seller looses so much money.

They actively look for free shipping ang sellers with few sales knowing they are probably new to Ebay and know all the scammers techniques.

Truthfully the reasons are a result of Ebay techiques. Sad for sellers out there and good luck to you all.

fashunu4eeuh · ‎01-04-2019

Hi Welcome to the boards! Come back often!

Sellers can also block by geographic location which might be the way for you to go since you have identified the origin of some of these accounts. Ebay can’t allow blocks based solely on buying history or feedback because that would inhibit legitimate new buyers, which the platform needs to stay viable.

To discourage sport bidders, i use the blocks provided and rarely have a non-payer anymore. That is i block for two or more Unpaid Item claims, block by geographic locations (to areas i don’t ship to), and sometimes use the block on those without a PayPal account. In addition to these Buyer Requirement blocks, i sometimes use two of the blocks provided by PayPal: blocking accounts that use a currency i don’t hold and those with a non-US PayPal account ( i sell internationally, so i try to be careful not to block indiscriminately and shoot myself in the proverbial foot.) Finally, i use Immediate Payment Required on fixed-price listings. Below are links to the discussed blocks for additional info.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/setting-buyer-requirements?id=...

https://webinterpret.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205644957-How-to-set-shipping-exclusions-on-eBay

On this link, scroll down to the heading “Block certain kinds of payments”:

https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/admin/setup-account/

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

castlemagicmemories · ‎01-04-2019

@justadragonhere wrote:
Guess it's just time for me to update my eBay habits, thanks. Really could have sworn you could block people by feedback score in the past, but I'll have to look that up another day.

It's ok, many have come to this Board and thought the same thing, that they could block those with a certain feedback number. Years ago, sellers would state in listing (and some still do, although it is unenforceable) that they would block bids from members with less than a certain amount of feedback. They might ask them to contact them via messages or they would be cancelled. But those were never Ebay's rules and they were not enforceable. Anyone can snipe.

castlemagicmemories · ‎01-04-2019

You could and I think still can block them from bidding on more than one auction in X amount of days or something like that

True.

And if everyone said they will not sell to a buyer until they have say 10 positives, how would that buyer accomplish that if no one will sell to them?

Exactly.

the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · ‎01-04-2019

It has turned out over the years that many posters misunderstood the rule limiting purchases based on feedback. The documentation was slightly confusing.

castlemagicmemories · ‎01-04-2019

Possibly, too, it was confused with the block for allowing someone to only purchase a certain amount of items in a certain time frame.

adkhighker · ‎01-04-2019

@emerald40 wrote:
Use fixed prices immediate payment required.

I know you mean well, but I wish people would stop telling auction sellers to switch to fixed price immediate pay required when that option often does not work well for many of us who run true ebay auctions, and by true auctions I mean where the buyers set the price, not the seller.

For example, why would you price a 23 jewel pocket watch by a good maker with a broken mainspring and missing its hands for $350 just because you figured that's all it could possibly be worth in the condition it was in, only to have it sell for $2650 in a 99 cent start ebay auction with 47 bids including several snipes in the last few seconds?