What's the point of eBay if a buyer can simply not pay for a winning bid and eBay does *nothing?

[ncantone]

If I put an item up for sale (auction and/or buy it now) on eBay and a buyer places a bid and ultimately wins the auction, why are they simply allowed to walk away from their commitment?  Beyond extreme circumstances, like an accidental extra "0" in the bid price or a significant change in the listing after a bid is placed, how is it not a binding agreement?  *Seemingly, the only deterrent is that the buyer gets a strike on their account: "Buyers who have excessive unpaid cancellations may have limits imposed by a seller or by eBay, or lose their buying privileges."  But what's to stop that person from simply deleting that account and/or creating a new one with a clean record?  This just seems like an obvious flaw and a significant reason not to list items on eBay.  If I wanted, I could easily abuse this system as a buyer by listing an item I want to sell, then placing super high bids on all competing/similar products currently up for auction with zero intention of ever paying for them, thus eliminating competition with no consequence and driving buyers to my item.  eBay wants to slap my wrist? Oh well. Delete that account, start a new one, re-list the item. 

Am I missing something here or is this just how eBay works?

[stainlessenginecovers]

You have it correct in that they get a 'strike' and can 'open' another account; but doubtful that many would go through all that trouble as well as 'make a habit' out of 'not following through'...........

So, simply know it happens. After all, how many people would call you from a newspaper ad to come by and 'look' at xyz, you give them address, get an 'about' time and then they don't show? Happened all the time.

How many times have you seen a box of nails in the paint department because a buyer 'changed their mind' ??

Is that customer seen on camera, a picture posted at all registers and in the front window 'banning' them from shopping in that store again??

Just best to live with it and relist. 

[dhbookds]

No one knows how buyers are sanctioned......  I have seen a couple of posts over the years in which buyers "complain" ebay will not allow them to bid (tho they can buy it now) because of non payments (which, of course, were not their fault)........but I doubt most would post if they were sanctioned.  Likewise with obtaining new id's........can they get them or are they "connected" to the previous one and then prevented.

Frankly, we can't do much about any of it, except report the buyer......and ebay does now have a program that supposedly "makes a record" on a buyer......which could help the problem.........  Won't stop non pays....but if you run fixed priced listing with immediate payment....that can stop them........

Ah, meant to add about blocking nonpayers, but @jonathanbrightlight did it better than I could.

[jonathanbrightlight]

Every seller has the option in their account settings to block purchases from buyers who have (at the most restrictive) 2 unpaid item strikes in the last 12 months.  I would strongly encourage every seller to use that option.  If sellers then cancel orders that are not paid with the reason "Buyer has not paid", which gives the buyer one of those strikes, then those types of bidders will have a much harder time bidding without paying.

Keep in mind most of the time it's not an intentional plan on the buyer's part when they bid, though certainly "sport bidders" do exist and do exactly that.  If eBay sellers utilize the tools available to them, however, it greatly reduces that risk and helps limit the impact those sport bidders can have.

[doc-holmes]

What's your suggestion for fixing this problem? 

[toysaver]

You've had the power all along.  All you have to do is list buy it now with immediate payment required.  Problem solved.

[reallynicestamps]

You can permanently Block that specific deadbeat.

You can set up an automatic Claim and Strike against deadbeats who do not pay after 96 hours.

You can set up an automatic Block against deadbeats with two or more Strikes in the past 12 months.

You can use Fixed Price listings, which have a lower rate of deadbeats.

You can use Fixed Price listings, but add Best Offer , which is a sort of reverse auction.

You can use FP, add BO, and set parameters for Accept /Reject. You never see the annoying lowball offers.

[simba6]

There is a limit of what eBay can do. It's not like they can torture them with rice worms.

Sellers can set their account to reject bids from people that have two or more non payment strikes. 

You can set up your listings to require payment right away.

[onefootflipper1]

Ebay hasn't been about auctions in about 15 years. In the past 5 years out of maybe 40,000 transactions I have run exactly 2 auctions and one of them didn't get paid for and the other brought half my expectation. Every single other thing I have listed buy it now.

The items you auctioned are not suitable auction items, they are common items that sell every single day on ebay and they have going rates. You also do not want to list expensive Apple Products as a new seller, they are the number 1 item scam buyers target and they specifically target new sellers.

Few buyers look at auctions anymore, the overwhelming majority of auctions do not get sold and they are largely the domain of the incompetent hobby seller. There are of course exceptions, but for the most part the pro's just don't do auctions anymore.

[luckythewinner]

What's the point of eBay if a buyer can simply not pay for a winning bid and eBay does *nothing?

The point of eBay is to sell items and make money. Millions of do it every day without any issues whatsoever.

Am I missing something here or is this just how eBay works?

Roughly 90% of items on eBay are sold at fixed price, where the seller can demand immediate payments. If auctions don't work for you, stop running auctions.

If this is the iPad Air, you have listed it twice for $849 and the auctions have ended at $849. So IMHO you should just list it for $849 fixed price.

[soh.maryl]

You might be missing something here.  When an item sells on eBay, the buyer has 3 days to pay.

If that doesn't happen, on day #4, the seller can cancel, citing "buyer did not pay" as the reason.

It's possible that you might benefit from re-reading all the information listed about how eBay works.  

[tobaccocardyahoo]

It looks like you have sold this iPad twice.

If you have had two different non-paying buyers I would explore why your item and listing are generating instant buyer's remorse.

I am a person who will have nothing to do with Apple products so I have no suggestions as to what the problem might be, but there is a strong chance there is one.

[onefootflipper1]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

It looks like you have sold this iPad twice.

If you have had two different non-paying buyers I would explore why your item and listing are generating instant buyer's remorse.

I am a person who will have nothing to do with Apple products so I have no suggestions as to what the problem might be, but there is a strong chance there is one.

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They are probably being purchased by people who are then trying to do the email payment confirmation trick.