bidders who do not pay

[bobogringos]

Something needs to be done about restricting bidders who have no intention of

paying after they bid on an items.  This is particularly true about bidders from China

who outbid real buyers and then never pay.  Most of these buyers have little or no

feedback, which has many implications.  I think it would be to everyone's benefit if buyers with little feedback for instance 25 or less would be restricted from placing

bids above a certain dollar amount without leaving a deposit, which they would

forfeit if they did not pay.

        Most auction houses, Live Auctioneers, etc, will not permit unknown buyers

to leave bids without some sort of guarantee.  I have lost hundreds if not thousands

of dollars to these non-buyers.... and so has Ebay.

      Ebay only restricts these buyers after a certain amount of bad transactions.

This does no good as I am sure they just change their ID and use another name.

[duncanvr]

If the bulk of them are from China why not just block China? Restricting bidders with low feedback will never happen. All you can do is raise unpaid cases on them and if they still don't pay after that block and relist. If you don't want the non paying bidders don't do auctions just set all at BIN and immediate payment required.

[myescape]

They are restricted if they get 2 unpaid item strikes within 12 months.

Ebay depends on enticing  new buyers so they are not going to give them hoops to jump thru

[inhawaii]

The more restrictions you put on a bidder, the less they will want to bid/buy/particiapte.

I know ebay does not want that.

I don't think you as a seller would want that either.

[fashunu4eeuh]

 Restricting new buyers in the way you suggest could have serious negative consequences for the platform. New buyers are coming to online shopping in droves since the pandemic occurred. It is our job to welcome them, not hold them up to suspicion because they have a low feedback history, especially when it is impossible to judge a new member based solely on a feedback score anyway. Feedback scores for buyers are essentially meaningless since they can only receive positives. Plus, scammers with feedback history exist as well, including those who highjack accounts of eBayers with strong feedback numbers to commit fraud.

There is no way to avoid risk in online selling. The best we can do as sellers is to mitigate that risk. One way to do this is to use the tools eBay gives us. Set your Buyer Requirements to the strictest levels to block serial non-payers from having access to your items. Open Unpaid Item Disputes when a buyer fails to pay so that they get a strike on their account (which benefits all sellers who use BR). There are blocks available by country to limit a seller's exposure to those whose mail systems are risky, or to where you see a trend in problematic buyers. Set up listings for fixed price with Immediate Payment Required so that some deadbeat cannot remove your item from the marketplace without paying for it first. Learn the policies and procedures that govern eBay to get an advantage over fraudsters who do know all the ends and outs here.

These actions will be more far more effective in controlling risk than trying to restrict new buyers' access to listings based solely on a lack of sales history. 

[luckythewinner]

---

@bobogringos wrote:

Something needs to be done about restricting bidders who have no intention of

paying after they bid on an items.  

---

There is a difference between what you wish would happen and what 'needs' to be done. 

This has been an issue on eBay for decades, and eBay is doing just fine. The sellers who are bothered by it will either leave, or they adjust their business practices to account for it. 

As for buyers paying a deposit - eBay members on this board lose their ever-loving minds and accuse eBay and PayPal of "earning interest" when a payment is held or takes a couple days to clear.

Just imagine how much they would howl knowing eBay is "earning interest' from their deposits when they didn;t even win the auction. 

And every one of those 'deposits' would cost eBay transaction fees to process and then refund ... are you as a seller willing to reimburse eBay for that? 

[bimm_corp]

@inhawaii 

>I don't think you as a seller would want that either.

Would you rather have a continuation of the current insanity of buyers issuing MBG, INR and SNAD cases and with eBay issuing almost automatic refunds with no requirement for buyers to return items after receiving a refund?

Bring back negative feedback for sellers, cancel GTC and MP. Otherwise you will continue to get advertising like this,

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+get+free+stuff+on+ebay

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/Local-Radio-DJs-advertised-ebay-s-return-loophole/m-p...

[femmefan1946]

There are many ways to deal with this problem already in place.

You can put an automatic Block on bidders with Strikes for Unpaid Items.

You can open Unpaid Item Disputes 96 hours after purchase (48 if you are in the USA) and close it again after another 96 hours. The deadbeat gets a Strike.

You can put that specific bidder on your Blocked Buyer List. This prevents him from bidding on any future listings.

You can block countries. You can block entire continents.

You can stop using Auctions in favour of Fixed Price listings.

Best move though would be to add Immediate Payment Required to your Fixed Price Listings. The listing remains live until someone actually pays.