eBay is doing absolutely nothing to solve the non-paying bidder problem

[highlanderfil]

I have sold (and bought) hundreds of items on eBay over the years. As the buyer protections have improved, seller protections have absolutely disintegrated. The thing that specifically irritates me is when bidders think that winning an auction does not obligate them to actually go through with a purchase. There is literally no recourse for sellers in that scenario. Selling to the second-highest bidder isn't always an option - sometimes there are none, sometimes the bidders have moved on, sometimes it's another ten different reasons. Leaving negative feedback, which is something that would have at least somewhat tangible effects on the buyer's profile is no longer an option. Registering a non-paying bidder case - great, I can re-list an item for a chance to rinse and repeat the same process. I can't ban zero-feedback bidders (who are, unsurprisingly, the biggest offenders) because there's not a mechanism for it and because something something equity something something we've all been zero-feedback bidders before (how about limiting them to "Buy Now" auctions and requiring automatic positive feedback once the payment has been collected?).

How about doing something that shows that eBay actually gives a crap about sellers? How about, for example, collecting a bidder's payment information and automatically charging them a percent of an item's final sale value that is payable to the seller in case they don't follow through? How about automatically banning buyers if there are multiple non-paying claims filed against them in the same year? Surely I'm not the first person to bring this issue (or these possible solutions) up? 

[rugerskick]

Look, there is zero evidence at all that ebay will, or even wants to, fix this problem.  I say this is because when Ebay does want to do something, they do it.  They implemented promoted listings ignoring other more pressing issues.  They implemented promoted listings advance.  They implemented pay per click offsite ads.

They do not want to fix this.

The solution is to use Buy it Now, and demand immediate payment.  You have to use what is around, to protect yourself/minimize non-paying scenarios.

[a_c_green]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
Now you really lost me. 

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Okay then, go back and look at the original post. It ends with multiple questions, not just about how to enforce auction wins, but other issues as well: 

"How about, for example, collecting a bidder's payment information and automatically charging them a percent of an item's final sale value that is payable to the seller in case they don't follow through? How about automatically banning buyers if there are multiple non-paying claims filed against them in the same year? Surely I'm not the first person to bring this issue (or these possible solutions) up?"

There are about three processes already mentioned for enforcing payment: The Immediate Payment Required checkbox (for Fixed Price listings), the payment info requirement before making an offer, and the payment info requirement before making a bid.

The first (IPR) has been around for years. The latter two have only recently been introduced as seller options (default On). Of those, I know that the Make Offer requirement to supply payment info is in effect because I routinely encounter that myself in my buying account when making offers on a listing. What I'm saying is that I have not seen any requirement yet to supply payment info when making a bid. Have you?

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
and yes...They are IN OPERATION as I stated with all the 'threads started' (there were probably 100 the past 3 months or so). 

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I know the seller option is there, and this topic has been discussed all over the place as you said, but has anyone actually seen the auction bid pre-payment requirement in operation yet?

[reallynicestamps]

First. Stop using Auctions. Most  Unpaid Items were sold at auction.

Second. If sellers win Unpaid Item disputes,the buyer gets a  Strike. Any seller can set an automatic Block  against bidders with Strikes.

Third.Use Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required. The listing stays visible until someone actually pays.

Fourth. Opt to use the new AutoPay which demands that buyers give their financial information before being allowed to bid. Be aware that a very high proportion even of good buyers will refuse to allow this.

[theteamsetguy]

@highlanderfil ,

Why are you doing still doing auction style listings? You should list the items BUY It Now with immediate payment required.

Set the prices at your minimum bid and you are set. The great thing abut Buy it now listings is you don't have to relist if it doesn't sell. It relists automatically until it sells.

[itsjustasprain]

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@highlanderfil wrote:

How about automatically banning buyers if there are multiple non-paying claims filed against them in the same year? 

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You can do that. Go to your Buyer requirement page: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

Go to the Buyer Requirements section and set your choices to block buyers who caused 2 cancellations of unpaid purchases within 12 months. That is the tightest setting you can use.

You can see how many deadbeats get bounced by your filters by going to your Buyer requirements activity log page here: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/blockedbuyeractivities

[itsjustasprain]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Fourth. Opt to use the new AutoPay which demands that buyers give their financial information before being allowed to bid. Be aware that a very high proportion even of good buyers will refuse to allow this.

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Just curious but what is that proportion and where did you find it?

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
Now you really lost me. 

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I know the seller option is there, and this topic has been discussed all over the place as you said, but has anyone actually seen the auction bid pre-payment requirement in operation yet?

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Yes! and obviously it is ALL over the place, just by the amount of Threads started (and those responding) by both Buyers and Sellers that past 30 days alone. 100's which means 10,000+ times it has happened (as most don't even know there's a forum/community here).

Over 1000 results here (some are not exactly that, but the first few show most are)

Search - The eBay Community

[highlanderfil]

Because eBay allows me to and because I want to. Good enough explanation?

[highlanderfil]

Not nearly tight enough, it would appear. To my mind this is a zero-tolerance situation. If you don't know how eBay works, don't bid.

[a_c_green]

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@highlanderfil wrote:

To my mind this is a zero-tolerance situation. If you don't know how eBay works, don't bid.

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IMHO, the deadbeats know exactly how eBay works. In a lot of non-payment cases, you can look at the deadbeat's bid history (click on the disguised ID in the auction's Bid History page) and see that he's sprayed bids across multiple auctions in the same category, apparently planning to pay for whichever one he wins for the least amount of money, and walk away from the rest.

[a_c_green]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
Yes! and obviously it is ALL over the place, just by the amount of Threads started (and those responding) by both Buyers and Sellers that past 30 days alone. 100's which means 10,000+ times it has happened (as most don't even know there's a forum/community here).

Over 1000 results here (some are not exactly that, but the first few show most are)

Search - The eBay Community

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Okay, great; I finally found one here: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/E-bay-asking-for-Pre-buying-payment-method-on-an-auction/... 

Given the ratio of Make Offer pre-payment discussion to bidding pre-payment discussion, though, it still looks like the Make Offer requirement is a lot more actively widespread than the Bid requirement at the present time. (I think they're separate seller options for a reason, and that reason is more likely due to in-house eBay coding limitations than anything else.) 

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the auction pre-payment info requirement, because I always snipe an auction at the end, and I don't want to suddenly hit that pre-payment wall when there's only 5 seconds left. With Make Offers, there's no time pressure, so if I get the pre-payment popup when making an offer (which I usually do), there's no issue with confirming the info before the offer goes in.

[zenithtool]

Dont feel bad, they dont enforce seller policy regarding contact information in a listing or a seller with duplicate listings.

[theteamsetguy]

@highlanderfil ,

I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m just trying to give you advice. It makes sense to do auctions if you sell things that get a lot of bids. By listing Buy it now you can make buyers pay you immediately and not have your problem of buyers not paying. This a simple fix. I think a big reason why there is such high rate of non payers for auctions is because many buyers forgot they bid on something, or they got impatient and bought it from another seller buy it now or on another venue. Fewer and fewer buyers want to bid on something and not know if they are going to win it 5 days later in addition to waiting for it to get mailed to them. I totally get why you would want auctions if you got multiple bids on your items but this is not the case for you. I don’t care if you don’t want say why you like the auction format so much.

I have thousands of items on eBay and currently NONE are auctions. Also by not having auctions you can get paid everyday if you sell something versus auctions you don’t get paid until after it ends. I get 3 deposits on mondays and 1 every other day except sat, sun, and federal holidays in my bank account.