non-paying buyers

[yourfavoriteplace3a]

I firmly believe that if Sellers were allowed to leave negative feedback on non-paying buyers that it would be a solution to those who just seem to enjoy  to shop vicariously.

[maxine*j]

Not going to happen.  fifteen years ago, eBay made the decision to disallow negs or neuts for buyers.

You can blame that on vicious sellers, who left nasty negs in retaliation for (usually) well-deserved negs from their buyers.

Anyhow, when was the last time you went into a store and saw a customer with a note pinned to his back saying "BAD CUSTOMER!" or heard an announcement "ROTTEN BUYER IN AISLE THREE!" 

If instead of worrying about feedback, you would report them as non-paying buyers you would help other sellers avoid them, as most have their preferences set to block users with such strikes against them.

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[monroe67]

"I firmly believe that if Sellers were allowed to leave negative feedback on non-paying buyers that it would be a solution to those who just seem to enjoy  to shop vicariously."

Feedback used to work that way.  
Many "buyers" reacted badly, leaving retaliatory negatives for sellers, justified or not. 
The result:  No Negative Feedback is allowed for any buyer.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Sellers don’t often get to vet their buyers before a sale is made. So leaving negative feedback for non-payers benefits very few.

What does benefit many sellers is when they give non-payment strikes to those buyers. Sellers who have their Buyer Requirements set to block serial non-payers is far more effective a way to deal with deadbeat buyers. They simply won’t be able to bid or buy from savvy sellers who take advantage of the tools eBay provides.

[yourfavoriteplace3a]

I started selling in 1998.  For years Buyer AND Sellers Both could leave negative feedback.  Buyers thought twice about bidding and not paying for fear of the negative feedback that everyone could see.  
Now just because you see a Buyer with positive feedback, it doesn't mean they have not stiffed another Seller since there is no way now to warn another Seller via feedback.
It never made sense too me nor did it seem fair.

[slippinjimmy]

Maybe you were not an active seller or perhaps you just got lucky in the pre-2008 days, I gave out lots of negs (and strikes) to buyers back then but the non-payers kept coming. It was wholly ineffective because then as now if a buyer doesn't like looking at negs they just need to start a new account.

Then there were the hyper-sensitive, they would fail to pay once, get negged and run away in fear.

Then we have the problem that if sellers could leave negs they would not be able to handle the responsibility and negs would get tossed around for even the slightest PERCEIVED indiscretion.

Half of eBay's current apparent lack of buyers is due to some sellers who feel treating buyers like dirt is the right way to deal with anything and everything. Bad service and bad attitudes have chased millions of buyers from eBay which has and continues to hurt all the good sellers. You have heard the expression "one bad apple", eBay has always been overloaded with rotten apples.

I see that you use the Auction format exclusively, I also see that of all your 90 day sales with the exception of one sold with only one bid, the one had 4 bids but only went up 8% from the start price. Auctions are a non-payment magnet and they are hurting your sales more than benefiting.

I gave up on Auctions about 15 years ago and went from having a bunch of non-payers every week to ONE (yes only ONE) in the past 10 years (and I don't even use Immediate Payment Required).

[theteamsetguy]

@yourfavoriteplace3a ,

How is leaving negative feedback going to warn a seller? If you have an auction the seller doesn’t know who the high bidder is before auction is over. If the buyer buys a fixed priced item they pay for it before the seller finds out who the buyer is.

Also, have you never bought anything in your life that you changed your mind on? I think we all have and changing your mind the last I checked is not a crime. While some do it more than others but it is still not a crime.

[mtgraves7984]

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@yourfavoriteplace3a wrote:

I firmly believe that if Sellers were allowed to leave negative feedback on non-paying buyers that it would be a solution to those who just seem to enjoy  to shop vicariously.

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@yourfavoriteplace3a 

What would you suggest? That you cancel the orders (afterward) on buyers that you see lots of bad feedback for?

You could do that... but you only get two Out of Stock cancellations per year. That would hurt you more than them, no?

[yourfavoriteplace3a]

You could cancel the bids before the auction ends

[pjcdn2005]

If you have an auction the seller doesn’t know who the high bidder is before auction is over. If the buyer buys a fixed priced item they pay for it before the seller finds out who the buyer is.

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Unless something has changed lately, sellers can see who all of their bidders are throughout the auction. They are hidden to other buyers and sellers.

[maxine*j]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

...  Half of eBay's current apparent lack of buyers is due to some sellers who feel treating buyers like dirt is the right way to deal with anything and everything.  Bad service and bad attitudes have chased millions of buyers from eBay which has and continues to hurt all the good sellers... 

Auctions are a non-payment magnet and they are hurting your sales more than benefiting...

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Yes.  We see it here all the time, and it is disheartening:  Sellers who consider every buyer a potential scammer and troublemaker.  Sellers who simply lust after the ability to leave negative comments about buyers;  so much so that they leave false positives in violation of eBay policy and brag about it.   Sellers who want to take no responsibility for what they sold or how they sold it.   Such sellers are in the minority, but they make themselves very visible, to the detriment of all the good sellers.

I agree with your comments about auctions, too:  Don't want non-paying buyers?  The simple fix is to use fixed price, immediate payment required.  Less than 15% of the merchandise sold on eBay is sold through auctions these days.

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[eburtonlab]

You could cancel the bids before the auction ends

Serial non-payers could get around that by creating new accounts with clean slates to in order to place bids.

And if you cancel bids from all new accounts, serial non-payers could always get around that by sniping.

Leaving negatives for buyers is not as effective a tool as you seem to think. Even when it was possible to leave negatives for buyers, serial non-payers were not discouraged by the threat or even the receipt of a negative feedback rating. The only users that were actually discouraged were legitimate buyers that received retaliatory negatives from sellers in a bid for "mutual withdrawal" so the seller could get an otherwise deserved negative removed.

Feedback is primarily used by buyers to evaluate sellers, not the other way around. Aside from some offers, buyers are the ones initiating transactions, so that makes sense.

[fern*wood]

Stop using the auction format, use fixed price with immediate payment required and your problem is solved.  I looked at your recently sold items and only saw one with more than one bid anyway, so set your price and you can relax.