When a buyer doesn't pay

Lately I'm having a lot of problems with people who buy my coins on eBay not paying. Sometimes they use buy it now and then don't pay, other times they win the auction and don't pay. They never respond to any of my emails, and I eventually open a case with ebay. It's happened three or four times now and I've never heard a thing from any of them. When I look at their feedback, without fail it's always "A+++++++++++ customer!!!! Super fast pay!!!!!" So why don't they pay me? And what are the consequences for them? I had someone use buy it now for three of my coins, never pay, then I went through the opened case process and closed it after the proscribed period. When I looked at the buyer's feedback today, it was still 100 percent and there's no sign of any problems. So what did that accomplish?

 

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I have had this happen a couple time recently also. Opening a case against them will allow others to block them in their buyer requirements, so it will kinda help if people have their auctions set to not accept bidders with recent upaid item cases.

 

Enough unpaid items gets their accounts suspended as well.

 

There is a setting on the upload pages that makes immediate payment necessary to complete a "buy it now". It is hidden in there, but it is there. I use it every time, or a person isn't "buying it now" are they?

All clean auction formats pick up an unpaid buyer once in a while, and you just have to take your lumps and relist, but I have had auctions close higher some of the 2nd time around and it averages out. JMO, Matt

 

Ah! If only that were true! I recently reported a buyer who buys several things almost every day. In one month they had something like 120 wins, and 27 no pays. There were similar patterns in previous months. What did ebay do? Nothing. They are still winning auctions, and not paying for aproximately 20%.

 

I found the immediate pay setting, but there is a problem: I offer combined shipping and people often buy multiple items from me. If I make them pay immediately, I get more Paypal fees and I have to give them a refund for the combined shipping, or else I look dishonest. And some people might get confused and decide not to buy because when they go to make a purchase they have to pay immediately so it doesn't look like they're getting combined shipping.

 

You are being too nice to the confused. Try not to list tons of items at once or not offer combined shipping on BINs. Remember that you are on ebay (investing your time and effort) to make a good deal, not hold hands. It might be why you are picking up problem people. Be sturdy and make the buyer pay the shipping, as that is expected and proper and be proud of your items and how you package, drive to the post office, wait in line, etc......Good buyers know this and won't needle you down over a few bucks on shipping. Been on ebay since 1999 and this was never a big deal for me. For that mater, most everybody in America has done an ebay deal so people know what to expect. Sorry if that seems harsh its JMO, your friend Matt. Keep it up bro, ebay can wear a guy down, so if you need a break, its ok

 

You all need to be on eBid. Since there isn't a fee assessed on the closing price, there is no reason to worry about non-paying bidders. Sure, you have to make 2 or 3 clicks to relist the item, but the hassles of dealing with the auction site are generally eliminated. There are a few exceptions, if you've used a gallery photo a modest 2% commission is charged (in which case eBid is extremely fast and helpful posting a credit to your account).

eBid might not be right for everyone, but from a sellers perspective, they are so many light years BEHIND eBay (which is a good thing, --much like eBay used to be before they started ripping everyone off and complicating things) that you'd have to be nuts not to check it out. I've got 175 items listed, mostly coins, and it cost nothing aside from the $75 it cost me to register, unless I want to use some features, and then even those are very reasonably priced.

I know there are a lot of coin collectors who have gone on eBid once or twice and decided there wasn't enough material to warrant checking the site on a regular basis. But that is slowly changing. If enough seller will take the time to list their coins their, eventually there will be a lot more buyers attracted to the site. Really it all boils down to how sick you are of eBay, and if you are willing to take the time to at least list your coins on another site in an effort to migrate away from eBay's high fees, and ever changing rules and regulations.

 

I hear what you're saying and I'm not taking it the wrong way. Let me explain what I do so maybe you can see why I feel I have to be accommodating. I collect world coins and I like to browse through my dealer's value bin, and I buy everything that I think is neat, or old or rare. But I really feel like I only need one of each coin, so when I have doubles I sell them on eBay. Many of these are coins with a limited market and I usually only sell them for a dollar or two, and often I have to list them several times before I get a bid. I'm not doing this to get rich, just to get a little extra money to buy other coins. So because of this I feel like I need to sell for less than the other people selling the same coins, and I hate to lose any potential sales since most of what I list won't sell. The typical person buying one of my coins is looking for that one missing coin to complete their set, and there's probably 20 other people offering the same coin. Combined shipping really seems to help me sell coins someone might not otherwise buy, because they are buying low value coins and don't want to pay a lot for them. When I buy coins I look for the same thing so I try to list the type of auction I would bid on myself. This is why I feel I need to do whatever I can to accommodate buyers.

 

From a Buyer's perspective (everything else being equal), I always gravitate towards auctions that offer "Free S&H". Rightly or wrongly, I think those auctions make up for the difference in price because they draw more interest. I will always bid higher on those auctions and even if I don't win, my bid(s) push the winning price up for the Seller.

I like those auctions mostly for the lack of hassle. Oftentimes, when a seller has one item I like, they have more. Many Sellers don't post details about combined S&H...and I'm not about to pay $3.99 for each coin unless they come in different packages. When I have to wait a couple of days between auctions (when bidding on multiple auctions from the same Seller), I have to send messages to let the Seller know what I'm doing and ask permission, etc, etc...that's a hassle.

I much prefer "Free S&H" auctions so "I win an auction; I pay for an auction"...no delay. If the Seller wants to combine S&H to save themselves money, I'm fine with that as long as the items arrive in good shape. Oh, and I always pay immediately for BIN auctions...you should stipulate that.

 

I open an unpaid item case against them, and block them from bidding on any future auctions. Not sure if it does any good.

Since, as a seller, I am now unable to leave negative feedback for a buyer ever, I leave a positive feedback for these deadbeats that says the following: "NO PAY, STAY AWAY!!!" That way if they ever try and sell something, at least buyers reading thru their feedback will be alerted to he fact that they have less than stellar integrity.

 

Maybe free shipping is the way to go. I might try it and see if I notice a difference. After you open an unpaid item case, you can't leave feedback, so I can't even weigh in on the fact that they didn't pay. And I don't want to leave it before opening a case because I'm still hoping maybe they'll pay and they were just out of town or something. If they do pay then they can leave feedback for me, and I know it will be bad if I said something about them.

Regarding eBid, the coins I sell aren't popular enough that I think I'd sell them on a site with fewer users. There's another one called Webstore that I have bought coins on a little bit. They don't have any fees at all, but there aren't enough users either. I've gotten a few good deals as a buyer but I generally see the same coins listed over and over because no one buys them.

 

There are also ways to set your ebay preferences to automatically combine shipping for auctions sold to the same bidder. You may just have to post in your listing for people bidding on multiple auctions to let you know and you will send combined invoice after all purchases.

 

I suggest you take a break when you run into knuckleheads on ebay. They're all over the place, all you can do is be the best you can be and don't take ebay too seriously. Take a week or 4 off when you get too much flak. "Ebay", it is what it is and we can't do anything about the occasional knucklehead.

 

You can leave feedback for unpaid item cases? I think that after you open, and later close the case, feedback is disabled. Maybe if you leave it before that, it'll stay, not sure.

 

That false postive feedback can get your account supended on eBay better to just file the non paying bidder clain to get your fees back and move on.

 

Ebay gives you 50 free listings a month so once I've listed 50 I'm done until the next month anyway, so that's a default rest break.

 

Me too don't want it to get too much like work.:devil:

 

I forgot to mention one other thing (from the Buyer's perspective)...

I haven't bought from eBay in quite a while. When I have, I noticed they made a change that I REALLY don't like. Instead of getting an alert right on my home page that I have items to pay for, they now simply have a link called "Purchase History".

I'll make a bid on an item four days out (never expecting to win) and forget all about it. Next thing I know (if I remember to log back in) is that I have a "Nasty-gram" from the Seller saying, "HEY!! Where's my money you deadbeat!?"...that happened to me ONCE. That never used to happen when they had the alert right in my face. I can see where someone will do a BIN early in the night and forget about it if they're waiting until the end to pay...and then forget they made the purchase.

As Sellers, you ought to ask eBay to go back to the old way of doing things. Speaking on behalf of "Honest eBay Buyers", we would prefer it that way, also.

 

Yakpoo, you must have disabled all the emails from eBay. I get an email sent to me whenever I win an auction, and that's how I know when to pay.