Recently I "sold" a coin on eBay, but the buyer had just opened an account, had zero feedback, and now six days later hasn't paid or responded to messages. I know there are options like opening up a case, but I'm afraid that if I do anything like that, which I have a right to do, they might leave me negative feedback in retaliation, and I just opened this account to sell coins, so I don't have much feedback and one bad feedback will disproportionately hurt me. What do you think I should do?
Contact Ebay direct and ask them how you should proceed ask tell them your worries about recieving neg feedback and take it from there
If you report a nonpaying bidder, a case is opened. After three days if no payment, then you can close the case. The bidder cannot leave a neg on a closed case. Block the bidder from future auctions. However, patience is the key. Resend an invoice. Sometimes buyers lose track. I just got payment today from a sale from last Tues and they used Buy it Now. I'd rather have gotten paid last Tuesday, but hey, I got what I wanted in the end ($25 for a 1767 24 Skilling from Danish West Indies that was slick on one side and barely identifiable on the other).
Contact eBay. If he has not paid (eBay's definition, but it is reasonable), he is then blocked from leaving feedback as are you. So you cannot get burned too badly.
Sometimes eBay can be overwhelming to a new, inexperienced buyer. Maybe he's just confused on proper protocol, or is having trouble with his PayPal account. Maybe he's on vacation and away from computer access. There could be any number of reasons. I would wait a few more days (as suggested above) then open a non-paying bidder case.
I did send this person an email yesterday explaining that payment is expected within three days and that if they didn't respond I'd have to cancel the listing. I don't know why a person would create an account, bid and then not pay, but that seems to be what is going on. I never understood why some sellers would say they won't sell to new users, but now I am beginning to understand.
You definitely need to go through ebay and get this resolved. That way you avoid neg retaliatory feedback and you can relist the item and get a refund on your ebay fees. If there has been no response to your communications and 7 days have now past, I wouldn't wait to open the case and get the ball rolling on this. -LTB
Actually, I may have misread...my recommendation was under the assumption that you posted in your ebay listing that you require payment within 3 days. If you did not state that, then I would wait for payment/response for a few more days; sending an email each of those days that he doesn't pay or respond. If nothing...then open the case. As it's pretty common for sellers to patiently wait up to 10 days for payment after the listing closes. -LTB
I'll wait a few more days because I didn't specifically state that payment needed to be made in three days, but I just don't have a good feeling about ever hearing from this person.
Fwiw, I believe there is a way to block bidders that have less than 'x' amount of feedback. Might look into it. I think there is (or was) a way to make BINs require immediate payment to be valid. Personally, I think if you do a BIN, it is only right to pay for it immediately.
You can request his contact information and call him on the phone. (You're a little harder to ignore that way. if the phone number doesn't work then you have grounds for cancelling the sales for invalid contact information and that will get him booted off ebay as well (don't have to worry about a neg then.)
Yes to both. In fact when you're listing your item, there is a section called "Buyer Requirements"...you can block buyers for all sorts or reasons...x # of neg feedback, international buyers, etc. However, I didn't see an option to block new members with no feedback. And under the Buy it Now section, there is a checkbox where you can require immediate payment if the buyer uses the Buy it Now option. -LTB
If you had multiple offers, you can just write off the non-paying "winner" and make a Second Chance Offer to the next bidder down the list (if they made an acceptable bid). See: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/second_chance_offer.html
Open a non paid item case through ebay. You can do that four days after the auction has closed if the winning bidder has not yet paid. He can't leave neg feedback until he pays anyways, so don't sweat that part of it. If he hasn't paid by now, and is not responding to your emails, he's probably not going to pay. I often cringe when a buyer with zero or one feedback wins one of my auctions, so far about 50% of those with less than five feedbacks haven't paid once they won the auction. What really hurts as a seller is that you can't neg feedback them, even if they don't pay! One more bit of evidence that eBay favors the buyer.
I did end up opening a case yesterday so I have to wait until the 20th to find out. For the person who asked, the buyer's ID is kerrypenn49. It said they joined on June 8, which was a day or two before my auction ended, and they have zero feedback. I don't really want to block potential bidders because I'm selling cheap coins that often don't get any bids at all, so I don't want to get too picky. This is the first time I've had a problem, and I've sold to a lot of people with fewer than 20 bids. Feedback is a problem though because like Race said, you can't leave negative feedback and I worry that if I say anything bad, they'll leave me negative feedback in return. Sometimes people take 3 or 4 days to pay and I'd like to say something about it in their feedback, but I'm afraid to so I just put something neutral. buyers really have the sellers by the you know what.
