Question for you Ebay Sellers: Handling Buyers who don't pay

Hello Everyone -
I'm a very casual Ebay seller and have run upon a situation I fortunately haven't yet encountered. I had ten items in an auction that ended Sunday night and two buyers haven't paid, now 48 hours after the auction ended. They got the usual Ebay notice to pay plus the one I sent yesterday. These two items combined are about $700, so I would really love to complete the sale.

No response from either buyer - no message back, waiting until the 1st for payday, getting funds into PayPal - nothing.

Is this common? I read the Ebay info and it says in a few more days I can file an unpaid claim to refund my fees and prevent negative reviews.

From those more experienced than I, anything else I should do besides wait patiently for a couple more days? I'm hoping that by Murphy's Law they will both pay as soon as I post this thread

Thanks for any advice,
Mike

 

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There isn't much you can do. Some people just never pay. There are people who rarely check their messages and may pay after a few days, but that isn't too common. Another possibility might be they are waiting for the next month (paycheck or eBay bucks payout).

Give it a few days and then go ahead and open the unpaid claim. That claim gives the buyer another 4 days to pay before you can close it and get your fee refunded (so in total the buyers will have at least a week to pay, which should be plenty of time).

 

No. I've seen it about one out of fifty sales. But then there's been times when I was traveling and couldn't play ebay for a couple days, too. As a seller, at about three days of no communication I ask the buyer what is their schedule for making payment. More often than not I get notified that their payment hit before I send the reminder.

 

I would send each of them a friendly reminder that you can only ship their item once payment is received, if they don't respond within a couple days I would go ahead and open an unpaid item claim with ebay.
Ebay admin. will send the buyers instructions on what to do, and if they don't pay within 72 hrs then the order gets automatically cancelled and you can relist your item.
I had this happen several months ago with an item that was $90 and the buyer did not respond to any messages/reminders that I sent (I was kinda wondering if he had just been swallowed up by a black hole or something lol) I waited a week before opening an unpaid item claim, and after i did that he paid within 48 hours, go figger...
Hope this helps and you can get things straightened out!

 

Dead beats are a pity....

 

Not much more to add, but I find that they usually do pay eventually. If you open the unpaid item case and it gets all the way to canceling the sale, you might want to consider a second chance offer to the next highest bidder if there is one.

 

Thanks for all the good advice, everyone.
Mike

 

After 4 days open a claim in the "Resolution" center. Either they will pay or continue to ignore your and eBay's request. Once the time period expires you can close the case, relist the item and get a final value fee credit.

One other step I do when someone does not pay is to add that person to my "Blocked Bidders/ Blocked Buyers" list. I have been selling on eBay for over 20 years and I would estimate 1 out of 50 buyers end up as NO PAY customers.

I do not want to deal with someone who has refused to make payment. It is a waste of your time to chase folks.

 

I have a friend who uses eBay frequently to sell coins and he has had his share of deadbeats (his words) plus a couple of names that can't be posted here. After one notification/request to pay he waits for necessary actions by eBay and then he simply will not honor and bid coming in from the bottom feeders (again his words) I do not sell on ebay but I understand it can lock up the item(s) you are attempting to sell if one does not pay as indicated.
Stay Safe

 

I've had the opposite happen, the seller did not come through, very annoying to say the least. Wait the 3 day grace period and file a claim, good luck.

 

Always have your account set to block users with unpaid item strikes.

 

It doesn't happen often, from my experience. Be patient; some buyers are just slow. Look at their feedback and see if that gives you a clue about the buyers. Wait the requisite amount of time and then open a case. Good luck.

 

I love the "second chance option." I have had sellers offer me that quite a few times with non-paying bidders who outbid me by one increment. I will usually always take that opportunity.

I don't think I have ever received one more than three our four days out from an auction close.

Z

 

When a customer refuses to pay, what type of reprimanding action does eBay take against that customer? Anything?

 

If the seller opens a case and the buyer still does not pay, they receive an unpaid item strike. If a buyer gets enough of those, they could theoretically have consequences. A seller can also set it up that anyone with 2 or more of these strikes can't buy from them.

ebay quote:

"Excessive unpaid items on a buyer's account may result in a range of consequences, including limits on or loss of buying privileges."

 

Thanks. Looks like eBay is more lenient towards buyers than sellers. I've never sold anything on eBay. One of my concerns, if I ever do, is that I could never prove it if a nefarious buyer switches a coin and claims that I didn't sell him/her what was shown in the photo.

 

They are more lenient for buyers.
And there is a possibility someone could switch a coin on you, but it isn't too common. Most people on eBay are decent but the small group of bad buyers and sellers can easily ruin things if you run into them.

 

My experiences as a buyer is that 1 out of 10 sellers in auction formats with no reserve will not fulfill the auction if it ends up finishing lower than they thought and tell you "it's worth more than that I'm refunding you too bad."

Basically why I don't mess with eBay anymore the feed back system is a joke and east to manipulate to get it cleaned up by them and just in general I'm looking for deals and when I get one, I expect the sellers to honor it just as a seller expects a buyer to pay. So yeah... buyers that don't pay are deadbeats.....Then what are sellers that won't honor the auction price and fulfill the sale?

I get an out and in transaction on my card, I leave a negative against the seller, the seller negs me in retaliation and gets ebay to clean up the negative I gave him, and relists the item.

It's a circus and ya know what I'm at the point where all of it is "cost of doing business" and "buyer beware"

Had an amazon seller that I bought a 3000 VA rack mount uninterrupted power supply for like $1800. I get it its the right box, open it up and inside is a 1500VA UPS worth about $850 on a good day.
Of course they played the nonsense and when I said "receiving and shipping is recorded, it was recieved and opened on camera, I guess I'll be contacting a lawyer and law enforcement about fraud" they straightend up, sent me an RMA and shipping label and refunded it.

Don't really matter which side of the transaction you're on, the more volume you do you are gonna run into people working angles from time to time. You gotta stay on top of your game to not get screwed.

 

I send friendly reminder then if they don’t pay let eBay handle it. Then once they get unpaid item strike block them and relist.

Non payers seldom happen to me but any venue has its share of flakes.

 

I sell on ebay every great once in a while and when I do, I only do the "buy it now" with immediate payment setup. Basically, the only way a buyer can buy my item, thus ending the auction, is by completing the payment transaction right then and there.