eBay

craftycatsattic · ‎05-03-2010

Good morning. For those of you that know the answer and don't want to nor have the time to hear me babble just skip right to my question in bold below:

I've been having problems getting paid by one of my good repeat customers. I think she got in over her head and just went nuts buying patterns on eBay. Lol some of you might find that a little odd, but a lot of people are addicted to acquiring patterns!

Anyhow, the red flags have been coming one after another: promises to pay with no payment, then an email that there were problems with her PayPal account (ut oh!), then more promises to pay and finally this morning I see she's been NARUD.

So now that 45 days since her first transaction is quickly nearing I want to spare no time and start filing because I'm looking at losing at least $50 in the FVF alone.

I had learned a hard lesson last year though where the exact same thing happened with another of my better repeat buyers...only exception is that she did not get NARUD and eventually straightened everything out with PayPal after 3 months to which end she still buys lots and lots of patterns but not from me because I filed for non payment (even though I held her hand through the whole process and never gave her the strikes).

So my question is, if I file for non-payment using the reason that the buyer is no longer registered, does she continue to receive strikes?

Thanks!

coxengines · ‎05-03-2010

You can and should file right away and, no, strikes will not continue to accumulate as there is no account to accumulate them to.

The credits are instantaneous as the customer is NARU.

Bernie

craftycatsattic · ‎05-03-2010

Thanks Bernie. I actually emailed the buyer yesterday afternoon before realizing she was NARU'd. I will file first thing tomorrow. Her first transaction is dated March 26th so Friday makes 6 weeks. There are about 50 transactions involved. It's the first time I've had so many items and $$ involved in a non payment case.

BUT better for it to have cost me only the listing fees vs a bank charge-back through paypal!

Cheers!

Catherine

craftycatsattic · ‎05-04-2010

Ut oh...looks like eBay changed the deadline to 32 days and I'm stuck paying the FVF on most transactions 😞

craftycatsattic · ‎05-04-2010

Well I found a loophole. Geeze when did they up the deadline from 45 days to 32? In March when they introduced the changes?

You can still file a cancel transaction within 45 days. The only problem I am foreseeing though is that the buyer has the option to decline the cancel (unless there are special provisions for unregistered buyers?). I suppose there should be but it's not specified in the help pages and canceling because "unregistered buyer" is not an option given in the drop-down menu. Does anyone know if I have to wait 7 days/for the buyer to respond the cancel request for it to go through? Do they even bother when the buyer is no longer registered?

Anyhow, it's done. I managed to file for non-payment on a third of the transactions, and requested to cancel the remaining two third's. It was not an easy process! We are paying high enough fees now as it is, I'd hate to be on the losing end while eBay is still holding onto the FVF money.

jakeeangel · ‎05-04-2010

I didn't know that about the change from 45 to 32, or at least I don't remember it anyways. Glad you got some recourse.

You have to wait the 7 days and you'll automatically get the fees refunded. Dum since they're NARU but at least you get it back. I believe that since they're NARU they can't even sign on to the site to do anything. I believe but am not 100% sure.

I don't mind combining things at all for buyers but I wouldn't give them that long of a time period to combine items. One or two weeks I can see, but a month, no. That's too long and easy to forget they've bought the item.

craftycatsattic · ‎05-04-2010

Ok answered my own questions and am posting in case someone else comes looking for this information (before it becomes obsolete again!). Boy does eBay ever make this confusing!

I got back all the FVF immediately. All of the cases had to be filed one by one.

- Anything 32 days and under was eligible for an unpaid item case. Note: one case that was exactly 32 days old was not eligible so I'd suggest to anyone filing that they file within 31 days.

- Everything else that dated more than 31 days was no longer eligible for an unpaid item case but was still eligible for a cancel transaction case. Because my buyer was no longer registered all FVF's were refunded immediately.

craftycatsattic · ‎05-04-2010

I don't mind combining things at all for buyers but I wouldn't give them that long of a time period to combine items. One or two weeks I can see, but a month, no. That's too long and easy to forget they've bought the item.

I usually give 3 weeks but expect payment immediately within the 4th week. I reminded this buyer a few times and she kept the communication open (even bought more things!) so I was giving her the benefit of the doubt. This was a repeat buyer. I have a few that come back regularly and purchase over the span of about that time. Since I'm not selling a mainstream item, these buyers can make or break me sometimes so I encourage them to continue shopping as long as I still have protection from non-payment which in this case ended 2 weeks earlier than I thought.

Oh well, a lesson learned!