non-paying buyers

[goodnotes88]

Is anyone having problems with buyers bidding your stuff and then not paying, several messages, phone calls to home, but nothing. But saw they are still buying, is this a sort of scam, probably thinking you will send the goods before payment. I have reset my dispute settings for 4 days now since I am waiting for 8 days, & no communication. I heard they are not even getting a bad mark against their feedback now either so they can do what they want. Why we the sellers are having such a hard time. We cant leave neg, but they can. The best thing I am doing is to block them after no payment. Do they know how much work to scan and relist item. Many of us go miles and miles to purchase these items, with the price of gas, they still want combined S&H, even if they are new buyers. I feel like giving up this insane Website. Let me know if anyone is having this problem with non-payers.

[westernstargifts]

I have noticed a big increase in the number of non-paying buyers and most of them do not respond to emails.  I just file the dispute, block them when the dispute has been closed and move on.  They do receive an unpaid item strike.  Most of the buyers I have blocked in the past few months are still registered users.

In a new twist, I have had 2 this month that told me there was a problem with their pay cheque and they couldn't pay.  One of them had purchased a $10 item from me and a $240 jacket 5 days later for which she paid and received feedback.  From the huge increase in her FB since her purchase from me, she has bought and paid for a large number of products.  I guess that extra $10 was just too much for her...lol.

Maybe this is the new excuse instead of "I was in the hospital".

It doesn't matter to the buyer how far you travelled to buy the merchandise.  They only care about what it costs to have it shipped to them which determines whether or not it is worth that much to them.  It is not unreasonable for them to ask for combined shipping.  Raise your prices if you have to, but do combine shipping and don't try to make your profit on S/H or your DRS's will get dinged.

[avionsunantiques]

Yes I get a lot of non-paying bidders.

They bid, and don't pay.  I get my selling fees back from Ebay, and sometimes to add insult to injury, I also get a negative feedback from the non-paying bidder too!

Its particularly disturbing when I get my fees back, and ebay tells me the buyer got a non-paying bidder strike, and then a few weeks later, I happen to notice that the non-paying bidder strike has been removed for some unknown reasons.  Its as if you can win an auction, and not pay - get a non-paying bidder strike, and then just ask to have it removed - and ebay will do it.

Why won't ebay do the same for the negative feedback these non-paying bidders leave in retailiation from getting a non-paying bidder strike.

My latest experience occured today.   A buyer in China one my item for $305.   He wanted me to ship by untracked mail (a breach of Ebay's and Paypal's rules which would allow him to file a fraudulant item not received complaint after he received my item).

I looked at the feedback he had left other sellers, and noticed several negative feedbacks claiming the item has not arrived (code for, I got your item, but it wasn't tracked, so I'm filing a fraudulant complaint with Paypal to get my money back and keep your item).

So it seemed clear to me that if I use the non-paying bidder process, he would give me a negative feedback as soon as I got my fees back.    To try to protect my self, I offered to cancel the transaction if he didn't want to pay for tracked and signed for mail.  He said he wanted me to cancel, so I used the cancel transaction process.    This process gives the buyer 7 days to accept the offer to cancel, and DOES NOT give the non-paying bidder a non-paying bidder strike.

I figured I'd escaped a close call with a bad buyer.   Then 7 days later, at the last moment, he accepted my offer to cancel the transaction, and to add insult to injury, he left me nasty revenge negative feedback which implied he paid me $100 in mail for a $40 stamp and I refused to refund the extra!   In reality he didn't pay anything.

And get this, the evil buyer has 800ish feedbacks - 100% positive.   Obviously if sellers could leave negative feedback, he'd have lots - instead he's a perfect buyer!   He's all set to steal from some other poor seller.  Or if the seller refused to be riped off, he'll ruin their feedback with a nasty and inaccurate revenge negative!

So yes, you're not the only one with a non-paying bidder problem - but if all you are getting is non-paying bidders, then count yourself very lucky.   Others get revenge negative feedback as well, or have their items stolen.

[snoopwiz]

Don't sweat the small stuff. There will always be those who bid or BIN the for whatever reason, decide not to follow though. Wasting your time and energy on them is just going to drain you. As long as people can pick up a bag of pasta in aisle 3 of the grocery store, then take it out of their cart, leaving it on the shelf next to the breakfast cereal in aisle 7, as long as people can abandon their web-site shopping carts during their check-outs, there will always be those who, for whatever reason, change their mind. Send your "buyer" one email, then if there is no response, sure, go ahead, file and move on. Bigger fish to fry.

[femmefan1946]

downsizer

Perhaps this link will help:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/report_problem.html

You really have to drill down to find it, but that guy sounds like a menace.

[zarzuella]

Just hang in there;  the soon-to-be-implemented Shopping Cart will effectively end the non-paying buyer syndrome.

The buyer can put your item in his/her shopping cart, but it will remain actively for sale and available to all buyers until it has been paid for.

Yay!!

[zarzuella]

Then, of course, we will have to deal with the buyer who has had your widget in her cart for two weeks and - when she finally decides to pay - finds it gone.

This will be your fault, and you'll hear about it.     ;\

[Anonymous]

Then, of course, we will have to deal with the buyer who has had your widget in her cart for two weeks and - when she finally decides to pay - finds it gone.

This will be your fault, and you'll hear about it.     ;\

Well, I guess the good thing will be that the mere act of putting the item into the cart will not constitute a sale, and so a buyer who finds herself in that position really can't complain!

(Unless she then bought something else and subsequently trashed the seller's DSRs as an act of revenge ... and lord knows that is possible.)