eBay

carland52 · ‎10-08-2013

I had somebody that won an auction, and now doesn't want to pay. If I re-list the item, do I still pay a final value fee to eBay, or should I start a non payment claim?

Anonymous · ‎10-08-2013

Open an unpaid item process on the 4th day after auction ends and then wait another 4 days before you can close it, which you will receive the refund of final value fees and at the same time, the buyer will get a strike in file.. Don't use the cancellation transaction as the buyer can reject it and you will lose the refund of final value fees.

grizzliessk · ‎10-08-2013

I had the same thing happen to me. I sent a 2nd Invoice and after 3 weeks, I filed an Unpaid Claim against the buyer. Still no response. I received a final value credit but only after I filed the claim.

carland52 · ‎10-08-2013

I was wondering if there was another way instead of filing a claim, but I'm going to stop trying to be nice to everyone and just do what i need to do. FILE a claim.
I just don't understand why people do that. It's starting to happen more frequently and it's annoying to have to keep making claims. I never once bid on an item and left it high an dry when I needed to pay for it.
Thank you for the help.

rose-dee · ‎10-09-2013

@carland52 wrote:
I was wondering if there was another way instead of filing a claim, but I'm going to stop trying to be nice to everyone and just do what i need to do. FILE a claim.
I just don't understand why people do that. It's starting to happen more frequently and it's annoying to have to keep making claims. I never once bid on an item and left it high an dry when I needed to pay for it.

Yes, it is sad that being nice doesn't work in every instance, but there will always be people who take advantage or are just plain irresponsible, which is why the claims are unfortunately necessary.

You are probably in a category that attracts more non-payers to begin with (coins, collectible paper money). And I think auctions tend for some reason tend to attract more non-payers than fixed price listings. Are you actually getting the prices you're happy with through the auctions? You might try using mostly fixed price for a while (say a month or two) and see if that weeds out the non-payers somewhat.

If you haven't already done so, you could also use your seller preferences to exclude buyers with bad histories (there are several exclusions available), or those without Paypal accounts.

Beyond that, there isn't much you can do but file a claim. I usually give my buyers 5 days to contact me (if they haven't paid), or up to 2 weeks to complete their payment if they've contacted me, but after those points I generally give up on being accommodating and file a claim. And I use cancellation on a case-by-case basis: if the buyer seems sincere and courteous and has a plausible explanation for asking me to cancel, I often do, along with sending a friendly note, keeping in mind that FB/DSRs can still be left by the buyer. I figure it's sometimes a good risk to make a happy customer who may come back in the future. By the way, I've been told by the eBay.ca staff in one of the Wednesday board discussions that this policy (allowing FB after cancellation) is being reconsidered -- but who knows when it will be dropped?

I seem to recall something being mentioned on these boards that filing too many claims can impact upon a seller -- I'll check on that and post what I find here. If true, it means you have to judge where and when to best file a claim.