Ghosted by buyer

[sullysspace53]

Hi, I am a brand new Canadian seller.  I posted 2 items and received 2 bids within hours from the same buyer.  I accepted the offers and have absolutely no communication with the buyer since  I've sent requests for payment with no reponse.  What is my next move?  Do I cancel and relist the items, is there a grace period (although it's already been 2 weeks).    

[richardcm]

You are a new seller with zero feedback. Fake buyers will buy an item and not pay. They may send a message to text them at a phone number and when you do they offer to pay you more that what is due and to send them back the overpayment. Scammers.

Happened to me on a couple of new sellings accounts I opened in January 2020. I got fooled to reply to one then realized it was a scam when they offered to overpay.

Was it an official eBay offer you got?

Are the eBay IDs still active members? Did the offers ask for personal information about you?

You can ignore the offers after two weeks. Offers usually expire within 48 hours.

Update. I see that the two items were actually auctions with one bid. After two weeks it is unlikely they will pay. eBay will charge you fees on the sale so you will need to cancel the sale to get your fees back. Other members will explain how to do that. 

[femmefan1946]

Ending an Unpaid Transaction.

Go to Resolution Centre/ Help & Cointact  at the bottom of this page.

Gp to-> Selling

Go to-> Resolving unpaid items with buyer. (scroll down a bit, it's not very near the top of the page).

Go to-> Cancel Order

Go to-> Take Action

Choose the Unpaid item and follow instructions.

Until recently buyers had 96 hours (four days) to pay when an Unpaid Item Dispute (UID) was opened. There have been changes recently and this may now be instant, given the date of purchase.

You can set up your new listings to automatically open a UID/cancellation after 96 hours. I've done this, but darned if I can remember where or how.

A member who loses a UID gets a Strike on his buying account which makes it harder to buy on eBay. You can also add an automatic Block on bidders with Strikes.  Again, I did this so long ago I'm not sure where to find the option.

Finally, eBay encourages newbies to sell by auction, but eBay has not really been an auction site for a couple of decades.

More than 85% of transactions are Fixed Price, even higher when many Auctions include a Buy It Now option.

This is because buyers don't like auctions, because FP are visible for 30 days instead of seven, and because Auctions get most of the Unpaid Item Disputes.

[pjcdn2005]

You can set your preferences up so that ebay automatically cancels an unpaid item after 4 days or you can do it yourself manually...... If you want ebay to do it automatically next time, you can turn that on HERE

Since it has already been longer than that, you can manually cancel the transaction now. Go to your sold orders, click on cancel order using the arrow next to that order and choose the reason as 'item hasn't been paid for'.(not sure of the exact wording) That item will be cancelled immediately. I'm not certain but I think that when you are doing that, you can also check or uncheck a box so that the item is automatically relisted. If not, you can relist manually. On some items it is best to list as a Fixed Price listing (GTC) rather than an auction. When you do that type of listings,  here should be a check box on the listing form to require immediate payment so that the buyer can't purchase unless they pay right away.  That won't apply if you accept an offer.  Although those type of listings are used more often now, auctions are good for items that you think may have a few people bidding again each other to raise the price higher.

You might want to block buyers who have 2 unpaid item strikes within the last 12 months and you can do that HERE under buyer requirements.  While you are there you should also block buyers who have a primary shipping address in a location that you don't ship to.

[richardcm]

In my post above I mentioned that my first sales on my new selling accounts were unpaid. Ironically when the next month selling limits review was sent to me in eBay messages, eBay raised my limits from the new account 10 items to 20 items stating that I was a successful seller having sold items.

Lol. Sometimes eBay bots are useful.

Both accounts sold items and each month the selling limits raised now at 200 items. I only have about 100 items total between them.

Feedback is hard to get but one account is at 21 feedback on 55 sales and the other at 6 on 20 sales. About what is normal at 30% feedback.

I am selling for fun to pass time in retirement.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

You do not need to contact buyers to ask them to pay. The only exception would be if you need to manually adjust the shipping and send an invoice.

When a buyer wins an item, they have 4 days to pay. If they do not pay right away, eBay will automatically send them e-mail reminders to pay. There isn't a benefit to you also e-mailing them. If they do not pay after 4 days, you can cancel the sale and re-list the item. Here are the instructions: https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/getting-paid/resolving-unpaid-items?id=4137

I would also recommend adding the buyer to your 'blocked buyers' list. This means, that they cannot buy your items on that account. It also means that it is a violation of eBay's rules for the buyer to create a new account to buy your items. Although, that won't stop everybody, it does help prevent most buyers from buying the item again and not paying. Here are the instructions: https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/blocking-buyer?id=4082

I don't always cancel right after 4 days, it really depends on the buyers profile, and how cold the item is. If it is an item I am thrilled to get rid of, I might wait longer. If the buyer doesn't have any comments on their feedback about unpaid items, it might give me hope that they will eventually pay. Usually I find that if a buyer doesn't pay or reach out to you within a few days, they are probably never going to pay. 

The final thing you can do is you can set your listings so that your items require immediate payment. Keep in mind, this only works with 'buy it now' items. If you accept a best offer, or use the 'send offer to buyer' feature, it will not require an immediate payment. Here are the instructions: https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/immediate-payment-works?id=4151

Good luck. 

[marnotom!]

One thing that I find a little weird about this situation if I'm reading it correctly is that there are two different IDs associated with these two auctions.  One is no longer registered, the other has private feedback.