Is anyone having constant non payments or buyers asking to cancel orders after they win auctions?

[babadoosbuyselltrade]

Hello, the title says it all, Im really struggling with this and not sure if I want to keep selling items on ebay if I cant rely on consistency. Im at about 50% of the time right now where buyers just dont pay, or ask to cancel after the fact. Are they still penalized for this when they do these things, does anyone know? Is anyone else experiencing this?

[38e_avenue]

50%? It happens to everyone here, but surely not that often. I get about 1-2 deadbidders for every 100 items sold. I ban all deadbidders, but do not ban people who just "changed mind" .....   

[reallynicestamps]

Auctions have a much much higher number of deadbeat bidders than Fixed Price listings.

I notice that you start some of your Auctions at 99c.

Unless you are willing to sell at that price, don't.

Those bottom end prices attract bottom end buyers.

You should have a reasonable idea of the market value of your items by now.

If you must go with Auctions, which are less than 15% of transactions on eBay, start at a price you would be content to accept.

Better switch to Fixed Price listings and add Immediate Payment Required. Your item will stay up for 30 days or until someone actually pays you.

Take a look at the bidding history on your items, particularly the ones that went unpaid. You can see the serious bidders and their maximum bids (if they did not win). That will give you the market value that serious bidders will pay.

[cutie.loves.beauty]

Me? No, never.. I dealt with 1 or 2 since I signed up. I do not do the auction thing because of the problem you stated. That and I prefer to wait for the right buyer for my items, if possible and I just feel a better overall result from buy it now. I agree with another poster you should evaluate your sales items, switch over to the world of buy it now and ask for immediate payment then see a lot of your troubles go away 🙂 snd you dont have to be policing your buyers so much. i believe in your settings too you could block people who have a record of non payment..I did and it seems to not be an issue ever it seems like its near 100% effective.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Auctions aren't great for most items. You can usually get more by listing at the higher end of the market value via BIN. Then you can accept best offers, or send offers to buyers. 

The only reason I would use them would be if you have a large store, and want to liquidate some items with a low starting bid.  You will usually take a loss, but if you want to clear out inventory, it is useful. 

There might be a few items that are the exception to the rule. For hockey fans, something like a Connor McDavid Young Guns Rookie card, the value is so established, and there is such a large group of people who want them, you aren't likely to lose money at auction. 

Auctions come with more headaches. People are less likely to pay. You might get "troll" bids, where people bid up an item with no intention to pay. 

[msau4301]

Are they still penalized for this when they do these things, does anyone know?

Yes, they do get strikes against them for unpaid item or cancellation requests. I think it is because of the increase in cancellation requests that eBay recently changed under their Block Buyers section to now word it something like "Block buyers with 2 cancellations of unpaid purchases in last month".  If you haven't already check off this section in your Selling Preferences - under Blocked Buyers list. You can also of course block buyers by their user name in this same area for those who have already messed up with you. I know this does help for sure since I just looked at my Activity Log (shows one month period) and in this section I see 17 attempts to bid that were blocked due to "too many unpaid item strikes" (it was six different buyers trying multiple times).

I know most people are against the auction format (as has been mentioned here many times!) and I agree it certainy helps against unpaid item cases and is prefered by many. However, I still use auctions for the bulk of my sales and I would say the number of unpaid items that still get through is about 2 every six months or so. I sell in collectibles (mostly vintage Barbie) so it is a totally different marke though. I checked out your listings and see you have some amazing items, some quite valuable like jewelry and gaming consoles at very, very low starting price. This would be attracting so many people that are bidding just because they think they could get it at a steal. I know myself I have bid for items I didn't need or want just because it was so low....I've always paid no matter what of course, but some people get buyers remorse when they see the grand total at the end, taxes and all after getting caught up in a bidding war (we can't help wanting to win by nature).

Buy it Now or higher starting prices will weed these people out! (And update your Blocking preferences if you haven't already!) Good luck with your listings! 

[pjcdn2005]

I don't recall any changes in that section lately but it's possible that I missed it.  But I think that most sellers use Block buyers with 2 cancellations of unpaid purchases in the last 12 months".  That's better protection than setting it for just one month.

[msau4301]

Yes! Of course 12 months is better! It is defaulted to the 1 month, I took a quick peak and was trying to remember what it said. I know of the change to that section only because I had one of my regular buyers contact me saying he was blocked - he said he had a couple of cancellations and that was causing it. I looked at the settings and he was right, the wording had changed from "unpaid items" to "cancellations", so I entered him in my exemptions list.

[needsmorerobots]

I usually get someone who changes their mind about every 2 years but in a small handful of months recently, I've had 2 people who made offers that I accepted only to not pay and not respond.

Bots maybe?

A weird pattern was being offered the same amount of money I already had the items listed for.

[reallynicestamps]

@needsmorerobots 

A weird pattern was being offered the same amount of money I already had the items listed for.

Yes. Those were scammers.

If they were buyers, they would have purchased. Even with Auctions, using the Buy It Now option ends the auction.

The scammers would usually then ask you a question, demand to be answered by email, and want your Paypal address, "so they can pay".

EBay may have stopped this old scam by switching from Paypal (which was an innocent party in the scam) to Managed Payments.

@msau4301 

I looked at the settings and he was right, the wording had changed from "unpaid items" to "cancellations", so I entered him in my exemptions list.

EBay is calling the new Unpaid Item service, which cancels Unpaid transactions after four days, a Cancellation.

I KNEW this would be a problem.

But nobody listened. *

It wasn't broken, at least not the name part, and eBay fixed it anyway.

Since you know your customer, you should not have any difficulty.

But I suspect that some sellers are going to forgive deadbeats who claim to have "cancelled" when actually they never paid and got a Strike.

*For those interested in the Classics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR_5h8CzRcI&t=3s

[loc2blue]

Hi Yes buyers can cancel auctions within half hour it ends without penalty , I get this from USA mostly ,I guess they are bored and have nothing better to do ,Ebay should do some changes about this rule , figure this out EBAY they don't let you cancel bid in the last 12 hours before auction ends but right after it does they can ,this shows how Ebay works and have no ideal what they are doing one rule defies the other--and when I call them that buyers cancel and just give me my free listing back if they cancelled ,,the represantetive just reads --Thank you for being with Ebay for such a long time --we appriciate your business ,,oh we understand your concern ,and I assure you we will look into it for you ,,thank you for being a loyal costumer ,,Bye !! What an IDIOTS those reps some times, it seems like they can't even read, what they have on their papers front of them, INCOMPINENT ,,HIRED HELP FROM THE STREETS ---- Right on Ebay ----

[loc2blue]

NOT TRUE FRIEND___ buyers can cancel auctions no matter how many within half hour it ends and buyer will get nothing ,NO PENALTY if you cancel within half hour --awsome Ebay opened a door for playfull kids and Jokers --GOOD GOING EBAY

[loc2blue]

No They don't get penalized if they cancel within half hour of Auctions end ...Good Rule Ebay!!!!!!!!!!