This is just too good not to share...

[onthealley]

I few weeks back I posted about an interested buyer who wanted to buy my item for his son for Christmas but wanted to pay at the end of the month. They were prepared to give a $50 deposit. After reading all the suggestions I opted to let them buy the item and just pay the full amount at the end of the month. 

I followed up yesterday to see if they would still be paying for the books at the end of the month.

Their reponse

I checked with my son to see if he likes the hardy boys and he said he's not into mystery books, he's into fantasy and young adult horror fiction. Sorry for any inconvenience I've caused you, if I were to purchase the books, they simply wouldn't be read here.

On the bright side I did take the additional advice of buying some lower priced items on ebay to up my feedback. 

PS Do you know anyone interested in a set of Hardy Boys 😁

[ricarmic]

Assuming they actually purchased but did not pay for them, you can open an unpaid item case for "not paid for". This gets you all your fees back and dings them.

For sure block them afterward as well so as to prevent them from coming back again.

Sometimes we win sometimes we don't. On mathematical average it is still a good process as good customers do come this way as well......at least in some categories....

[byto253]

The 12 looks much nicer than the little single digit feedback!  😎

And as @ricarmic  suggested, if they hit the buy button but did not pay, be sure to put in for an unpaid item claim.  If you don't know, you get charged fees upon the sale, regardless of if you got paid or not so you always need to go through the process to get your fees credited back. 

[pjcdn2005]

Sellers don't get charged for fees until the buyers paid, not at the time of the transaction.  I would still cancel it though but since the buyer asked to cancel I would not wait 4 days to claim an unpaid item,   I would cancel using buyer requested.

[onthealley]

As soon as I found out I cancelled the transaction as buyer requested and relisted the item. 

I did get a kick out of the fact that the father didn't know what his son liked to read. 

[rocketscollectibles]

After reading all the suggestions I opted to let them buy the item and just pay the full amount at the end of the month

This was terrible advice. Never hold an item more than rules force you to do. You have no guarantee the person will pay and you waste yourself precious time. You may have missed someone else who would have truly buy it. Most people won't pay or change their mind. You experienced it. Personally everytime i got asked to hold, people never contacted back. 

[ricarmic]

The default setting might be 4 days, but the "rules" allow one to set up the automagic unpaid item to be as long as 32 days (that is what mine is set at).

Different approaches apply to different situations. 

Something that is "hot" and will sell quickly most probably does not make sense to do something like this, something that is a long sale (ie slow to sell) probably makes more sense to do this.

But there's also the repeat customer perspective, finding regular repeat customers buying "big" stuff in this day and age are a lot harder to find (in my world at least) and taking the chance they'll buy more down the road is also a consideration. It might not have been in this particular scenario, but in mine this is a big thing to consider, things would be very much worse for me if it weren't for my repeat customers!

My personal experience is the opposite of yours, I've never had someone who specifically asked me to let them buy something and pay later (within the 30 days) not pay, or at least if they have, it has been so many years ago that I've forgotten. Again the categories one is selling in appear to make a very big difference.

(Just for fun I went and looked, 28 of the last 54 items I sold were to "repeat" customers. The actual number is higher because eBay only counts repeats within the last 2 years).

[byto253]

eBay indicates the transaction fees are charged at the time of sale, no mention of time of payment.  I thought I had a situation a while back with an auction non-payer and the fees were charged and I got a credit back after the cancellation.  Can't check that but that is what I thought.   That may have also been pre-MP and with MP it is with receipt of funds though can't find that in the eBay info.

[byto253]

I suspect that they got him something else or found it elsewhere.  Time is a killer for deals.    

[rocketscollectibles]

If the person want to buy later they can buy later without you holding. Also someone shopping with no money is not necessarily the type of buyer you want to be repeat buyer. It's sketchy. Gotta disagree with those points. 

[onthealley]

I appreciate all the comments given on this. 

When I did my original post it a few weeks ago it was because the purchaser(?) wanted to buy it for his son for Christmas and would pay at the end of November and was prepared to give a $50 deposit. 

As it had been 12 years since I was an active seller on ebay I posted the question to see if there was a way to safely accept a deposit. As there wasn't I opted to let him purchase it with payment later.

I based this on low views on the item so far so I felt I had nothing to lose. If the item was in high demand I would not have gone for it. I use a similar approach on Facebook Marketplace when someone asks me to hold something for them. In most cases I won't do it without full payment up front.

[pjcdn2005]

You're right, before MP we were charged immediately and had to cancel in order to get our fees back.  With MP there is no charge until we are paid.

[pjcdn2005]

Everyone has their own ideas on how to deal with buyers.  That doesn't mean that someone else's way is wrong. 

[byto253]

That makes sense.  Slow mover, do your risk assessment and give it a shot.