Frustrated With E-Bay

[pete zouras]

I'm having a similar experience. An ebay buyer buys a run of vintage basketball cards I have listed and today's a week and I haven't heard a word. I check his feedback and see a seller just left a less than glowing "positive" saying how no communication for 9 days followed by payment, and I look at his (the seller's) feedback and see a negative from the same buyer saying the "card was creased and seller has a bad attitude". Now I know what this a-hole's capable of and I wait to send him a reminder to start the non-paying bidder process until after 9 days to get my fees and hopefully avoid my first negative feedback in quite some time. I do a lot of business on ebay and I'd say this happens with 2 percent frequency.

[t206hof]

David, one said he would never deal with me again, and the other said I had not cummuicated with him throughout the process. Which is an outright lie, but what can you do their are (just a few)unreasonable people you encounter from time to time. Dennis.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by t206hof

but what can you do

Unfortunately, there really isn't much you can do. The feedback system really sucks. I would suggest that you divulge their user ids so that we can put them on our BBLs so that others may avoid the same headaches.

[t206hof]

David theirs only one. The other paid (though late) they realized they were wrong and admitted to that fact, The other person is a different story. I haven't sold a lot of stuff on e-bay lately and negatives hurt badly.

[HOF Yankees]

all of this and more is why i quit selling on ebay

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by pete zouras

I'm having a similar experience. An ebay buyer buys a run of vintage basketball cards I have listed and today's a week and I haven't heard a word. I check his feedback and see a seller just left a less than glowing "positive" saying how no communication for 9 days followed by payment, and I look at his (the seller's) feedback and see a negative from the same buyer saying the "card was creased and seller has a bad attitude". Now I know what this a-hole's capable of and I wait to send him a reminder to start the non-paying bidder process until after 9 days to get my fees and hopefully avoid my first negative feedback in quite some time. I do a lot of business on ebay and I'd say this happens with 2 percent frequency.

You may be better off just sending a cancel transaction case with this buyer. If the buyer doesn't pay and you send an unpaid item case, he will get a non-paying bidder strike. He may not like this and pay, then leave you a negative. With a cancel transaction case, the entire transaction is cancelled, including the fees.

[slidekellyslide]

I've been having a very difficult time lately getting people to pay on ebay...all of my auctions say payment is due within 5 days after the auction ends...I'd say about 25% of my buyers are now ignoring that. I can almost figure that if an items sells for more than $100 the chances that I won't get paid within that time period are up to about 50%. The last guy I turned over to ebay for non-payment after two weeks sent me an email with the first line "HOW DARE YOU!"..I asked him why he didn't comply with the 5 day period that was mentioned in the body of my auction and he came back and apologized and said he didn't see it. Well it was already two weeks, how long does he normally wait to pay???

Right now I am currently waiting on payment for a video game I sold for $188 in which I had to contact the buyer after 7 days...he waited two more days to reply and said he didn't even know he won it...now he tells me someone tried to hack his paypal and he won't be able to use it until next week. Last week I was waiting on payment for $450 for an old Polaroid camera...I had to contact the buyer who told me that someone in his shop bid on it and he didn't know...he waited 4 more days before finally paying me.

Once someone finally does pay I have figured out I have no choice but to leave them the most glowing feedback so the buyer is less inclined to leave me low DSR's. In other words I have to lie in order to protect my ratings.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Brendan

You may be better off just sending a cancel transaction case with this buyer. If the buyer doesn't pay and you send an unpaid item case, he will get a non-paying bidder strike. With a cancel transaction case, the entire transaction is cancelled, including the fees.

The buyer cannot leave a negative on an item if he did not pay for it, and the seller went through the non-paying bidder process to get his fees back.

You most definitely want to make sure he gets a non-paying bidder strike. It's the only way sellers can police against dead-beat bidders.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

The buyer cannot leave a negative on an item if he did not pay for it, and the seller went through the non-paying bidder process to get his fees back.

You most definitely want to make sure he gets a non-paying bidder strike. It's the only way sellers can police against dead-beat bidders.

Sure, you want him to, but is it worth getting the buyer angry at you for? eBay won't do anything to the buyer unless he has several non-paying bidder strikes. If you open a non-paying bidder case, the buyer may pay. Then, he'll say the item was not as described (or he didn't receive it if there is no delivery confirmation). If he opens up a SNAD and sends you back an index card, you're out of luck. The same people who rip sellers off like this are the same people who often don't pay. To top it off, he'll probably leave a negative too.

The only real way to get back at non-paying bidders is to let other people know so they can block him. Other than that, you just have to hope that bad karma will catch up to him.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Brendan

Sure, you want him to, but is it worth getting the buyer angry at you for? eBay won't do anything to the buyer unless he has several non-paying bidder strikes. If you open a non-paying bidder case, the buyer may pay. Then, he'll say the item was not as described (or he didn't receive it if there is no delivery confirmation). If he opens up a SNAD and sends you back an index card, you're out of luck. The same people who rip sellers off like this are the same people who often don't pay. To top it off, he'll probably leave a negative too.

The only real way to get back at non-paying bidders is to let other people know so they can block him. Other than that, you just have to hope that bad karma will catch up to him.

Well, if the buyer pays, there is no strike and no reason to be angry.

I am very patient when waiting for payments, but if a buyer doesn't pay, I send a second invoice, then I follow that up with a non-paying bidder notice a few days to a week later and about a week after that I finalize it with a non-paying bidder strike if I don't hear from them and put them on my blocked bidder list.

Usually the buyer ends up apologizing to me for being late, and paying their bill.

Of course there are exceptions, but it's worked for me so far.

...........and yes, payments have gotten noticeably slower since Ebay took away feedback power from Sellers.

I've also gone from having one or two deadbeats a year, to a half dozen or so a year.

[t206hof]

E-bay user name is hanibal1972 Be careful when dealing with this person.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Thanks. Added to BBL. Sorry this happened to you.

[Brendan]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Well, if the buyer pays, there is no strike and no reason to be angry.

I am very patient when waiting for payments, but if a buyer doesn't pay, I send a second invoice, then I follow that up with a non-paying bidder notice a few days to a week later and about a week after that I finalize it with a non-paying bidder strike if I don't hear from them and put them on my blocked bidder list.

Usually the buyer ends up apologizing to me for being late, and paying their bill.

Of course there are exceptions, but it's worked for me so far.

...........and yes, payments have gotten noticeably slower since Ebay took away feedback power from Sellers.

I've also gone from having one or two deadbeats a year, to a half dozen or so a year.

Of course if you get an honorable buyer this will happen. Not worth it in my opinion. Playing it safe when it comes to eBay is a good idea. Stay unnoticed and the odds of selling limits and other things eBay does to sellers go way down.