Increase in eBay Non-Payers

[sb32]

I don't sell that much on ebay, but I'd say in the last 6 months, I have had an issue with about 10% of transactions. After a week, I send a reminder email that if I don't hear back or receive payment by a certain date, I will report it. Usually I don't hear back. Every time, within a few hours of reporting the non-payment I get paid. Amazing. I'd say almost every problem has been for $25 or less.

I understand things come up and delays happen. I've worked with people in the past when they claim something unexpected happened since placing bid (job loss / storm damage) but I haven't gotten any explainations recently.

I also have found that it isn't necessarily bidders with low feedbacks

[t206hound]

I haven't had any non-paying bidders in the last 6-12 months. I did have one person ask to cancel his winning bid for some reason, but he sent me a message within 24 hours... I didn't play the waiting game.

Just curious based on the last few posts. Typically I don't sell any item under $25 on ebay; it's just not worth the time/effort to do so. Are these non-paying bidders typically for lower valued items, or are they people who put in max bids of some astronomical value in order to win, and then decide the winning price was too high? Or is there no pattern?

[caramelcard]

100% yes. Use to have very few and now a ton.

Rob

[vintagetoppsguy]

I really feel for you guys. That's a bunch of crap! I don't have that problem as I've only sold 10 items in the past year (although I used to sell a lot). I posted this question in another thread, but I didn't get any responses. Have you guys tried using BINs with immediate payment required? It seems like that would be the only way to stop this.

[thetruthisoutthere]

This subject was written about in another thread but I will add my two cents here, too.

I've been having problems with both buyers and sellers. Winning bidders who don't pay and sellers who don't ship. It really is getting ridiculous on Ebay.

As a seller, if the buyer doesn't pay, I take the offensive and I don't give a hoot about the winning bidder threatening to give me a "Neg." If the winning bidder doesn't eventually pay, he will get a "Unpaid Strike." I don't fall for that "Please just cancel the transaction" request.

As a buyer, I am presently waiting for three items that are all two weeks overdue. When I finally do receive the item, I give it to them on the DSR's. This has been going on frequently for the past few months.

As a buyer I always pay with 24 hours if not immediately and as a seller, I ship the next day after I receive payment. I don't know what the problem is with these people.

[slidekellyslide]

I occasionally get the please cancel the transaction I've had ...I will almost always cancel, but one guy bought a lot of vintage GI Joe stuff from me for a couple of hundred dollars...I waited a week with no payment before trying to contact him...he ignored me until after ten days I filed the NPB...he asked me to cancel because he had some unexpected bills...I went and checked his feedback and saw that he had bid on other GI Joe stuff and actually paid for it AFTER he had already won my auction so I refused to cancel the transaction...I got a profanity laced threatening email from him and turned it over to ebay...ebay apparently did nothing because he's still buying on ebay.

Last night I had a new one...I sold a bunch of modern relic/autograph cards and a guy won a Frank Thomas from me...he sent me an email after it ended which asked me to call him...I had never had someone ask me to call them before on ebay so I gave him a call..he was at work and told me he forgot to bid on two Mike Piazza cards and asked me to cancel the transactions with the person who won them and sale them to him. I told him there was no way I would ever do that. I don't think he took it too well.

[Buythatcard]

I recently had one buyer who won about 15 items over a 3 week period. He then decided to pay for only a few of the items. He refused to pay for the rest. He must have thought that he could bid on all the cards he was interested in and then decide a few weeks later which ones he still wanted.

I've heard excuses form many of the non payers and people who retracted. They had a death in the family, lost of job, Tsunami hit their house, etc,etc. Yet, in many of these cases, they were still bidding with other sellers at the same time.

It didn't matter what the cost of the item was and how many feedbacks they had.

The only solution is to allow sellers to have the option to leave negative feedback.

[t206hound]

Maybe I'm different, but I don't take it personally if someone doesn't pay. I'll get my fees back, and I'll relist the item. Again, it's not worth the time or trouble to hound (pun intended) people to pay. I use the unpaid item assistant (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/unpa...ant.html#setup) to automatically open up the case after 4 days.

[sb32]

Erick,

Is all fair prices. I originally thought it may have to do with the economy leading to buyers remorse, but I would have expected people to try and cancel. Oddly, no one tried to get out of the purchase.

It also has been a mix of vintage and modern (the last remnants of a former collecting life). More of the problems have been on the modern side, but there has definitely been an increase in problems in both segments.

Scott