How to deal with buyers who dont pay on eBay

[Penne Stilografiche]

I recently sold a Montblanc 142 on ebay to a buyer who bid up all of the other potential buyers to an amount that seemed to be over the value of the pen. After 2 days of not receiving payment, I sent him a message asking when he was intending on paying and he promptly responding that he'd pay on Tuesday (2 days after he sent me the response). Tuesday came and went and I didn't receive the payment nor another message. I sent him a message asking why he didn't stick to what he said and I have yet to have gotten a response. I opened an unpaid case yesterday and am waiting for that to be resolved.

Normally I would just cancel the order in a situation like this, but the fact that he made it seem like he was going to pay and bid up other potential buyers makes me a little upset that this person has seems to have bid on my item intentionally just to "troll" me, for lack of a better word.

Being that ebay has disabled the future that allowed sellers to give negative feedback to buyers, would any of you leave "positive" feedback with a warning to sellers about this buyer, or would you just let it go? Also, has anyone else seen a rise in non-payers on ebay?


The buyer's account: http://www.ebay.com/usr/jasjaso_xez7l

Regards,
Vincenzo

After writing this post I sent another message to the buyer informing him that I have opened a case against him and got an immediate response. ( http://gyazo.com/78698d94344a2f7e10e00145c2cbb106 ). I have now blocked him.

[manoeuver]

life's too short. let it go and relist. these are the dangers of Ebay.

[mhosea]

Being that ebay has disabled the future that allowed sellers to give negative feedback to buyers, would any of you leave "positive" feedback with a warning to sellers about this buyer, or would you just let it go?

I think eBay intends for you, the seller, to be protected by their case resolution system rather than "protected" by being forewarned by feedback given by other sellers. I would let it go.

[TMac]

Let it go and move on to more honorable folks. Find out if eBay has a block feature to prevent this bidder from causing you future harm.

[Frank]

Let it go and move on to more honorable folks. Find out if eBay has a block feature to prevent this bidder from causing you future harm.

They do, in fact- go to your seller dashboard. You can block members from bidding on your items....

[Chrissy]

You could offer it to the underbidder before you relist it. I would definitely add this buyer to your BB list. In fact I will add him to mine.

I personally wouldn't give him any positive feedback. You aren't allowed to leave any positive feedback containing negative comments, and it's not worth giving him an extra feedback. So you'll just have to be satisfied that you gave him a strike

[Penne Stilografiche]

Well, thank you all for the responses, I have just blocked him and not given any feedback. Now I must wait for the unpaid case to end so I can get my final value fees.

-Vincenzo

[skriefal]

I don't understand why someone would bid on an item and then not pay and not let the seller know. If personal circumstances no longer allow the purchase then okay -- but at least have the decency to inform the seller of this.

If you filed an unpaid item complaint against the buyer than he'll have a few days to respond and to pay. If he does neither then I believe you'll need to find the request in your account and manually close it yourself. Otherwise it'll sit there forever and you won't get your fees back. eBay used to auto-close these complaints in the seller's favor after 7-14 days of non-response from the buyer, IIRC, but they no longer seem to do so.

[Paul-Taegel]

eBay has become a pain to sell on. The fees are high and buyers have become demanding and unreasonable. And the system is skewed to accommodate buyers.

I recently got a "not as described" ding because a demonstrator I sold had blue ink staining--despite the fact that the description AND PHOTOS specifically called attention to the blue staining from the Noodler's Baystate Blue ink. Another guy got mad because his headphones took a week to get from Washington state to Florida, despite the fact that I mailed them the very next morning after the auction closed via the exact method stated in the auction. I could go on.

Buyers don't read descriptions or terms or even bother to look at photos. They then make ill-informed decisions and blame sellers.

However, I did get my one negative feedback erased by calling EBay CS. They reviewed the correspondence and purged the negative strike. The thing to remember is you can't let problem buyers bait you. Let them call you names, etc. Never respond in kind. Always be professional and courteous, and EBay will usually help you out.

[Jon Szanto]

I don't understand why someone would bid on an item and then not pay and not let the seller know.

Because there are human beings that are also assholes. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this person just felt like screwing around with Vincenzo. Sad, but it's the species. They are also ruining the planet.

[tnordl]

I think it's hard for us to understand that people behave like this. It's easy to understand people with same principles. I would put him on BB. If he run into problem and could not pay then he would tell you instead of let you hanging. The world is full of jerks, easy to forget it and then get surprised. That said, the world also have quite a lot of honest people too