Potential Timewaster (buyer)?

rtm

An auction of mine recently ended through Buy it Now on Friday afternoon.

Since then the buyer has not completed checkout, replied to my emails or contacted me regarding payment.

The buyer has 2 negatives feedbacks for non-payment this year out of a total of 16 and I have recently found out the buyer has no registered email address on ebay. I have phoned the number listed on the members account and was told the member does not live there.

Have I sufficient grounds to file an NPB or should I wait the 7 days that ebay states is needed in most NPB cases?

Am I being too hasty (only 3 days since end of Auction) or am I dealing with a timewaster?

I don't have much experience of selling and my item is rather dependent on the Christmas market in order to re-sell, so time is against me.

soolin

Ebay suggest a time frame of 3 days for contact and this is usually taken to mean 3 working days which basically means waiting until Wednesday. However, if the buyer is intending to pay by cheque they may not contact you at all, just print off the invoice you sent them and send it in This often happens with my cheque payers, I hear absolutely nothing until a cheque finally arrives in the post.

As for reporting them as a non paying bidder you can't do that until 7 days have elapsed anyway, so the earliest you could file is Friday.

However, it might be worth reporting them for having bad contact details. Follow the 'contact us' link on your ebay page and there is a mechanism for reporting things. I wouldn't get your hopes up though, I reported a seller 3 weeks ago for that reason and they never got their account pulled even though they have no working e mail either.

If after a week you haven't heard anything and decide to start the NPB process remember that unless the buyer gets their account NARUd they can still leave you feedback. So it is always worth trying the 'bad contact report' which might be enough to get their account NARUd and stop the risk of them leaving you negative feedback.

Oh and one other thing. If you do file for NPB and the other two sellers who have left feedback also filed then the buyer will lose their account anyway as a buyer can only get 3 NPBs against them before they forfeit their account. However, just because they have a neg for non payment doesn't automatically means that the seller in those cases actually filed for their fees back.

Hope this helps

Soo

VH

I didn't think you could use Ebay without an email address?

Sounds like you have a non-paying bidder. Given his 2 negs for non-paying, I wouldn't have touched him with a bargepole.

You cannot report him for 7 days, unless he has become NARU (non-registered). You will have to go through the usual waiting around I'm afraid.

I would immediately report them for having false contact details - this should get them suspended. Sounds like they shouldn't even be on EBay. This may speed up your NPB by a little.

Unfortunately I doubt you will now sell your item in time to post it for Christmas, unless you do a short auction.

Malestrom

Dont bother waiting for the buyer to contact you, just relist the item now on a 5 day auction. If the original buyer pays within the 7 days, pull the new auction, if not, file a NPB alert (or whatever its called now) and sell via the new listing.

Depending on the size of the item, you could relist it with Special Delivery as a postage option which would get there next day - still in time for Christmas if the buyer pays with PayPal.

Jonni2bad

Given his 2 negs for non-paying, I wouldn't have touched him with a bargepole.

Not quite as easy as that is it. In fact it's the biggest problem I face at the moment - you can only exclude certain types of buyer (net neg feedback / 2 strikes / not in your country etc).

I also sell with many BIN's, and once a timewaster 'buys' your item, you have to wait a week before filing for an unpaid item (if you want to claim for relisting costs).

My advice would be the same as an earlier response - relist it now while you wait and see. I very much doubt he/she will be in touch.

rtm

Cheers Guys

I relisted the item and sold it. ;D

NPB alert and complaint about invalid email address lodged as well as negative feedback left.

Merry Christmas and a bargain ladened New Year to you all ;D

travel_freak

Wonder if anyone can advise me on this one. I advertised some perfume for sale - actually on the Loot website and paper, not ebay. Anyway, I had an email via the Loot site to say someone was interested. The person said they wanted it for their uncle in Nigeria (which struck me as strange, as it's perfurme, not aftershave), they asked me to send them the shipping costs to Nigeria and said they would pay me by Western Union. I havent replied yet as I have niggling doubts that I read something recently about fraud involving Nigeria and shipping costs. Also I have no idea how Western Union works and have no account or dealings with them. Any tips, anyone?

Thanks!

soolin

Yes it is a scam, run a mile, don't even bother responding to the enquiry.

Read some of the other threads on here in the ebay section and you will see lots of other variations on this scam.

Soo

heathen

yes this is an old scam.as said above do not even reply to them.

travel_freak

Thanks Soolin and Joe Bananas, I was suspicious - definitely won't bother with this. I seem to get some very strange replies from adverts in Loot!