To NPB or not to NPB, that is the question….

RainbowDrops

I sold an item last night and this morning the buyer emailed me to say they were having problems with PayPal and apologised for not being able to pay me.
I checked my paypal details were correct, then noticing the buyer had only a couple of feedbacks, I checked their history.
It turns out that they won a similar item yesterday and according to the feedback left by the other seller, paid immediately.
Obviously I can’t be sure whether the buyer genuinely has a problem with their paypall, but it seemed to be working fine for them if they were able to pay the other seller.

I’ve message the buyer back as follows (trying not to sound too accusatory):
“Sorry to hear you’re having problems with PayPal. I’ve just checked my details incase it was an error on my end, as I could see from your buyer history that you were able to make a payment to another seller last night. My details are correct, so hopefully if you try again you should be able to process the payment.
Alternatively I am happy to accept a cheque or postal order, which you can send to this address: xxxxxx
Let me know how you get on.”

If the buyer continues to stall would you suck it up and go for a mutual cancellation, or would you raise a NPB?

sam.4000

I think it's that time of year, I've currently got an NPD open (new account) and will close it tomorrow. I would not persnally go with a mutual as if they don't agree you end up paying the fees.

chezba

RainbowDrops wrote: »

I’ve message the buyer back as follows (trying not to sound too accusatory):
“Sorry to hear you’re having problems with PayPal. I’ve just checked my details incase it was an error on my end, as I could see from your buyer history that you were able to make a payment to another seller last night. My details are correct, so hopefully if you try again you should be able to process the payment.
Alternatively I am happy to accept a cheque or postal order, which you can send to this address: xxxxxx
Let me know how you get on.”

If the buyer continues to stall would you suck it up and go for a mutual cancellation, or would you raise a NPB?

I have no idea if the buyer intends to pay or not but if I received that email from you, I'd make you wait until the last minute for payment. I'd probbaly do the same a seller and look to see if others had been paid but only after waiting a few days but I would NOT question the buyer.

In answer to your other question, always a NPB to ensure you get your fees back and to stop non-payers doing the same again as one they have 2 strikes they are blocked my most sellers from bidding.

RainbowDrops

chezba wrote: »

I received that email from you, I'd make you wait until the last minute for payment. I'd probbaly do the same a seller and look to see if others had been paid but only after waiting a few days but I would NOT question the buyer.

Ah bums, I was trying not to sound too aggressive.
Ah well, tis done now, I'll wait & see what they say.

Crowqueen

If the buyer has contacted you and says they don't want it, I would do a cancellation - if you try to force them to pay no good will come of it; the worst that can happen is they pay up during the dispute, force you to send an item they no longer want, then claim INR or SNAD, and leave you bad feedback and low DSRs. It's a commercial transaction, not a social event; this is actually reasonably good manners on the buyer's part (contacting you about wanting to pull out, for whatever reason) so I wouldn't punish it with an NPB.

The best that can happen is you mutually agree to cancel - inform the buyer they should agree to the email that they get sent - and you get your fees back immediately and part ways amicably, allowing you to relist perhaps today or tomorrow. An NPB dispute takes eight days start to finish before you can safely relist the item, so not only are you risking buyer displeasure, you are also mucking yourself around more than you think.

I would reserve disputes for those who don't make contact. For those who do, it's usually reasonable to do the cancellation. We all make mistakes and a lot of other sites (e.g. Amazon) give buyers an "out" mechanism which does not prejudice either buyer or seller.

soolin

NPB otherwise buyer will think it is perfectly acceptable to use eBay this way.

However I would do nothing more now, just wait until day 4and start the claim

fred7777

RainbowDrops wrote: »

If the buyer continues to stall would you suck it up and go for a mutual cancellation, or would you raise a NPB?

NPB, if you do a cancellation the buyer can leave negative feedback.

RainbowDrops

Thanks for the replies so far. The buyer got back to me saying it was somethig to do with changing addresses, and hoped it would be resolved soon.
They said they'd understand if I didn't want to sell it to them anymore.

I'm gonna wait as I'd like to send it, and only offered Special Delivery on it owing to its value, so feel like I'll be protected there.

Fingers crossed it's just a glitch.
Will keep you updated.

theonlywayisup

RainbowDrops wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far. The buyer got back to me saying it was somethig to do with changing addresses, and hoped it would be resolved soon.
They said they'd understand if I didn't want to sell it to them anymore.

I'm gonna wait as I'd like to send it, and only offered Special Delivery on it owing to its value, so feel like I'll be protected there.

Fingers crossed it's just a glitch.
Will keep you updated.

Personally I wouldn't want to send it. You may find he then snads and you end up out of pocket when he returns it, he will also be out of pocket and could neg you.

Crowqueen

fred7777 wrote: »

NPB, if you do a cancellation the buyer can leave negative feedback.

If you sort the situation out properly, why would they want to?

Crowqueen

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't want to send it. You may find he then snads and you end up out of pocket when he returns it, he will also be out of pocket and could neg you.

Looks like it can be sorted out amicably - I don't buy all the suggestions that buyers who make mistakes but communicate are the sort of buyer that should be hit with an NPB. If you are happy to wait then don't open the NPB unless they do vanish again - you have about a month in which to do it. If the sale is valuable, I would want to make sure they could follow through with it rather than just wait 4 days and hit them with a dispute.

I can understand on low-ish value goods or uncommunicative buyers, but slapping someone in the face who is communicating and may in the end pay for something if encouraged is slightly unfair.

I've made mistakes on Amazon, I've always been able to cancel the sale promptly, IMO the cancellation should be on the buyer's side of the line so that this sort of thing doesn't have to happen. With the DSRs applying to auctions posted by business sellers from next year, it's going to be more important to have proper measures for buyer-side cancellations in place rather than sellers being able to NPB someone for asserting their legal rights (which is what the DSRs give buyers of BINs from business sellers at the moment, and it's also foolish from a customer service point of view).

I guess some of us will agree to disagree on this, but I don't see why some people are so trigger-happy or hold their customers in such odd contempt when otherwise they bend over backwards to please them.