How long to wait for payment?

charlieann

How long is reasonable to wait for payment before opening ebay dispute?

Items ended Sunday afternoon. Sent out invoices that evening. I'm still awaiting payment for 4 items. One person messaged me to let me know they have an issue with their paypal and would be sending a cheque. The other 3 people no payment, no contact. Thinking of sending them a polite message tomorrow evening stating still waiting payment/ is there a problem. Then if still no contact opening dispute Monday.

Is this long enough to wait?

Crowqueen

Give the person sending the cheque a week to send it. You can always file NPB up to 32 days after end of auction, so there's no harm waiting a reasonable amount of time if you are happy with that. I put on all my listings 'Please let me know if you are sending a cheque' - I haven't had one in nearly four years but I still think there's no harm to offer paper payments myself; it does no harm to capture that passing trade when others have gone Paypal only.

Open NPB disputes on the others as soon as you can (by my reckoning you could probably do that tonight). You've waited long enough without contact. If you do want to wait, then you can - but I find people either pay within the 4 days or they don't pay at all. I've never waited longer than I have to, though that said I still haven't had to raise an NPB since the dispute timetable was cut to four days.

Whatever you do, don't badger them too much - one more invoice/message would be reasonably appropriate.

charlieann

Thanks for that, I was bit worried I wasn't leaving long enough for payment.
I'm happy to wait longer for the cheque as they have at least made contact.
I'll re-invoice then give them extra day or two from second invoice.

Crowqueen

Hopefully it will all work out.

hermum

Any NPB's on my account open automatically on day 4, the earliest time ebay allow.

soolin

hermum wrote: »

Any NPB's on my account open automatically on day 4, the earliest time ebay allow.

the automatic thing still wont work for me, but yes- as far as I can I open a full NPB on day 4 if I haven't been otherwise contacted by the buyer.

hermum

soolin wrote: »

the automatic thing still wont work for me, but yes- as far as I can I open a full NPB on day 4 if I haven't been otherwise contacted by the buyer.

It's really strange that you can't set the auto NPB up.
I always have a look at their feedback & if it's someone who generally gets fast payment comments & is usually very active on ebay & has gone quiet, I'll switch it off, in case something's happened.
I had one a while ago like that & on about day 7 he paid up & was really apologetic but he'd been in hospital, because of his FB & lack of any activity on his account I had thought that something untoward had happened.

graspthenettle

As a private seller I wouldn't use an automated doo-dah to open a NPB and I usually wait a week before contacting. In that time, however, I can count on ebay to send a reminder invoice on my behalf.

It's actually the only useful thing they do, lol. I hate the other messages they 'kindly' send for me and although I have begged them to allow it to be optional they won't agree. The only one you can switch off is the reminder which is the only one that's any blooming good!

I just had to open NPBs on two sales after nothing from my buyers for a fortnight and like Soolin I checked their feedback and bidding history and imagined all sorts one is quite new and is happily still bidding on things that she wants - whilst ignoring me and thinking I'll just go away as she's obviously changed her mind :mad: (she has done it to someone else too so has at least 2 strikes with a feedback of 11, quite impressive!) - the other buyer has just disappeared, I do hope she is ok but what can you do? We can't wait forever.

Crowqueen

I would imagine that people who are relatively new don't understand that a bid is binding on them as well as on the seller, so they think they can just walk away from something they change their mind about.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't be disabused, but it may explain their behaviour. The best way, obviously, to make sure they realise bids are binding is to raise an NPB.

There was once, before Paypal became compulsory, that I tried to buy a rare trading card for a game I play. I won the auction at a bargain price, but the seller didn't take Paypal so I had to ask them to send me an address to send a cheque to. Nothing was forthcoming for two weeks, and they didn't open any NPB on me. So I felt justified in walking away from the sale; they obviously didn't want to sell the it at that price, didn't have to send because I had paid electronically, and thought they would cut their losses and relist.

I had lost nothing, I couldn't find any other cards at the same price, I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. If they had raised an NPB on me it would have been palpably unfair - since they never sent me any address to send payment to - but it wasn't long after that that Paypal payment became compulsory.

mimi1234

I am still waiting for payment for an item that ended last Sunday. Sent a polite message on Wednesday to remind them, and I got a shouty reply in CAPITALS saying I'M REALLY BUSY, WILL DEFINITELY PAY THURSDAY.

It's Saturday now, still no payment, so have opened one of those cases. Probably sounds a bit harsh as they buyer may be busy, but I just don't like waiting around and they could have messaged again. The item is all packed, ready to send out, I just need the payment and the address. #annoying!

hermum

mimi1234 wrote: »

I am still waiting for payment for an item that ended last Sunday. Sent a polite message on Wednesday to remind them, and I got a shouty reply in CAPITALS saying I'M REALLY BUSY, WILL DEFINITELY PAY THURSDAY.

It's Saturday now, still no payment, so have opened one of those cases. Probably sounds a bit harsh as they buyer may be busy, but I just don't like waiting around and they could have messaged again. The item is all packed, ready to send out, I just need the payment and the address. #annoying!

Paying wouldn't have taken much if any longer than answering your message.