Ended item early on eBay to sell to highest bidder and now they say they can't pay

Wizzbang

Ended item early on eBay to sell to highest bidder and now they say they can't pay because they thought auction had about another 4 days to run and they don't get paid until Tuesday.

I'm within my rights to end early and sell. Do I have to be sympathetic to them? I am about to move house and have ended a few low value items early to sell to the highest business as I just want them gone. Surely they have Paypal linked to a bank account or credit card? They're trying to claim it will take them a week to transfer funds. Should I just let the unpaid item case automatically open and run, in hopes of chivvying them up and not opt to communicate over this?

More and more problems on eBay of late!

Thanks

soolin

I don't think there is any hard and fast rule about ending early, however, personally I think it bad manners to do so without informing buyer first.

I can't see any reason why you can't open an NPB on day 2 but as you can't then close it for a further 4 days you gain nothing as buyer says he can pay within that time frame. All opening a case will do is annoy your buyer.

mrcol1000

I think you need to put yourself in their position. They bid on something they think will not end for four days and so after they get paid. Suddenly it ends early and they are expected to pay for it. They also have got in touch to say they can't pay straight away. I have people not pay for a week with no explanation.

I never end auctions early as most bidding happens at the end of the auction. I myself normally wait till the last minute to bid. You may have got much more for it. If you want a quick sale then it is better to put it at a very low buy it now price and set it for instant payment only.

Wizzbang

These items are never going to go up in price, they have been re-listed an re-listed until finally the right buyer comes along, so I have no hesitation about ending early. I am 100% certain I have received the best price.

In this example, I find it hard to believe they can't come up with £5. But maybe they really can't.

sharnad

Did they ask you to end the item early

techspec

I do it all the time - never had a problem.

BUT i would not expect them to pay quickly if they said it was a problem - id just say fine - take a week.

ailey

Sometimes we just have to be patient. Unfortunately the fact that you're moving house, you would like all your EBay sales to be done and dusted but occasionally these things happen with people waiting to have funds transferred.

I purchased an item a few months ago on behalf of my son. Unfortunately he wanted to bid more than I had left in my Paypal account. I won the item and went into Paypal to arrange for the extra money to be transferred from my bank account to my Paypal account. The money was sitting in my bank account so I thought it would be a straightforward transfer and the fact that a withdrawal from Paypal can be in your bank account in 2 hours, I was hoping at least it would happen in 2-3 days but they told me it would take up to 14 days and it did. I don't know why it takes as long as this and the seller couldn't work it out either as his money gets transferred immediately because he has online banking which I refuse to do.

The lad was very patient but did ask a couple of times during this period if it had been transferred and I did send him a message 2-3 times during this period also to keep him updated as there is nothing worse than when we are waiting for payment from someone and they don't get in touch occasionally to let you know what is happening. I felt really bad that the transfer took as long as this but there was nothing else I could do. I could have sent a cheque but I wanted to have the Paypal cover so didn't want to take a chance.

So OP, just have a little more patience and hopefully it will happen quicker than mine did. Sometimes people just can't speed things up due to banking procedures and it's not what they want either.

Hope it works out for you both okay.

Wizzbang

Thanks, I've told him I'll wait- explained why I ended the item early and hopefully it will be fine. I've had no further communications from him, so I presume he is happy.

vacheron

Despite 14 years buying and selling on eBay I've never had an auction ended early on me, nor ended one of mine early so I'm hardly surprised that it may come as a surprise to many buyers.

It it is only a fiver and you want shot of it before you move then in your situation I would be tempted just to ship the thing on trust if he has decent feedback.