Buyer shafts me, and so does Ebay - a warning

malc_b

I had a couple of items for sale on ebay. They were big so collection only, and having read about not accepting paypal for collection items I put cash on collection preferred (and ticked cheque/postal order since ebay doesn't have a cash option). I put these up for sale when ebay had a 1p final value fees so great as they were not cheap items. Saved myself £70.

So far so good. I then sell the items but the buyers have failed to respond to my emails and the items sold 6 and 8 days ago. I send both a reminder 2 days ago saying please respond to my email else I will have to open a case. No answer so case opened today.

What is really annoy is not only does it look like these buyers have shafted me in that they don't look like they'll pay, but I also lose out on the ebay offer. Once the case is closed and I relist ebay won't extend the 1p offer to the relist even though it's not my fault that the sale fell through. Ebay gains by the buyer's bad behaviour (paranoid might even think it is an ebay troll to save losing money on 1p offers). So I find myself shafted by both buyer and ebay. And the icing on the cake.... Ebay's help line say don't forget you can reclaim the final selling fees.....Right 1p! I'll make sure I don't spend that all at once.... Oh wait, I will have to spend it all at once as it 1p!!

I've since found out that ebay settings allow you to block buyers with non payments registered against them. BY DEFAULT this is off. And the strongest you can set it to is 2 unpaid items in 12 months. What?? So a buyer can bid for an item, not pay up, and ebay doesn't even ban them, nor are they blocked from doing the same again. No wonder my buyers think they can bid and change their minds with impunity - they can - ebay warning when you click that buy button is just hot air, they don't actually do anything to buyers who don't pay, nor have a history of not paying.

theonlywayisup

malc_b wrote: »

I had a couple of items for sale on ebay. They were big so collection only, and having read about not accepting paypal for collection items I put cash on collection preferred (and ticked cheque/postal order since ebay doesn't have a cash option). I put these up for sale when ebay had a 1p final value fees so great as they were not cheap items. Saved myself £70.

So far so good. I then sell the items but the buyers have failed to respond to my emails and the items sold 6 and 8 days ago. I send both a reminder 2 days ago saying please respond to my email else I will have to open a case. No answer so case opened today.

What is really annoy is not only does it look like these buyers have shafted me in that they don't look like they'll pay, but I also lose out on the ebay offer. Once the case is closed and I relist ebay won't extend the 1p offer to the relist even though it's not my fault that the sale fell through. Ebay gains by the buyer's bad behaviour (paranoid might even think it is an ebay troll to save losing money on 1p offers). So I find myself shafted by both buyer and ebay. And the icing on the cake.... Ebay's help line say don't forget you can reclaim the final selling fees.....Right 1p! I'll make sure I don't spend that all at once.... Oh wait, I will have to spend it all at once as it 1p!!

I've since found out that ebay settings allow you to block buyers with non payments registered against them. BY DEFAULT this is off. And the strongest you can set it to is 2 unpaid items in 12 months. What?? So a buyer can bid for an item, not pay up, and ebay doesn't even ban them, nor are they blocked from doing the same again. No wonder my buyers think they can bid and change their minds with impunity - they can - ebay warning when you click that buy button is just hot air, they don't actually do anything to buyers who don't pay, nor have a history of not paying.

People not paying for things happens in all walks of life. You haven't been 'shafted' as you put it. You will get your 1p fees back and the buyer will get a strike. 2 strikes and they can't bid on most things.

If you want to wait for another offer then you may be lucky and get a higher bid price, hopefully if you've set your settings correctly, you won't get the non payers, but it's no guarantee.

TKPeters

You should have offered postage, don't understand a lot of these collection only listings when they can be couriered.

If you do offer postage & its BIN Listing, then tick the immediate payment required button [doesn't work with Best Offer] & that means the buyer will have to pay in order to purchase.

Flyonthewall

malc_b wrote: »

I had a couple of items for sale on ebay. They were big so collection only, and having read about not accepting paypal for collection items I put cash on collection preferred (and ticked cheque/postal order since ebay doesn't have a cash option).

Why tick them? Just don't put any option (aside the Paypal as you have to) or you're saying people can pay by cheque/postal order and you don't want that on a collection item.

I put these up for sale when ebay had a 1p final value fees so great as they were not cheap items. Saved myself £70.

So far so good. I then sell the items but the buyers have failed to respond to my emails and the items sold 6 and 8 days ago. I send both a reminder 2 days ago saying please respond to my email else I will have to open a case. No answer so case opened today.

Buyers sometimes take longer to reply when it comes to collection. Some win/buy and then realise it's collection and so don't pay.

What is really annoy is not only does it look like these buyers have shafted me in that they don't look like they'll pay, but I also lose out on the ebay offer.

There will be other offers - possibly better offers. As a private seller you can list 20 items a month with no insertion fee.

Once the case is closed and I relist ebay won't extend the 1p offer to the relist even though it's not my fault that the sale fell through. Ebay gains by the buyer's bad behaviour (paranoid might even think it is an ebay troll to save losing money on 1p offers). So I find myself shafted by both buyer and ebay. And the icing on the cake.... Ebay's help line say don't forget you can reclaim the final selling fees.....Right 1p! I'll make sure I don't spend that all at once.... Oh wait, I will have to spend it all at once as it 1p!!

Sometimes people don't pay, especially for collection items. That's just how it is.

Ebay only gain if you relist it and there's no guarantee of that so they'd be stupid to ruin your offer sale and annoy you then hope you come back again with higher fees for them.

The help line is there 24/7 and says the same for everyone, including those paying far more. It's not as though they put it there to annoy you and mock the fact it's 1p for you.

I've since found out that ebay settings allow you to block buyers with non payments registered against them. BY DEFAULT this is off. And the strongest you can set it to is 2 unpaid items in 12 months. What?? So a buyer can bid for an item, not pay up, and ebay doesn't even ban them, nor are they blocked from doing the same again. No wonder my buyers think they can bid and change their minds with impunity - they can - ebay warning when you click that buy button is just hot air, they don't actually do anything to buyers who don't pay, nor have a history of not paying.

Some people are willing to take the risk, it would be stupid for ebay to put it on by default.

Nothing wrong with the block being 2 unpaid strikes in 12 months. 2 is very low.

Buyer get a second chance. I'd say that's perfectly fair. How would you feel if you bid, won and then found yourself in a bad situation where you couldn't pay and couldn't get to inform the seller, got an unpaid strike for the first time ever (possibly in many years on ebay and high feedback) only to be banned and unable to use ebay ever again?

Anyone who keeps not paying will get blocked by a lot of sellers and i's not ebays fault if you're not blocking them. You should understand how selling works on ebay and check selling settings before listing. Ebay do ban a number really bad buyers, the settings help you avoid most of the bad ones that are left.

sham63

Just wait for the next 'final value fee' offer - they seem to be offered quite regularly these days. Saying that, the 1p offer was very good and its more likely you'll have to make do with 50 -75% off.


I have 2 accounts and they're offering 10% off fvf on one and 25% on the other, but I'll wait because I'm sure it will be more generous at some point in the near future!

RFW

malc_b wrote: »

I've since found out that ebay settings allow you to block buyers with non payments registered against them. BY DEFAULT this is off. And the strongest you can set it to is 2 unpaid items in 12 months. What?? So a buyer can bid for an item, not pay up, and ebay doesn't even ban them, nor are they blocked from doing the same again. No wonder my buyers think they can bid and change their minds with impunity - they can - ebay warning when you click that buy button is just hot air, they don't actually do anything to buyers who don't pay, nor have a history of not paying.

They do ban buyers who don't pay, when I sold on Ebay I would get non payers get in touch a few weeks later and ask to pay so their Ebay ban would be lifted.
There is also the fact that many sellers don't file non payer reports.
As for the theory that Ebay have accounts set up to have non payers so they don't lose on fvf offers, apart from it being ridiculous, that takes a level of organisation that Ebay have never shown to be capable of;)

wacko911

Can you make a best offer to next highest bidder?

malc_b

1. One item is a conservatory, buyer to dismantle, so postage isn't really possible as I'm aiming for the DIY and cheap market.

2. I didn't say that I actually thought ebay had organised this. I was just pointing that ebay gain from this. In other words for a level playing field ebay should allow me to relist, at least for the remaining offer time (to 4th Feb) and arguable the remaining days from when it sold and was taken off. That puts me and ebay back into the same position as when I took up the offer. I have 30 days of listing. I only had 8 days of list before the buyer took it off. I'm annoyed at ebay for not putting me back in the position I would have been, but for this non-paying buyer.

3. I must be odd then since I've never bid for something that I wasn't going to buy. SO I'm pretty surprised to have 2 non payers. It's true that I haven't sold a lot on ebay so this is an unpleasant learning experience.

I've now set to block non payers with 2 strikes in 12 mths and those with negative feedback.

Flyonthewall

malc_b wrote: »

1. One item is a conservatory, buyer to dismantle, so postage isn't really possible as I'm aiming for the DIY and cheap market.

2. I didn't say that I actually thought ebay had organised this. I was just pointing that ebay gain from this. In other words for a level playing field ebay should allow me to relist, at least for the remaining offer time (to 4th Feb) and arguable the remaining days from when it sold and was taken off. That puts me and ebay back into the same position as when I took up the offer. I have 30 days of listing. I only had 8 days of list before the buyer took it off. I'm annoyed at ebay for not putting me back in the position I would have been, but for this non-paying buyer.

3. I must be odd then since I've never bid for something that I wasn't going to buy. SO I'm pretty surprised to have 2 non payers. It's true that I haven't sold a lot on ebay so this is an unpleasant learning experience.

I've now set to block non payers with 2 strikes in 12 mths and those with negative feedback.

1. Perhaps ebay isn't the best place to sell it. You could try Gumtree or Facebook. Although do expect people to say they'll turn up and never appear and people to try and knock you down in price.

2. Perhaps not, but you said "paranoid might even think it is an ebay troll to save losing money on 1p offers"and keep saying ebay have shafted you so it shouldn't be a surprise that you've had comments on it.

As for being back in the same position, it doesn't work that way. It's the same for everyone so not as though it only affects you. They give fees back which puts you back in the same position as before listing. Just unfortunate that you had an offer then and don't now, but they can't change an entire system for the odd case like this. For most that works out better as you get your fees back and can list for the ful length of time again.

3. Me neither, but some people do and it's more common for collection items.

theonlywayisup

malc_b wrote: »

I've now set to block non payers with 2 strikes in 12 mths and those with negative feedback.

For clarity, you can't block "those with negative feedback" from bidding. You can set your block to prevent those with -1 feedback in total or worse from bidding, but not from negative feedback alone.

s_b

i sold 2 items last month on bids, neither buyer turned up
couldnt make it relist first knocker said.....thanks a bunch
other buyer said not as described even though he never came
second item cost me £10.50 in listing fees
i will keep to buying tat from china in future ebay as a selling medium to decent people seems to have died its death