Ebay auction - buyer looks suspicious.

jazzy

I listed a mobile phone on Ebay and the auction finished yesterday and the final price was much more than expected. The item has not been paid for yet, checking the buyer's feedback there are only seven feedback reports and half of them are bad, non payment etc.
I am now reluctant the post the phone because I can see problems occurring with this transaction. Is it possible to cancel the winning bid? 

ElefantEd

Well for starters you don't post it until it's been paid for, obviously.

cx6

yes you can cancel selecting 'problems with buyer's address'

anotheruser

I would cancel.
If it's too dodgy, it's too dodgy.

The only way I would accept payment would be cash in the post.

You could post using recorded delivery and the buyer could send you a bunch of stones back and claim their money back.  A lot of risk / hassle.  Just offer it to the next person down - look for "2nd chance offer" or something similar, if ebay still do that.

soolin

anotheruser said:

I would cancel.
If it's too dodgy, it's too dodgy.

The only way I would accept payment would be cash in the post.

You could post using recorded delivery and the buyer could send you a bunch of stones back and claim their money back.  A lot of risk / hassle.  Just offer it to the next person down - look for "2nd chance offer" or something similar, if ebay still do that.

Firstly sellers on ebay have to take PayPal , you can’t turn round and insist a buyer sends you cash in the post because you don’t like the look of their feedback. Secondly, non payers are very irritating , I dislike them intensely, but that doesn’t make them inherently scammers.Thirdly while stupid sellers insist on leaving wonderful positive feedback for non payers instead of going through the cancellation process due to non payment you won’t stop these  serial non payers, if sellers had cancelled due to non payment then OP could easily have blocked the buyer . 

anotheruser

soolin said:

anotheruser said:

I would cancel.
If it's too dodgy, it's too dodgy.

Firstly sellers on ebay have to take PayPal.

Not these days though?
Isn't it all about their own managed payments system.

The seller isn't having a good feeling and seems to want a secure method of payment.  Based on that, they can allow this all to play out and risk having problems like the buyer swapping the phone for a non-working one and sending that back, or putting stones in the box and sending it back.  Or they can just cancel the whole thing and miss out on potential profit. Never know, perhaps the buyer is completely honest and just really wanted that phone.

But with the low and negative feedback - would you risk it?

So how about a fool proof method of payment - cash.
The buyer is unlikely to follow this method anyway but as the seller, there is absolutely no obligation to sell anything - despite what ebay says about "entering into a contract" blah blah.  Plus, there is a risk on the buyer being honest and the seller then not sending the phone too!

Difficult but at the end of the day, it's up to the seller to decide what level of risk they want to take.

All depends on the phone and how much it went for.

soolin

anotheruser said:

soolin said:

anotheruser said:

I would cancel.
If it's too dodgy, it's too dodgy.

Firstly sellers on ebay have to take PayPal.

Not these days though?
Isn't it all about their own managed payments system.

The seller isn't having a good feeling and seems to want a secure method of payment.  Based on that, they can allow this all to play out and risk having problems like the buyer swapping the phone for a non-working one and sending that back, or putting stones in the box and sending it back.  Or they can just cancel the whole thing and miss out on potential profit. Never know, perhaps the buyer is completely honest and just really wanted that phone.

But with the low and negative feedback - would you risk it?

So how about a fool proof method of payment - cash.
The buyer is unlikely to follow this method anyway but as the seller, there is absolutely no obligation to sell anything - despite what ebay says about "entering into a contract" blah blah.  Plus, there is a risk on the buyer being honest and the seller then not sending the phone too!

Difficult but at the end of the day, it's up to the seller to decide what level of risk they want to take.

All depends on the phone and how much it went for.

I stand corrected about using the word PayPal and will re phrase it. Sellers have to take managed payments once switched to that system, managed payments incorporates PayPal, credit cards, debit cards etc so yes sellers still have to take whatever payment method buyer uses via managed payments, in fact sellers don’t know how it is funded.  I suspect most people still use PayPal but with a number of buyers now switching to credit and debit cards for the perceived additional protection. Sellers cannot insist on cash and there is no facility to use cash to fund a managed payment , if a buyer wants to pay cash and collect then managed payments supports that by issuing a QR code so that seller can prove item was collected. 

Previously before managed payment a buyer could offer cash on collection and sellers could even show it as an option , now everything is managed payments ONLY managed payments shows. 

Buyer might have low feedback, but they CANNOT have negative feedback .OP mentions feedback (which sellers have left as lovely positives of course) mentioning non payment , that doesn’t equate with an out and out scammer, just an annoying time waster. 

Of course sellers can refuse to sell, they risk poor feedback or a warning strike, but ebay cannot force a sale. If this is a time wasting non payer then the simplest thing is to just wait until day 5 and cancel the sale due to non payment and either go to a second chance offer or re list.