Non payers on ebay

RhondaD

Am I just unfortunate with this? In the last three months I've had three non payers on items ranging from £22 to £45. Each time they never tell you they've had a change of heart, even with a polite reminder or letting them know it's ok if they've decided against it but could they please let me know - nothing. Radio silence.

I thought this was a rare thing on eBay these days but this is third time in as many months and I'm now considering putting a note on all items asking people not to bid if they don't want it.

Why do people do this? If you don't want an item or can't afford it, why bid and mess other people around?

Yes I know we don't know what might be going on in people's lives blah blah blah.. but personally I'd never do this to sellers regardless of my circumstances. I just wouldn't bid on something then not pay. If I did have a change of heart I'd have the common courtesy to at least contact the seller and tell them, not just mess them about and waste their time.

Can eBay do more about this themselves? It doesn't seem much deterrent being able to block people with 2 or more non payments if most sellers don't even know you can block persistent non payers, and the penalty to the buyer seems pretty non existent anyway.

I just think if you had to provide payment details at point of placing the bid and were told money will be taken if you win, it might weed non payers out.

If they aren't that prolific and this doesn't happen that much, why do I seem to keep getting them.

GadgetGuru

Yes, this is frustrating. Also means I can't relist the item and have to wait for the next FVF listing offer! 

breaking_free

My partner sometimes sells things on ebay and his theory is this: people who are selling (or are going to sell) the same or similar item as yourself will bid on yours first. Once it's delisted they now have a window of time to list their own item before you cotton on to the fact that no payment is coming and relist. 

soolin

I think that generally it is getting worse across any platforms where buyers don’t pay immediately. I sold a few bits on marketplace and 2 Facebook groups at the weekend, only one got paid for. One of the marketplace items ended up with the buyer ‘leaving the chat’ after exchanging several emails about price, when they would collect etc. the others are just ignoring me.  One on a private group has now been banned as she never paid for anything and wasted a lot of time, and another just keeps emailing me to say she is paying ‘now’ but nothing arrives, only to send the same message about 6hours later (and addressing me as ‘hun’ which I hate) . 

I rarely do  auctions  on eBay but I’ve had one or two offer on a BIN which I’ve accepted, but then never pay. 

Even on Vinted where they pay immediately I’ve had payment then an immediate cancellation . 

RhondaD

It does seem to be getting worse and there are some very interesting theories here which I'm grateful for. 

As I said, it's not something I'd do myself but I do seem to be attracting them. One pattern I noticed is that every item that wasn't paid for was bid the day I listed. I list for 10 days so that leaves 9 days left to run. 

Personally I'd just put it on watch then bid at the last minute, not 10 days before it ended.


So would anyone advise just to do buy it now and not have auctions at all? 

vacheron

RhondaD said:

It does seem to be getting worse and there are some very interesting theories here which I'm grateful for. 

As I said, it's not something I'd do myself but I do seem to be attracting them. One pattern I noticed is that every item that wasn't paid for was bid the day I listed. I list for 10 days so that leaves 9 days left to run. 

Personally I'd just put it on watch then bid at the last minute, not 10 days before it ended.


So would anyone advise just to do buy it now and not have auctions at all? 

I use Buy it Now for almost everything I list, but I have the room to hold on to stuff for potentially years until the right buyer comes along.

If you do buy it now, or auctions with a buy it now price, you can select the "requires immediate payment" option in your auction listing. 

This will leave the item available for others to purchase until payment is completed. Essentially the first person to actually pay gets the item, plus it prevents the possible competion blocking practice which @breaking_free suggested.

GadgetGuru

vacheron said:

If you do buy it now, or auctions with a buy it now price, you can select the "requires immediate payment" option in your auction listing. 

This will leave the item available for others to purchase until payment is completed. Essentially the first person to actually pay gets the item, plus it prevents the possible competion blocking practice which @breaking_free suggested.

Yes, this works, but not for any BIN with Best Offer. If you accept an offer, or the buyer accepts a counter-offer, they do not have to pay immediately. This is where I have had some non-payers - they place an offer, I accept, then they change their mind or just go silent! It's like they just want to test whether they could get it for an offer price or not, and then have no intention of purchasing it!

vacheron

IftiBashir said:

vacheron said:

If you do buy it now, or auctions with a buy it now price, you can select the "requires immediate payment" option in your auction listing. 

This will leave the item available for others to purchase until payment is completed. Essentially the first person to actually pay gets the item, plus it prevents the possible competion blocking practice which @breaking_free suggested.

Yes, this works, but not for any BIN with Best Offer. If you accept an offer, or the buyer accepts a counter-offer, they do not have to pay immediately. This is where I have had some non-payers - they place an offer, I accept, then they change their mind or just go silent! It's like they just want to test whether they could get it for an offer price or not, and then have no intention of purchasing it!

As one of my previous colleagues used to say: "Customers, who b****y needs them!" 

RhondaD

I'm really grateful for these suggestions. I think I will try buy it now on selected items and see of this changes anything. 

There does seem to be a pattern. I listed all the non paid items for 10 days and they all got bid on instantly, then silence. It seems there may well be more going on like blocking of competition. 

tightauldgit

RhondaD said:

I'm really grateful for these suggestions. I think I will try buy it now on selected items and see of this changes anything. 

There does seem to be a pattern. I listed all the non paid items for 10 days and they all got bid on instantly, then silence. It seems there may well be more going on like blocking of competition. 

I imagine in 10 days it can also just be good old normal reasons like changing their mind, or finding the item elsewhere, bidding on multiple auctions, etc. I don't think there's any real benefit of listing for 10 days to be honest as most of the action seems to happen either as soon as listed or just before the auction ends. 

If you're fairly confident on the value of your items then selling as BIN probably makes sense - although you do miss out on the odd surprise when you get multiple bidders who push the price up. Doesn't happen all that often for me though I admit. 

RhondaD

I see what you mean but all the logical reasons they might have changed their mind are all things you'd usually respond to when a seller contacts you to say it's ok if you've had a change of heart - but there's just silence instead.

You have to pay listing fees for less than 10 days so I'm trying to avoid that. I've only had one item people fought for but I am starting to think I need to look at BIN going forward.