NPB's - no choice but to block?

[dazzledayz]

We all have those pesky NPB's and they seem to be legion lately

The usual good advice is to turn on the filters and it works, but maybe a bit too well.

(I know I've blocked 7 in the last 3 weeks).

Not every NP Buyer does it all the time but they do do it often enough to be quite a nuisance.

Rather than blocking them (and missing sales) wouldn't it be much better if we could opt to demand immediate payment instead?

eBay already has that functionality but it would be great if they'd roll it out as a conditional option in site prefs.

Just a thought.

[dazzledayz]

I guess we all have to put up with it as a part of doing business on eBay,

You are all right in as much as there are as many reasons as there are customers.

My method of dealing with the issue is via a 4 step process:

After 2 days send an invoice with a message that it appears they've finished shopping but if they haven't I can always do another.

After 4 days send a reminder with an offer to cancel if they've had a change of heart.

After 8 days send a warning that I need to open a case with an explanation of why and when (and repeat the offer to cancel).

After 10 days open the case.

At each step I invite contact if they still need time to complete or have any other issues.

I'm very flexible with my arrangements and have had customers in the past take well over a week to put an order together.

I've had a few that were waiting for a pay cheque and that's never a problem.

In the past year I've had only 1 or 2 actually take up the offer to cancel and mostly after 4 days they just go on to default.

A few will pay after the case has been opened but for whatever reason, a terrible lot of buyers just don't seem to worry about NPB strikes at all and I've noticed that the frequency has been steadily going up.

I suppose the reason I posted this is that the system as it stands just doesn't seem to work overly well and was interested in hearing what alternatives or improvements other sellers like yourselves could envisage.

[digital*ghost]

I used to have a similar system, allowing 7 days for payment and sending two courtesy messages, but have cut it down to 5 days for payment, one message at day 4, if no response, UPI on day 6 (I've also switched off the eBay reminder that gets sent out after 48 hours).

The way I figured it, my time and attention is better served with buyers that have paid, so I want to minimise what I spend on people who have purchased but not paid or communicated with me, and I switched off the reminder because I felt it was a bit overkill when I state a longer timeframe for payment. I also figure the vast majority of people are fully aware that they have made a purchase and not yet paid for it, though I do occasionally get people who reply quickly and pay, mentioning they forgot, so all I do now is just copy/paste a saved message which, in a nutshell, asks them how they would now like to proceed with the transaction. 

Funnily enough, no one has ever responded with a request to cancel. Some just pay, some reply and apologise, along with payment, most of the rest ignore, and then when it gets to the UPI stage, maybe 10% of those will actually pay. Every now and then I'll get a reply only after the UPI has been opened, but at that stage I'm generally not willing to go to cancellation or let it close before the 4 days without payment, so when I reply, I provide a firm and specific date that the case will be finalised.