Need some advice about suspect buyer

[sea.breeze]

This is quite a weird situation, I put an inflatable boat up for sale with a bin price pick up only and it was bought at the bin within a few hours, this is a buyer who only joined on the day of my auction, for all I know they joined just to purchase my item . So far so good. Buyer contacts me to ask if cash on p/u is ok, I say fine give my address and ask when they want to come down. But I don't hear back from them this goes one for a couple of days, no answer to my messages, at this stage I'm getting a bit suspicious and I'm suspecting that this is a sham bid simply to leave me negative feedback, I'll explain why later. I accept for now that I'm just being a bit paranoid.

I try to get their contact details but ebay does not return anything, says it can't. So I contact help and they forward me the contact details manually. Buyer just happens to live very close as well. I leave text messages for the buyer to arrange a time to collect. Nada. No answer at all to text or messages. 

I apply to ebay to cancel the auction, the next day I get a message from the buyer saying how disappointed they are and that 'this is why I hate ebay', and that they didn't answer because they were ill, this made me more suspicious because the buyer only just joined. I wrote back explaining that I assumed they had bought it by mistake and simply didn't want it and I cancelled it so that they would not feel pressured to buy it and that if they still wanted it to not agree to the cancellation and pick it up, or cancel it whatever would make them most happy. I get no response to this. After another day I get another message saying they'd like to pick it up on Sunday between 5 and 7, it's just about 7 now and I'm pretty certain they aren't going to come down within the next minutue.

OK so why am I writing all this. Well, I'm mainly concerned that I've been set up for a negative feedback, which would banjax my 10 year record. I'm not sure what the circumstances are that ebay would actually remove a negative feedback, if this buyer does not cancel and the 10 days expires and they then left me a big red blob, would ebay allow that under these circumstances?

Informed opinions welcome.

[kopenhagen5]

Is it possible it's a scammer trying to get your address and now they have your Paypal email as well ?

Of course it could be a genuine ill elderly person trying to buy their grandkids a pressie.

[phorum_junkie*]

You are more concerned about a silly red dot on your computer screen than about the time and potential fee costs you are losing?  Why would you send them a cancellation request, if you didn't want a neg why open an unpaid item dispute then close it 4 days later if they didn't rack up with the cash then they wouldn't have been able to leave feedback and you would have got your fees back.

All you can do now is wait and see if they tell ebay they do not agree to the cancellation.

I always anticipate at least a week between selling a pick up item and it being picked up and often it takes several phone calls if the buyer keeps changing their mind re pick up times. No way would I try and cancel after only a few days.

If they did not turn up when they advised I would call them and offer to bring it to them if they live nearby.

Never assume anything.

[kopenhagen5]

Correction - if you didn't want a neg why not open an unpaid item dispute then close it 4 days later 

[phorum_junkie*]

Thank you Kopes

[davidc4430]

buyers come in all types.

ive just 'sold' a chest freezer, not by ebay just put a notice on the board at the local foodland store.

guy calls me last tuesday, asks if i'll be home thursday. i say yep, come anytime.

nobody shows up thursday.

he rolls up friday afternoon, sort of says sorry about thursday.

looks at the freezer and says he'll take it, gives me $50 deposit and says he will return saturday with his trailer and a friend to help lift it as hes got a crook back.

i say thats fine.

now its 8.30pm sunday night, no phone call, nothing? lol

as i said, buyers come in all types.

[sea.breeze]

@phorum...

That's why I came here for advice, I did not realise that an unpaid item dispute preclude leaving any feedback at all. Their phone never answers. I'm not really concerned about the time, I'm at my computer writing most of the day anyway, not need to be condescending about a 'red spot', who wants to have a 10 year record banjaxed by a doofus? I'll open a dispute. 

[*tippy*toes*]

If you've already started a cancellation, you can't change it to an unpaid dispute. It's one or the other. You just have to let the cancellation run its course now. With any luck the buyer will fade away with no ramifications to their account.

A lot more people are now opting for the UPI route these days rather than a cancellation. Of course there are always times when you are happy to cancel, when they buyer is in contact and comes up with a reasonably believeable excuse. You can usually pick the genuine ones from the numpties that deserve the strike on their account.

Seriously, re the red dot. If it happens it happens. Don't reply to it, RING eBay and get them to see messages you've sent to the buyer via eBay messages (I assume you've been contacting that way) and they may remove it. It might take several calls for someone to agree, so don't give up if the first call results in a no. If they still won't remove it then leave a polite, factual reply, without calling the buyer names (as much as you want to!). You want something that other potential buyers will see and think "oh, they've got a negative, but they handled it really well so I'll buy from them".

Most buyers don't give a hoot about the odd neg these days. We all get one eventually regardless of how well we conduct our business. The last one I got was removed on request by eBay. The one before that the buyer left it without contacting me first (I didn't ask to have it removed as it didn't qualify to be removed). I sent a message saying if they'd contacted me first I would have fixed it.

The item I sent had a few small scratches on it that I didn't see. I replied to the negative saying something like "I'm so sorry, completely my fault, I missed the scratches". He replied that it was all sorted and I was a good seller. He wasn't being malicious, he gave me positive for the other 3 items he bought. It didn't affect my sales at all and any buyers that did look at it could see that if they encountered an issue, they'll be treated respectfully and looked after, unlike some sellers who abuse people who leave negs.

The first one always hurts, but you do recover from it. I think all up I've had 3 over the years. 2 on one account, one on another. I've also had 2 neutrals. I don't care now. I know it's not going to affect my sales, so if someone gets a bee in their bonnet, then so be it. If it's my fault I'll fix it, if it's not and they just feel like trashing my feedback, then so be it.

[shepherdsrule]

I find most sellers who say "don't worry about a silly red dot" are the one's that don't have any red dot on their account.

Just sayin'  LOL

[*tippy*toes*]

I have had red dots and as I said, the first one hurt........a lot. So much so I stopped selling for awhile until it went away. Then a few years later I got another one and it hurt too. Mostly because the buyer didn't contact me first to say there was a problem (lower feedback buyer who tend to hit the red button rather than contact). What it didn't hurt was my sales.

If a seller gets a red dot and either leaves it or replies with a professional reply, most buyers aren't turned off by it. What turns me off buying from someone with negs is when they abuse the buyer, calling them names etc. That doesn't give me much faith that if I happened to have an issue it would be dealt with professionally. It's how a seller handles the neg which can determine whether it will affect their sales or not.

My reply to my last one (which only disappeared about 4 weeks ago) showed buyers that if they did have an issue and it was my fault, I would take responsibility for it and not abuse them by calling them liars or scammers or thieves. It also showed them that I would handle their issue professionally.

I did have one removed a couple of months ago because it fell into the category that it could be removed. EBay had no hesitation in removing it.