Non paying bidders!!

[licorice.allsorts]

Does anyone have any advice on how to prevent non paying bidders?  In the last month I have had 5 non paying bidders despite having blocked anyone with a non paying report against them.  Is there any way I can tighten my exclusion criteria so that I can stop these nuisance ebayers from bidding on my items?   Since ebay have stopped sellers from leaving negative feedback, the number of non payers have just increased as we can't do anything about it.  The non payment reports seem to amount to nothing.

[phorum_junkie*]

Since ebay have stopped sellers from leaving negative feedback, the number of non payers have just increased as we can't do anything about it

Do you have evidence of this? I am not saying the number of non payers has not increased but as a percentage of total sales across ebay I suspect the percentage may be less. I certainly have a lower percentage of my sales unpaid than I had over six years ago. The number has stayed about the same but6 I am selling at least three times more than I was selling when you could give negs.

I rarely gave them to buyers anyway as it usually resulted in a retaliatory neg which does nothing to stop a buyer from buying but is not a good look on a seller's account.

[davewil1964]

Since you haven't been a member, on this ID at least, when eBay allowed sellers to leave negatives for buyers, why is it now an issue?

I realise it's only been about 6 years.....

[i-love-my-sheep]

Do you have blocks in place so that buyers with 2 or more non paying strikes in the last 12 months can't bid on your items? Having blocks is far more beneficial than being able to leave negative feedback. You can't stop buyers with negative feedbacks from bidding/buying, but you can stop them if they are habitual non payers.

Let the group know if you don't have blocks in place and need a hand to set them up, and someone will gladly help you. The more people that have these blocks in place, the better eBay will become, as these people will get sick of not being able to buy from a lot of sellers and either open a new account (which can also prevent them from buying from a lot of sellers), or they just give up.

[the_pooze]

I eBay as a hobby only and have worked out my non-payers thus far (I haven't sold heaps of stuff in the 3-4 months I've been doing this) account for approximately 4% of the transactions I've had.

My full-time job is in trade and wholesale sales and our no show/drop off the face of the earth rate on picked/packed and purchased in to special order orders (often from some fairly major national companies) generally runs at around 12%.

On the basis of that comparison I reckon I do okay on eBay, as frustrating as a non payer is.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@licorice.allsorts wrote:

Does anyone have any advice on how to prevent non paying bidders? 

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List as BIN with Immediate Payment Required

[lovetoshopsue]

Non paying bidders have definitely increased for me since the negative feedback for buyers was stopped. I hardly ever got a NPB before and now I am at the the stage where I expect it.

I am so sick of these type of people.  With the 4 days you have to wait to report them and then the other 4 to give them a chance to respond (which of course they don't) it takes 8 days before you can even re-list it.

[i-love-my-sheep]

Given you only created this account in 2013, unless you have used an older account in the past, you would never have been able to give a buyer negative feedback as they removed that option 5 or 6 years ago. In view of that, I'm not sure how you could say your non payer issue has increased since you can no longer leave negatives for buyers with an 18 month old account?

Do you have blocks in place to stop the serial pests? Why would you want the ability to leave a buyer a negative when they will turn around and give you one straight back? A buyer could have lots of negs and still buy. You get so many and they shut you down for good.

[lovetoshopsue]

You are right, I had a much older account.  I have been buying and selling on ebay since they began.  I cancelled my old account due to an unfair neg fb from a scamming bidder that ebay could/would not remove.  I stopped using ebay for a while because I was disillusioned with ebay in general (policies, fees, etc.) but I started a new account because it's hard to stay away from ebay.

You are also right about leaving neg fb for NPB's, I never did it because I didn't want to risk getting it in return.  I still think that the option was enough to deter some NPB's though. I do have all the necessary/available blocks in place but that doesn't stop the problem.