Buyer Requirements Activity Log

[oz-e-seller]

Since there are no FVFs to receive credit for when on Managed Payments (because they aren't taken until the buyer pays), is there any point to opening Unpaid Item Cases any more? The only positive is the supposed strike the buyer receives on their account but I've already determined that does nothing as I had a serial non paying buyer a while ago and consistently filed unpaid item cases until I gave up and blocked them entirely so the 3 strike rule is **bleep**. Is there any other faster way to just clear the unpaid items from the awaiting payment section rather than filing a case then waiting to close it. I could just cancel transaction but I believe that dings my account - and those dings actually count!

[oz-e-seller]

Oh haha I got bleeped! I didn't know that was considered a swear word - oops my bad.

[gutterpunkz05]

If you just want to cancel, use the something wrong with buyers address  and it wont  ding your account

[curraone]

Hmmm to answer this properly I have to be convinced that the strike system does not work.

Have you got any traffic under "Buyer Requirements Activity Log" in  your site preferences?     I just checked mine and it is completely blank, so I don't know if its working or not.

[everard6920]

I have Unpaid Item Assistant set up, they don't pay, it opens after four days, they still don't pay, it closes after another 4 days, they get a strike and I block them.

If they are a repeat offender you could select "problem with the buyer's address" as the cancellation reason and you won't get dinged, but the buyer can retaliate by leaving bad feedback (which you MAY be able to have removed by eBay if you can prove they have circumvented your block with a duplicate account, but no guarantee). With an Unpaid Item Dispute, they can't leave feedback unless they pay.

You could try messaging the buyer and offering a mutual cancellation if they are no longer interested, but the problem if that if they agree and then ghost you, you have to wait 10 days or whatever it is for it to time out, so it takes even longer. I actually never open these except in exceptional circumstances (such as a repeat buyer who has accidentally purchased the wrong item) because "my cockatiel walked over my keyboard and purchased 5 items" isn't good enough for me to potentially have to wait 10 days and absolve them of a strike.

Unpaid Item Assistant is, therefore, still the best option, imo.

[joz15au]

The strike system does work sometimes as occasionally it shows up in my log that someone with too many unpaid strikes has tried to buy, so worth doing I think even if it doesn't catch them all.

[*tippy*toes*]

I checked the log on one account the other day and I had, I think, 18 blocks for non payer strikes. The total was actually more because a few kept trying to bid on different items, where they probably then gave up.

I checked my other accounts. One had none, the other had 3 or 4. So yes, the strikes do prevent them from buying. 

[oz-e-seller]

Yeah when I say the unpaid item strikes don't work I mean they don't actually penalise the buyer account in any way. Like in the past if you didn't pay for a number of things within a timeframe your account was limited from buying and eventually banned altogether, and if you opened a new account they banned that too. Now they love all buyers and they can rack up piles of unpaid strikes and all it does is stop them buying from sellers who have blocked those buyers but they can just buy from someone else.

[everard6920]

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@oz-e-seller wrote:

Yeah when I say the unpaid item strikes don't work I mean they don't actually penalise the buyer account in any way. Like in the past if you didn't pay for a number of things within a timeframe your account was limited from buying and eventually banned altogether, and if you opened a new account they banned that too. Now they love all buyers and they can rack up piles of unpaid strikes and all it does is stop them buying from sellers who have blocked those buyers but they can just buy from someone else.

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It still works, but I think the maximum restriction you can apply is 2 strikes within 12 months.

Personally, my main problem is that it's far too easy to make another account with the same name and address. I've had it happen multiple times where a buyer doesn't pay, I open an UID and block them, and they show up weeks or months later on another ID. In one case the buyer sent something like 7 bounced e-cheques from 4 different accounts.

In that instance, eBay agreed to let me cancel, because I'd already blocked her on 2 of those accounts and she was tying up my items in limbo, because I couldn't sell them to anyone else while I waited about 7 days for her e-cheques to bounce.

I've had at least two other buyers in recent memory who were also blocked from UIs, but they both paid for their items immediately on their "new" accounts, so I let those slide. As long as they pay, I do not care. The moment they don't pay, the Unpaid Item Assistant will take care of them.