Bad Buyers increasing by the day - what is going on?

[sydneyvintagebikes]

Has anybody else noticed a sharp increase in bad buyers?

Lately I've had increased large numbers of buyers a) not paying for items, or b) just not bothering to contact me after they have purchased an item...or c) just mucking me around, stringing me out and then not following through with purchase?

What is going on?

[sydneyvintagebikes]

I had a buyer purchase a chain guard from me, he was from overseas, shipping was quite expensive. Then a few weeks later he told me that the item got damaged in the post ( I packed into bubble padded bag) and so returned it to me. When I opened the parcel, I knew straight away that he had attempted to install the guard on his bike and obviously dented and scratched it, or worse still it just didn't fit and so he deliberately ruined it just so he could claim it was damaged in post.. As per usuall I had to refund him upon return, but it made my blood boil as he had intentionally ruined it and I couldn't sell it again.. Just couldn't prove it.. 

[duck---dodgers]

Under buyer requirements tick every box you can find to try and flter out the duds. Sellers need to get tough with them and ebay need to step up to the base - if they haven't already sold it!

[sydneyvintagebikes]

It's impossible, it's getting worse, today I had a buyer who bought an item from me and didn't want to pay the post, so he suggested how much he'd like to pay, I told him that I was charging him the post cost.  I then told him it was against ebay's policy to buy an item and then try and get a better deal after the purchase, he didn't react to kindly and threatened neg if I didn't deal with it.. 

This sort of behavior stinks, but what can we do.. I've reported him but doubt ebay will do anything.. Just over the sketchy buyers inreasing by the minute, then another today, now saying that the bikes tubes I sent him are faulty, demands another free one, I've asked for the return but am guessing he just wants a freebie and will just leave neg instead now.. 

ebay sux...

[elliott-marine-outboards]

Certainly a huge increase in cheap unwanted customers on my end over the past 3-6 months.
I give up trying to jump through hoops to please some of these mugs, ebay doesn't want to know about it and they can leave as much negative feedback as they want from now on, I'm getting off the ebay bus.
Sick to death of being screwed.

[cathyjoyjoy]

Oh jeez !!!!!!! This is going to be on the increase .......... everyone seems to be trying it on now ..... Scary

[asap_online]

We have the same issue selling Electrical items, these items once fitted cannot be resold once returned.
I also don't like the eBay return policy, as once we agree to the return we have to refund the total price including the original shipping costs

[roasted-rooster]

Why can't we neg the non-paying buyers?   I've raised multiple unpaid item claims lately (and received fee refunds) but each one of my waste-of-time buyers still have 100% rating.  What is ebay thinking?   How can we warn other sellers?

[black*poppy]

I'm really tired of this old chestnut about not negging buyers.

While I agree that there should be a better way to flag non-payers - YES! - negging is not the way to go.  It just opens the door to neg buyers for other reasons and all the abuse that we get as sellers.

For instance... the buyer legitimately wins an auction which the seller feels went too cheap... buyer doesn't give feedback ... buyer asks questions that the seller couldn't be bothered to deal with... buyer isn't very communicative... seller was just in a bad mood the day they decided to leave feedback........ etc etc.

That's a huge can of worms.

I buy alot on ebay... if I felt like I was at risk of getting unfair feedback that is publicly displayed on my id, would I keep buying on ebay? Probably not.  I especially doubt I would spend any time on the phone to ebay to have negative feedback removed for the privilege of being able to buy on this site.  Plenty of other places to shop (shame there aren't more to sell on).

Do any other sites rate the customers???

😛

[cq_tech]

Yes, AliExpress do, believe it or not.

[roasted-rooster]

Ok, so how do I warn sellers about my current buyer (who has won 11 of my auctions over a 2 week period)  I've now been given a multitude of explanations such as "full payment will be done on Tuesday"  then a week later  "part payment will be made on Friday", then a week later "just waiting for a cheque to clear", then a week later "don't give up on me, payment will be made tomorrow", then a week later "I got busy, full payment will be made tonight".   So after that last message, I check the comments on her 100% feedback (200+ auctions).   Going back over the past few months of positives (mixed in with glowing comments) she also has 21 negative comments:  "don't waste your time"   "bad buyer doesn't pay"  "lots of excuses but no payment"   "delayed payment and then changed her mind"    And I have no idea how many other sellers (like me) have not bothered to give her a positive rating.  The comments speak for themselves but all that green, plus a 100% rating,  gives a false sense of confidence in this person.  How to warn others when we can't leave a big fat (well deserved) red neg?