How long should I wait for payment?

[pblong2810]

Hi, I'm new to ebay and I sold my first Item Tuesday night! I'm still waiting for the buyer to pay. How long should I wait before giving bad feedback etc? I have sent him 3 invoices with no reply or anything? Just wondering what I should do?

[eriberri]

Hello,

It's a bit daunting selling at first, but it will get easier. It's not all as quick as you might think and certainly all buyers/sellers work differently.

Have you set your expectations in your listing? Eg. Please contact me via ebay within 24hrs/3 business days etc etc. It helps to read a lot of other people's descriptions so you can get ideas for what to write in yours. I think if people know up front what to expect they are more likely to comply. At the very least when you send your invoice you can remind them in the Comments box that you did say in your listing to pay/contact or both within a certain time frame.

I can understand you would like to finalise the listing asap (I know I usually do, unless I am super busy and can't get to my ebay listings often) but give your buyer a little more time and certainly don't write bad feedback lightly. Trust me, there are worse things than slow payers, so save your bad feedback for those folks (and even then, think it through so so carefully).

All the best.

[*crikey*mate*]

Hello, firstly, welcome to eBay selling and I hope that you have an incredible journey.

OK, Down to business, as a seller, you cannot leave bad feedback, even if they are the most horrible buyers in the world. Additionally, leaving a negative comment with a positive dot, will likely see the comment removed and you to receive a reprimand.

In theiry, you can allow a buyer as long as you like to make payment, however eBay Australia allows a buyer a minimum of 8 days. Let me expand a little there.

You may request payment in 2 days in your terms and conditions, however eBay will not allow you to open up an Unpaid Item claim until exactly 4 days have passed since the time of purchase. They then give the buyer a further 4 days to make payment.

If payment is made in that time via PayPal, the case is automatically closed on your behalf, I'm not sure if this also occurs automatically if you mark the item as paid should the buyer deposit the money into your bank account, you may have to manually close the case yourself in that instance.

You cannot relist the item to resell whilst the unpaid item dispute is in progress, because if the buyer does pay, you are then obligated to follow through with the transaction by posting the item.

If those 8 days pass and you have not received payment, the case will automatically be closed and you will receive a refund on your FVF's (Final Value Fees).

IMO, I wouldn't bombard the buyer with frequent reminders to pay, they tend to get a bit narky when you do that. I believe that eBay does do this on your behalf at least once, so perhaps one other time from yourself would be OK? But that is up to you, but just remember to ask them in a way that doesn't seem demanding. Regardless of how many reminders you send, the buyer will pay when they are ready to, and they may not even check their computers every day to see your messages.

Best of luck with it all.

[*sparklz*]

Most sellers allow a week but it is your choice but after 4 days you can open anon payer dispute and 4 days later you can close it to get your fees back, they get a strike and are blocked from leaving feedback.

After the 4 days has passed from opening the dispute YOU will have to close the case as it is does NOT happen automatically.

Do not leave any feedback at all.

By issuing a non payer strike the buyer will be blocked from buying from seller that have the blocks in place for non payers with strikes.

To put these blocks in place hover your mouse over account in your my eBay page and from the drop down click on Site Preferences then go down the list till you see Buyer requirements and to the right of that click on show then click on edit. From there you can put in place the blocks you want, to stop those you want to block from purchasing from you.

[pblong2810]

Thanks so much for your answers guys. I will give the buyer a bit more time, its all a little confusing! it seems I'm expecting too much too soon. You see when I have bought an item I have payed straght away! after all i want it as soon as possible! Thanks again P

[pblong2810]

Was just a slow payer! he took 7 days.

[shivadom22]

Yer real nice fellow...Not!
Hope he had the snuff to call you
..creep!

[lyndal1838]

Somehow I doubt that the OP is at all interested in your opinion after FIVE years.

Please look at the dates of the posts you are replying to before dragging up ancient threads to add nothing at all useful.

[springyzone]

Not only an old post but a very uncalled for response. I didn't see anything in any of the OP's posts that would warrant an emotional reply or the need to call anyone a creep.... 5 years later.

[core1911]

Settle down kids