Non Payers

[tdkclk]

This point has been raised by many members before but it seems that eBay is reluctant to do anything about it. As a business seller, I often have non paying buyers and sometimes owed as much as $5000 for items purchased but never paid for.

Once the sale goes through, eBay charge me fees and I then have to go through the process of filing for a refund of my fees but in the meantime, eBay has effectively charged me for this sale.

If I was to go to an auction either live or via telephone/internet and bid on an item and then win/purchased the item and did not pay. I would be charged by the auction house usually 10% of the vaule of the item purchased. As eBay is effectively an "auction house" then they should implement rules regarding buyers that do not pay for an item. eBay would have relevant PayPal, Credit Card or other information on the buyer and could charge the buyer a % of the price of the item they did not pay for. This payment could then be refunded to the seller to cover our costs as often we incur costs in preparing an item ready for shipping while waiting on payment. In addition to our time in chasing payment and filing Non Paying actions etc.

I can only assume eBay is not concerned about this as they simply want the fees from the sale. However, as a sale is not complete until payment has been received, then eBay effectively is taking money under false pretences. The seller has entered into a sale contract with the buyer and eBay and both expect the buyer to pay. Therefore, should the buyer not pay, then they should be charged a fee for backing out of the sale.

Unfortunately, eBay is rife with fake, scam buyers and maybe a small deterrant is required to curb this action.

[*tippy*toes*]

I don't pack anything until it's paid for. If someone is buying a few things I might get them from stock and put them all together, but that's about as far as it goes until they're paid for. Sadly, you can't charge buyers for your time. EBay will never fine buyers for not paying.

If you are charged 10% at an auction house if you didn't pay, that money goes to the auction house, not the owner of the item you didn't pay for. Why would you want to give eBay an extra 10% on top of the fees you already pay?

[tdkclk]

Thanks for the reply, but you miss the overall point. There has to be some deterrent to stop the practise of non paying bidders.

[*tippy*toes*]

I agree, but it will never happen. The reason it will never happen is because a certain percentage of sellers don't know to open a non payer dispute to get their fees back. Therefore, ebay gets to keep those fees. A buyer can have hundreds, even thousands of non paying strikes against their account and eBay refuses to stop them buying. You only have to look at the members I'm "following" to see that's the case.

Do you have buyer requirement blocks in place to stop the serial pests?

[meekamag2]

Wow! Unbelievable that ebay hasn't de-registered them. Sadly, says it all, really.

[sparrow2207]

We all love our "Special" buyers.  They bring so much joy to our lives.  Love letters to ebay praising their prompt payments.  And ebay gives them a gold star and we hope they get many that month so we can bid them a fond farewell.

[*tippy*toes*]

If all sellers had non payer blocks in place, it would stop these pests in their tracks. Sadly, I believe only a small percentage of sellers have them. A lot don't know about blocks and others choose not to have them (for their own reasons). I believe the blocks should be in place by default and if you don't want them, you can opt out. Would save so many dramas. Might make non payers more accountable too. Trouble is, eBay would lose too much in unclaimed fees.

[dazzledayz]

I have the blocks in place but still allow contact emails.

A few buyers get blocked and don't follow up but I do hear from some.

I just explain the problem of too many unpaid items lately and the time and expense involved then offer to drop the block if they really want the item (I have a copy and paste from reply made up)..

This usually works and they pay up straight away.

I then reset the blocks and repeat.

I'm sitting on one unpaid at the moment from before Xmas but will give this buyer till Sunday as many buyers won't be returning to work till Monday so possibly just an oversight.

My advice is to just have a few form replies made up for the inevitable common problems.

If you use SMP the custom label column is very handy for keeping track of correspondence sent.

[bullitprooftools2016]

"As eBay is effectively an "auction house" then they should implement rules regarding buyers that do not pay for an item. eBay would have relevant PayPal, Credit Card or other information on the buyer and could charge the buyer a % of the price of the item they did not pay for."   Great idea but something tells me it will be a cold day in hell before ebay impliment it!  But if it ever comes ebay would still want 8% or 10% of your 10%.

The best you can do is keep sending em emails.  On day 2 I start:

1/  Your item is ready to ship today if you can paypal me before lunch it will be on the truck ASAP.

2/  'Buyer XXXX' you really want to go ahead with the purchase?  If you changed your mind let me know.

3/  So I can reclaim my ebay fee's I will need to open an UPI dispute which will leave a black mark on your record.  If you pay today I  won't have to do that. 

Works sometimes!

[*tippy*toes*]

I gave up sending emails because by that stage, they had already decided they weren't going to pay for it. I resend an invoice on day 3 and if I don't get any response to that, I open a dispute on day 4.

Sometimes life happens and eBay is the furtherest thing from their mind. Stuff happens. People die. People go to hospital. People get called away unexpectedly. However, when you can see they are still actively buying, you know that stuff hasn't happened and I am happy to flog them with a stick.

My current non payer isn't still buying, so possibly has had some kind of family emergency, but I'm not running a charity service. If they come back later with a reasonable explaination and still want to buy it, I'll probably give them another chance, but I'm not expecting to hear from them.