Phantom Bidders on Ebay - Not wanting to pay for items

[puku4u]

Dear fellow ebay users.

I have been selling on ebay here and there for a number of years now and have never really experienced too many issues.

In the last 2 weeks i have experienced what i am calling "Phantom Bidding". on items over $500 in the electronic sector and Tablets.

The user bids and bids clearing accepting the terms of the bids, but never ends up paying, or ends up saying they are in a rough patch and can't afford it or there was a mistake on there end, as they thought the item was a different model, after bidding and outbidding a numerous amounts of time.

It's quite frustrating as a seller, as it waste's our time and I am not sure if I can put in a payment dispute and offer the second chance offer straight away.

The alternative is to leave negative feedback, but that is not the same as a non payment mark from ebay.

It seems it's too easy for a bidder to change there mind or never actually intend to pay for an item.

It would be great if there was some restrictions on the dollar value new users with a feedback score lower than 5 could bid on. This would mean, if there was intentions to just create accounts and be a nuisance the bid amount restriction would be say less than $50 rather than unlimited amount.

Is anybody else experiencing this kind of Phantom Bidding, and what is your thoughts on this?

[putney32]

if you protect yourself, there are ways to avoid this.

1. you should set your buyer preferences to exclude certain bidders, including those with strikes for non payment already

2. you need to open disputes for non payment for every one, and close the dispute after 4 days and then, and only then make a 2nd chance offer or relist

3. NO Seller can leave a neg. f/back and if you leave neg comments with a green dot you are only adding to their score and setting yourself up for an ebay violation.

ebay put the tools in place for sellers to be able to try to avoid your situation, you just need to use them, but of course there will always be a problem bidder, a fact of ebaying life I'm afraid

[puku4u]

Hey Putney.

Thanks for the advice, it's only started happening in the last 2 weeks, but this is something I will setup for the future.

[cheekygoats]

Hi i'm a seller myself, and i have this problem a LOT, i have repeat customers who wait until i open non-payment disputes before they will pay, then others who say they've paid via bank deposit, but its been over a week later before i even receive the funds. It is extremely annoying and frustrating and i wish ebay would do more for us sellers, as i am noticing this problem is getting more frequent as this year progresses. If i have more than one bidder on my items i always so a second chance offer as well as the payment dispute, i've never had any problem doing both at the same time, and i totally agree with you about everything you have said. It is a waste of our precious time, i've actually got to the point i refuse to address or prepare my items until payments are recieved and cleared, that way it saves unecessary hassels. Then there are the buyers who give us negative feedback for opening disputes or i have personally copped abuse from a prospective buyer who accused me of making a mistake on one of my listings, which when i check had no errors at all in it, and i had since blocked that particular person from buying or contacting me at all, so if you have serial offenders that may also be an option for you... I think if sellers in our situation get together and confront ebay about this issue on mass, we as honest hardworking sellers have a chance to get laws implemented to prevent this from happening to anyone else in the future