@springyzone wrote:
Just a general comment.
I cannot imagine why anyone would 'forget' a purchase, unless they were making dozens of them and overlooked one. And it isn't logical for a buyer to feel angry for an unpaid item claim being opened, but I see the discussion is about should such buyers be given more time. I suppose if the buyer were to be given eg 3 weeks, they could not claim it was not long enough, but by the same token, if I were such a buyer, I can imagine wondering why on earth I had not been sent a reminder before the seller opened the claim.
I know ebay sends out a reminder after 2 days. To me, if a seller opens an unpaid item claim after 4 days, the buyer then can't really claim they weren't sent a reminder.
But the longer the seller leaves it, the more a buyer may expect a second reminder. I know that may not seem logical but I think some people these days do push the boundaries and never accept responsibility for their actions.
All of my items are BIN and available in multiple quantities, so I work from one main assumption with the way I currently handle NPBs and not sending out any reminders myself in the weeks following a purchase - there was no reason to buy and not pay at the same time.
A secondary assumption is that people knew exactly what they were doing when they chose to buy and not pay (i.e. if you're buying lots of different items from different sellers at the same time but not checking out until after, all you have to do is go to My eBay and go through the list to see if there's any you missed), so the underlying assumption to that is people know they bought something and haven't paid for it yet.
If they didn't know, they certainly do when the eBay reminder comes, and if at that point they don't go "oh, shoot, better pay for that now", or at least contact the seller, they are again making a deliberate choice to allow a purchase to go unpaid and not get in touch with the seller about it, so a second reminder seems pretty futile (when people say "sorry, I forgot about this", I pretty much take it the same as "sorry, I've been in hospital since I purchased this" - I don't really care about the excuses, though, as I know people like to do / say something to try and excuse themselves). The UPI is a reminder in and of itself, anyway, as the buyer can still pay for at least 4 days.
The only time I take a different approach and message buyers is when someone buys multiple times from the same listing but only pays for one of them. It drives me up the wall because a lot of them do it just to change the quantity they've purchased (eg they'll make a purchase for one, decide they want three, then make a new purchase for three and pay for that, never even getting in touch about the other purchase. In some cases the listing will be purchased twice without the buyer realising it. In both these types of cases I will usually spot the multiple purchases and just send a message explaining the situation and asking them if they'd like the extra purchases included in their current order (in which case I'll invoice to adjust for postage already paid), or canceled.
