Why don't buyers pay or communicate?

[lpede5]

I had 68 auctions end in the past week. About 20 odd paid straight away, some more on the following day. Ended up with about 18 games not paid for. One of the buyers even won 5 games, and has not made any contact whatsoever since the auction ended on sunday? The same with about 4 other buyers. A few have high feedback, and another one is a tad low. But it just confuses me as to how there can be no communication?

It would be find by me if they told me when payment was at least coming, or why there was a delay at the very least. I send an invoice after the auction finished on Saturday, sent a reminder email on Tuesday in a friendly manner but nothing.... It's just a huge waste of my time :/, I know it comes with ebay, but the fact that some are high feedback. Who knows maybe they are all on holiday or lost their internet or something, but is this normal? It seems every case I open as unpaid I receive absolutely no communication at all, just annoying having to wait 4 days to open a claim, 4 days to get my fvf back then having to relist again.

[kopenhagen5]

If you open cases on all NPB's, then that's all you can do.

It comes with the turf, but now that sellers are becoming more aware that they can issue strikes, I find less NPB's on one hand and on the other more newbies signing up as well that don't know how ebay works.

My procedure is -

Ebay send an automatic reminder 2 days after purchase.

I usually send a message at 5 days asking if there is a problem with payment.

If no response, I open an Unpaid Item Case and that can sometimes spur a response or payment.
If not, I close the case as soon as I can, 4 days after it's opened.
Final fees are returned, buyer gets a strike, I add them to my Block Bidders List and re-list the item.

Many newby bidders bid on several of the same, pay for the first one and ignore the others they win.

Also you're right, holidays and some might go on their computer or account 1-2 times a week.

Do you have blocks in place, otherwise you might still be getting serial non payers?

[*sparklz*]

Add non paying bidders to your BBL

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.

[lpede5]

Yeah I make sure I block every non paying bidder I get. And yeah I have noticed that too, when I check their feedback history they would have bought the same item for marginally cheaper in an auction ($1-$2). I just checked one of my non-paying bidders feedback and they bought the same game for $4 dearer on the same day they won mine? I'll never understand haha.

But yeah you're right I guess it comes with ebay, just had one of the bidders email me that they were at a friends place for the week, so at least that's one person down. But yeah it mostly seems to be new bidders who don't understand ebay :/. I even had a message asking for people with feedback under 10 to message me before bidding. Had about 10 bids from under 10 people, no one person contacted me.... makes me think some people don't even look at the description.

[motherbear2003]

Because they don't have to!  And ebay is too busy removing my listings and issuing policy violations to have time for pesky buyers who don't pay

[carly2579]

communication is voluntary   i  communicate with my buyers  and   if they communicate back all good if they dont then thats  up to them:-)

[carly2579]

motherbear  why are ebay doing that to you???

[digital*ghost]

Because they don't have to!  

Exactly what I was going to say! The only incentive to pay is to receive the item...if they change their mind about that, find one cheaper, realise they can't afford it, then ultimately it's no skin off their nose to just forget about it.

A few non-payers will contact possibly to attempt to 'save face', (the ones who's grandma dies at least once a year, and/or their cars break down every time they buy something on eBay), some contact and tell the truth, but by and large the consequences of purchasing and not paying are pretty irrelevant. 

For that reason, I try to minimise the consequences of non-payers (as a seller) to me as much as possible. I have a message template I copy/paste and send on around day 5, add their ID to my BBL and open the dispute around day 7, spending less than a minute on the whole process. 

I know those inconveniences are more prevalent and more time-consuming, sometimes more costly, for a casual seller, but the only way to guarantee you avoid the situation is to list as BIN with immediate payment required (which I believe requires PayPal as the only acceptable payment method).

@motherbear - I've read a little about your ongoing issues, you have my empathy and admiration, I'd have a persecution complex by now if it were me. 😮

[thecatspjs]

My theory is that with the significant increase of purchasing via i-phones and other mobiles, there has been an increase in the number of buyers not reading descriptions including measurements, flaws and terms and conditions. 

[ozthor01]

As A Byer I pay most times with in a few hours of the end of the sale time....

But some times I do leave it go for 24 hours, that is to allow the final total price to be worked out and set.... eg. postage and number of items....

I also will hold off, as may be watching another item by the same seller that could be a day or two away....

With all this going on and my life away from ebay I can and have forgotten about a item 🙂

So a friendly email after 24 hours will bring the seller up to date on what is happening...

But items still get over looked 🙂 and a 2nd email should do the trick...

as a rule I try to pay asp...