dealing with newbies

[petersdale]

Should I be cautious dealing with a newbie with 0 feedback?

[kopenhagen5 · Accepted solution]

Everyone started with zero and it could be they opened an ebay account to purchase your item.

I treat them like all others, until they don't pay.

I also have blocks to block non payers so until they become a non payer, they may turn out to be a wonderful repeat buyer.

[putney32]

peter we all started out the (0)

look at it from the other side, should the buyer be cautious buying from someone who's only sold one or 2 items in the last year or so on ebay?

follow the guidelines, give them the chance to prove themselves.

[petersdale]

Ok thank you for that 🙂

[petersdale]

Thank you very much I will look on the positive side

kind regards

Peter

[clarry100]

Like was said above we treat them all the same until they don't pay. Then a case is opened/closed.

We find that a large percentage (not all tho) of our non-payers have FB score of 5 or under, most often 0.

I think they forget that there is a 2nd stage to buying an item and that is to complete checkout.

Then they never come back and check messages. We always send a gentle reminder on day #3.

Then if no response on day #4 open the case. Rarely do they end up paying. So on day #8 we close it.

[2011.narelle]

Seems that you 0fb bidder is also bidding on another bike that ends in 3 days & also some camping gear x2.May be that they need x2 & hopefully not just doubling up hoping to win either.But yours finishes 1st anyway so should be ok.

They are probably a serious bidder,looks like they are planning a camping holiday by their bids. Just treat them like anyone else & guide them through anything they may need to know.It can be good training a nice newby & they appreciate their 1st positive experience.

[dylan11235813]

I always think it's a bit strange that someone would open an account with a generated username on the same day as ordering in 2014. I get quite a few new members but I have only ever really had issues with one (maybe 1/20), and some turn into repeat customers.

I actually find new members better to deal with, and ebay should give me a percentage of future sales generated.....

[2106greencat]

I think the biggest concern with low FB members is not so much the 'scam' side of things (unless blantantly obvious, of course) but the fact that they often really do not know how eBay works.

A newbie:

May accept a sellers request to pay via bank deposit

May decide they don't have to pay if they change their mind

May give negative feedback becuase the don't know they can contact a seller or open a ligitimate dispute.

Think leaving a negative comment on a green dot is a negative feedback

and so on........

I think it should be mandatory, when signing up, that they answer a simple questionare on the protocol of buying and selling.

All very well to say "did you not read the terms and conditions when you singed up?

Face it, it is a multi million word bunch of babble and hogwash that few would understand, and I bet many here have not read completely.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I've had quite a few low and 0 feedback buyers. Unless they are phone verified, then my blocks stop them. Most I've found to be great buyers who pay within seconds of the auction finishing. A few I've had to help with a couple of things, but I don't mind that.

One lady wasn't sure how to pay and she wanted to use bank deposit as she didn't have a PayPal account. I talked her through it, but she still couldn't work it out. She started to really panic thinking she'd be labelled a bad buyer (it had only been 24 hours!) so I talked her through PayPal (both as a guest and creating an account). She then paid straight away using PayPal. I told her if she needed help with anything else, she only had to ask. She asked a few more questions which I answered. She was so grateful I had taken the time to help her. She left glowing feedback and his since bought a few other things.

Most of the 'issues' (if you could call them that) I have with low and 0 feedback buyers is convincing them that it's OK to hold off payment until they have finished buying. They want to impress, so will bid on a few things, then as each auction finishes, they pay straight away. 

Most of my non payers aren't low feedback buyers, they are people with much higher feedback scores that should know better. Some have even been sellers themselves, with active listings, so there is no excuse for not getting reminder messages.

Just remember if you do have a non payer, open and close a case and add them to your blocked buyer list. By closing the case, you are helping all the other sellers who already have blocks in place, by giving the bad buyer a strike.

I'm sure your 0 FB buyer will be just fine.