Non-Paying Buyer - Bullying?

[LMC1]

Was wondering if someone on here could help with a little advice on what I should do in this situation. REALLY LONG...SORRY!

I have a winning bidder who contacted me to tell me he's not going to pay for the item because he found one cheaper. (This was after he bid the item up to $20 himself on my $5 item!).

Anyway...backstory is I listed a poster for $5 auction with a Buy it Now of $7.50. He placed a bid several days before the auction ended...which of course made the buy it now price disappear. The day the auction ended another bidder came in and placed a high bid...which my winning bidder then proceeded to out bid this other person up to $21.

As soon as the auction ended I received this e-mail - "I just found and bought the same poster for $10 please decline my offer and sell it to that other bidder. I hope you can please overlook my mistake and spare me the unpaid dispute, because I won't pay..."

Naturally I'm a bit taken aback by this...it is against ebay policy to back out of an auction you won. Not to mention I know how Ebay can be in regards to being on the side of the Seller - Not likely to happen. So I have a decision to make on whether I want to send a Cancel Transaction or wait the 4 days to file a UPI.

Unsure of what I was going to do...I e-mailed him back with this response -

"I understand that you are unhappy with the end price amount of your winning bid. However you are the one who placed a top bid for that amount. I listed this item at $5 with a buy it now of $7.50...you could have easily used the Buy It Now option but chose to place in a top bid amount instead. Please note that according to Ebay Policy - " A bid on eBay is considered a contract, and you're obligated to purchase the item. Please remember that every bid is binding and is a legal commitment to purchase the item. As a general rule, you can't retract or cancel a bid. Once you place a bid, you agree to pay for the item if you're the winning bidder."

Since I have an additional duplicate poster...I had already sent a second chance offer to the other bidder before you contacted me! If you had contacted me prior to purchasing another poster and Refusing to pay for your winning bid I would have been more than happy to work with you on price! In fact I may have even given it to you for the $5! When you commit to a purchase on Ebay you honor it, that is the way Ebay works! Bidding without the intent of completing the purchase or backing out of the transaction due to buyer remorse is against Ebay Policy.

That being said I will carefully consider your request and get back to you on my decision."

After this e-mail I received two other e-mails from him -

1st - "I only top nodded because the other person outbid me up to $20(which was still one of the lower prices I might add!) and I hadn't seen any rates that were better than yours until i re-dited what my search combination and luckily stumbled upon a more fair price. To me at least, I just don't appreciate having to pay jacked up prices because of other bidders, unless I really value and hold the product as one of a kind.

On a side note I am rather positive there was no buy it now or "bin" button on your ad. Because if there was I would have just bought it from you!!

Again sorry for inconveniencing you as a seller, and it's up to your judgement whether or not you choose to have some sort of sympathy for me as a buyer, but if not I guess you must do what you feel like is your duty as an ebayer go ahead and punish me with an unpaid strike."

2nd - "I can also prove that your claim of having a buy it now button is false because if that were true don't you think that other bidder wouldnt have bid such a high amount? Don't you think that other bidder would have just bought the item rather than jack the bid up so high? "

Now I'm unsure what to do. My defensive -"This guy is a JackA**" part of me wants to file that UPI on him to show him that he cannot do this to sellers.

However there is another part of me that thinks if I file the UPI I just may end up screwed. What if he decides to pay and file a Item not as Described case....leaves negative feedback and Dings my DSR's! I know how Ebay can be...they seem to always side with the Buyer...even when they pressure a seller.

So perhaps I should just file a Cancel Transaction. Any Advice???

Sorry So long...

[MM78]

It wasn't a super expensive item, Just let it go and move on. Fighting this person for a miniscule item is not worth it.

Cancel the transaction.

[TGMT²]

Kind of hard for me to believe you got yourself into this situation with a $21. transaction in the first place.

You have to think customer service and protection of your account. That should be your priority.

OK, now that you are here, this is what I would do...

I would call your customer, and apologize and tell him that one of your shippers was, without your knowledge, trying to take care of this for you.

If he still sounds mad after a friendly phone call. Then go ahead a file the unpaid item dispute.

If he sounds amicable, ask him to leave you a positive and you will send the cancel transaction request.

[hackteck]

i would just cancel the transaction and move on not worth the headache

[Futuremogul888]

I would open the UPI case. This guy is clearly a cheapo so he won't be paying for the item to ding your DSRs and hit you with a negative feedback. After 4 days and you can close the UPI case, he has no ability to leave you any feedback and if he already did it will be removed. However if you send him a cancel transaction request, he can cancel it and still leave you negative feedback and ding your DSRs for up to 60 days after the auction. Whatever you do, make sure to block this guy from future bids.

In the future, avoid getting into these type of battles. Your reputation is everything on ebay so take the simple steps to protect it even if it sometimes does offend your sensibilities.

[Vinny]

I had the same problem recently.Guy finds the same item somewhere else for a cheaper price after having the winning bid on my item.The guy eventually paid after some persuasion from me,but as soon as he'd received his item,he said it was faulty and opened up a case.All he wanted was his money back and ebay have these stupid rules protecting the buyer so I just gave him his money back.It wasn't a big price so it was easy to just move on.

[css1]

If it all goes south, is it worth $21 in trouble to you? Probably not.

Tell him you were able to stop the shipment (make it seem like it's a big deal and you're doing him a favor) and you will gladly cancel the transaction after he leaves you positive feedback.

You need to factor in transactions like this every now and then, especially if you do volume.

[SaiJin]

OP,

It is against eBay policy to not complete a transaction because you found a cheaper item. You can report this to eBay if you want to, so keep the email he sent you.

But for $21 I'd cancel the transaction, block him and re-list the item or send it to the 2nd highest bidder.

[rsot]

Cancel transaction - second out the second chance with some hope - block this old bidder - let the situation go. Way too much effort

[LMC1]

I guess logically it makes sense just to Cancel the Transaction...however my feelings get in the way...having him basically call me a liar just steams me and makes me want to say why give him a break like that. A winning bid is a binding contract after all.

Will most likely bite my angry tongue and kiss some a** just to be done and over with it though.

Thanks for all you input...but feel free to add any other advice you may have...will probably be holding off on any action until the non-paying 4 days is up.

[user3657]

Im an A-H, so I would issue a NPB. I spent the time to make the auction and what not. This guy wasted my time. I understand things happen. Thats why ebay has a remove bid option.

When I need to cancel a transaction because I ran out of stock(example it sold on amazon, and two hours later sold on ebay), I useally paypal the buyer 5$bucks for wasting their time and not leaving neg feedback. He should of left you feedback before sending the email.

[LMC1]

He should of left you feedback before sending the email

He should have done other things as well...like maybe ASK nicely if I would mind canceling the transaction instead of telling me "I won't pay...", or calling me a liar when he doesn't even know what he's talking about.

Not a very bright or pleasant person...and I've been spending so much time trying to decide what to do on this...I just want to move on. Not really worth the headache of dealing with someone like that.

Hopefully he won't ding my DSR's for his own stupidity and ignorance...I guess if he does that I'm really the stupid one...and will have learned from the experience.

Personally I would rather file a UPI...but I'm sick of worrying over it...

[hackteck]

is 21 dollars really worth taking a hit to a good ebay account?

[imjustme]

I would file for an unpaid item case. He's stuck on not paying, so it's very unlikely that he will pay. That way you'll be able to give him a strike and prevent him from voting. If you cancel the transaction, he can still give you a negative and there's nothing you can do about it.