Forum

To NPB Strike or Not to Strike
 

Just curious what some of you would do in the case of a deadbeat bidder, I have a buyer who won one of my auctions last friday, never had paid, and I have done business with her twice in the recent past.

the first time I actually meant to block her because she purchased a pair of swim bottoms from me, then once she recieved them she messaged me wanting to know why she only got 1 item when the ebay listing said a "pair of swim bottoms" now granted there was a photo of the 1 item and the auction said "you will recieve one pair of paisley swim bottoms" so yeah, I had to explain to her that in this case "pair" did not mean a set of 2, that it was like saying a "pair of pants" its only 1.

So I meant to block her after that just for being that dense I knew she's the sort thats trouble. Anyway for whatever reason I neglected to add her to the list, she purchased from me again a few weeks ago, this time a shirt, no problem this time. Well now she has bought this item from me last friday, this morning she has sent an email that says:
"I'm so sorry I really wanted these but I have ran into a bit of a financial hardship unexpectedly and I'm not able to pay you, so can you cancel the transaction so that I can buy from you again in the future"
Ok now granted I know things happen, and I might have been sympathetic to her plight except I checked her feedback and she had recieved 7 feedback since friday, upon clicking view items I see that 4 of those were items that had been purchased since friday with BIN requiring immediate payment, she purchased 1 items sunday,2 items on monday and 1 yesterday, the one she bought yesterday was $49.99 thats double what she owes me for what she bought on friday, so her "financial hardship" story doesnt hold water.

So now the question is if this were you, would you cancel the transaction for her and just let her off the hook and block her or would you file an unpaid item case and let her get a strike?
If it werent a seasonal item in question I'd probably just cancel and be done with it so I could relist, but summer is basically over now and with the unseasonably cool temps nobody is buying summer stuff now and Im gonna have to hold this item over til next year so being able to relist it isn't a concern.

You know what normally I cancel the transaction block the bidder on all acounts

Lately I been doing some thinking and looking at feedback they left for other sellers and if I see that they are possible competitors, scammers or just bad buyers than I give them the strike

Maybe us sellers are letting too much go now and we creating these terrible buyers who are left to terrorize other sellers, so now not often but I have started thinking I may have helped another seller in the future

Depends in what mood I'm in. I usually file a case and give them the strike.

I prefer giving them the strike because they can't leave bad feedback. 9 out of 10 times I file the case, every once in a while, someone writes an email that I believe.

Just cancel and make sure she accepts the cancellation - not worth time or effort on debating a strike. Let it be peaceful.

You dont like how she is acting towards your sales? Block and move on to avoid the risk of repetition

I, personally, would give her the benefit of a doubt being that she contacted you before hand to cancel the transaction without recourse on THAT transaction.

But, I would block her from future purchases.

The first sign of trouble, I put a few things on hold until that person is blocked on that main account, then when I have time, add them to the master list. Even if they have purchased from me before.

You got lucky that she did not leave bad feedback and she realized her silliness in the first transaction.

For me it depends on how many days have passed. If it is one or two usually I will send a cancel transaction request, if it is any longer I am going the NPB route.

Sorry, I can't help but laugh because I had a similar situation a few years back. I got sold a "pair of jeans" and the buyer tried to say that they where suppose to get two. I don't know if they where really that dumb or just trying to see if they could extort me for more.