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Having A HUGE Problem With Non Paying Buyers
 

I know we have all had our fair share on non paying buyers but this is the most i have ever had on one account.

I sold about 7 items a week and a half ago 5 of those items after they were sold the buyers started giving excues on why they cant pay. So i opened cases against them and then relisted a couple of the items.

Two sold last night and then i got a message from the buyers saying they realized after they bid on the items they dont want them.

What i have noticed is all of these buyers have very little feedback all under ten most 1 or 0.

I have never put buyer requirements on my listings but i am really thinking of starting to put feedback requirements on my items.

Does anyone have an advice on this becuase i am starting to get tired of people not paying.

You seem to be having an unusually bad case of non-payment.
I wonder what are you selling.

Seems like you need to set buyer requirements not to sell to those with less than 10 feedback.

Open and close buyer non-payment cases as soon as you can.

I personally use the tightest buyer requirements allowed, plus set up the unpaid item assistant to open a case after 4 days and auto close it. If after 1 day they haven't paid I send an invoice but after that I don't mess with it. Just move forward.

Require Instant Payment on BIN items.
Restrict your buyers tighter.

This is why I hate Auction style listings, I rather just do BIN 99.9% of the time. The few I have done Auction I lost money or had non-payments.

Maybe competitors trying to bring you down.

truly feel your pain. Been there done that.. But you have me beat out with nonpayments in one week. I would have 2-3 a week.

Stories that they can't pay because they didnt get paid this week...decided that after they won the auction that they didn't know this or that.. excuses..excuses..excuses..

Definitely put buyer restrictions and state in your auctions that you offer no returns (doesn't stick if you're using paypal) but it's a wakeup call for those who think they can win and not pay..

unpaid claims is so time consuming and usually the end result is that you receive your final value fees.. woohoo..

what about the time and efforts that were wasted for not selling the item?? Good luck on your future sales.. :)

IMPERATIVE for you to control YOUR listings.

There's a major trend with buyers to act as you describe.

You must be proactive in allowing who or what bids. You must carefully define your listing for shipping destination, bidders the lot.

Regardless of how much you sell, this is your business.You dont need buyers to muck you around. (ebay/paypal will do that):lol:

Dead on correct.

This is what I do and I have far fewer of these then ever before.

For some reason when I do get them I get "Oh no, I am sorry I did not know I won your item" a lot.

Recently I have had a lot of issues with auction listings where competitor seller(s) would bid the highest bid , win the item and then never pay. So I now require PayPal to be attached to anyone who is bidding on my items or else they can't even bid.

I really prefer BIN also.... However there are time auction style is a better option. Last year I had over 100 non-paying bidders. Then I block them when its done. I set it up to automatically open case after 4 days then closing after additional 4 days. I really do not even pay attention to it anymore. If someone emails me then I send them cancellation...

I almost never use BIN because auction style seems to get more exposure for my products

It is one of those things you have to weigh out to see what is best for you.

Does anyone know where I can see the history of my non-payment cases?
I would like to block these buyers too.

The same for me.
The number of buyers who do not pay even after opening the case is around 5%.
The number of buyers who pay late and after I open the case is around 5-10%.
So I don't think its too bad.

I have set buyer requirements and only have 2 IDs on my blocked bidders list.
My buyer requirements are set to rather loose standards; not very strict... I don't want to lose many bidders by being too restrictive.
At the same time, I don't want problem buyers or bidders in countries that will give me a problem with their postal service/ customs.

I think I have found a good balance, judging from my stats. :peace:

Make your policies very clear in your listing, also set some standards for the buyers. I have this problem too, sometimes buyers are new and they have no idea how to make a payment. They completely forget about the product and the account. That way, I have to give them a call and sometimes they make a payment ;)

Non-paying buyers are common, just open a case and get your final value fee back and start again. It's a bump on a road.:typing:

Filing NPB seems to scare most dead beats into paying.

If those are competitors that are deliberately bidding high and then not paying, so that you cannot sell successfully, you should report them.
This is not a normal case of buyers simply not paying but it is more like fraud.
Report them to eBay!!! :deadhorse:

Catch22.

Someone reporting has to be 1000% sure that their OWN account will stand up to being looked at as well by ebay.:shhh:

Haha... good point!
I forgot that these are most likely stealth accounts...
I'm still running my real account. ;)

Very wise advise GB... the less you contact Ebay, the better.. I learned my lesson.. Each time you contact them, they also review your accounts to make sure all your ducks are in a row.. its a no win situation....

Awaiting Payment
$387.00
12

Not sure if this is a huge problem, but it's annoying! :@

as many have said i'd set up requirements..that way if it's a new account or your competitior gives them less chance and makes it harder for them to be messing with you and it also eliminates 90% of the timewasters

Me personally...

Automated dispute open & close
Fixed or auction w/ BIN
Immediate pay requirement
block bidders with no paypal
block bidders with 2 non payments in last 6 months
block or cancel 0 feedback bidders

Anybody else slips through cracks = added to block list


I had one the other day tell me she bid on the same item from someone else and won it for cheaper so she wanted to cancel transaction WTF :mad:

get their phone number and give them a call, politely asking when you can expect payment. works 99% of the time

How do you get their phone number?

click on "advanced" next to the search button, on the left side of the screen there is a link called "find contact information", fill out the fields and there ya go!

Ohh... interesting.
Tried it... it works. :cheer:

How do you do that?
I do not have this option.

If you have a store on eBay, you can just click 'View Sales Records' and 80% of the times, you will see buyer's number along with the address.

Remember, not to call a buyer too early.

A few days ago, I was chasing around 5 buyers who hadn't left me a feedback yet, so I had to ring them. So from now I decided, I'll just print cards saying the importance of positive feedbacks and include them in the parcel. You can also urge them to subscribe to your mailing list and it shall work wonders! It's a cheap yet effective marketing solution.

I do think 2 strikes in 6 months is a bit harsh. That is a damn long time.
That also could have been one purchase the buyer made, and who knows maybe something personal happened in his life.
I would think 1 or 3 months would be better.

And whats stopping ANY buyer from opening more than one account just to avoid your restrictions and purchase from you regardless?:doh:

Being SO strict will get you FAR less bids in the long run.

I know with the amount of accounts and sales i have going across all of my accounts, i can handle the handful of non paying bidders by just having the unpaid item assistant open cases against the buyer after 4 days.
You just end up waiting longer for the sale to go through (I know its annoying but this is the way things are when you do an ebay business and people do tend to change there minds),but honestly if you are that hard up, i think you are doing the wrong business.

Dont bite the hand that feeds you.

It's not an option, I pay attention to bids received. You have to manually cancel or block their bids in your settings. I usually message them and ask a few questions. If no response... :rip:

I only do the above on my more pricey items.

It works for me, I get the same bids and it drastically reduced this issue. 85% of the time my BIN gets hit and I want my BIN to get hit, so it's not really a big issue.

If a bidder opens up another account just to bid that is usually easy to spot, zero feedback & account created within last few days :suspicious: