Non-paying ebay bidder question....

[giZmo350]

When you get a non-paying bidder and you offer a previous bidder from the auction a second chance, does that block the winning, non-paying bidder, from trying to pay automatically? Is there any other necessary actions I need to take to successfully offer the item as a second chance?

Also, I plan on reporting the non-paying bidder to ebay and leave negative feedback. Is there any "gotchas" I need to be aware of?

I have sent this person invoices and emails to no avail. The winner also has zero feedback. As soon as I saw that I knew there would be trouble. The non-paying winner was very adament to win as he snuck in with only 2 seconds left - very deliberate. All the payment terms were very clear in my auction.

[Damion]

I'm not aware of any particular "gotchas", but I've basically taken the same approach in the past with NPBs. Usually I'll just re-list the item and leave the NPB a negative. I would imagine that there is a method for marking the item "paid" on your end.

As I see it, if the winner hasn't either paid, or contacted me within a reasonable amount of time (especially if I have to contact them first), all bets are off. (I've been more careful these days about mentioning a "timeframe" for payment, usually 7 days.)

[Fester]

Hi gizmo350,

There may be reasons why the user has not responded yet, even if that sounds ridiculous. Sometimes, a non-responsive buyer suddenly re-surfaces. I've had that happen to me. Everything checked out smoothly in the end. Just took a little longer.

Follow-up with eBay by reporting the non-payment. Close up all venues with this eBayer before re-listing or doing a second chance offer.

I'm only saying this because it seems less stressful this way. My own experience.

Fester

[Ami_GFX]

If you give the next bidder a second chance offer without clearing the first one through the non paying bidder process, Ebay will assume you sold 2 of your item and you'll pay the final value fee twice. This happened to me once and it was just about impossible to clear this up and get my money back from Ebay. It was only a $40 item so I just gave up and let Ebay keep the money but if you had just sold your A4000 Tower for big $$ and this happened to you, Ouch

[giZmo350]

Ami_GFX wrote:
If you give the next bidder a second chance offer without clearing the first one through the non paying bidder process, Ebay will assume you sold 2 of your item and you'll pay the final value fee twice. This happened to me once and it was just about impossible to clear this up and get my money back from Ebay. It was only a $40 item so I just gave up and let Ebay keep the money but if you had just sold your A4000 Tower for big $$ and this happened to you, Ouch

Ahhh! This is exactly what I wanted to know! Thanks so much!  :-)

Well, I hear ya on giving he guy a chance as sometimes there are circumstances beyond one's control but, he just won't respond and the 0 feedback seems to be a red flag. The item sold for $300.01. The previous bid was $300.00.

Thanks all!

[Astral]

In relation to the buyer not responding - I see this as NOT BEING A CLEAR CUT SITUATION. The buyer may not be responding due to circumstances beyond their control. What if they are having computer issues, and have no other way of contacting you? This would explain the lack of responses. If feedback is left, as eBay recommended, I would keep if factual, and at a NEUTRAL level - "Contacted buyer. Allowed 30 days. No response. What happened?", would be a suggestion. Given that the buyer has 0 feedback, it is also quite possible that they just do not want to go through with the transaction anymore. The things is, you do not know what the story is! Perhaps, if you took steps to find out. Such as, if the seller is local, contact eBay for a telephone number and ring the buyer. Also, in the age of electronic mail people forget about good old snail mail. Perhaps send them a letter...good luck...

I myself have had negative feedback left on my account, where the issue was TOTALLY out of my control. I offered registered mail, which was refused. The item was sent. Guess what, the item "did not arrive". No contact from the buyer, no emails to try to work out whatever issues they had - just feedback left. How do they know the item was not sent? How do I know the item was not recieved? Why did I recieve no emails from the buyer to work out the situation? Did the buyer actually try to contact me, with me not recieving the emails? It is actually quite frustrating being an honest person and willing to help people where possible, AND REASONABLE, and not to be given the chance to do so!

With this said, when feedback is left, KEEP IT FACTUAL. To deal with someone who has 100% positive feedback says that they are perfect! The reality is, nobody is perfect. To me, a feedback of less than 100% reflects this. People make mistakes, people aren't strict enough, people are dishonest, people are lazy, there are a multitude of reasons why a transaction isn't 100% succesful - also some people ARE just plain scammers and/or jerks!

Think about it...

[giZmo350]

@ Astral

I hear ya brother and your post is appreciated as being one that offers practical and thoughtful advice. I haven't taken any action on the auction as of yet. Time came down to the terms of the auction and I was seeking opinions and council.

I belong to many other forums where I could have asked this question but AO is one of my favs because of the sensible people here.

I apologize if I came across half {bleep}ed. I like your example of gentle feedback. Plus I don't need any return fire on my 100% feedback score.

Anyhoooo, I'm gonna kick this around this weekend, drink a few High Life Lights, get naked and listen to Elvis. Ha, just kidding, I don't like Elvis!  

 8-)

[Damion]

gizmo350 wrote:
@ Astral

I hear ya brother and your post is appreciated as being one that offers practical and thoughtful advice. I haven't taken any action on the auction as of yet. Time came down to the terms of the auction and I was seeking opinions and council.

I belong to many other forums where I could have asked this question but AO is one of my favs because of the sensible people here.

I apologize if I came across half {bleep}ed. I like your example of gentle feedback. Plus I don't need any return fire on my 100% feedback score.

Anyhoooo, I'm gonna kick this around this weekend, drink a few High Life Lights, get naked and listen to Elvis. Ha, just kidding, I don't like Elvis!  

 8-)

Yeah, my apologies if I sounded a bit harsh in my above advice. I should reiterate the "reasonable" part... also, I would only leave a negative in a situation where someone won an auction, then decided they didn't really "want" the item they bid on, completely wasting my time. (Happened to me on an auction for a Blizzard 1260 card.) Otherwise, leaving neutral feedback (or positive in the case of an honest mistake) is certainly a more compassionate route.