Questions about non paying bidders and opening cases

[svleonard]

I've been selling on ebay for a few years now, and I've never had any trouble with nonpaying bidders.  Now, all of the sudden, I get slammed with four.  One finally paid after sending me a very nasty reply to my request for payment, and the other three ... nothing. 

I've opened a case against one but she hasn't responded yet. My questions are:

1. What happens if a non paying bidder doesn't respond to the case?
2. If a buyer never pays, do you still have to pay ebay the seller fees for the item?
3. Does having a case opened against affect your feedback ratings?  Does opening the case really carry any weight?
4.  How do I cancel a bid after the auction ends?

Right now, sales are very slow, and so naturally I am very frustrated when a few items finally do sell, and then the buyers don't pay for them?  Help please?

Thanks <3

[Keemax]

Opening a non-paying bidder case is basically getting ebay to give the buyer a set time period to pay. If they don't respond, ebay cancels the auction/sale for you and refunds any credits you used to make that particular listing.

You would only pay seller fees if the listing wasn't cancelled. That is, if they never paid and you didn't report it. In that instance, as far as ebay is concerned they paid you via another method and you forgot to mark the payment as received or something so they apply seller fees as per usual - but if you open a case or just flat out cancel the order they won't charge you any fees.

I don't think it affects your feedback or and it definitely doesn't affect your seller rating. Opening a case protects the seller more than just simple cancellation as, if you were just to attempt to cancel the listing normally, the buyer might try to claim they paid (when they didn't) and they haven't received a refund from you (though I don't think this is too common as I would think that can be easily dis-proven) and the buyer whose order you cancelled can still leave you feedback. If you open a case I'm almost certain ebay blocks the buyer from giving you feedback since they never paid.

Also too many cancelled orders will affect your seller rating because ebay sees it as your fault for losing the item/being out of stock/whatever reason you chose. If you open a case, then any cancellation is not your fault and they will not penalise you not matter how many cases you open.

As for cancelling bids after an auction ends - I've never done it, but if it's possible then there might be an option for it in the bidding history of the item.

[svleonard]

Thanks!

[LittleSpiffy]

4.  How do I cancel a bid after the auction ends?  You can only cancel the order.  You are not charged the final value fee and the buyer gets their money back (if they paid already).  The buyer can still leave you feedback and it affects your seller rating. 

I'm you may be able make a second-chance offer to another bidder if you cancel an order...but I would avoid cancelling orders.  I had to do it once: I made a mistake in the listing and didn't catch it until the auction ended.  A $1 item was going to cost over $15 to ship.  I explained things to the buyer and they were angry and left negative feedback 

Unsolicited Advice

I was having a major problem with non paying bidders.  Since I changed my requirements for bidders, I've had only 2 in the last year.

I have as Buyer Requirements:

• Don't have a PayPal account
• Have received 2 unpaid item strike(s) within 12 month(s)/li]
  
  • Have 4 policy violation report(s) within 1 month(s)/li]
    
    • Have a feedback score equal to or lower than -1
    
    I stated in my listing that I expect payment in 24 hrs.
    
    When I haven't rec'd payment in 48 hrs., I send an invoice with a comment "This is a reminder that payment is due.  If you need additional time to pay, please let me know in the next 24 hrs."
    
    (I mean, if someone needs add'l time, I'm always willing to make reasonable accommodations.)
    
    If there's been no payment and no reply from the buyer, I open a case.  In all, this gives a buyer 7 days to send payment.
    

[/list][/list]

[svleonard]

OK, two more questions....

1. If you file a nonpaying bidder case and they never pay, can you still leave them negative feedback?

2. If a buyer never responds to the case and never pays, do they automatically get an "unpaid item strike" as mentioned above?

[LittleSpiffy]

1. If you file a nonpaying bidder case and they never pay, can you still leave them negative feedback?:  No.  Once a case is opened (or closed), no feedback can be left by either party.

2. If a buyer never responds to the case and never pays, do they automatically get an "unpaid item strike" as mentioned above?  Yes.

[svleonard]

Thanks, Little Spiffy

[LadyMoondancer]

You will never be able to leave negative or neutral feedback on a buyer, eBay no longer allows it.

[svleonard]

You will never be able to leave negative or neutral feedback on a buyer, eBay no longer allows it.

WHAT?  That's not fair!  What if you have a bad experience with a buyer? Or if a buyer leaves you negative feedback for a ridiculous reason and the only way you have to alert others is to leave back feedback?

[Keemax]

Accidentally hit 'Quote' when I tried to fix a typo. Ignore this, please.

But, yes, the only thing ebay allows you to do is report the buyer.

[tulagirl]

Yea it doesn't really matter what kind  of problem you have had with a buyer ebay doesn't allow any negatives or neutral feedbacks for buyer period.  You also can't leave what is called a false positive.  You can't complain about the buyer within a positive feedback.  That will be removed by ebay.  So, basically one has to assume from this that ebay is more concerned about problems with sellers and seller reputation than problems with buyers and buyer reputation.  An unpaid item strike really doesn't hurt a buyer unless they have mountains of them. It was my understanding there was a huge loss of bidding and when ebay looked into why it was due to undeserved, retaliatory negative feedback which made the bidding environment uncomfortable for buyers.    I do understand how that feels.  I had some seller leave me a negative feedback once due to the fact that I asked a question and didn't respond back after it was answered.  "Like what?"  The feedback was removed but it was stuff like this that made this rule happen.