Sold an Apple Airport Extreme on ebay on Sunday.

Winning bidder now says it’s a model that doesn’t work with his Virgin hub. He tries to back out, and suggests offering a 2nd chance offer sale.

I tell him ‘yes’ if he makes up the difference between his and the lower bid (it was only £5).

It then goes quiet. I open a case against him.

I don’t really want to waste my time chasing him, but also don’t want to be charged 10% of a non-sale.

How to proceed?

Cancel transaction & move on.

2nd chance sale it.

Yeap, accept it grudgingly, enter a non-paying bidder thingy and you’ll get a free re-list. Any watchers of the first auction will be notified so you’ve got an instant audience. While its a pain when it happens I usually find things sell for more second time round.

If you’ve opened a non-payment case eBay will refund you the final sale fee when the case is closed.

Does anyone else find there are more and more timewasters & chancers on eBay these days?

You’ve got their address. Post them a turd in a jiffy bag!

Not if they haven’t paid LOG.
.
I think it all started to go wrong when you stopped being able to leave negative feedback for buyers. Why? Some buyers need it.

I tell him ‘yes’ if he makes up the difference between his and the lower bid (it was only £5).

Nice. Sell to next bidder and move on.

You’ve got their address. Post them a turd in a jiffy bag!

Log a complaint

Either relist or second chance it, not worth the aggro to try to pursue it IMO. You can’t force the guy to buy it.

Could be worse, at least he backed out before you posted it.

Agree with AndrewH. Never had any problem for years and then I had two buyers fail to pay in quick succession. Muppets.

Same boat – 100 flawless transactions, problems with ebay? That’s something that happens to other people, then one bellend pulls out of a winning bid and it’s like a switch has been flipped. Recent selling has included a brass-necked scammer, 2 x non-paying bidders and 2 x hagglers on the doorstep for local collection.
The big feedback change seemed like lunacy, but not being a massive ebayer I’d always assumed that was some underlying reason for it that made sense. Has it all gone to shit because of this, or is that just confirmation bias?

it’s got a whole lot worse recently in my experience too. 1000+ positive sales and purchases up until last month; since then I’ve had two scammers (buy item. receive item, then email me asking for 75% refund with spurious reasons (imaginary marks on brand new item or that they’re not what they wanted or expected) otherwise “sadly they’ll be forced to leave neg. feedback”. And a lot more in the way of non-paying bidders too – people just refusing to answer msgs once they’ve won.

I’ve just got a couple of bits listed, once they’re done that’s me finished I think.

I’ve stopped selling on eBay now-I reckon that about 20% are non payers. Last time that I sold stuff, a jersey that I posted went missing this was during the snow chaos this year-four days after posting the buyer opened a dispute! I just refunded him the fiver within a few hours of this and told him to send me back the jersey if/when it turned up. He then left me negative feedback. Cock.

I believe you can get unfair need back revoked. Also if they threaten to leave negative if you don’t do as they say its classed as feedback extortion. I think you need to ring ebay and speak to them in these cases though.

Just had a bidder change his mind after winning an item, first one in ages… So I rang him after sending an invoice reminder (twice) and asked if he was going to pay for the item, he just dismissed me and said “nah i’ve changed my mind”… So if you get a bidder called jashans85 he is a 1st class time waster IME. I would love to be able to leave him negative feedback but can’t… Unpaid item case already opened.

It has got worse recently. My girlfriend sold a brand new handbag the buyer decided it was fake and set up a dispute on eBay, then the buyer contacted the manufacturer about the bag. The buyer didnt know my girlfriend works for the manufacturer as was simply selling off an unwanted bonus, despite being told by head office the bag was legit and she was an employee he carried on the disputed for weeks it became comical when the bag then described as ‘arrived damaged’. Had loads of chancers since then, sold a Wacom tablet and buyer claimed I didn’t post the pen so wanted a part refund etc. had 180 easy transactions till recently.

BOMBERS!

rarely have a problem (522 feedback)

But just sold a VW T4 wing mirror motor – had listed as £15, free p&p BIN, got a request for £10, so I said £10 + 1st class @ £3 or 2nd class @ £2.60 BIN.

Chappie buys it for £10 and then requests invoice amount for shipping to Dubai! ****! No international postage offered on the listing but he’s allowed to bid because his location address is UK. I might have considered it if I could find Dubai on the Post Office Price Finder, but it doesnt exist apparently. Have emailed him this morning to say that it can only be sent to his registered UK address. Its a pain to have time wasted over such a small thing too.

Yes, now that sellers are unable to leave negative feedback, everything is far too weighted towards the buyer and there’s no penalty to stop buyers changing their mind after winning an item. In my experience, after the auction, the fever has died down and the other bidders have largely lost interest, or think there must be something wrong with the item.

I wonder what would happen in a real world auction if I told them I’d changed my mind and didn’t want the item any more?…

You can pursue for an unpaid item strike. Please do… I always do this because I don’t want that person perpetuating the practice.

Buyers that make a habit of this with more than 2 (I think) unpaid item strikes can be blocked by anybody but Ebay don’t really advertise that feature so I don’t think many sellers are aware of it.

My OH sold a bunch of stuff recently, one of the buyers was in my home town. Figured I’d be nice, drove across to the other side of town and hand-delivered it so that it turned up two days early.

Buyer pissed and moaned that she’d been charged delivery. I was ready to invoice her for my time at £20/hour and travel at 45p/mile, but my OH refunded the charge before I got chance. Grr, argh.

Seriously, you’re going to go through a load of crap over a fiver ?

Forget it…

Unpaid or 2nd chance at a loss and move on, it’s a pain and annoying but best not to stress in the long run .. whats the alternative: car boot sale (sigh)

Ditto:

I don’t ebay a lot (300+ transactions) but been doing it for almost 10 years. The last 18 months I’ve been suffering a 25-33% ‘error’ rate on non response/having to chase payment or people bidding ‘accidentally’.
For the ‘accidental’ bidders I always point out it’s about a 3 stage confirmation process to put a bid on in the first place.

I’ve recently learnt you can set buyer requirements .. i.e. select number of unpaid items cases they’ve had in recent months, where their registered address in a country you do/don’t post to, minimum feedback unless credit card on file (instant payment) all that malarky. It’s right near the bottom of the listing page next to where you can set whether to accept returns or not. Doesn’t stop some of the ‘accidentals’ though.

Seems to help though as I recently had someone ask why they weren’t allowed to bid on my item. You went into their feedback and it only show about 20 odd but somewhere else hinted at 40 transactions. They must have had a lot of transactions with issues in the past.

makes up the difference between his and the lower bid (it was only £5)

I don’t understand why you’d expect this!

I recently sold 2 items on eBay, for the first time in about a year or so.

1 auction ended with 2 bids, but it went for what I was hoping so was happy with that.

The other didn’t sell – no bids.

BUT.

Both auctions, after they had ended I had people message me making me offers for the items. Is this a new trend or practice? I had three people message me about the unsold item. Completely defeats the point of eBay!

Both auctions, after they had ended I had people message me making me offers for the items. Is this a new trend or practice?

Not new – could either be:
– scammers
– a good way for you to avoid fees
– or people who were watching, but missed the auction end…

you decide!