Non-paying Ebay auction winner – WWSTW do?

Now that Ebay have got rid of all the selling fees, I decided to sell a bunch of old iPhones that had been sat gathering dust – they all sold easily and for more than I expected (over £100 for one XS)! However, an older phone (7) sold once and the buyer asked me to cancel the sale, which I did. It sold again at the weekend but the buyer is refusing to buy it because the screen ‘is broken’. It isn’t broken, it just has a couple of quite noticeable scratches on it – the pictures clearly showed as much and it was clearly written in the description. I have responded, reminding them as such but they are still refusing to pay.

It’s no big deal and I don’t need the £32 he owes, but I’m a bit miffed so is there anything I can do? Can I leave feedback / report him etc (I haven’t used Ebay in years and it’s nothing like it used to be and I can’t find out what redress I may have).

Non paying bidder strike to get your fees back and relist. You don’t want to send to them anyway as they could just cause hassle later and eBay might refund them and you’ll lose out

There are no fees any more, – but I can’t find a ‘non-paying bidder’ option. I also can’t relist it as they haven’t actually requested a cancellation (which they have to do), they just messaged me.

Report buyer and set your account to block those who have previous reports. Add that particular buyer to your own blocked list.

Whatever you do don’t sent it to him now, he’ll make up some BS excuse to return it and eBay will side with him.

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It’s petty, but when I get one of these I write them a very polite letter (eBay gives you their address) saying that if they see something they really don’t want to buy please don’t bid on it as it can be rather annoying for the seller and all the other serious bidders. I then post it without a stamp on it so they then have to take the little card to the post office and pay £1.75 to be given a letter asking them to stop wasting my time.

One ‘buyer’ got really cross about this, more so when he discovered that he couldn’t even me grumpy feedback as he hadn’t technically bought anything.

It’s petty, but when I get one of these I write them a very polite letter (eBay gives you their address) saying that if they see something they really don’t want to buy please don’t bid on it as it can be rather annoying for the seller and all the other serious bidders. I then post it without a stamp on it so they then have to take the little card to the post office and pay £1.75 to be given a letter asking them to stop wasting my time.

That is weapon-grade petty – I love it LOL!!!

There are no fees any more, – but I can’t find a ‘non-paying bidder’ option. I also can’t relist it as they haven’t actually requested a cancellation (which they have to do), they just messaged me

Go into sold items, click the three little dots and select cancel. The relist option will then appear

I think phones are always a pain. I very rarely have any bother with ebay transactions but almost all the times when I have involved mobiles.  Part of the problem is its the kind of item where both the buyer and the seller are equally wary of being diddled and therefore likley to get nervous and pull out of the deal for the slightest reason (or no reason)

It’s no big deal and I don’t need the £32 he owes

Put yourself in their shoes though. Someone who’s only got £32 to spend on a phone and is perhaps nervous about even spending that. It might be a bigger deal for them.

One ‘buyer’ got really cross about this, more so when he discovered that he couldn’t even me grumpy feedback as he hadn’t technically bought anything

Out of interest, how do you know he got really cross? Did he send you an unstamped letter back? I’m imagining a long series of comedy unstamped letters to each other!

Out of interest, how do you know he got really cross? Did he send you an unstamped letter back? I’m imagining a long series of comedy unstamped letters to each other!

The ‘buyer’ won’t have andrewh’s postal address, unless andrewh was extremely polite and formatted the letter with his own address. Even though person hasn’t become a buyer, they can still message via eBay unless you block them.

@andrewh, chapeau on the letter action. I’ll try and remember that one. Makes a change from signing them up to ‘interesting’ mailing lists.

andrewh is my new idol.  Superb!

In the app on iPad you can go into the item and click the arrow next to the remind buyer and select relist.

 I then post it without a stamp on it so they then have to take the little card to the post office and pay £1.75 to be given a letter asking them to stop wasting my time.

Standard Royal Mail charge is £5 now I think for non paid postage letters…

Related story: I had to shift a patio heater that was an unwanted present, my so put it on eBay, collection only. Someone bought and paid for it, then immediately requested to cancel, with no explanation of any kind – this was before they scrapped fees, and I’d listed it when there was 80% off our whatever, so relisting would have cost me actual money.

After a few days, I sent a message asking why they’d cancelled it. If they’d said sorry, I made a mistake I would have grumbled, cancelled it and moved on. But I got a reply that just said my wife decided she didn’t like it. That was it. I was so annoyed, I just left it, assuming when the request to cancel timed out, eBay would refund them but a few days of the money sitting on my account would annoy them slightly. Petty, I know.

But when the offer expired, nothing happened, which was a bit of a shock, because I had the guy’s money, and he had a legit reason to ask for my address. I could have cancelled it myself at this point, but instead I left it. After 10 days or so, I had a message asking when it could be collected. We arranged a collection time, a dejected-looking middle-aged bloke turned up, I showed him how to confirm the collection (not falling for that one) and he took it away. Hard to know how it could have been more awkward.

set your account to block those who have previous reports

That sounds good. How do we do that? Ta.

Put yourself in their shoes though. Someone who’s only got £32 to spend on a phone and is perhaps nervous about even spending that. It might be a bigger deal for them.

Shouldn’t have f’kn bid on it then.

That sounds good. How do we do that? Ta.

Go to account, selling preferences, it’s in there somewhere. Only works on my laptop though, there’s fewer options on my telephone. Also only works if everyone uses the ‘report buyer‘ bit.

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Just had a cancellation request. I’ll be doing another petty letter tomorrow. Why do they do that, bid right at the end and then cancel ten minutes later?

I’m assuming a lot of us on here will be selling bike parts so likely a lot of potential buyers in common. Could we all share our own blocked buyers lists and weed out those who others on here have judged to be too much of a pain to deal with? IIRC you can block up to 5,000 accounts.

I think phones are always a pain. I very rarely have any bother with ebay transactions but almost all the times when I have involved mobiles.  Part of the problem is its the kind of item where both the buyer and the seller are equally wary of being diddled and therefore likley to get nervous and pull out of the deal for the slightest reason (or no reason)

‘Cos I tended to keep iPhones for a few years, I never ended up with a bunch of old ones, other than the 4G that’s sitting on top of a DAB radio, one that was in a small bag I accidentally left in a car, traced to London but never got back, although I bricked it anyway, and one, an iPhone 6 IIRC that’s still sitting around somewhere. Every one subsequently has been handed back when I’ve upgraded, and I’m on O2’s Switch Up program, so I get a brand new phone every year. The phones I send back are pristine, with around 98% battery life, so someone somewhere gets effectively a brand new iPhone for a discount. Everyone wins.

I’m assuming a lot of us on here will be selling bike parts so likely a lot of potential buyers in common. Could we all share our own blocked buyers lists and weed out those who others on here have judged to be too much of a pain to deal with? IIRC you can block up to 5,000 accounts.

Or just do what I have done for the last ten years and sell Buy It Now with Payment Required immediately.  Completely removes possibility of non paying winners.  Okay you have to set the price but just set high for a week and then lower until someone buys it.

You can’t force a winner to pay and non payers waste time so the above option removes that hassle.

So I gave up and reported the buyer – when I submitted the ‘Report’ button, it just took me to a page to relist the phone. I have no idea if the individual was actually been reported. Ahh well.

I sold a old car (it was about 8 years ago so things might have changed, and the OP has cancelled now but stilll…) and somebody in the next village won for £360. I contacted her and offered to drive it over – she replied that she didn’t need it, as she bought it for her son and then found out he doesn’t have a driving licence! She wouldn’t pay, or cancel her bid, so I reported her to eBay and they gave her a week before I could cancel without penalty and relist. Was a pain as the delay took it past the month end (tax) and the insurance renewal, fortunately the winner on the relist was £450.

I do wonder if there is a certain type of person more likely to be encountered on sites like ebay while selling phones, rather than most other items.

I sold one earlier this year. Buyer then started bombarding me with requests for a partial refund due to some supposed damage. So I said return it, or get it repaired and I will pay the repair cost. I then received several forged receipts for repair work, so reported him. When this failed buyer opened a return request with multiple photos as evidence of damage taken from the web, some of totally different damage and clearly android rather than IOS. Despite being sent postage by ebay and failing to return the item they issued a refund. Had to give ebay support quite a flogging to persuade them they had just given a scammer what he wanted and I had done my bit. Got the money back and reported him to Action Fraud. Action Fraud have obvs got bigger fish to fry but did say this goes on all the time and I’d actually done well to get the money back off ebay.

I then post it without a stamp on it so they then have to take the little card to the post office and pay £1.75 to be given a letter asking them to stop wasting my time.

won’t work for everyone- I haven’t taken one of those when I  am not expecting anything to a post office for years, I just ignore them.  Perhaps three in that time?