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Hi, so far I have been lucky never to have a buyer not paid for an item. Last Sunday, I put up a $5.00 t-shirt and it sold with BIN in a few hours, buyer had a feedback of (4),Positive,payment to be made in 5 days, Friday the 14. Still no contact. Not a big deal $5.00, but I have not dealt with this before, and its not worth this guy giving me a Neg. How long should I wait? Do I send an invoice? Maybe he's sending M.O., but no contact yet. My auction stated contact me in 3 days for payment arrangements. I'm not real worried about $5.00, it principal/ebay cost. Thanks for any help. Donna #2
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You can just let it ride and see what happens (as you say, it's only five bucks). You could also resend the invoice and give him a deadline of x-amount of days to contact you with his intentions.

But if and when you get to the point that you want to be done with it and relist the item you can file the Unpaid Item Dispute. Sometimes the UID will get that payment sent in. And if the buyer doesn't respond to the dispute then that's that.

Like you say, a money order could be on its way but you're within your rights to start that UID right now if you wanted to because he's already violated the terms of your listing.
Rick, Thanks for your quick reply! I think I'll send a FRIENDLY reminder invoice frist, then go on from there. I just don't want this guy to turned around and give me a negative, if I give him one for not paying, I really don't want to give him one, but I think its only fair to warn other sellers, what do you think? how can it be fair for a non-paying buyer to neg a seller, when they did not pay? I don't understand that policy on ebay. Thanks for your help! Donna #2
Here is what I do:

When the auction ends, I have an auto generated email that tells the customer I would like payment or "contact me with payment arrangements" within 5 days. On the 6th day, I will send an invoice with a friendly reminder. On the 7th day, I will send it again and say that I will report the item as unpaid in 24 hours. On the next day, I report the item to eBay.

Wait the full course of the process before you file a negative, just my advice.
The feedback issue is a tough one. On the one hand, honest feedback is helpful to other eBay users. On the other hand a neg almost guarantees a retaliatory neg.

Some people will say they don't worry about getting negs but my guess is most of those people have enough feedback that it just doesn't matter any more (that's not me, yet).

But, of course, feedback is entirely voluntary and, really, if you file a UID and the buyer never pays then that strike will do much more damage than a neg in his feedback.
quote:
Originally posted by Rick Bradford:
On the other hand a neg almost guarantees a retaliatory neg.

if you file a UID and the buyer never pays then that strike will do much more damage than a neg in his feedback.


I hate to disagree with my buddy Rick, but I've dished out at least 5 negs and never got one in retaliation. If you bide your time and don't give them out in haste, you will probably be fine.

You can also look at the buyer's FB, and if they already have a bunch of recent negs, you could just skip leaving one yourself and consider other seller's warned.

I do agree that a Unpaid Item strike is way more damaging than negative feedback, and can even get the buyer booted. Also, if they don't respond to your UID, they can't leave you feedback at all.
Hello all, Just putting my 2 cents in here..we all do things differently and it all helps to give us good ideas.
I always allow my buyers 10 days to either pay or contact me with their intentions..Ive only had one non pay ever since ive been selling and they did eventually pay after a month went by.
I wait 3 or 4 days..if no pay or no intentions sent..I send another invoice with a reminder plus I send a reminder from my personal email account just incase they arent getting their ebay email for some reason.

If after 10 days I hear nothing, I send out another invoice stating that payment is past due and that they have 3 days to make payment or contact me or the item will be relisted, a non paying bidder form will be filed with ebay, and negative feedback will be left. If that doesnt garnish a response...I usually just relist the item and file the non paying bidder form and call it a day. To me it just isnt worth possibly getting a negative feedback by leaving them one. It cost me 70 to 90 cents to list an item in most cases so I just let it go and relist.

Also I just want to say I hate the feedback deal. For something that is purely voluntary it sure makes a hell of a difference in whether someone will buy from you or not. I myself wont buy from anyone with less than 98%. I think if someone wants to leave a negative feedback on someone else,they should have to go through a review and approval process from ebay. There needs to be some sort of medium to insure that people dont just leave bad feedback out of anger. Just my thoughts! Smile
quote:
I hate to disagree with my buddy Rick, but I've dished out at least 5 negs and never got one in retaliation.


Lucky you! Actually, I don't have much personal experience as I've only given one neg (for a deserving NPB) and for that one I received retaliation. But I hear quite often how retaliatory negs are almost a given and it seems pretty likely to me. I suppose there are other factors -- like if you wait until the last second maybe they won't have time to "return the favor" or maybe if you wait long enough they won't consider it worth their time to respond. Who knows.

quote:
Also, if they don't respond to your UID, they can't leave you feedback at all.


Actually, that's half right, as I understand it. I believe the deal is that if they don't respond to the UID then they can still leave feedback and it will show up but it won't have the neg icon and it won't count against your score.

Which is just as good because a calm, factual response to the feedback left will negate whatever negative comments they have.
I agree with all, that sufficient time must be given to the customer to either have sent money order, or make payment, especially toward a weekend when they get paid on friday. I would have sent them an invoice of actual amount owed so they have it in hand. I would send another say at 7 days or so. If I have not heard anything from the customer then I would auto file with ebay NPB. Likely you may not get paid, since the customer has a (4) feedback and usually I have the most trouble from low feedback buyers. If I could block feedback 20 and below automatically, I would. If the transaction goes south even after you ebay filed, let ebay give them the strike, you get your sold item fees back, let the listing fees go and do not give them a negative. They will likely give you one back. I never give negatives or neutrals to anyone first. I always give a negative back for a negative or a neutral given. I'm into positives. Hopefully I have nothing but customers who are also positive, but we run into the negative ones from time to time anyway and there is no getting around that.
Always!, for a negative and a neutral. Did I deserve it. Maybe in their eyes. The vast majority came from low feedback connesseurs(mispell)of ebay buying. If from someone with highfeedback, then the likelyhood of them wanting mutual retraction is willingly available. I do not pull the trigger first. They have to in all cases. They can buy first, then pay quickly, then give positive feedback first and all is well. I get the sale, send the shipment, "then" get the money and give the positive for a positive. All is well.
Thanks all for your input!!! I think everyone should have a chance on ebay, low FB or high, we all started at "0". This guy had only a "4" but his FB, was a fast payer! And this guy lives no more than 20 miles from me! He could just bring it over! HA. He has not paid yet.. 10 days! Including shipping, this item is $9.97. This was a BIN item, so I don't understand how you can forget about it. I have his phone#, but I do not want to really call him. How 'bout dropping a postcard reminder? I am not worried about $10 bucks. I am just a very understanding person, maybe his computer blew up! Who knows? Only one other time a person with low FB, was slow paying..I waited and they finally paid..I did give them a positive after they did me, just a thank-you, nothing special FB. And I love to give great FB. I have NO negs..and 1 netural...this guy gave me no chance to fix problem, had low FB. I am thinking If he doesn't pay..I could wait till 90 days were up..give him a neg then..and then he can't return, am I right? you have 90 days to give FB? Don't want to be mean, just want to warn others, if he won't pay a $10 item, he's surely to not pay higher items, IMO.

Thanks for everyone's advice!!!
Donna #2
You really have an obligation to get the buyer to pay you or they are a shirker. They made a contract with ebay to pay for an auction that they won. You made an abligation to ebay to try to get paid to settle the contract. Never heard of sending someone a card, since you have email. If they are not paying up. You are obligated to file with ebay for nonpaying bidder. This usually disloges them into paying.

Maybe you are afraid that they will give you a negative because you tried to get paid for an auction that they won and said they would pay for, but decided they didn't feel like paying for. I tried the waiting just up to the 90 days to catch them just right and it never worked. 90 days is a long time and you will likely forgive them the nonpayment and let them go as myself and others have. Ebay has the system to get paid, its just a matter of using it. I use it all the time now since I got used to simple system it is. I hope this helps.
quote:
Always!, for a negative and a neutral. Did I deserve it. Maybe in their eyes. The vast majority came from low feedback connesseurs(mispell)of ebay buying. If from someone with highfeedback, then the likelyhood of them wanting mutual retraction is willingly available. I do not pull the trigger first. They have to in all cases. They can buy first, then pay quickly, then give positive feedback first and all is well. I get the sale, send the shipment, "then" get the money and give the positive for a positive. All is well.


Wow. I take back everything I ever said about the feedback system being flawed.

Daddyo, what's your eBay ID again?
Sorry, not giving it out, but there is always a way around everything, including ebay defunct feedback system. It takes time to figure it out though. Currently I have a 99% feedback. It sat at 99.1% for a long time. I have 3600 or so feedbacks, with 7800 sells, and in actuality over 10,000 transactions since so many do not leave feedback at all. You can make some of the people happy some of the time, but you cannot make all the people happy all the time........Just the way it is.

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