Back to what I was ranting about though. I don't know about other online auction sellers, but when I wait seven days for an auction to finish only to have the user who won not pay, I see that as a tremendous waste of my time (not to mention the listing fees :-/)
eBay's steps for dealing with this are made clear to all sellers:
- We are to try to contact the buyer first and work out an agreement. This feels so much like bill collecting to me. I always try to contact the buyer first. I've never gotten a response before. I have even been confronted with the footnote of death that says "This person is no longer a registered eBay user." Go figure!
- If we still don't recieve a payment we are to file an unpaid item dispute with eBay, during which we are still encouraged to continue trying to contact the buyer (in other words, keep bill collecting). In my opinion, filing a dispute accomplishes nothing. In the time it takes to be able to close it, I could have physically WALKED to the buyers house to ask them, "Dude, why didn't you pay me!" This has also never resulted in a payment for me (the dispute, not the walking.)
- Lastly if none of this solves the issue, then we are to close the dispute, hopefully get our final value fees back, and are fully entitled to relist the item and leave negative feedback to the buyer (provided they are even an eBay member anymore).
Psst, here's a secret: I've never left negative feedback for anyone. I'm just too nice to do it. In the eBay world, negative feedback is considered the ultimate punishment for a transaction gone badly. I have yet to ever wield that hammer.
I've wanted to many times. But then I think, what if the person is really in a financial bind? What if their kid is in the hospital? What if there're in jail? What if they died?!? The Internet to too anonymous to know for sure.
And so I simply cut my losses, click "relist", and move on...
Are any of my readers eBay users? How do you handle that sitch?
Posted in: Working From Home
2 comments:
It's been awhile since I've sold on eBay, but I also tried not to leave negative feedback. As far as I can remember, there has never been a time when I had an unresolved dispute. I think of it like this: It's a business and the other person also doesn't know what you have going on so they should have the same respect. I would try not to leave totally negative, but I would make it clear that it was totally unappreciated. Know what I mean?
Good luck with future sales.
I don't sell on ebay but I do buy from it. One time I purchased an item only to not be able to pay for it. I was trying to use my Amex card but they only wanted cash through paypal and normally you can still use your credit card through paypal but for some reason I couldn't on this transaction. I contacted the seller to let them know. They never got back to me but I kept getting emails asking me to pay for the item. They never left negative feedback, thank God. It's probably a good thing you don't and it's really lame if someone bids on something and then just decides not to pay. But I bet there are people who enjoy doing just that.
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