eBay Deadbeats

[california]

I've had two large transactions in a row go sour. On the first one the guy didn't communicate for a week then he sent a message saying he was sorry, he thought he'd have the money when the auction ended, the 2nd on didn't communicate at all. Neither got back to me either after I threatened negative feedback or or after I posted negative feedback (buyer #1 accumulated a couple of negatives at the same time).

What is with these guys? You tie an item up for 10 day in an auction, then if they don't perform you have to wait another 7 days before relisting or offering a 2nd chance. That means if a first auction goes bad it can take more than four weeks to sell something.

Has anyone else experienced this? Ebay needs to let sellers post a maximum time limit for payment.

 

[ajgorman]

Cal,

Whenever I sell an item (not very often), I put in the terms that immediate payment is required (encouraged by eBay). So far...knock on wood...I have not had a problem. Of late I also require a PayPal account and only accept PayPal and this has worked well...eliminates the "insincere shoppers"... :twisted:

 

[california]

You can state immediate payment required but there is little you can do to enforce it, as eBay doesn't let you take action until after seven days have elapsed. By then second chance bidders get cold and you have to start the whole process all over again.

 

[GuildFS4612CE]

Some one suggested to me that "some sellers" use this technique as one way to knock out the competition. I don't know. But nothing would surprise me. Did notice a whole lot of competition suddenly came up when the first listing was temporarily pulled...opportunists? Maybe.

Sorry to hear it happened to you twice, David.

 

[The General]

Sorry to hear about you problem. I have dealing with Ebay for over 8 years or more and find the vast majority of people (like 98%) of them are great. It's just dealing with that 2 % of people that are a pain in the butt. I'm not sure how to deal with the 2 %. You got any ideas? Maybe we could line them all against the wall and shoot paint balls at them or something! :lol:

Martin

 

[john_kidder]

the vast majority of [eBay] people (like 98%) of them are great. It's just dealing with that 2 % of people that are a pain in the butt.

Same experience here - mine with lousy sellers - it's always the 2%, no matter what the activity, that do the rest of the honest campers in.

 

[bdeclee]

Hey David,
I've seen sellers resort to other qualifications in their listings, such as not permitting users with any negative feedback to bid, or not allowing users with 0 feedback to bid, etc. I am seeing that more and more as a way to weed out deadbeats; perhaps that would work for you.

I also like the idea of Paypal only. If someone takes the time and trouble to sign up for an account, even an unverified one, they perhaps may be more serious in their bidding.

Cheers,
Barbara

P.S. Guitar may arrive today! Although we're expecting 6-8 inches of snow...let's see how UPS does.

 

[RussD]

About 1/3 of my wife's antique business is conducted on eBay. While the unpaid process doesn't kick in until 7 days, we state in the desciption boilerplate that "Failure to contact us with shipping address or to respond to invoices within 72 hours will result in a "2nd chance" to the next highest bidder."

eBay's been good to us: her business' feedback is 99.9% on 1017 feedbacks. I wish that we all encountered only one jerk in every thousand people we meet!

 

[california]

Hey David,
I've seen sellers resort to other qualifications in their listings, such as not permitting users with any negative feedback to bid, or not allowing users with 0 feedback to bid, etc. I am seeing that more and more as a way to weed out deadbeats; perhaps that would work for you.

I also like the idea of Paypal only. If someone takes the time and trouble to sign up for an account, even an unverified one, they perhaps may be more serious in their bidding.

Cheers,
Barbara

P.S. Guitar may arrive today! Although we're expecting 6-8 inches of snow...let's see how UPS does.

All well and good, but buyers don't always play by your rules. Here is what is starting to look like example #3. I sold an amp yesterday. There were no bids, the winner jumped in at the last minute and --surprise surprise -- he has no feedback despite my stating specifically that I wasn't accepting zero feedback bids. And also, to no surprise, no contact from the winner as yet. If the guy was lurking around that late in the auction to bid, you know he was there when I sent the invoice. eBay isn't going to let people with zero feed back not bid, if they did they would not get any new customers. Just because they have a PayPal account doesn't mean they're going to use it. It seems to me eBay needs to let you take the extra steop by having a provision that allows for automatic debit to a paypal account at the conclusiion of an auction -- they can put a check box on the bid page where the buyer acknowledges they are paying the moment they win.

6-8 inches of snow -- a perfect day to try out your new 12-string! As hard as it may seem to do, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to let the guitar sit in its case for a few hours before opening the box to acclimate it room temperature to avoid finish checking from an abrupt temperature change... or you could open it up outside in the snow! D

 

[guildzilla]

I've been really lucky with e-Bay buyers, but the laws of probabilities will catch up eventually. The only bad experience on my end was a zero feedback bidder with no intention to buy hitting the BIN on the second guitar I tried to sell last December. The time wasted on that one was minimal because the same guy screwed about 10 others sellers the same week, which e-Bay recognized immediately.

What I have done, however, is tend to list guitars as BIN or Best Offer. It has worked for me possibly because it gets communication rolling between buyer and seller, allowing the seller to scratch and sniff a little during the listing period. Also tends to speed things to a conclusion. The downside is that you don't get the runaway bidding that really brings top dollar (as on Cal's record Bluesbird auction).

For whatever reason, the Guild guitars I have sold BIN/BO have strongly tended to go to guys in the demographic group so common here on LTG - 50-somethings, affluent, responsible, not impulsive. Again, it could be just pure luck.

 

[Mr_LV-19E]

For whatever reason, the Guild guitars I have sold BIN/BO have strongly tended to go to guys in the demographic group so common here on LTG - 50-somethings, affluent, responsible, not impulsive. Again, it could be just pure luck.

Are you calling me affluent ? responsible? not impulsive? Boy you got me all wrong, you got the 50-something right. :mrgreen:

 

[california]

Here is what is starting to look like example #3. I sold an amp yesterday. There were no bids, the winner jumped in at the last minute and --surprise surprise -- he has no feedback despite my stating specifically that I wasn't accepting zero feedback bids. And also, to no surprise, no contact from the winner as yet. If the guy was lurking around that late in the auction to bid, you know he was there when I sent the invoice.

Credit where credit is due! While I was writing this rant, the buyer was depositing the downpayment on my wife's Christmas present in my PayPal account -- he now has 100% perfect feedback, all from me.

 

[Mr_LV-19E]

Maybe we could line them all against the wall and shoot paint balls at them or something! :lol:

Martin

We could line them up against the wall and force them to listen to me play and sing. If they were still living after I finished, they'd walk the straight and narrow.

 

[BluesDan]

I've been an ebay member since 2000, with about 500 transactions during that time, mostly buying, but a few sales. Out of those 500 transactions, I've only had two that I had to bring to dispute status with Ebay. The first was a motorcycle helmet that was listed as DOT approved and it turned out it wasn't. Seller was unreasonable and refused refund. I took it to the "Court of Ebay", pleaded my case, presented evidence (no DOT sticker on helmet) and was promptly refunded my purchase price in full upon return of the helmet to seller. My monetary cost was nothing but I did suffer my one and only negative feedback from the shady seller as retaliation. Recently I had a Nextel phone up for sale, last second of auction someone snipes it at 125 bucks. Low feedback with a couple of negatives on their resume. Bad feeling. Sure enough, 10 minutes after auction ended, the buyer is listed as "No longer registered user". Why someone would do this, I have no clue. I originally suspected that a kid may have bid without parental consent, but the "eliminate the competition" theory is interesting, there were several other same model phones ending around the same time. Anyway, I contacted ebay, under reason for requesting refund of my listing fee, I clicked on "Buyer no longer registered" and was instantly refunded. Had to deal with hassle of re-list, but no big deal. Phone actually ended up selling for 25 bucks more. So I consider a 0.4% negative experience percentage over 8 years to be acceptable. As I now knock wood............ :wink:

 

[ajgorman]

You can also pre-select several bidder parameter boxes that allow you to qualify and screen bidders automatically, feedback, etc. All of these things definitely help to mitigate deadbeats, but in the end if it's a dishonest person or someone without integrity they will find a way to get to you.

I had one winning bidder a few months ago that told me he was bidding only to "help me out and get the price higher". I have to confess that was a new one on me. Perhaps he was a few beers down or whatever when he bid, but I told him either pay or I would send negative feedback and report to eBay. He quickly paid as he wanted to keep his feedback rating intact. To my amazement I saw the next morning he had listed the guitar for sale - copying my text, using stock pictures from somewhere, without even having the guitar in his possession! :shock: :twisted: I have probably just been lucky so far.

 

[walrus]

I've been lucky. Only two issues: A trip to the Dispute Console (buyer argued about the size of a German helmet!), and I bought a guitar that had an unadvertised neck reset.

Overall, though, my experience has been positive.

walrus

 

[GuildFS4612CE]

Sure enough, 10 minutes after auction ended, the buyer is listed as "No longer registered user"... Anyway, I contacted ebay, under reason for requesting refund of my listing fee, I clicked on "Buyer no longer registered" and was instantly refunded.

Say, David, any chance our now multi-negative "buyer" will become no longer registered?

Not having had a Fleabay sellers account, I'm kind of learning on the fly here. While I have no doubt the statements regarding the necessity for waiting 7 days, etc, are accurate, I suspect there must be some way around a lot of it.

Just to note, the 1969 F312 listed by that dealer as BRAZ multiple times, and, finally, sold recently, was previously listed and "sold" and within a couple of days or so the listing was back up with no explanation...so there must be something we honest people don't know to get around that requirement.

Some of the suggestions in this thread sound useful. Perhaps Fleabay allows them but doesn't "personally" take the "responsibility". Hopefully we can use some of them to reduce the risk when putting my guitar back up, hopefully in time to appear under someones tree. :mrgreen:

Guess at this time of year the Xmas crazies are out in force. :roll: :twisted:

 

[BluesDan]

Say, David, any chance our now multi-negative "buyer" will become no longer registered?

..so there must be something we honest people don't know to get around that requirement

Hi GFS........If the buyer suddenly comes up as "No Longer a Registered User" I can state with certainty that there is no waiting period to re-list and my listing fee was credited immediately. I re-listed the item the next day. Only endured the aggravation of wanting to choke the deadbeat would-be buyer. :evil:

 

[Scratch]

Got one going right now fellas. I bought a 1971 F212nt from 'Louis' who listed the guitar in Oct/Nov on our LTG ebay/Craigslist thread '1971 guild acoustic f212 nt on ebay'. He's had my $1K+ now for over two weeks. Claims he sent the guitar but does not have the tracking number. Won't return my phone calls.

I found his blog web site: http://louis.burgh.googlepages.com/ and told him I'm running very short on patience. Lives in Saugerties NY. I'll keep you posted.

 

[BluesDan]

Got one going right now fellas. I bought a 1971 F212nt from 'Louis' who listed the guitar in Oct/Nov on our LTG ebay/Craigslist thread '1971 guild acoustic f212 nt on ebay'. He's had my $1K+ now for over two weeks. Claims he sent the guitar but does not have the tracking number. Won't return my phone calls.

I found his blog web site: http://louis.burgh.googlepages.com/ and told him I'm running very short on patience. Lives in Saugerties NY. I'll keep you posted.

Good luck Scratch. Hope it works out for you. If I recall his listings on this site, they did seem a little "pushy" or desparate maybe?? Wasn't he the one with some kind of sob story???