Any Ebay sellers? I have a question about a customer situation

[HockeyMomNH]

I had a customer do a best offer on an item. I accepted the offer and then I was contacted a few days later by the buyer. He told me that his nephew had been playing with his laptop and had gotten into his ebay and made the offer. He told me that he did not want the item and that his nephew was not able to pay for it.

Not having been in this situation before, I opened an unpaid item case on the item and then after 4 days I closed the case. I thought that I needed to do this in order to get my fees refunded.

Today, the seller got the notice about the unpaid item and sent me this message

Thanks for putting that on my record I told u it was a accident my 2 year old nephew was playing my iPad he must have pushed buttons it was a accident now that u said I didn't pay for it there are other ways you could have done....

I really have a hard time believing that a two year old signed into ebay and made a reasonable best offer bid on my item.


So, was there some other way that I could have or should closed it? and, is there anything else I should do? Can this buyer leave me bad feedback?

 

[DianeV]

You are right. Its difficult for a child to do a buy it now, let alone make an offer. I dont understand why buyers think sellers are going to keep believing that one.

Unfortunately they can leave a negative and you can just follow up with a factual comment. You did the right thing in my opinion because if you keep letting them get away with things like this they continue doing it.

Its called buyers remorse to me...

 

[Janepod]

What you should do in those scenarios is "cancel transaction." Then no one gets a negative and your fees are refunded. The buyer has to agree to it.

 

[rvchat]

You are right. Its difficult for a child to do a buy it now, let alone make an offer. I dont understand why buyers think sellers are going to keep believing that one.

Unfortunately they can leave a negative and you can just follow up with a factual comment. You did the right thing in my opinion because if you keep letting them get away with things like this they continue doing it.

Its called buyers remorse to me...

Can the buyer leave a negative? There was no transaction done or money paid , was there? so, no comments can be left i thought.....

 

[HockeyMomNH]

You are right. Its difficult for a child to do a buy it now, let alone make an offer. I dont understand why buyers think sellers are going to keep believing that one.

Unfortunately they can leave a negative and you can just follow up with a factual comment. You did the right thing in my opinion because if you keep letting them get away with things like this they continue doing it.

Its called buyers remorse to me...

That's what I though... I might have believed him if he hadn't said his nephew was 2!

Ugg, I hope he doesn't leave me a negative. I have not put any feedback in. I was not sure what I should say, and if that would make things better or worse.

Can the buyer leave a negative? There was no transaction done or money paid , was there? so, no comments can be left i thought.....

I hope that's true. I don't know.

 

[tzeitel]

Actually if they did not respond to the non paying bidder alert they cannot leave FB

I have had several ppl do that to me - I always check their fb and 9/10 times it shows that they have been buying (and paying for) the same item they are trying to have me cancel for them. I do not cancel for the buyer, I always file and get my fees back. if they have a problem I just tell them that for me to get the fees back this is what I have to do. If they reply to the complaint it can be resolved w/o them getting a mark on their record.

On thing I really hate about Ebay is that sellers cannot leave negative feedback - especially for non paying bidders. How can we warn other sellers if not by using the fb system?

 

[HockeyMomNH]

What you should do in those scenarios is "cancel transaction." Then no one gets a negative and your fees are refunded. The buyer has to agree to it.

I started to click through to do that, but it was not clear what would happen if the buyer didn't agree. I did not want to be out the ebay fees. I guess that might have been the way to go.

 

[HockeyMomNH]

Actually if they did not respond to the non paying bidder alert they cannot leave FB

I have had several ppl do that to me - I always check their fb and 9/10 times it shows that they have been buying (and paying for) the same item they are trying to have me cancel for them. I do not cancel for the buyer, I always file and get my fees back. if they have a problem I just tell them that for me to get the fees back this is what I have to do. If they reply to the complaint it can be resolved w/o them getting a mark on their record.

On thing I really hate about Ebay is that sellers cannot leave negative feedback - especially for non paying bidders. How can we warn other sellers if not by using the fb system?

Thanks for this information! It makes me feel better at least.

Your right about the feedback thing. It is really crazy that you can't leave negative.

 

[Madison'smommy]

I am curious if he bid on another similar item when your's was "accidentally" bid on... someone recently withdrew their bid on something my DH was selling saying they accidentally put the wrong price in (it took him 2 days to realize that, apparently) and within like 30 min of retracting his bid, he bought another (similar, but without a signature.. it is a collector item) from someone else.

 

[Yoshi]

On thing I really hate about Ebay is that sellers cannot leave negative feedback - especially for non paying bidders. How can we warn other sellers if not by using the fb system?

Agreed, I know they got rid of the ability for sellers to leave neutrals and negatives for buyers because of some sellers leaving retaliatory negative feedback when the seller's negative was deserved but there are times when the buyer does deserve a negative and it is annoying sellers can't leave negative feedback now.

As an example, years ago a buyer gave me a negative. The reason? I never gave them positive feedback. Needless to say, they got a negative back in return. Or the buyer that left me a neutral that said "Good Transaction," so I left them a neutral as well and the buyer ended up mutually withdrawing the feedback (I don't think that is an option anymore). Then last year I got a negative from someone who moved, had their old address in the Paypal payment, never contacted me or told me they had a new address and then 2 months later, gives me a negative saying I sent it to their old address. I really wanted to give them a negative but the best I could do is get EBay to remove the comment because they put their address in the comment, but they still kept the negative in my score and %.

 

[Lehuaann]

So, was there some other way that I could have or should closed it? and, is there anything else I should do? Can this buyer leave me bad feedback?

Unless he did not respond to the non-paying bidder alert - then he could leave you a negative.

Why not go the route of 'the buyer and seller mutually agree to end transaction' ? This way you get your fees back immediately without an investigation being opened.

This is what I would've done to keep things civil.

Perhaps you could email him back and say that you were trying to recoup your loss fees and filed the process incorrectly. That way he doesn't think you were trying to be ugly with the situation.

 

[DianeV]

It's kind of tough to do the mutually agree to cancel when you know they are lying to you. If you do that then they just keep doing it to other sellers and you hate to feel like you enabled them...but again the feedback thing so I dont know

 

[Lehuaann]

Honestly, I don't know if they're lying to me, so I give them the benefit of the doubt. Especially when they're at least courteous enough to email me about it. Otherwise, if there's no contact, a non-paying bidder claim will be filed.

Just my way of doing business.

 

[SandrA9810]

What you should do in those scenarios is "cancel transaction." Then no one gets a negative and your fees are refunded. The buyer has to agree to it.

If you do this first, and he doesn't agree to it within a timely manner, then you can go through with non paying bidder. If they're a good customer, it won't affect them much. If they do this a lot, it's about time finally some one put a mark on them. If they get 3, I think they can get banned.


I don't like dealing with buyer's remorse after I've gotten the item ready for shipping. And you can actually charge a fee for it. Under ebay's guidelines "item can only be returned as A) item not described or B) item not received". Any other reason, you don't have to accept returns or cancel transactions.

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

I sell a fair amount on ebay. I definately always leave non paying bidder alert for any buyer that does not pay. You have to do it in fairness to other sellers cuz you may not be the only one that he is messing with. I think he got defensive because he has a history of not paying for his auctions. I give good time and effort with my auctions and my cust service is excellent. I am not gonna let a nonpayer slip thru. If they pay then leave me a neg, I leave a "response" to the neg they left me that describes the way they treated their end of the deal. You can always leave them a positive feedback that says negative things too like they did not pay etc. I always state only the facts, no name calling or insults.

 

[HockeyMomNH]

I sent the customer a message last night stating that I was under the impression that I needed to file a claim in order to recover my lost fees.

He replied and basically told me he didn't understand why I didn't just pay them since they could not be that much. and when that happened to him he didn't have to pay any fees. Of course, he does not have any sales listed in his feedback account so I'm not sure what he's thinking.

I really want to reply with "Dude, maybe you should keep the 2 year old away from the ipad next time" but that's probably not very professional of me!

 

[tzeitel]

From personal experience - just let it go and don't reply to them. I would drive myself (and DH) crazy thinking about non paying bidders and their nonsensical emails.

 

[HockeyMomNH]

I am curious if he bid on another similar item when your's was "accidentally" bid on... someone recently withdrew their bid on something my DH was selling saying they accidentally put the wrong price in (it took him 2 days to realize that, apparently) and within like 30 min of retracting his bid, he bought another (similar, but without a signature.. it is a collector item) from someone else.

I checked his history. He had not purchased anything recently. His last two items were the only ones with details, but both of those things were in the same catagory as the item I was selling.

From personal experience - just let it go and don't reply to them. I would drive myself (and DH) crazy thinking about non paying bidders and their nonsensical emails.

I know you are right. I do need to just let it go. Thanks!

 

[Lewisc]

Doesn't really change anything but I'd assume the "buyer" made a typo and the child is 12 not 2. I'd also assume the "buyer" left his ebay account open on his computer.

Also possible the other posters are right and the "buyer" is a scammer.

Nothing more you can do. I wouldn't reply to any more messages.

 

[mpls_mm]

Honestly, I don't know if they're lying to me, so I give them the benefit of the doubt. Especially when they're at least courteous enough to email me about it. Otherwise, if there's no contact, a non-paying bidder claim will be filed.

Just my way of doing business.

I just had someone buy a $1,000 livestock scale for a 4H club. He didn't understand what came with it. He wanted to cancel and that's fine with me. I am not going to report him or force him to pay. Hopefully he knows what to look for and will be a good customer in the future.