Post by thread:[OT] What to do if you get a bad buyer?

I sell stuff on eBay. I'm curious about what's the best thing to do if somebody wins one of my auctions but I don't want anything to do with the buyer. For instance, let's say you're selling a laptop on eBay and it sells for 200 dollars. Now let's say you go to check who the buyer is and you find that his feedback score is 10 and that his positive feedback percentage is only 30%. So that means he's got 70% negative feedback. In such a circumstance, I'd *like* to just cancel the auction, block the buyer, and then just re-list the laptop. As far as I can gather though, I'd be doing a Bad Thing if I refused to sell something to someone who rightfully won one of my auctions, and it would probably leave me wide open to the buyer leaving me bad feedback. But what about if I put the following in my auctions: "Auction is only open to people whose feedback score is above 99% positive. If your feedback is below 99% positive, please contact me to consider your eligibility" If I were to put that in my ad, would I have the right to cancel the auction if a Bad Buyer won it? Also would it take away their opportunity to leave me bad feedback? (In an ideal world, this is a question I'd be asking directly to eBay... but you know how things are...)

When the auction is over eBay takes the fees and if the sale is incomplete you can go through two processes, one to recover the final price fee and the other to get it relisted with no insertion fee. It takes several weeks and the timing is difficult to maintain because there are several timed hoops you must jump through at just the right moment. You can't just relist the item immediately unless you want to pay for another listing. eBay wants to keep the fees so it is hard to get it back. The people I knew who went through it always ended up paying for the relisting themselves because it is almost impossible to get the item relisted for free. The final price fee is usually all you can recover. Cheerful regards, Bob TomÃ¡s Ã“ hÃ‰ilidhe wrote: {Quote hidden}> I sell stuff on eBay. I'm curious about what's the best thing to do if > somebody wins one of my auctions but I don't want anything to do with > the buyer. > > For instance, let's say you're selling a laptop on eBay and it sells for > 200 dollars. Now let's say you go to check who the buyer is and you find > that his feedback score is 10 and that his positive feedback percentage > is only 30%. So that means he's got 70% negative feedback. > > In such a circumstance, I'd *like* to just cancel the auction, block the > buyer, and then just re-list the laptop. > > As far as I can gather though, I'd be doing a Bad Thing if I refused to > sell something to someone who rightfully won one of my auctions, and it > would probably leave me wide open to the buyer leaving me bad feedback. > > But what about if I put the following in my auctions: > > "Auction is only open to people whose feedback score is above 99% > positive. If your feedback is below 99% positive, please contact me to > consider your eligibility" > > If I were to put that in my ad, would I have the right to cancel the > auction if a Bad Buyer won it? Also would it take away their opportunity > to leave me bad feedback? > > (In an ideal world, this is a question I'd be asking directly to eBay... > but you know how things are...) >

You can set up different things, like you are not dealing with someone that has more than 2 negative feedback in the last 30 days or something like that and there are many other settings as well (verified accounts only etc). Check the seller options, and try to find the help on eBay which is quite good actually but need some time to read through the whole lot. The good news is that until it is not payed you do not need to send the item :-) I have never had a problem actually - only that one buyer could not pay by PayPal and even I had an option on PayPal to accept credit cards he could not get through using his visa - he sent me mail telling me about the problem, and then I was patient about the payment so when it was cleared I have sent the device - happy end. Communication is the most important, and that's exactly what eBay telling you as well. Tamas On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Tomás Ó hÉilidhe <spam_OUTtoe_listTakeThisOuTlavabit.com>wrote: {Quote hidden}> > I sell stuff on eBay. I'm curious about what's the best thing to do if > somebody wins one of my auctions but I don't want anything to do with > the buyer. > > For instance, let's say you're selling a laptop on eBay and it sells for > 200 dollars. Now let's say you go to check who the buyer is and you find > that his feedback score is 10 and that his positive feedback percentage > is only 30%. So that means he's got 70% negative feedback. > > In such a circumstance, I'd *like* to just cancel the auction, block the > buyer, and then just re-list the laptop. > > As far as I can gather though, I'd be doing a Bad Thing if I refused to > sell something to someone who rightfully won one of my auctions, and it > would probably leave me wide open to the buyer leaving me bad feedback. > > But what about if I put the following in my auctions: > > "Auction is only open to people whose feedback score is above 99% > positive. If your feedback is below 99% positive, please contact me to > consider your eligibility" > > If I were to put that in my ad, would I have the right to cancel the > auction if a Bad Buyer won it? Also would it take away their opportunity > to leave me bad feedback? > > (In an ideal world, this is a question I'd be asking directly to eBay... > but you know how things are...) > >

Tomás Ó hÉilidhe wrote: > I sell stuff on eBay. I'm curious about what's the best thing to do if > somebody wins one of my auctions but I don't want anything to do with > the buyer. > > For instance, let's say you're selling a laptop on eBay and it sells for > 200 dollars. Now let's say you go to check who the buyer is and you find > that his feedback score is 10 and that his positive feedback percentage > is only 30%. So that means he's got 70% negative feedback. > > In such a circumstance, I'd *like* to just cancel the auction, block the > buyer, and then just re-list the laptop. This is expressly prohibited by eBay rules: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-non-performance.html > As far as I can gather though, I'd be doing a Bad Thing if I refused to > sell something to someone who rightfully won one of my auctions, and it > would probably leave me wide open to the buyer leaving me bad feedback. Yes, and yes. > But what about if I put the following in my auctions: > > "Auction is only open to people whose feedback score is above 99% > positive. If your feedback is below 99% positive, please contact me to > consider your eligibility" > > If I were to put that in my ad, would I have the right to cancel the > auction if a Bad Buyer won it? Also would it take away their opportunity > to leave me bad feedback? I believe if you put this type of disclaimer in your auction, you will be contacted by eBay representatives and told to take it down. Vitaliy

If you use a escrow or paypal type payment service, you get your money, so whats the problem? Seller beware, buyer beware on online selling. If he gives you a bad feedback, you can contest it. --- On Tue, 8/26/08, Vitaliy <.....spamKILLspam@spam@maksimov.org> wrote: {Quote hidden}> From: Vitaliy <spamKILLspammaksimov.org> > Subject: Re: [OT] What to do if you get a bad buyer? > To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." <.....piclistKILLspam.....mit.edu> > Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 11:53 AM > Tomás Ó hÉilidhe wrote: > > I sell stuff on eBay. I'm curious about what's > the best thing to do if > > somebody wins one of my auctions but I don't want > anything to do with > > the buyer. > > > > For instance, let's say you're selling a > laptop on eBay and it sells for > > 200 dollars. Now let's say you go to check who the > buyer is and you find > > that his feedback score is 10 and that his positive > feedback percentage > > is only 30%. So that means he's got 70% negative > feedback. > > > > In such a circumstance, I'd *like* to just cancel > the auction, block the > > buyer, and then just re-list the laptop. > > This is expressly prohibited by eBay rules: > > pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-non-performance.html > > > As far as I can gather though, I'd be doing a Bad > Thing if I refused to > > sell something to someone who rightfully won one of my > auctions, and it > > would probably leave me wide open to the buyer leaving > me bad feedback. > > Yes, and yes. > > > But what about if I put the following in my auctions: > > > > "Auction is only open to people whose feedback > score is above 99% > > positive. If your feedback is below 99% positive, > please contact me to > > consider your eligibility" > > > > If I were to put that in my ad, would I have the right > to cancel the > > auction if a Bad Buyer won it? Also would it take away > their opportunity > > to leave me bad feedback? > > I believe if you put this type of disclaimer in your > auction, you will be > contacted by eBay representatives and told to take it down. > > Vitaliy > > -

As a seller you may cancel any bid (for 'good reason') *before* the listing ends. This would appear to include violations of bidder criteria you list in the auction; including, I believe, statements like "Only bids from people with at least 10 positive feedbacks and at least 90% positive feedback will be accepted". See: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unwelcome-buying.html Once you cancel a buyer's bid, he may *not* bid again (I don't know if this is enforced automatically by eBay or if it is just a policy the buyer is expected to follow) unless you permit him to. I don't know what you'd do about a last-minute buyer who first bid just before the auction closed. You can also block bidders in advance based on various criteria. See: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html Unfortunately this isn't as flexible as it could/should be. -- Bob Ammerman RAm Systems

Bob Ammerman wrote: {Quote hidden}> As a seller you may cancel any bid (for 'good reason') *before* the > listing > ends. This would appear to include violations of bidder criteria you list > in > the auction; including, I believe, statements like "Only bids from people > with at least 10 positive feedbacks and at least 90% positive feedback > will > be accepted". > > See: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unwelcome-buying.html > > Once you cancel a buyer's bid, he may *not* bid again (I don't know if > this > is enforced automatically by eBay or if it is just a policy the buyer is > expected to follow) unless you permit him to. > > I don't know what you'd do about a last-minute buyer who first bid just > before the auction closed. > > You can also block bidders in advance based on various criteria. > > See: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html > > Unfortunately this isn't as flexible as it could/should be. Bob, thanks for the info. eBay really changed the way they do things now, compared to a few years ago (it seems that most of them for the better). Vitaliy

Bob Ammerman wrote: > I don't know what you'd do about a last-minute buyer who first bid just > before the auction closed. > Do you think it would go in your favour if you contacted eBay and said "This chap won my auction but the auction description clearly states that he is ineligible"? Do you think that would go in your favour? > You can also block bidders in advance based on various criteria. > > See: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html > > Unfortunately this isn't as flexible as it could/should be. Not nearly as flexible as it should be. For instance I don't care much for a person's feedback score, but rather their percentage of positive feedback. Anyway I set it to the following: Your buyer requirements have been updated. Block buyers who: Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 12 Month(s). Have 4 Policy Violation report(s) within 6 Month(s). Have a feedback score of -1 or lower. Are currently winning or have bought 1 of my items in the last 10 days. - Only apply this block to buyers who have a feedback score of 5 or lower.