thoughts on UNPAID item, either filing or getting...

zef204

I just got an UNPAID item alert from a seller. I usually am very quick with payment, however this one has slipped a little and the no Paypal didn't help.

The thing that bothers me is that he didn't e-mail me since the transaction ended. It's only been 9 days, however that does not take away the fact that I should have paid already. Needless to say I have already taken care of sending off the payment, but I was wondering your thoughts on this.

As a seller, I think there has only been 2 occassions where I have used this. I usually find just reminding with a friendly e-mail is a lot less threatening.

I do realize, that this is an effective way to get a lazy buyer to act as I represented above. I am contemplating beginning to use this as of right now I have 7 unpaid items that I SOLD that have been over 10 days.

Any thoughts are appreciated

dgbaseball

That's kind of weak of your seller to do.

I've only had to open one unpaid dispute. It was a very valid situation, where the buyer literally disappeared for 3 weeks after the auction end, no e-mail response, ebay contact phone # was wrong number. When he finally responded to the dispute with merely "have been away for work and due to other circumstances will be unable to complete this transaction" I closed the dispute, he got a strike, and I got my FV fee back.

I think using an unpaid dispute in any other circumstance (less than multiple weeks late, w/out sending e-mail or invoice reminders, without trying to call etc) is unjustified and kind of lazy for a seller when an e-mail reminder will do the trick. I'm sure there are sellers who will claim it's not their responsibility to track down and remind buyers about payments. But again, I think that's just lazy. As a seller, your only goal is to get your money. Pissing people off and creating unnecessary conflicts is not the best route to that end.

I'd think your dispute can (and should) be closed w/out an unpaid strike to you once the seller gets his money.

wufdude

I've used it several times if it has been at least 14 days since the end of the auction with no payment. A couple of times the buyer claimed they had been out of town, sick, etc. and paid for the item. The other times, it ended up being a deadbeat buyer who was soon NARUed so I was able to get my final value fee back. I think it's effective and have no problem using it if has been 2 weeks without a payment.

After reading the above reply, let me also say that I would only do this after sending an invoice both at auction's end and after 7 days.

dgbaseball

Agreed. I wasn't saying it's bad to use in general, just lazy if the seller doesn't first try the logical avenues - email, invoice reminders, phone call etc.

eyebone

Zef.

After about 14 days I think it is perfectly reasonable to contact the would be buyer to politely inform them that their payment has not been received. If they don't respond within 2-3 days then file the non-paying bidder alert.

Eyebone




<< <i>I just got an UNPAID item alert from a seller. I usually am very quick with payment, however this one has slipped a little and the no Paypal didn't help.

The thing that bothers me is that he didn't e-mail me since the transaction ended. It's only been 9 days, however that does not take away the fact that I should have paid already. Needless to say I have already taken care of sending off the payment, but I was wondering your thoughts on this.

As a seller, I think there has only been 2 occassions where I have used this. I usually find just reminding with a friendly e-mail is a lot less threatening.

I do realize, that this is an effective way to get a lazy buyer to act as I represented above. I am contemplating beginning to use this as of right now I have 7 unpaid items that I SOLD that have been over 10 days.

Any thoughts are appreciated >>

ctsoxfan

I list in my auctions - "payment required within 10 days of auction close". That said, I am probably the most easy going seller with respect to this - until 21 days or more passes. Then, I use the unpaid item dispute through Ebay. So far, everyone (with 2 NARU exceptions) has either paid, or responds with payment within my time frame. At that point, you can cancel the unpaid item dispute, and no harm comes to the buyer.