Do Ebay sellers truly have no recourse?

doog71

Recently started selling again on Ebay. Sold a $340 card and don't hear from high bidder (with about 98% feedback) for a few days. Send a friendly reminder, and his response is that grandma just died and he needs the money to pay for her funeral (I mean no offense in the 1% chance this actually happened).

I know this is old news, but I just can't believe there is absolutely no way for me as a seller to let the Ebay community (through neutral or negative feedback) about non-payers. How is anyone supposed to know how many times an individual has pulled this?

Anyway, thanks for the vent.

epatmythes

1) Who is paying for their "grandparents" funeral???
2) Who is buying a $340 purchase on the internet, but paying for a non-immediate relatives funeral too, will break them?
3) It's 2011, who doesn't have at least enough of a life insurance policy to not cover funeral expenses?

Your only recourse, and I recommend you use it, is to not let this person off the hook by mutually agreeing to cancel the transaction. Go through the non-paying bidder process, let them get their strike... and if they pull this enough and sellers do that... they'll get the boot from eBay! If they neg you in the meantime, let the reputation of your other transactions speak for themselves and win your NPB case, call cs and they'll remove the neg!

TonyC

A few weeks ago someone waited almost a week before telling me they couldn't pay because their son died in a car accident and they needed the money to pay for his funeral. This was a $30 item (I guess $30 was going to break them).

Basically, all the seller can do is give the person a strike, as has already been mentioned. Essentially, eBay does not want to discourage buyers from buying because their theory is that if buyers did not feel comfortable in the eBay environment, they would not buy and thus items would sell for less and eBay would get less fees. eBay does not care that if sellers don't feel comfortable in the environment, many of them will not sell.

PowderedH2O

It's 2011, who doesn't have at least enough of a life insurance policy to not cover funeral expenses?

About 60% of the residents of the United States.

onebamafan

Zero (really), FEEBAY doesnt give rip about the sellers, which baffles me. (no sellers= no buyers)

epatmythes

<< <i>It's 2011, who doesn't have at least enough of a life insurance policy to not cover funeral expenses?

About 60% of the residents of the United States. >>



I was actually thinking more along the lines of the elderly, but your little retort got me thinking maybe some facts need to be checked... after all, 60% seems awfully high! Thankfully, the insurance industry group, LIMRA, tasked to study such things completed the study last year and put the number at 30% (drops to 23% for married families with children).

Admittedly, still higher than I would have assumed... but at least, this time, I checked some facts before throwing out one of those proverbial "I'm smarter than you" posts on the internet!

Happy Tuesday

bbuckner22

Reply with his bidder ID so we can block him, just in case someone else dies from his family.

itzagoner

perhaps eBay should install a Grandma Tracker, so at least we could follow their progresses and report the diddling buyers when it becomes evident the family tree has shed it's last leaf.

sportscardtheory

Just re-list and move on. Nothing more you can do. I'm way past caring about not getting paid. I simply expect it and am happy when I do get paid (which is about 99.9% of the time). I do open Unpaid Item Resolutions or cancel the transactions to get my fees back, so all I ever lose when someone doesn't pay is the $.20 re-listing fee. Not a huge deal to me.

Foo3112

You should just move on BUT... I also think you should wait like a week or 2 and see if hes still purchasing other stuff by looking at his feedback. If you see other transactions, you know hes full of it and report as non paying.

epatmythes had a great point I thought - "Who is buying a $340 purchase on the internet, but paying for a non-immediate relatives funeral too, will break them?"

If anything, contact the next bidder and offer it to them at the price NOT that the non payer purchased at but at the 2nd higest bidders price if your good with that. Maybe even offer them $10 off so that way the cards out of your hands and you still get paid.

calaban7

I one had a co-worker , who over the years had " Many" grandmothers who died. I finally asked Tony " How many grandmothers do you have ? His reply with laughter was " As many as I need ! ".-- Just saying---- Sonny

ndleo

I don't even care anymore if the buyers does not pay. Since I have no recourse as a seller, I just chalk it up to the cost of doing business on ebay. However I do think we need to revive the blocked bidders thread, I have a couple to add for non-paying and one for returning raw cards that do not grade as high as he wants.

I have sold a 2008 Topps Chrome Ray Rice to four different bidders and they all stiffed me. I sorta want to sell the card ASAP since it has bad karma.

grote15

Be grateful you still have the card before a chargeback was filed. File for cancellation of the transaction to get your fees back and relist.

JMDVM

Does any one know where I can bury my grandmother for $340?

doog71

Thanks for all the replies. I just canceled the transaction and re-listed. I know I let him off the hook that way, but life's too complicated already to be messing around with folks like this!

Brick

<< <i>Does any one know where I can bury my grandmother for $340? >>



Sometimes it's hard to pass up a bargain but please wait until she passes.

brendanb438

Buyers will continue to get away with this bullshiat when sellers don't file a NPB request. Sellers will continue to pull bullshiat on buyers who refuse to neg a seller and ding stars when they screw up. This is why eBay sucks.

WinPitcher

If you also add all the undocumented persons, I'd bet the number does come closer to 60% of the people.

Estil

<< <i>
3) It's 2011, who doesn't have at least enough of a life insurance policy to not cover funeral expenses? >>



We don't. That's what happens when we both have severe mental/emotional health issues (and physical too in my wife's case) which means we're not eligible for any decent life insurance not to mention that we can only live on my wife's disability (until mine gets approved which is at least several months away) and thus we couldn't afford the premiums.

Yep, it's 2011 alright...