Buyer cancelled after auction ended - flaw in Ebay's processes?

[telcoj_96]

Just completed a 10-day auction after which the successful bidder immediately asked to cancel. I declined, but apparently because they hadn't paid for the item all I can do is effectively "black mark" them after 4 days. 

Apparently bidders can bid without presenting payment information so effectively their bid is not worth the screen time; sellers can't see that they're not backing their bid up with a "promise to pay" and so a contract doesn't exist. They can't be forced to pay up.

As a new seller, I think this is all wrong. In any other business, there would effectively be a contract in place which could be enforced. It's put me right off selling and, to be honest, even buying on Ebay. I just don't feel they're on my side.  The seller profile did look unusual; a score of 3 but no feedback..  Shouldn't Ebay be checking payment details before they allow a bid to be accepted and then "ring fencing" the value of the bid with the payment merchants? 

[**peaseblossom**]

If you try to force buyers to pay you'd end up with bogus "not as described" returns where ebay nearly always favours the buyer and seller pays refurn postage.    Really there's little point in refusing a cancellation except to put a non-payment strike on their account.   Although private sellers don't have to accept cancellations business sellers do and buyers get used to that.  

[plpmr]

unless things have changed, once you have declined a cancellation request you cannot later cancel as unpaid.

[arkwebus]

As implied the "best" method is to wait the 4 days and then seller cancels for "non payment".  If a buyer gets two such cases within 12 months they cannot buy from many sellers.  This is really a wonderful sanction but it relies on two points:

the sellers using the system every single time and not - for example - agreeing to cancel.

all sellers blocking those buyers with two "non payer cases" 

@telcoj_96 

[telcoj_96]

It seems to me there's very little point in selling things if, once someone's made an offer, they can just pull out. 

[telcoj_96]

That's worrying. That's the way I was told to do it by customer services....

[telcoj_96]

Thanks for that. Sanctions will only work when the bidder is genuine and has some decent history with Ebay. This one didn't. And it doesn't compensate the seller for all the grief.  I think I'll look for a platform with better seller safeguards.... 

[john1297576]

If your buyer had a score of 3 then there would be feedback, you obviously did not look properly.

I doubt  you will find any selling site where you can force buyers to pay, or in fact if they do not pay, that you can even take any action against non payers, except to block. 

I also doubt that you would be prepared to waste money on legal action, which would still not get you any money.

[telcoj_96]

John

Thanks for your response. Regarding your assumption that I did not look
properly, of course I did. The feedback names were greyed out and the
purchases made over a year ago. I may be newish to Ebay, but I'm not
entirely stupid!

I'm certainly not going to waste time on legal action; I'll just be more
careful where I advertise my goods in future.

[tobiasd4]

Feedback may be 3, but if no transactions shown it is because they haven't bought or sold in last 12 months. 

• We calculated this positive feedback percentage using the total number of positive and negative ratings for orders made in the past 12 months.

[red_magpie]

I'll just be more careful where I advertise my goods in future.

If you either sell or buy items on eBay it's important to understand the risks.

Buyers who don't pay and sellers who won't sell are a constant problem. Both are liable to be penalised by eBay, but many are so ignorant of their responsibilities that they don't even realise they're doing wrong. However, they are the least of the problems.

What you really have to worry about is deliberate fraud and scams. eBay even warns buyers in the user agreement that "they do not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of items advertised, or the truth or accuracy of descriptions". Who would buy from a shop that stated this? But buyers can at least use eBay's money back guarantee for most items.

The risk for sellers are if anything even greater. Buyers can "discover" any fault with an item to return it at the seller's expense. eBay never sees the items concerned and usually supports the buyer. Sellers often tell us that buyers have returned items that they have damaged, or even switched to return a different one.

eBay is a jungle.