Buyer has pulled out

[thezoo5960]

A buyer has just won an auction ... there were several bidders in the final minutes 

They have immediately requested to cancel the order ... reason 'have found a better price!'

I am inclined to decline to cancel the order 

but then I suppose they just don't pay?

I am a private seller, just clearing unwanted items and this is the first time I've encountered this issue 

any advice please 

[tressygirl · Accepted solution]

Cancelling the order at their request offers you the opportunity to relist your item immediately,  but offers no penalty for the buyer.

Personally,  I would wait the necessary 4 full days the buyer has to pay,  then cancel the order citing Buyer Has Not Paid.

This gives the buyer a deserved payment strike.  If they gain another,  they will not be able to buy from the majority of sellers for a full 12 months.

If they keep doing this,  gaining these strikes,  eBay will boot them off their site permanently.

Oh,  and block  them from returning and ruining any more of your sales.

Block the buyer here:

https://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences

@thezoo5960 

[johnwash1]

It happens, and it's a real pain.  And another bad aspect is that though you have a chance to offer to sell to the 2nd highest bidder, they'll rarely take you up on the opportunity.  Why don't they?  Because if they're clued up they fear that you got a mate to raise the price by illegally shill bidding.

[vinylscot]

I would disagree with the advice given by @tressygirl  above.

It's not a simple non-payment case - at least he has asked for a cancellation. If you don't agree to cancel, the buyer may then pay, only to claim the item is not as described when he receives it. He may even damage it, just to be sure. He can then submit a return request; you will be required to repay the purchase price PLUS the postage (both ways). So you may end up poorer by twice your postage charge, AND you may have an item which is now unsaleable.

Just suck it up; agree to the cancellation. Make sure he is on your blocked bidders list, and re-list the item. I wouldn't bother trying a second chance offer, but I might drop the high bidder a message, just letting them know your sale has fallen through.

[tressygirl]

Yep, I agree @vinylscot   that may well too happen, I was just not wishing the buyer who looks like he's found and bought another item giving the terrible reason .... I found a better price,  to get away with ruining the seller's auction.  Being free too to carry on with winning, and not paying

A revenge purchase bad feedback etc. could be challenged as the seller has the messages the buyer sent refusing to pay.

A second chance offer can be made but many members have this option blocked to receive those offers.

It's horrid whichever way the seller acts as their sale is ruined , but blocking the buyer is definitely a must.

[johnwash1]

When relisting I would add to the description that I'd had a non-paying numpty win the previous time.  It's nice for a prospective bidder to know this.  On the (rare) occasions I look at auctions, I do research the seller, their feedback, and their sold items.  If I see the item has already sold, I'm puzzling over why the seller has two or more of these, so a mention in the description would reassure me that nothing iffy was going on.

Admittedly my wife says I overthink things!

[the-nutwood-collection]

When a winning auction buyer cancels their bid, are all their bids removed?  If they're not, and you're the under bidder, you may have been bidding against them - which means you've bid higher than you needed to.

I attended a property auction, and the winning bidder disappeared.  The property was offered to the under bidder - who refused it because, in the closing stages, he was bidding against the guy who disappeared.

[vinylscot]

I reckon that's a big part of why second chance offers are rarely taken up. People aren't daft. They realise what they would have paid, if the other bidder hadn't been on the scene.

[eastern-lights]

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@tressygirl wrote:

Cancelling the order at their request offers you the opportunity to relist your item immediately,  but offers no penalty for the buyer.

Personally,  I would wait the necessary 4 full days the buyer has to pay,  then cancel the order citing Buyer Has Not Paid.

---

I had one of these recently and thought I'd wait and give them a non payment strike, but it doesn't seem to work. It seems, if they have formally requested to cancel, the "buyer did not pay" option never appears. 

Essentially, frustrating as it is, the only option seems to be to cancel and block them.

[rjwilmsi]

If a buyer wants to cancel then approve the cancellation, relist item, block that "buyer" and move on as quickly as possible. Unfortunately eBay doesn't really show any interest in restricting this kind of buyer activity (they do try to reduce actual fraud), so going through the "unpaid item" process is in my view just a waste of your time.

In my experience, selling on eBay (as with many things in life involving the general public) means dealing with a fair number of idiots. So when you find an idiot you just steer clear of them as soon as you can.

[tressygirl]

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@eastern-lights wrote:

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I had one of these recently and thought I'd wait and give them a non payment strike, but it doesn't seem to work. It seems, if they have formally requested to cancel, the "buyer did not pay" option never appears. 

Essentially, frustrating as it is, the only option seems to be to cancel and block them.

Oh is that the case now, really! 

Hmmm, not then a step in the right direction.   No penalty for those then who  ruin a seller's auction by simply giving a poor excuse for a cancellation that is....  ' I've found a better priced one elsewhere'!

@eastern-lights 

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[*vyolla*]

eBay had a relatively recent update whereby the buyer can issue a cancellation request to the seller and the seller should accept it if the item hasn't yet been shipped. There were a few discussions on here about it.

There's nothing to be gained from declining a buyer's cancellation request. Just accept the cancellation and add them to your blocked buyer list.

[eastern-lights]

I think one has to be philosophical about cancellations. You don’t sell on here for long without experiencing iffy buyers. “One in twenty (*) of my transactions will have issues, this is one of those. Deal with it, block the buyer, move on.” If you are not actually out of pocket on the transaction (like when you accept returns) then so much the better. It’s almost a win!

(*) or whatever you feel your own ratio of dodgy to good transactions is.

[plpmr]

indeed if a seller declines a cancellation request they cannot then do an unpaid cancellation. 

[m25jet]

@plpmr wrote:

indeed if a seller declines a cancellation request they cannot then do an unpaid cancellation.

Unfortunately although eBay may have created this option with good intentions, they do not appear to have taken into consideration the fact that it also provides timewasters with a loophole to exploit in order to avoid being hit with an Unpaid Item Strike for failing to pay for an item they committed to purchase.

[eastern-lights]

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@m25jet wrote:

Unfortunately although eBay may have created this option with good intentions, they do not appear to have taken into consideration the fact that it also provides timewasters with a loophole to exploit in order to avoid being hit with an Unpaid Item Strike for failing to pay for an item they committed to purchase.

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Indeed. To balance, sellers need an option to block buyers who have cancelled more than say 2 purchases in the last twelve months.

[plpmr]

Agreed except there are sellers who claim a buyer cancelled when in fact the buyer did not cancel.

[eastern-lights]

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@plpmr wrote:

Agreed except there are sellers who claim a buyer cancelled when in fact the buyer did not cancel.

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I think Ebay can tell the difference between a seller claiming the buyer asked to cancel and a buyer asking to cancel using the formal "Ask to cancel order" procedure.

Sellers would need to insist buyers use the drop down selection "Ask to cancel order" (under "more action") rather than just responding to a message, so that Ebay have a handle on how often some sellers do it.

Mind you, if buyers do just message asking to cancel, the way should still be clear to give them a non payment strike. "Yeah, I'll cancel your purchase, may take a few days though."

[johnwash1]

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@*vyolla* wrote:

eBay had a relatively recent update whereby the buyer can issue a cancellation request to the seller and the seller should accept it if the item hasn't yet been shipped. There were a few discussions on here about it.

There's nothing to be gained from declining a buyer's cancellation request. Just accept the cancellation and add them to your blocked buyer list.

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The blocked buyer list helps the seller who uses it.  It would be nice if it was also known to be used by ebay as one of the metrics to detect bad buyers.  E.g. I'd like to hear that if someone goes on a dozen different sellers' lists, that's flagged up for possible investigation and may get the buyer kicked off the site.

[thezoo5960]

Thanks for your advice

Much appreciated