A buyer has not paid for an auction item which could have been sold to another . What can I do?

[ranaesomniantes]

A buyer has not paid for an item which could have been bought by another bidder and I have missed out on this sale. What can I do as buyers seem to get away with anything. I have been through the 'Report an issue' with these matters before without any joy. ?

[tressygirl]

eBay charge their seller fee the second an item sells and not when the buyer pays you. They do not know no payment was received unless you tell them.

To inform them, open an unpaid item case in the Resolution Centre link at foot of most pages, 48 hours after a non payment. Close the case on day 5. Your seller fee is refunded, and you can relist the item if you wish.

The buyer gets a non payment strike on their account they are only allowed one. If they gain another they will not be able to buy from the majority of sellers on eBay for a full 12 months. So, very effective!

You have 32 days from point of sale to open this case

[ruby*tuesday]

You Open an Unpaid Item Case in the Resolution Centre after 2 days. Close after 4 full days. Your EBay Final Value Fees will be Credited back to your Seller Account. The Buyer will Receive a Damaging Unpaid Strike on their Account. 2 of those and they will be Blocked by Most Sellers who can Block Buyers with 2 Strikes in 12 Months. 

Put them on your Blocked Bidders List.

Neither of you can Leave Feedback.

[m25jet]

In addition to the advice you have already been given in relation to this matter, in the event that the buyer doesn't pay for the item and you have to close the Unpaid Item Dispute and confirm that you weren't paid so as to get your Final Value Fees refunded, then if the buyer has left you negative feedback prior to the case being closed and your Final Value Fees refunded, contact eBay Customer Services and ask them to remove the buyer's negative feedback, reminding them that he/she failed to pay for the item.  If you did end up having to do that then eBay would remove the buyer's negative feedback and it wouldn't do any damage to your feedback history.

[rusticrye]

Just to add that everything you need to know about selling here, including what to do when a buyer doesn't pay, is in the Seller Centre (link at foot of any page). You also have the Help pages with their integral search to refer to (links at top and foot of any page).

@ranaesomniantes 

[pixiesen2012]

when you have a non payer you need to complete a non payment case to get your final value fees refunded and give them a non payment strike

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/unpaid-items.html

then add the non payers ID to your blocked list

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BidderBlockLogin

then set you bidder requirements to block bidders with two or more non payment strikes in the last 12 months

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences