My item received a bid, then the bidder contacted me to apologise but couldn't collect the item and

[triathelon]

I had a bid on an item, then an apology from the bidder having realized that it was collect only and they lived too far away, the cost of postage would exceed the value of the item. I didn' know how to cancel his bid even though the time limit to accept the bid passed it now looks like it has been sold when it hasn't and thye bidder said he tried to withdraw the bid, he now keeps getting reminders to pay even though i've tried to re list it. 

[m25jet]

The best option would be to open an Unpaid Item Dispute in relation to the item.  If the buyer doesn't pay up then close the case four days after you opened it and you'll get your Final Value Fees refunded in full by eBay, although you won't get a refund of PayPal's cut of the transaction.  This is the best option because once you've got your Final Value Fees refunded the non-paying bidder will be unable to leave you any account-damaging negative feedback, which he still could do if you just cancelled the transaction, even if the buyer requested the transaction in the first place.  You can also make a Second Chance Offer to one of the bidders who lost the auction once the case has been closed against the non-paying bidder.  Should you decide to do this and the person you send the Second Chance Offer to decides to accept the offer then you'll still be able to sell the item, albeit for slightly less than you would have got if the timewaster had paid up, but you won't have to relist the item again in order to secure a sale, and it is not against eBay policy to do this.  However, you do need to ensure that the Unpaid Item Dispute has been closed down without any payment having been received before you can make a Second Chance Offer to one of the bidders who lost the auction, otherwise if you make a Second Chance Offer and it is accepted but the original bidder subsequently pays up you'll have two separate people staking a claim to the same item, which would cause you even more problems.  That's why it's important to close down the Unpaid Item Dispute before you make a Second Chance Offer to one of the bidders who lost the auction.

Once you've closed the Unpaid Item Dispute without having received payment the buyer's account will end up being hit with an account-damaging Unpaid Item Strike - if a buyer gets two or more Unpaid Item Strikes within the space of two months it'll make it almost impossible to purchase anything on eBay, as most savvy sellers have got their Selling Preferences set up to automatically block buyers with two or more Unpaid Item Strikes during the past twelve months.

In order to block the buyer click on this link https://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences and a new page entitled Buyer Management will appear on the screen.  If you click on the link at the top of the page under the sub-heading that says "Blocked Buyers List" a big white box will appear on the screen.  Add the buyer's User ID to that white box, click on the Submit button and from that point onwards the buyer will not be able to purchase anything else that you advertise for sale on the site.

If you haven't already got your Selling Preferences set up to automatically block timewasters with two or more Unpaid Item Strikes during the past twelve months scroll down the page until you see the option that allows you to set your Selling Preferences and block buyers with too many Unpaid Item Strikes.  Set it up so that anybody with two or more Unpaid Item Strikes during the last twelve months will be automatically blocked from buying from you, as this will weed out a lot of timewasters and prevent them from being able to purchase anything from you in the first place.

Finally, once you have done that, scroll right down to the bottom of the page and look for the sentence that says "Don't Allow Blocked Buyers To Contact Me."  If you haven't already activated that feature then tick the box next to that sentence and anybody who you've added to your Blocked Bidders List will be unable to send you unwanted e-mails.  However, given that you've recently been in a transaction with this buyer the blocks will take longer to kick in than they would have done had you never sold anything to this buyer when you added his User ID to your Blocked Bidders List; however, once the blocks do kick in the buyer will not be able to harass you with any unwanted messages.

[clute21]

More actions to the right of the sold item choose cancel.