Opinions on problem ebay bidder

[disneysteve]

For those who sell on ebay, how would you handle this?

Auction ended last night. Winning bidder bid $8.99.

This morning, I have a message from the buyer offering me $8.39 saying someone withdrew money from his account and that's all he has left.

I thought about it a bit. On the one hand, 60 cents won't make or break me and I'd be happy to just get rid of the item. On the other hand, if you can't come up with 60 cents, what the heck are you doing shopping on ebay? Plus, trying to negotiate the price after the auction has ended violates ebay policy. If I let it go and accepted his offer, that would encourage him to do the same to others. I'd also be out the fees on the full price, not the price he actually pays.

So I responded and said to please pay the full amount. I pointed out the policy violation and asked him to let me know right away if he will not be completing the transaction so that I can report it and get my fees refunded and relist the item.

Would any of you have done something differently?

[bjl584]

Has he responded to you?

I'd have done the same. I wouldn't want to violate policy and possibly be banned or flagged by Ebay.

[disneysteve]

I wouldn't want to violate policy and possibly be banned or flagged by Ebay.

Good point. I didn't think about the fact that not only is he violating policy but if I accept his offer, I'd also be violating ebay policy.

I just responded a few minutes ago so I haven't heard back yet.

[corn18]

If he doesn't pay in 2 days, start a report with Ebay. If he does it with you, he'll do it with someone else. You don't need $0.60, you want to not be taken for a fool.

[rennigade]

Its a bummer how ebay has taken a dive over the years. Ive never heard of someone trying to negotiate a price after they won the bid. I wouldnt even engage in a conversation with the buyer. Just file a report to get your fees back. If they try to pull a stunt like this for all you know they're going to receive the item, dispute it, then send you a rock or something similar with the same weight back to you, ultimately keeping the original item. They will have proof of delivery and paypal will side with them. The bottom feeders know all the tricks to screw over honest people.

What I cant sell on craigslist now gets donated to salval or goodwill. I wont deal with ebay anymore. Id much rather give the item to someone for free/cheap than try to make a few bucks from it.

[disneysteve]

Its a bummer how ebay has taken a dive over the years.

I've been selling on ebay almost since it started (it started in 95. I started in 97.) and I've been very lucky. I've only had 1 or 2 bounced checks, back before Paypal, and both times the buyer made good on it. Other than that, I've had almost no problems and only a couple of non-paying bidders in all that time.

The one HUGE problem was when they made it so that sellers could no longer leave negative feedback for buyers. What's the point of a feedback system that only allows positive comments? I would not hesitate to leave this guy negative feedback but I can't. Of course, he can leave me a negative if he wants to. There's a problem with that system.

[creditcardfree]

I think you did the right thing indicating the ebay policy and not negotiating after the fact. It's not like the buyer has to pay today! They could pay on Wednesday next week after they get another $0.60 in their account. If they don't pay you report and move on.

I personally have never seen that happen.

[ddgone]

Personally, I would have just done it. I used to fight those things, but it just ended up taking too much time and effort. My time emailing and back and forth and taking care of everything is worth more than the 60 cents and fees. I understand perfectly why someone would do it on principle, but I find that it doesn't happen often and the stress on top of trying to figure out the best way to deal with the issue wastes far more time than just doing it and getting it over with.

[Green43]

I would report it and follow the proper protocol to protect yourself, business is business after all. Having said that I have heard a lot of negative things on the decline of ebay lately, personally it is not worth the hassle for me and the spam on CL is just as bad as I live in a rural area. I have found the local resale page on FB to be much better and as people are local there is much more "friendlyness" as people know were everyone lives around here.. But I digress.

[disneysteve]

I realized I never told the end of this story.

I contacted the bidder and said to please pay the full amount. I pointed out that offering to pay less after the auction ended violated ebay policy. I never got a response but a couple of days later the bidder paid in full. I shipped the item and the buyer did leave me positive feedback so all is good.

[moneysma]

I've been selling on ebay almost since it started (it started in 95. I started in 97.) and I've been very lucky. I've only had 1 or 2 bounced checks, back before Paypal, and both times the buyer made good on it. Other than that, I've had almost no problems and only a couple of non-paying bidders in all that time.

The one HUGE problem was when they made it so that sellers could no longer leave negative feedback for buyers. What's the point of a feedback system that only allows positive comments? I would not hesitate to leave this guy negative feedback but I can't. Of course, he can leave me a negative if he wants to. There's a problem with that system.

I've been selling since the late 90's as well. I rarely sell anymore because as a seller I have no power. Ebay takes the buyers word 100% of the time unless you have iron clad proof that you shipped the item and they received it via delivery confirmation.

And if I can't be honest and warn other sellers about a potential buyer, how does that help the community?