How long should I wait before reporting a non-paying bidder?

[Tommie Milwaukee]

I sold an item on March 30th. I sent an invoice and a second follow-up e-mail & have not heard any response from the buyer. Should I consider him a deadbeat bidder & relist the item or continue being patient? How much time does he get to respond?

[Carm]

You should have posted a requirement for payment. If you accept PayPal, three days, if you accept other mail in payment types 14 days. WIth the buyer having to contact you within a certain time frame with payment method agreed upon. Then you could relist without asking us here for advice.

Carm

[Tommie Milwaukee]

The requirement was PayPal only. So you're saying after 3 days (it's 4 now), I can re-list?

[Carm]

If you posted that time frame on your auction as a requirement, yes, if you didnt post a payment time frame, NO. Most people pay within two days.

Carm

[voodoopenguin]

Look at eBay rules. Not sure if it's different for you but here in the UK you cannot report a non-payer for at least 7 days to give them time.

[TL]

You can't file the UID for 7 days after EOA. I accept mailed payments and PayPal, so generally don't file the UID until day 10. It's always a good idea to indicate a time frame for expected payment in the listing, whether that be 7, 10, or 14 days or whatever you prefer. If you accepted PayPal only, then on day 7 it would be appropriate to file the UID.

Keep in mind that if you relist now, and the buyer pays within a reasonable time frame, your refusal to sell to the original high bidder would make you a non-selling seller. One such report won't harm your record, a pattern of them may.

Also, if you relist before going through the UID process (and closing properly to obtain your final value fees), then you forfeit your right to a credit for insertion fees that would normally be available for a successful relist,

You don't say whether your item was sold via auction or BIN. If it was a BIN-only listing, then in the future consider requiring immediate PayPal payment.

[Tommie Milwaukee]

Ok, here's an update. I was able to get the guy's phone number through Ebay. I called it & the kid's father insists that his son never bid on the item & doesn't want it. He says that someone may have hacked into his account to place a bid. Sounds like b.s. to me, but at least now I know what's going. Ebay states that I cannot report the non-paying bidder until at least 7 days after the auction, which is 3 more days. It was not a Buy It Now auction.I will relist the item after making sure I get reimbursed for all fees.

[TL]

Dear bidder-

I'm sorry to hear that your account has been hijacked. I've reported the issue to ebay so that they can investigate and restore control of your account to you. As the bid placed by your account resulted in ebay charging fees to my account, I will have to file an Unpaid Item alert with ebay in a few days. As your account was hijacked, you do not need to worry about this alert on your end as ebay will clear it as part of the restoration of your account.

-Seller


Then report the alleged hijacking (the guy's probably lying, but it never hurts to make the idiots pay for their remorse), and follow through with the UID process in a few days. If his account really was hijacked, then he really won't face any repercussions. You might just scare the buyer enough to actually pay you.