goofee girl

Say a person bids on an item and never pays or contacts the seller. The seller files a non-paying bidder alert and eventually requests for a final fee reimbursement from eBay. Does the buyer automatically lose the ability to leave feedback for the seller?

I just had someone contact me about an auction that ended March 30 who never responded to my many emails and requests for payment. My terms are to respond within 48 hours of my first email and to submit payment within 10 days. Nothing happened so I left negative feedback and relisted the item.

He just sent me an email this weekend (without an item #) saying he would send payment. After I wrote back and asked him who he was and what auction he was talking about I wondered if he has the ability now to leave any feedback on me.

Thanks!

marty888

Once an auction ends, both the buyer and the seller can leave feedback - which means, unfortunately, that a non-paying winner can leave feedback. But keep in mind that you can always respond in your feedback to any negative that you think is unfair.

goofee girl

That's a real shame. I mean, if I've requested a reimbursement for the auction because the buyer never paid then I consider the auction to be cancelled.

At least I tried to be tactful in the email I sent back to him. Basically, I stated that because the auction ended on March 30 and hadn't heard from him I went ahead and requested the reimbursement and relisted the item and good luck with future auctions. No need to antagonize him - he already has two negatives now on his feedback for not paying and those are his only feedbacks!

costanza187

Its kind of bad when good sellers get negative feedback from deadbeat bidders...but I guess it can happen.

ellone

I think this is a reason that many sellers don't leave negative feedback. I just finished filing a FVF Credit request for someone that had only positive feedback. After I did that, the person was no longer registered. This means she hadn't paid on 2 other auctions, but hadn't gotten negative feedback.

Mike Myers

Has anyone ever tried to have unjustified negative feedback removed by ebay? That should be possible. I never tried it though.

goofee girl

Good news so far... he hasn't left any feedback for me. I'm surprised he hasn't been removed. Heck. He waited a month to contact me and he didn't pay another seller! Egads.

5th_Wheel

Good Luck! eBay will not alter feedback's unless someone has used profanity in their feedback. This is one of the major drawbacks about being a seller on eBay.

jonathan.e

I’ve had two removed - One where the bidder chose to use "vulgar" language and the other where he/she referenced a non-existant EBay investigation. Both are strictly against the rules and EBay will remove them without too much trouble. Unfortunately the feedback system is far too easy to abuse by deadbeat scum and even with the recent modifications, EBay have done absolutely nothing to make it more difficult for these lowlifes to leave their unwarranted negatives.


EBay is definitely not the place to go if you want your faith in human nature restoring.

agent2099

Yes I hate the fact that deadbeat bidders can leave negative feedback for you.

But whatever you do, make sure you DO leave negative feedback for deadbeat bidders. I leave negative feedback every time I have a NPB. Yes I take the risk that they will retaliate with a negative, but I feel it's my DUTY to other ebayers out there to let them know about deadbeat bidders.

Take the risk and leave negative feedback if the winning bidder deserves it! Don't be "nice" because you are just doing the legitimate ebay community a disservice.

cdollaz

Once you build up your positive feedback, a negative here or there will not hurt you. Everyone else knows that there are a few idiots that leave negative for no reason, and overlook it if the person has mostly positive.

Another thing to do is harrass the person who screwed you thru e-mail. I've done it a few times. I basically sign them up for anything that I can and flood their inbox with random silliness.

I also have a second eBay account that I use to get back at folks only. Once, a dude bought tickets from me and didn't pay, so a few weeks later, I bought some tix on one of his auctions, kept promising to send him money up until about 2 days before the concert, then backed out, making it impossible for him to relist them. Sure, he left me negative feedback, but I left it for him also, and it was on his primary account. Bastard. He shouldn't have screwed me first.

agent2099

My only concern is: did this teach him a lesson so that he will no longer default on payments, or did it make him MORE inclined to not pay because others are doing it and he too is getting screwed .

cdollaz

Well, it was at least his second negative with few positives, so hopefully he will not be around at all soon.

goofee girl

Thanks for all the feedback! So far he hasn't left any feedback. Considering he's a brand new user he may not even realize he has the ability to do this. If nothing, I tried to be as diplomatic about the situation. After all, I had to relist the item and couldn't exactly sell it to two people.

Oh, and I always leave feedback no matter what. The only one I'm waiting on for the 90th day is coming up and it's for a seller who kept my money and item and I'm now in the middle of all possible fraud complaints with her. She's a little off kilter and I don't care to have any nasty feedback left by her.

If you want to avoid a bad situation watch out for this seller: my_gallery

Maryang Palad

You can delay leaving a negative feedback to dead beat bidders. Leave feedback exactly 90 days after the auction has ended, after 90 days, the bidder can't retaliate or leave feedback against you.

agent2099

Yes but after that long amount of time the bidder can be bidding on several other auctions and not paying. As a general rule, after I have requested my FVF credit (which must be AT LEAST 17 days after the auction has ended - PLENTY of time to pay online with a credit card or to send a personal check in the mail), I leave a negative so other ebayers are not screwed by the same NPB (They can cancel bids from negative users etc.).

Giving NPBs 3 months is entirely too much time for them to do more damage to the ebay community.

waskydiver

This is not true. Ebay guarentees the item to be in the database for at least 90 days. But, it can stay in the database for up to 120 days.

If the other party agrees, you can pay $20 to get the negative removed by going through squaretrade.

The reason that you can leave negative feedback on a NPB is because it will be open season for sellers wishing to scam. Just sell the item, collect the money, file for your FVF, and you are in the clear.

Negative feedback has very little effect on buyers. They can always bid on the auction at the last second, leaving you unable to cancel their bids. And, as long as a buyer maintains no lower then a -3 feedback rating, they can go on getting negatives indefinately. (Of course they would have to get some positives in there too to keep the feedback rating above -3).

The important thing to do is to file for your FVF. After getting 3 of them, they will be suspended.

jonathan.e

Sadly untrue. Just last week I saw a bidder (still registered) who had -8! Not one single positive and yet he was still allowed to bid. I mailed the Powerseller help and recommended they should take some action. Fortunately he was soon de-registered but it speaks volumes about EBay’s prioritie$ that they allowed this to happen.

waskydiver

Ebay does not automatically suspend someone for having excessive negative feedback. You must report it in order to insure that they will be suspended. But, once the report is made, the WILL be suspended if they have feedback of -4 or lower.