posted on September 3, 2001 08:11:03 PM
I am right now. I am dealing with yet another who can't seem to pay for his $15.50 auction. In 16 days we have sent 6 emails to this guy and he still can't get things straight.
He wonders why we won't accept Paypal CC payments, when Paypal says he can pay anyone with an email address. He assumed we put his item up for bids again when he found us selling an identical one two weeks later, so he bid on the other one too. Oh, and even though we've received 3 emails from him he won't comply in giving us his mailing address.
Some people really like to test your level of patience.
posted on September 3, 2001 09:23:01 PM
Makes you wonder who comes in & turns the computer on for him. Probably the kind of guy who'll search for a week trying to find the "return" key on the keyboard.
posted on September 4, 2001 12:08:22 AM
loosecannon,
You are dealing with a clueless newbie here who probably only knows how to pay with PayPal, or else has read something by a twit in a magazine that CC payments are the only way to avoid Internet fraud. Get a 'personal' PayPal account where you can accept up to $100 a month from mentally challenged such as him. At least you'll get paid. This way you're guaranteed a deadbeat.
posted on September 4, 2001 04:40:22 AM
I've got one right now that will not get feedback until I know he has the merchandise. I ussually leave feedback every two weeks to who ever has paid at the time... But this guy was a royal pita.
This guy asked if I take paypal before he bid (no problem here, I answered, and politely told him no, but if he needed to pay with a CC, feel free to use Bidpay).
Then the day the item closed, he again wanted to use paypal. Six emails latter, he calls us on the phone. All this because he wants it shipped today (Tuesday), so he can have it friday.
In the boating business, 2 things are a given:
1. Every customeralways wants his stuff / repairs by Friday so they can use their boat saturday morning. And every customer thinks they are the only one. Only comercial fishermen get any sympathy from me by saying "I need it by XX date".
2. It doesn't always (and can't) happen that way.
My TOS says we ship within 2 working days of recieviing payment. I try to ship either the sameday or the next, but I need the "wiggle room" in order to make sure I don't miss a deadline on work in my shop, or to cover my butt if I need to take a day and make a trip to the other side of the state to buy something.
In this case, since bidpay has confirmed the Money Order is on the way, I did tell him his stuff will be shipped today, But I have news for him....if this hadn't been a $400 sale I wouldn't have let him get away with trying to change the TOS after the auction ended.
posted on September 4, 2001 06:35:37 AM
Oh yes! Just last week in fact. Auction ended July 17, promptly sent EOA email. Stalled me around until August 4 when I filed NPB alert. Finally payment arrived on 8/7. She had dated the check 7/20 but didn't mail it until 8/1. That right there should have been a red flag! You are right! Check bounced! Notified her on 8/16 and then the excuses began. Her bank said the check had cleared. Funny, I'm looking at it so it didn't clear. Then she claims she's sending a money order for the check and her bank is sending me a bank check to cover the NSF fees. That didn't sound right to me, but OK. Finally gave up on August 31, filed for my final value fees and NEGGED her! She's a seller too so I hope she gets a few bounced checks herself so she can see how it feels. This transaction was one long excuse from start to finish with her and I just didn't need the hassle any longer. Item has been relisted and IF the money ever shows up I'll just refuse it. Now I don't know what to do with her check. I'm certainly not going to return it to her.
posted on September 4, 2001 08:05:04 AM
Paintpower,
Depending on how much your bank charges you for a check that's bounced to you, you could keep redepositing it. (That would cost her money). Or wait a month, then redeposit. When she contacts you and asks why you deposited her check and where is her item, you could tell her it was an error and you'll mail her a refund minus your bank fees. Then stall. And stall.
posted on September 4, 2001 08:33:32 AM
Good idea Sadie, but when my bank deposits them they run them through twice and then return them to me with a letter to not deposit them again. It was only a small amount plus the bank fees so I've just moved on. Not much I can do. I'm going to return her bounced check TO HER BANK along with all the emails she sent me about how the bank was paying the fees, and she had been at the bank working on this until too late to mail, and on and on. Let the bank see what a fool they have for a customer! The check is no good to me and too expensive to start chasing it around the US.
posted on September 4, 2001 07:50:41 PM
LC: back to your original question:
Ever look forward to giving a neg?
I have to admit I felt a touch of satisfaction today when I went to my mailbox and found NOTHING from a high feedback buyer who used BIN over a month ago but didn't pay. Oh, the promises were there at critical times. On Day 10 (as per my TOS), on Day 14 (when I filed the NPB alert), on Day 24 (the day to file for FVF credit). Based on the last e-mail I waited one more week, just in case she really sent the payment. Well, surprise, surprise...still NOTHING.
So I filed for my credit today and she is NARU. I didn't get to leave the neg, but that's okay. At least she's curbed for a while...under that ID anyway.
posted on September 4, 2001 08:02:48 PM
Same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I filed for FVF then went to neg, but it was my FVF that got them booted instantly, so I didn't get to neg.
posted on September 4, 2001 09:30:57 PM
Now she's e-mailing that she TOLD me she was sending payment. The nerve of me. It was mailed last Friday---yet another date! This chick is too much.
posted on September 4, 2001 09:38:45 PM
misscandle,
Don't know if you want to consider this as an option. Once my bidders miss their payment due dates (14 days, plus I usually give them an extra 3 days), then I no longer accept checks/money orders for payment. They have to pay on-line.
That seems to quickly put an end to the game playing about "checks in the mail", "I mailed the money order last week", yada, yada, yada.
Atleast it seems to separate the "gonna be a deadbeat anyway" from the chronically payment challenged.
posted on September 4, 2001 09:52:03 PM
Eventer: Thanks, Sis. That's a good policy. I'm going to borrow it. What irks me most about this is it was a decent BIN price...I relisted and it sold for $6.00 less. Actually, no...the lies irked me more. Or, maybe her High-Feedback-so-I-know-better-than-you attitude. No, it was the money.
OT: I thought about you today, Eventer, when I found a gorgeous book on Horse Care. I enjoyed reading through it until I came to the chapter on breeding and birthing. Now I'm traumatized. I better stick with my Victorian craft books. I've no stomach for real life.
posted on September 4, 2001 10:02:40 PM
Borrow away. Hope it helps. Seems to weed out those that weren't ever going to pay pretty fast when you narrow their payment options at that point. Sort of a polite, "put up or shut up" phase.
Ah, but those newborns are soooo cute! If you REALLY want to get grossed out, try the section on gelding.
posted on September 4, 2001 10:34:18 PM
I just left 6 negs, the most I've ever left at one time for deadbeats during the month of August. Can't say I looked forward to leaving them as I would rather have had the money but there was one of them that I found particularly satisfying.
I went through all my normal emails: EOA, 2nd Notice, 2nd notice sent thru eBay, NPB alert, 3rd notice...then I finally filed for my FVF and left a neg...only then do I hear from the bidder - he had sent payment 2 weeks ago...didnt I get it?(I never got it.) Also, he hadnt received any of my emails or eBay's. Don't you find it strange that these type of people seem to live in a black hole or something where neither email nor snail mail seem to get thru?
posted on September 16, 2001 12:43:13 AM
What just GETS me about the NPB's is that they have at least a week most often to watch their item on ebay, think about it, and really decide whether or not they want it. Presumably, once they get themselves to high bidder status, you'd think they'd realize they have to PAY for whatever it is they won. But that seems to much too ask!!!!
I had a buyer who IGNORED my payment deadline, even tho it was a part of the listing, and then got in a huff when I asked her, if it would be acceptable to her, to stop payment and pay online. She lived outside the U.S., so the check she sent me didn't arrive until some three weeks after the auction closed. After she sent the online payment, she stopped responding to my emails, and I have no idea whether she got her item, likes it, or WHAT. But I am going to resist the strong urge to leave her a NEG - I'm not going to leave anything. Then maybe I won't have to deal with a retaliation!!!
posted on September 16, 2001 05:48:20 AM
>Don't you find it strange that these type of people seem to live in a black hole or something where neither email nor snail mail seem to get thru?<
Because we have always got a few BIN auctions running I use PP to invoice all of the auctions. (that way I never miss any)
I also re-email an invoice from our address just in case. Every now & then I'll get an email from someone AFTER a NPB alert is sent from ebay.
Funny how some get THAT email but none of the others.
Here's one of the latest......
>Oh goodness! I sincerely apologize for not sending a payment for the 'dinks'. I haven't checked my mail in ages, and I completely forgot about it. Can I still send you a payment? What's your address? I'm so, so sorry!!
hearts
sarah<
That was sent on 9/4, still no payment.
The email came right after a NPB was issued.
I don't know how it might play out in a court of law (or with ebay) but I consider if the person hasn't paid in the time specified in my TOS, and again in my EOA notice, then they have, in essence, breached their contract with me.
