posted on July 2, 2002 11:41:20 AM
Seems the trend for sellers nowadays to want payment almost before the auction ends...When I used to buy items the seller "requested" payment within 14 days...In the past few months most of my notifications have been downright nasty...(Let me note that I have over 325 feedbacks and NO negatives)...I'm getting tired of the presumed nonpayment of the item even though the jerk never looked at my feedback and proceeds to blanket all buyers with the same messages in his notifications...The last item I bought the guy lived on the west coast and I lived on the east coast and he "demanded" payment to be received within 5 days of the end of auction and it took him 3 days to notify me after it was over...and would leave negative feedback if not received in 7 days!!!...I sent him back a not so nice email telling him that his wishful thinking was not going to happen...(most of these buyers never mention their "demands" in the auction), just the nasty notification after the sale...What's with this trend of demanding payment in such a short time?...It's ridiculous...Oh one more thing about this seller, he wanted payment by Money Order only!!...If your answer to this is that increased non-paying or dragged and deadbeats warrant it, I don't buy it, I'm not one and don't want to be assumed to be one either...I'm striking back at them, I got the sh*ts of it...Now I unloaded, gonna go have a brewskie and relax...
posted on July 2, 2002 11:46:13 AM
my auctions state that payment should be received within 7 days but if the buyer states they will be paying with mo then obviously i will wait longer. when it starts getting around 2 weeks after the auction has ended then i will start inquiring into where the payment is.
I'm still from the old group as well. I don't state when I expect payment. In fact, I don't bug them about it at all. I send an EOA and I accept all types of payment. If it goes beyond 30 days, and I have time to spare, I will follow up just to be sure they received my initial email. I am way toooo busy to waste time "chasing" payments.
Besides, nice works for me. I haven't had over 3 or 4 deadbeats in over a year. In fact I had tested some auctions to see if starting at $1.00 would work -- it didn't by the way. The final sales % was only 50% compared to 35% at $7.95 each and 3 of the 5 I sold stayed at $1.00. One of the $1.00 winners didn't contact me for 6 weeks so I had given up but low and behold here came a check -- I sent the item, and then posted positive feedback (If they pay I am happy -- quick doesn't matter)!
I have lots of repeat customers and have made many friends through Ebay and very few enemies! The 10 test auctions was just that a test. I usually run between 100 and 150 auctions a week.
posted on July 2, 2002 12:31:05 PM
My auctions state that payment is due within 7 days of close of auction. I too expect money orders or checks to take longer so if the buyer responds they are sending a money order I usually don't send them a follow-up "where is your payment letter" until 14 days have past.
However...it sure seems to me that 30-50% of buyers that say they are paying by check/money order manage to "forget" to send payment, and it isn't until my follow-up letter that they suddenly "remember" and get it in the mail sometime within the next week.
It isn't like the $10 check is going to kill me if I don't get it...the problem is the "paperwork" ...keeping that stuff on the books for a month at a time is pain...also.. the other problem is "warehousing" the stuff. I don't have unlimited space to be holding 50-100 unpaid items while some buyers take thier sweet time in sending payment.
I also notice that of the check/money order senders that ARE late...they are the ones wanting to know why they have not got thier shipment 2 days after you receive thier LATE check.
posted on July 2, 2002 04:57:37 PM
I have never put a date for payment on any auction, & I use WBN from AW so they get notice at once. If I haven't heard from the buyer in 10 days, then I will email them & query why I haven't heard from them & give them 10 days to pay. Works every time.
posted on July 2, 2002 05:02:22 PM
i notice the same trend some even have crazy statements such as "if payment not received within 24 HOURS item will be relist and appropriate feedback left"....
what you supposed to do if they accept mailed form of payment!!!!!
posted on July 2, 2002 11:01:00 PM
Personally I post that payment should be received within 10 business days. Received means in my hands, not in the mailbox at the corner of your block. I expect that mail takes longer, but I always keep in strict contact to verify that the payment was sent.
About these 5 days and 7 days payments, my assumption (and we all know what that means) is that they are trying to encourage digital payments instead of MO or checks. To me it is bad business. Especially to post those rules only in the EOA notice. I am completely upfront and completely lax in my upholding the rules. I tell all of my customers that I will 'bend' it for them. I just want my money. I sell repeatedly similar items, so if a sale doesn't go through, the item just goes on the bottom of the rotation of items to be sold.
I do, however, fully understand why people who sell 'unique' items would be rash and inhospitable to slow payments, after all, if they end up not paying, they have just stored this item for free and possibly missed a person looking for that exact item and willing to bid high to get it.
posted on July 3, 2002 09:13:02 AM"if payment not received within 24 HOURS item will be relist and appropriate feedback left"
I just saw that on an auction for a book this week. It only said "payment is expected within 24 hours." I had to read it 3 times to believe it. I always pay within 24 hours anyway, but I've never seen it in TOS before.
posted on July 3, 2002 09:25:57 AM
I don't say anything about when payment must be made, neither in my auctions nor in my emails. About 97% of the payments get to me within 10 days anyway. About 1.5% pay after a friendly reminder, the other 1.5% go on to be deadbeats. I'm happy with those stats, and I don't think that putting a deadline in my TOS would do anything to improve those numbers.
posted on July 3, 2002 07:57:23 PM
Exactly as holdenrex says, I do not believe these wishful demands have any effect whatsoever on flakey, deadbeat bidders.
And it offends those of us who pay quickly.
The sellers who use these terms tend to be less than the cream of the ebay crop in any case. I just bid and won an auction that said payment in 7 days, the email said 5 days and then stated they only ship on Saturday.
I think these payment statements are signs of amateurs. You do get more with honey than vinegar.
posted on July 3, 2002 08:38:17 PM
Why is it that buyers on eBay think they should decide the payment terms? If you buy from any of the major online/mail order companies, they state what forms of payment they accept. Those few that accept checks and money orders also set time frames for receipt of the payment. For some reason folks think eBay sellers' terms are optional. If you don't like the stated auction terms, then don't bid on the item. Otherwise, honor the terms to which you have agreed and don't act offended when a seller requests that you do honor the terms of sale.
posted on July 4, 2002 04:51:28 AM
It's obvious to me when I see more sellers with demanding payment terms, that they are tired of having so many slow payers and deadbeats. Ebay really should implement an instant payment system, optional of course. Lately I've noticed if the buyer doesn't pay online, chances are they won't pay at all.
posted on July 4, 2002 07:19:33 AM
I do not believe that anyone would dispute the fact that sellers have the right to post anything they want in their TOS.
I think the point is that making TOS excessively harsh, and assuming all bidders to be slow payers, deters many good bidders while doing nothing to prevent deadbeats.
I just passed on an item with a "payment must be received in 5 days" where it could only be paid by money order.
Ridiculous!
For one thing I won't even get to a bank or Post Office until Monday, and that is four days to begin with.
And should I make a special trip to the PO tomorrow, and mail the payment, there is no guarantee the PO will even deliver it in time. And you will always note how the nitwits with the demanding terms are all too ready to assume the problem is the buyer and leave the negative.
I will have nothing to do with these auctions. Amateurish sellers.
posted on July 4, 2002 07:32:26 AM
As a seller my TOS states payment is due within 7 days of close of auction. However, I am not a bit afraid to wait 10days,14days,or even longer, as long as the Buyer will take the time to drop me a email and LET ME KNOW! I have a set schedule I follow with my auctions.
Auction ends...send EOA within 5 minutes of ending.
If no response to EOA I send a "2nd attempt to contact" letter 3 days later.
If no response to 2nd letter I send a 3rd and final letter 7 days after auction close.
If no response to that I do a NPB on the 8th day after close....then 10 days later a FVF and a neg.
BUT....
All I need to do is HEAR from my bidder and I am more then happy to give them any REASONABLE amount of time to send me the payment. As most of my items sell between $7-$20 I don't think it should take a buyer a month to scrape the money and send payment.
Lets here from the other buyers and sellers out there....what do YOU feel is a good amount of time to give a buyer to pay? What do YOU list in your TOS (if you are a seller) what do YOU feel is good to see in a TOS (if you are a buyer)?
posted on July 4, 2002 10:08:10 AM
>....what do YOU feel is a good amount of
> time to give a buyer to pay? What do YOU
>list in your TOS (if you are a seller)
>what do YOU feel is good to see in a TOS
>(if you are a buyer)?
I do not make my living on ebay - when I listed more my terms were much more flexible.
My TOS and two other places in my listing notes that I accept Paypal and Billpoint only, I ship to the U.S. only, and I require payment within three days. I now have no time to wait on, mess with, and keep track of mail-in payments - or nonpayments. I am fully aware that this limits bids, and I'm happy to accept that consequence. Since my aim is to move unneeded items out of my house (usually to make room for and finance other ebay purchases :P), I want to do this as simply and quickly as possible. Despite stating it three times in the listing, you would not believe the number of people who miss my electronic payment requirement. My next step is to put it right in the middle of the description.
Because of my own TOS, I'm pretty forgiving of just about any TOS when I'm the buyer. In fact, I have to *really* want something in order to bid on an item that cannot be paid for electronically (and with the new USPS rates, my bids will be even more carefully considered). Assuming the seller accepts electronic payments, I almost always pay within 24 hours. Obviously, if a seller wants to be paid within 5 days, and also accepts mail-in payments, their TOS should reflect that the five-day requirement applies to electronic payments.
As I stated earlier, I never give a deadline for when payment is due. For the most part, I'm dealing with mature adults and figure that they should have a pretty good idea of what is acceptable. My interaction with the high bidder goes like this:
- EOA sent out within 24 hours of the auction closing - usually first thing the following morning, sometimes immediately after the close if I happen to be up that late.
- If no payment or contact within 10 business days of sending the EOA, I send a friendly reminder email including all payment details. This usually gets a response from those who were simply forgetful or maybe sent payment out a bit later than most.
- If no payment or contact within 10 business days of sending the reminder, I file the NPB. By this point, I'm usually losing hope of getting payment, but this has been known to kick some tardy payments out of the woodwork.
- If no payment or contact within 10 business days of filing the NPB, I file for the FVF credit and leave a neg (if they're not already suspended, which many are by that point). I never received a retaliatory neg from the ones that I left - I think most pranksters, kids, or whatever have generally lost interest in the "game" at that point and aren't even looking at their account.
Of course, if somebody does contact me at any of these points, I'll grant them more time - but I won't let them drag it out beyond the 45 day limit for filing the NPB (I've had a couple try to do that).
As a buyer, I don't like to see deadlines and draconian feedback threats in the seller's TOS. I feel like that's talking down to all the bidders, kind of like a grade school teacher admonishing an entire class for the antics of one upstart punk. That said, I have no problem buying from these folks - I always pay within 48 hours through PP or Billpoint anyway, and 10 to 14 days is not a problem for compliance, even if they demand a check or money order. However, litlux's example of demanding a money order in five days, or other truly ridiculous stipulations or feedback demands, would definitely have me passing over that auction.
