What would you do?

TMC: As long as the request to cancel and the buyers reason is in writing, we just cancel right away, issue the refund, block that buyer from our store preferences and then refresh the listing and get on with selling it again and get on with our lives.

We have let the Unpaid Item Assistant do a couple but the item just sits and sits as Ebay keeps sending the Buyer Notices and hoping they will change their minds. We had 2 items in the past sit in Unpaid Items for months before Ebay finally giving up. Way too long.

We now get get rid of them and dispense with the situation as quickly as we can and get on with our business. Don’t let bad buyers change your SOP [standard operating procedure] and disrupt your routine. End it, get it back on the market as if this person never showed up, and move on.

But as always, just my opinion and it along with another $1.50 will get you half a cup of coffee.

Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta

Do what feels right depending on the case.
The only affect you have to consider is if you want to leave your item off the market until the case closes.

I have a system to weed out flakey Best Offers. It almost always works.

I NEVER accept a best offer. I always counter with a 1 penny discount. For instance. If someone offers me $20.00 for a widget. I counter with a price of 19.99 & the following message:

“I accept as long as you are able to make immediate payment. Please do not accept this counter offer until you can pay. Thanks.”

This weeds out people who didn’t realize they were committing to make a purchase.
It makes them think twice if they really want the item (cuts down on returns).

I also point out things in the listing the buyer may have missed:

(i.e. just confirming you read that this is sold AS IS or I see you are in the UK please make sure your are comfortable with the high shipping cost).

If the buyer still wants the item, they usually respect my request. The flakes don’t respond, and the item stays available for sale. I don’t have to deal with getting seller fees refunded.

It’s a win-win.

I would just cancel, relist and move on.

As a buyer, I’ve had to cancel 2 orders placed on the internet this week and was pleased at how quick and efficient the sellers were in canceling the orders. If the sellers had been difficult about it, I would’ve been frosty myself as a buyer – both cancellation requests were made before shipping had been purchased and tracking uploaded.

Cancel and relist, move on. BTW, if I remember correctly, Griff hinted recently that Immediate Pay with Best Offers could be one of the things coming to Managed Payments next year…..

Depends on my mood and how the transaction occurred. Recent case: Went back and forth with a guy, finally nailed down a price, then got “cancel the order, thanks” like 5 minutes later.

Response: “Hi, no problem, eBay will automatically cancel the order in a number of days.”

Translation: “Enjoy your unpaid item strike!”

These strikes exist for a reason. Unless the item is super popular and will likely sell quickly, you should absolutely, 100%, without a doubt stick them with the ONLY thing eBay has put in place to stop bad behavior – an unpaid item strike.

Like I said, this is a case-by-case basis. If you send an offer and I don’t get around to accepting for a number of hours, then it’s understandable if something happened between then and now to change that, but otherwise I have zero sympathy. Pay up or enjoy the penalty.

@indysales – Just curious what exactly is an unpaid item strike. As seller are we able to see if a buyer are carrying them? How many strikes till a buyer is kicked off the system?