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How do you handle them? I’ll start by saying I require immediate payment for all items purchased without Best Offer. Unfortunately, that is not an option when I accept an offer. I had been using the Unpaid Item Assistant through ebay for the past few months having the case open after 2 days. IF, someone asked me for an extended time to pay, I would manually turn it off for that item (though, most never paid anyway). The problem I have is people get the email, then all of a sudden get pissy about it (someone recently threatened that it better arrive quickly to Australia) or, like today I get a sob story (that I sympathize with, but sob story all the same) wanting to actually cancel the transaction. Long story shorter, it was a pain to get anything done with ebay. You can’t cancel with a case open, yada yada yada. I turned the auto-assist off and was about to add some kind of disclaimer about it on ALL of my listings, but figured I’d hear how others handle it instead. I like the automatic factor. Is 2 days too short?
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In the old days, four days was the shortest period of time ebay allowed for sellers to claim UI, and I’ve stuck with that. I get too few of them to feel a need to automate the process, so I just give all my buyers a minimum of four days, and often longer. I find most of my buyers usually do pay if I give them some time, and if I do have to file, most pay pretty quickly. As a small scavenger seller, I’ve just never been comfortable with less then four days, but that’s just me.
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I have auto unpaid item assistant set to 3 days before a claim is started. I send a payment reminder after two days.
If a buyer does not communicate with me within 3 days including a payment reminder I really don’t give a hoot if they get upset a claim is started. Once upon a time I would send a message explaining the unpaid item assistant claim process but I don’t do that anymore either. Either they pay, open a dialogue with me, or let the process go until my item is relisted and they get a ding.
If someone does message me with payment plans I just explain to them that the unpaid claim is automatic (out of my control) and they’ll have a total of 7 days to pay. If they need longer than that, then tough crap. They shouldn’t be “buying” things they don’t have the money for.
The assistant saves so SOOOO much frustration and work.
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I have to agree with Retro.. If they make no attempts to contact me within 4 days and the assistant takes over, I don’t have whole lot of sympathy for them or their situation. If they contact me before then, I can be very reasonable and forgiving.
That being said, once the assistant takes over, I get paid more than half the time, with no further action by me. I’ve been tempted to set it to 2 days, but late pays are so infrequent that I’d just as soon give them the 4 days.
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I use the unpaid item assistant set to four days. If the buyer hasn’t paid for two days, I message with the following:
“Thank-you for your purchase. This is just a friendly reminder that you need to pay for your item so that I can ship it to you. Please message me with any issues.”
After another day has gone by, I send another message (editing for the correct date) with the following:
“Just another reminder to pay for this order. I have eBay’s unpaid item assistant set to automatically open a case after four days of nonpayment (which would be tomorrow, Sunday, July 9). If there is any issue at all including needing more time or deciding to cancel the purchase, please message me right away.”
I don’t do anything more. After the 4th day, eBay opens a case. I think that the buyer then has another four days to pay before eBay cancels the sale and dings the buyer.
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Thanks for all the replies and the mention on the podcast….but I am not a she 😉
I have decided to just keep it manual. I seem to get more of these than average, especially when you consider J&R have 5000+ items and I hover around 800. Anyway, I don’t know why I get more, but the majority of mine do not pay. I have one now that I gave 3+ days and sent 2 messages prior to opening a case. I am going to go the 4 day route with emails each day after the first and let them know that on the 4th day the case will be opened and there will be no way to close it without payment (this all assumes there has been NO communication from the buyer).
Joshua
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I also do it manually. For the first few days I’ll send an invoice each day, then I will message them. If I don’t hear anything for a week or so, I’ll start a case.
It is kind of annoying when people purchase and then wait to pay. I don’t get it, especially when you’ve been going back and forth with offers, and they accept. Then don’t pay. LOL So weird!
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I don’t understand…you are saying you have a lot of these, and that most do not pay no matter what you do. This is exactly what the unpaid item assistant is for! It takes the stress of dealing with the deadbeats off of you so you can spend your energies on more important things.
Another item to consider, with the assistant, relisting is automatic. If you do it manually you have to relist yourself. I have a whole bin of items I apparently forgot to relist from back when I organized my entire inventory. Yet another headache the assistant takes care of, which is even more important than dealing with the actual deadbeat buyer.
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It’s finding that middle ground I suppose. I was more curious to see how others handled the issue and what their non-pay rate was. I’m going to keep it manual for now with daily emails and an UPIC on the 4th day. If it continues to increase as my inventory grows, I’ll go back to automated or do away with best offer. That will require more research in the future. Thanks all for the replies.
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I’m a big fan of UIA. Mine is set to 2 days. I will send an invoice after one day, and that’s it. I don’t chase after people or try to gently cajole them into paying for their stuff, lol. Don’t be afraid of your buyers!
I don’t really understand people that procrastinate on paying for items on which they made an offer. Do you want it or not? If not, tell me and we’ll move on. Sometimes people do write me and say “I changed my mind, can I cancel this sale?”. I always write back and say “Yes, absolutely! And thank you for letting me know!” Sometimes people write me to say “Can I pay for this next week?”, and I will turn the UIA off for that item. I tell them “Sure! Thanks for letting me know! But please keep in mind I cannot hold the item past that date. I will send you an invoice to remind you. Thanks!” If they don’t pay by the date they requested, then UIA gets turned back on.
So far, no one has ever left me passive-aggressive feedback because of the UIA. Most people pay immediately once they get the UIA message. IMO, daily emails for 4 days are more alienating than using UIA.
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