Ebay: Non paying bidders

[EvanGeliSt]

Just wanna seek some advice and hear from others:

/rant starts
Bidder bidded on my item. Sends an e-mail the next day indicating that no way is he going to pay becoz' of the high shipping fees. I am appalled at his reaction and pretty angry(just had another non-paying bidder incident before this) about it. We exchanged several e-mails and he just refused to pay for it because back in the ol' days shipping was never an issue. I guess we all have had some experience selling stuff and ebay's charges sometimes become too high such that I have to stick with the shipping to earn back what I spent on the item....

I indicated clearly on the auction that it was going to be XX charges and bid only if the bidder agrees to the terms. ... oh well. Count my luck. The bidder is saying that he is going to file with the ebay harbor should I leave him negative feedback for the auction. I'm not even sure what that is... but hope for the best that I don't get a negative for nothing.

Excerpts from last 2 e-mails:
Me to him:

Hi XX,
I got your message and there was one sentence that really caught my eye:

"I really didn't have to go with your auction, They run mail order sites and won't charge as much as XX for shipping. Why should i pay that much for an item, I know how much it weights? That's simply idiotic(pun intended) if you ask me."

I guess there is nothign much to be discussed there since you didn't really have to go with my acution, but you did and caused me to pay a sum to ebay for listing the fees. I just take it as my luck gone bad then. thanks anyway for reply early.

Good luck.

His reply: That's good, it was meant to catch your eye, now beat it twerp!

/rant ends

Sorry if this was too moody or crappy... an e-mail in the Saturday morning from the bidder really killed my day.

--EvanGeliSt

Edit: I apologzie for the font.. copied straight from e-mail.

 

[iamme]

what a dumbass. he bid knowing your fees. he deserves negative feedback....but you'll probably get neg. feedback from him as well .

 

[DanJ]

This is so hard to read with the HTML...

 

[Eli]

Has the auction ended?

If not, just cancel the bid.

If it has, just bite the bullet.

It depends on if the negative feedback is worth it to you. Personally, I would take the $ hit to get positive feedback.

 

[mchammer187]

what a damn idiot

 

[iamme]

you can leave him negative feedback, then reverse the negative feedback he leaves you for $20

 

[bsobel]

What were you charging for shipping? Were you indeed like most other Ebay sellers trying to overinflate that to insure a profit margin?
Bill

 

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: bsobel
What were you charging for shipping? Were you indeed like most other Ebay sellers trying to overinflate that to insure a profit margin?
Bill

does it even matter if the shipping price is clearly stated?

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: bsobel
What were you charging for shipping? Were you indeed like most other Ebay sellers trying to overinflate that to insure a profit margin?
Bill

does that even matter?

as annoying as overinflated shipping costs are, you don't bid on an auction if you're not willing to pay the costs.

 

[bsobel]

does it even matter if the shipping price is clearly stated?

Without a link to the auction, we only have one side of the story, just trying to get a more info.
Bill

 

[EvanGeliSt]

Thanks guys for supporting me.

I actually admit that I did "inflate" the charges as what some may say, and i personally hate to do that. but I did clearly state the shipping fees etc so that they can make a decision for themselves whether they want to buy my item or not. This bidder persistently bidded after being overthrown at the last few seconds and got the bid. I admit I was wrong in a sense, but isn't it just like a contract that you abide by it after you sign it?? I can't imagine signing a loan for a million and backing out of it after i forget to read that the interest rate is 10% than competitors..

Most of you are probably going to condemn me for shipping at that price but I bought the monitor at $420 earlier... from the dell deal and the authorized dealer after i checked is charging me $35 for shipping. I expected to lose a little less from ebay if I raised the shipping fees and people would bid less i.e. 400. But it ended $36 higher than my expectation....

... guess it's my fault for being too greedy at times..............

 

[bsobel]

I suspect a link to the auction can be found here. If this is indeed what was posted, while $15 seems slightly high, it's not in the range what I was refering to (sellers charging $25 dollars for shipping while stores would charge $8 or so).

edit: Oops, linked to a differnt auction.

Bill

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: EvanGeliSt
Thanks guys for supporting me.

I actually admit that I did "inflate" the charges as what some may say, and i personally hate to do that. but I did clearly state the shipping fees etc so that they can make a decision for themselves whether they want to buy my item or not. This bidder persistently bidded after being overthrown at the last few seconds and got the bid. I admit I was wrong in a sense, but isn't it just like a contract that you abide by it after you sign it?? I can't imagine signing a loan for a million and backing out of it after i forget to read that the interest rate is 10% than competitors..

like i said before, it doesn't matter. you could have charged a million dollars to ship the item. you didn't hide the shipping costs, right? it says on eBay that bidding is a legal binding contract.

you were probably greedy for charging high for shipping, but the other guy is a deadbeat for trying to back out. it sounds like he got caught up in wanting to buy the item and bid more than he could afford.

 

[Nocturnal]

It sucks big time. I've had tons of those guys bid on my auctions, win, and never pay, ever. And these are people with 0 feedback most of the time. I now state really big that if you have 0 feedback do not bid on my item, or else your bid will be cancelled.

 

[EvanGeliSt]

I won't be giving out his e-mail address; with the AT effect, he is probably going to be blasted with e-mails...

Thanks for the thought however. I'll just take it as having a bad day

 

[iamme]

do you have alot of positive feedback? if so, 1 negative may not make a big deal. just clearly state that the buyer refused to pay even though all the prices were clearly stated.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
It sucks big time. I've had tons of those guys bid on my auctions, win, and never pay, ever. And these are people with 0 feedback most of the time. I now state really big that if you have 0 feedback do not bid on my item, or else your bid will be cancelled.

that's a good idea. i've seen sellers say that if you have less than a certain amount of positive feedback, you have to contact the seller with you name, address, phone, etc. or your bid will get cancelled. good way of protecting yourself, IMO.

 

[mchammer187]

Originally posted by: EvanGeliSt
Thanks guys for supporting me.

I actually admit that I did "inflate" the charges as what some may say, and i personally hate to do that. but I did clearly state the shipping fees etc so that they can make a decision for themselves whether they want to buy my item or not. This bidder persistently bidded after being overthrown at the last few seconds and got the bid. I admit I was wrong in a sense, but isn't it just like a contract that you abide by it after you sign it?? I can't imagine signing a loan for a million and backing out of it after i forget to read that the interest rate is 10% than competitors..

EDIT: <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29503&item=3407956347&rd=1" target=blank>Link to site</A>

Most of you are probably going to condemn me for shipping at that price but I bought the monitor at $420 earlier... from the dell deal and the authorized dealer after i checked is charging me $35 for shipping. I expected to lose a little less from ebay if I raised the shipping fees and people would bid less i.e. 400. But it ended $36 higher than my expectation....

... guess it's my fault for being too greedy at times..............

it may be a little greedy but IMO there is nothing wrong with that

the guy shouldnt have bid if he wasnt prepared to pay period

i always take shipping into consideration before i place any bids and so should everyone else

 

[EvanGeliSt]

edited earlier posts and showed a link to the website.

I currently have 49 positive feedbacks; 1 negative from a guy who used my item for a month and then report somethign went wrong; and another neutral who failed to contact me after 2 weeks..

wondering if I would actually try the $20 to remove the feedback later, but I'm pretty much against the idea ... so I guess not.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: iamme
do you have alot of positive feedback? if so, 1 negative may not make a big deal. just clearly state that the buyer refused to pay even though all the prices were clearly stated.

He has 51 positives, 1 neutral, and 1 negative. The hotdeal forum has a site that will attempt to remove negatives for $20 each, just noticed the post a bit ago
Bill

 

[SilverThief]

Wow $50 shipping really is high... I'd just take the hit on this one, and if and when you do relist it, give actual shipping charges.

 

[iamme]

have you considered emailing the person w/ the second highest bid and selling it to him/her? They only bid $5 less

does that violate AOL's rules?

 

[AlienCraft]

I have a similar issue with someone who offered to pay more for shipping after acknowledging that the flat rate wouldn't cover shipping to the UK.
I'm hoping they will do the right thing, like I did by shipping on their payment of all other charges that I had (subsequent to shipping) via paypal.
Anyway , I'm not sweating it. What's done is done...

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: EvanGeliSt
I won't be giving out his e-mail address; with the AT effect, he is probably going to be blasted with e-mails...

Thanks for the thought however. I'll just take it as having a bad day

Well, you just basically gave out his email address by linking to the auction, we can still contact him.

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Well, perhaps the damage has already been done, but perhaps since it went ~ $36 over what you expected you could reduce your shipping and not lose your sale.

I think the burden of reading the auction and seeing the $50+ shipping was entirely the responsibility of the BUYER, but would advise the above if you want to complete your sale and maintain your positive feedback record.