Why do non-paying Ebayers make it so easy for people to find out who they are?

[pulse8]

I had an auction end and the guy hasn't paid me yet. It's been about 3 days now, but he's had a couple of non-paying, negative feedbacks in the last few months so I'm not holding my breath.

I got curious about who this guy was and on Ebay you get their zip code for shipping and their e-mail addresses are shown anyway. With a few searches I know the guy's full name, address, phone number, place of employment and age.

Also, is there any way to avoid these problems on Ebay or is it just the name of the game these days?

Man, work is slow this week.

 

[Ameesh]

call him at work, it will scare the crap out of him

 

[Murphyrulez]

He might have been in a car accident 3 days ago and is on his way home from the hospital now.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
call him at work, it will scare the crap out of him

I had thought about maybe just sending an e-mail addressed with his real name asking how someone his age can act like some punk teenager on ebay and CC someone at his company.

Originally posted by: Murphyrulez
He might have been in a car accident 3 days ago and is on his way home from the hospital now.

The same thing must've happened in January, too!

 

[djNickb]

Because they suck at teh interweb

 

[zimu]

i'd say its just the name of hte game. nobody is safe, big brother is always watching

 

[mugs]

How old was the guy?

I don't really understand why people would bid on an auction and not pay. Do they expect you to send it assuming they'll pay eventually? Or do they just bid on multiple identical items and pay for the one they win at the lowest price?

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Ameesh
call him at work, it will scare the crap out of him

I had thought about maybe just sending an e-mail addressed with his real name asking how someone his age can act like some punk teenager on ebay and CC someone at his company.

Bad idea. He could turn around forward the emails to ebay safeharbour, with the possibliity of your account being suspended due to harassment. Ebay will not give a damn that he has not paid.

 

[NFS4]

3 days? Dang dude, unless your auction says pay me immediately, you should chill a little

I give my bidders 5 business days to pay me. Seems to be pretty standard and very reasonable. Sure, sometimes it sucks not to get paid right away, but it gives people a little more time.

If they haven't paid in 5 business days, I relist the item, file a non-paying bidder claim and a final auction value credit.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: NFS4
3 days? Dang dude, unless your auction says pay me immediately, you should chill a little

I give my bidders 5 business days to pay me. Seems to be pretty standard and very reasonable. Sure, sometimes it sucks not to get paid right away, but it gives people a little more time.

If they haven't paid in 5 business days, I relist the item, file a non-paying bidder claim and a final auction value credit.

The thread wasn't so much that the guy hasn't paid, I mentioned that I'm not concerned too much about that, but more about what information I could find about the guy with just an e-mail address and a zip code.

I'm assuming he's not going to pay because he's had a few non-paying negative ebay evals already. I could be wrong, but either way, I thought it was interesting how he would do it to people when it's so easy to find out all his info.

Bad idea. He could turn around forward the emails to ebay safeharbour, with the possibliity of your account being suspended due to harassment. Ebay will not give a damn that he has not paid.

Settle down, Beavis. I never said I was going to do it. Just making a joke.

How old was the guy?

42

 

[Salvador]

Also, is there any way to avoid these problems on Ebay or is it just the name of the game these days?

Give him 7 days and then give him/her a call. That's what the info is there for.

There is really no way to avoid dealing with the occasional idiot. I do, however put someone with a negative rating in my blocked bidder list every time I see someone with an unfavorable feedback rating. It's usually someone that has left one of my buyers bad feedback for some odd reason. I don't need the hassle.

Another way to help avoid dealing with the deadbeats is not to auction your item. Either sell it at a fixed price or match the price with a BIN price, so that the first person that bids on the item is buying it. I've really cut down on deadbeat bidders this way. I also tend to get more for my items this way even though I have to pay a larger insertion fee. It basically cuts out all the bs. I

have had 2 people bid on the item though instead of use the Buy it now. I wanted to call them idiots, but I just let it go. It was so stupid because they could've had the item for the same price as their first bid and they wouldn't have had to wait or worry about being outbid later. Some people just don't get it..

Sal

 

[kami333]

People just underestimate how easy it is to find private info on the web. Just surfing online forums you could find out a lot of private info.