| To an eBay seller, the worst thing in the world is a high bidder who disappears from the face of the earth ”a deadbeat bidder who bids but never pays. If this happens to you, you're stuck holding the now-unsold merchandise. (Which is also the good news ”you might not have gotten paid, but at least you still have the merchandise to re-sell in another auction.) If you find yourself a victim of a deadbeat bidder, you can report the bum to eBay, ask for a refund of your final value fee, and maybe offer the item in question to other ( unsuccessful ) bidders. But you have to initiate all of these activities yourself ”eBay doesn't know that you've been shafted until you tell them. You'll want to follow the procedure outlined in the following checklist: Deadbeat Bidder Checklist  Contact the bidder (again) File a Non-Paying Bidder Alert Request a final value fee credit Leave negative feedback to the deadbeat bidder Block bidder from future sales Offer the item in question to the second-highest bidder or Relist the item |
Let's walk through these steps, one by one. Step One: Contact the Unresponsive Bidder It's on your shoulders to go to whatever lengths possible to contact the high bidder in your eBay auctions. This should start with the standard post-auction email, of course. If the buyer hasn't responded within three days, resend your original email with an "URGENT" added to the subject line. You should also amend the message to give the buyer a deadline (two days is good) for his response. If another two days go by without a response, send a new message informing the buyer that if you don't receive a response within two days, you'll be forced to cancel his high bid and report him to eBay as a deadbeat bidder. tip  | If your email bounces or if the buyer doesn't respond, see the "Checking Up on Questionable Bidders" section, previously in this chapter, to learn how to obtain additional contact information. |
If a full week goes by and you still haven't heard from the buyer, you can assume the worst ”and proceed to Step Two. Step Two: File a Non-Paying Bidder Alert The way you notify eBay about a deadbeat bidder is to file a Non-Paying Bidder Alert. You have to fill out this form between 7 and 45 days after your auction ends; you can't file earlier, even if you know you have a deadbeat on your hands. You file a Non-Paying Bidder Alert by going to the Site Map page and clicking the Request Final Value Fee Credit link ”or going directly to pages.ebay.com/help/community/npb.html. This page tells you all about how to deal with bad bidders; follow the instructions here to file the Alert. Now what happens? When eBay receives a Non-Paying Bidder Alert, the service automatically sends a warning to the user in question ”not that this typically does a lot of good. (Although sometimes eBay will scare only slightly deadbeat bidders into walking the straight and narrow ”you never know.) If the alleged deadbeat receives three such warnings, he or she will be indefinitely suspended from the eBay service.  | If the item in question was sold in a Dutch auction, this process gets a little trickier. You can only file one Non-Paying Bidder Alert form per auction ”which means you have to include all the deadbeat bidders in that auction in a single form; you can't file additional alerts after the initial form has been filed. |
If, by some quirk of fate, you end up working things out with the buyer after you've filed a Non-Paying Bidder Alert, you should file a Non-Paying Bidder Warning Removal form. You can find this form on the same page you use to file a Non-Paying Bidder Alert. Step Three: Ask eBay to Refund Your Fees After a Non-Paying Bidder Alert is filed, you have to wait another 10 days before you can request a refund of your final value fee. (A lot of waiting, I know!) This refund request must be made no later than 60 days after the end of your auction, and your claim has to meet one of the following criteria: -
The high bidder did not respond to your emails or backed out and did not buy the item. -
The high bidder's check bounced or a stop payment was placed on it. -
The high bidder returned the item and you issued a refund. -
The high bidder backed out, but you sold the item to another bidder at a lower price. -
One or more of the bidders in a Dutch auction backed out of the sale. If your situation fits, you're entitled to a full refund of eBay's final value fee ”if you request it. To request a refund, go to eBay's Site Map page and click the Final Value Fee Request link (in the Seller Services section). Follow the instructions there to receive your credit; eBay generally issues a credit to your account within 48 hours. Step Four: Leave Negative Feedback Naturally, you want to alert other eBay members to the weasel among them. You do this by leaving negative feedback, along with a description of just what went wrong (no contact, no payment, whatever). To leave negative feedback, go to the item listing page, click the Leave Feedback to Bidder link, and when the Leave Feedback About an eBay User page appears, check Negative and enter your comments. Click the Leave Comment button when done. Step Five: Block Bidder from Future Sales Next, you want to make sure that this deadbeat doesn't bid in any of your future auctions. You do this by adding the bum to your blocked bidders list, which you learned about back in Chapter 12, "Managing Your Auctions." Basically, you go to the Site Map page and click the Blocked Bidder/Buyer List link. When the Bidder/Buyer Management page appears, scroll to the Blocked Bidder/Buyer List section and click Continue. When the Blocked Bidder/Buyer List page appears, add the buyer's user name to the list; separate multiple names with commas. Click the Submit button when done. Step Six: Give Other Bidders a Second Chance Now all that's left to do is deal with the merchandise that you thought you had sold. Assuming you still want to sell the item, what do you do? You can, of course, relist the item for sale ”which we'll go into in step seven. However, you may be able to save yourself this hassle by offering the item to other bidders in your failed auction. eBay's Second Chance Offer feature lets you try to sell your item to someone else who was definitely interested in what you had to sell. | | When a bidder accepts your Second Chance Offer, eBay charges you a final value fee. You are not charged a listing fee. Buyers accepting Second Chance Offers are eligible for eBay's normal fraud protection services. |
You can make a Second Chance Offer to any of the under-bidders in your original auction. The offer can be made immediately on the end of the auction, and up to 60 days afterward. To make a Second Chance Offer, return to your original item listing page and click the Make a Second Chance Offer link. When the Second Chance Offer page appears, follow the onscreen instructions to fill out the form and make the offer. Step Seven: Relist Your Item If you don't have any takers on your Second Chance Offer, you can always try to sell the item again by relisting the item. See the "Relisting Unsold Items" section, earlier in this chapter, for specific instructions. | 