Making eBay Your Business The interview that inspired me to become an eBay seller.

To Auction, to Auction Keeping your cool and being willing to get dirty when attending real world auctions.

What Happens When Buyers Don't Pay? Using the eBay dispute resolution.

What Happens When Buyers Don't Pay? Using eBay's Dispute Resolution System

It happens.  You check out your latest sales and feel a sense of accomplishment that your items have sold (hopefully at a decent profit).  You send out notification emails - or the system does this automatically - and check your account periodically for payments. Days pass and you still have one buyer who hasn't paid.  You send out a reminder (I have the system do this after 5 days).  More time passes, no response.  What do you do?

The first thing to remember is that people use the internet in different ways.  Not everyone checks their email every day and events can arise that can cause a buyer to innocently forget.  I allow about 10 days for a buyer to respond to the two emails that have been sent and ALWAYS send them through the eBay system so that I can track them.

I also check out the buyer's feedback for two pieces of information: 1) their track record in the past 2) if they've been active online in recent weeks. You can do this by clicking on the number next to a buyer's eBay name.  If a buyer has managed to pay everyone else but me in the time just prior to and just after winning my auction, they lose the benefit of my doubt.

If you still aren't getting a response, the best thing to do for yourself and the buyer is to open an unpaid item dispute through eBay. 

This is a mediated, neutral process that allows you to communicate with the buyer through the eBay system.  It does not immediately put a black mark against the buyer's name.  Instead, the system will send the buyer an alert - both via email and through his or her's eBay home screen.

Remember to keep your language neutral.  The customer could simply have forgotten, could have changed an email address or could have had a family crisis.  Simply state that you have not received payment for the item and would like to complete the transaction.

If the buyer does not respond within 7 days, you can file an unpaid item strike on the eighth day and leave negative feedback to warn other eBayers that the buyer is a non-payer.  The buyer cannot retaliate with negative feedback against you.  As an added insurance, we make it a rule not to deal with buyers once we've had to file an unpaid item strike against them by adding them to our blocked buyers list.

eBay will refund the final value fee to you - but not the listing fee.

Some buyers take this process very personally and sometimes they've sent emails asking for a bit of extra time and those emails get lost.  Buyers do not understand that you could be fielding hundreds of emails a day and the one they sent could have gotten lost if not sent through the eBay system.

If you've kept your language neutral, you can explain that the process is there to protect both buyers and sellers and point out that you've made no derogatory remarks nor will the process leave a lasting black mark if both parties communicate.  You can then complete your transaction and get back to the fun parts of selling.

Summary

Initially give the buyer the benefit of the doubt.  Not everyone checks their email every day.

Always communicate through your My Messages are of your eBay backend - even when responding to emails send directly to your in-box.

When opening an Unpaid Item Dispute and throughout the process, always keep your language neutral and respectful.

If a buyer responds emotionally, reply with facts and don't react.  They don't know you - so why take it personally?