How long would you allow a buyer for payment

[flippinada]

I sell things on ebay occasionally - I sold two items last week - and both buyers haven't made a payment (3 days ago).

Would it be reasonable to leave it a couple of days then send a message reminding them, asking if they still want the item and saying I will put x back up for auction if they haven't paid by a certain date?

[humphryscorner]

What method are they paying? If it's pay pal is expect immediate payment .... But then again I'm impatient.

My brother sold a car for £2000 and the bidder didn't even bother to show up after a week long bid. Gives me the rage!

[lljkk]

I send invoices a few times & messages a few times. I offer to cancel & if they reply to say yes I do cancel. I do this several times over 4 days before I would consider UPI.

I only file UPI if they mess me about by saying they'll pay later but don't OR if they never reply to messages.

Remember, if they do pay up before UPI times out then they can trash your FB. So always be very polite.

[flippinada]

Thank you both.

WRT payment method, I always specify payment by paypal

llkjj there's no way I wouldn't be polite as I know where that might lead - neither are high value items, just bits and pieces I had lying about that I don't need. Am not overly annoyed at this stage, just want to check the correct ebay etiquette!

I'll wait til tomorrow eve then send a message asking if they still want the item, then review again in a couple of days and act accordingly.

[SandyDilbert]

I open a non payer case after 2 days, that acts as a reminder and gives them another 4 days to pay anyway. I don't think emailing them asking if they want the item will make a non payer pay, and it is holding you up to either get your money or relist and get another buyer.

[flippinada]

Thanks for the tip Sandy I'm not desperate to get the money so I'll send a reminder and then proceed according to the response.

[flippinada]

Update and more advice needed please!

One of the buyers has made payment - but she is outside the UK. I did specify in my listing that postage was just to the UK, however I contacted her stating I was willing to send to her country but would need to charge extra for postage - I've sent two messages both of which have been ignored.

For some reason ebay won'te let me send an invoice for the postage amount.

As she isn't responding, would it be acceptable to cancel the transaction?

[lljkk]

That is complicated, when did she pay and when did you msg her about the out-of-country postage? I think you'll need to phone Dublin on this (Ebay CS). Try first thing in the morning.

[flippinada]

Thanks ll am talking to them on chat right now. I'll see how it goes.

[lljkk]

hope you don't get cut off...

[flippinada]

Well the agent was helpful and advised me what to do. I have the ebayers mobile number so I'll text her and ask for the extra postage. If I don't get a response to that after that then I'll cancel.

[flippinada]

Although I am currently thinking this is more faff than its worth....

[lljkk]

deep breath, you don't want to lose the FVF over this.
I am not sure that texting will help, it's not comms that Ebay gets copied so they won't assume you actually did such a thing to resolve this.
But yes I would try a few other things to contact buyer. Text is relatively cheap.

[flippinada]

Thank you, I really appreciate the advice.

I've tried to text but the number keeps coming back as unrecognised - I've made sure to use the correct international code. Not sure what else I can do!

[lljkk]

arrrgghhh...

[flippinada]

I think all I can do now is leave it for a reasonable amount of time (so the buter can respond) and then decide what to do from there.

[flippinada]

buter? I mean buyer.

[nickstmoritz]

Send a message saying as the buyer has paid uk postage (I assume that's what happened when they paid) it will cost X more to send abroad and they can send the extra to you via paypal (as opposed to ebay) You can send a separate paypal invoice to their email address for just the extra postage. Tell them you will be able to send the parcel once the overseas postage is paid.

For the future you can set your account to block overseas bidders if you want UK only or specify P&P for overseas on your listing (and block certain countries - which is what I have done with the how-to advice from the ebay Mnetters here (thanks again)).

[nickstmoritz]

So you will need their email address. Hope that makes sense.

[flippinada]

Yes that makes perfect sense, thank you.

I've already sent messages though and not had a response. I tried to send an invoice and can't work out how to do it so will have another look.

Really it's no bother to send it abroad, just costs a bit extra.