How long do you wait after auction for buyer to pay?

[wickedfairy]

Hi there,

Looking for some advice please! Have recently sold a sofa on ebay - clearly stated in the advert it is for collection only due to size/weight and also the 'postage' offer said Local pick up only. Sold it Saturday evening and have sent the invoice to buyer, asking for them to contact me to arrange collection (and that I am willing to accept cash on collection).

Just noticed that they live waaaaayyyy down south and I am in the north west!! Now, it could be an old address they have not updated on ebay, or they could have a friend up here who could collect it, but I am worried a little (although it has only been 2 days really). The buyer only had 2 feedback though (female) and when I invoiced, the name it sent it to was male.

How long should I wait before trying to follow it up? If they don't get in touch, what am I supposed to do? Have funny feeling they have arsed it up and have no intention of coming to get it, which would piss me off, as it has wasted my time/outbid someone else/I will have to pay listing fees, etc.

No experience of anything going untowards on ebay before - can anyone advise? Thanks!

Have just received an email from my buyer, here is what it says:

I have an unfortunate set of circumstances that mean I can not pick this item up, the van I had access too has been involved in an accident.
Would it be ok if I pay for the item and allow you to resell it? or alternatively the person who bid below me could buy it and I will pay the difference?

really sorry to be a pain

.Now, I don't need this hassle - should i wait until 4 exact days after the auxtion ended and open up an non-pay dispute (how do I even do that?). I don't want to be billed for fees and I am not selling it again on her behalf!!

Thanks!

Hiya, these things are a pain but I think ebays procedures state that if the buyer can't buy for unforseen reasons then you must offer it to the second highest bidder, particularly if the first bidder asks for that. If I'm right then that should be stated in ebay procedures. Not sure where you stand if second highest bidder says no to purchase. I'd check the ebay regulations carefully before going to step of dispute. Good luck!

you can ask her if she will agree to a mutual cancellation - you will get your fees back, but she must click her part on this procedure so keep her sweet.
It's then up to you how you wish to proceed re selling it to someone else

As far as I was aware, if we enter a mutual cancellation then I am still liable for the fees - which is what I want to avoid.

If I email her asking her to pay the fees for me and she agrees - what do I do next?

Do I issue her a new invoice (how do I even do that)?

Or can she pay Paypal with my original invoice and alter the amount?

How do we "close off" the sale on ebay?

Thanks in advance!

if you do a mutual cancel you will get your fees back.
You start this process through the dispute process, but it isn't a dispute as such ie the 'buyer' won't get a strike.

pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/cancel-transaction-process.html

best to do it this way (the right way) than to try to get someone to pay your fees when they don't have

Had a similar situation recently - you need to open a dispute (one of the options says something along the lines of 'cancel transaction, buyer on good terms'), eBay then email the buyer asking them to confirm they want to cancel. Once they confirm, your final valuation fee is refunded. If they don't bother replying, I think it's automatically cancelled after 7 days, and you get your refund then. Don't think you get your listing fee back (and if you had a reserve price, you lose that fee), but you can relist it again for free.

You are not obliged to offer it to the second highest bidder - I chose not to, as they had bid quite a bit lower than I was prepared to let the item go for (and below my reserve price). I relisted it on a Buy It Now as I wanted a quick sale, and as it happened one of the previous bidders came along and snapped it up.

Good luck - hope you get it resolved and resold quickly.

This is quite a common occurence - at least the buyer has emailed you and offered an explanation which I suppose may or may not be true! I think you can afford to be gracious in this instance and allow the sale to be cancelled.

As others have said, click on the option "report a problem", open up a case, saying you want to cancel the sale; you can leave a little note saying that this at the request of the buyer due to a change of circs. You will get your fees back either when the buyer agrees to this (they will get an email from ebay) or even if he/she ignores the email from ebay. The buyer is not likely to object to the sale being cancelled because it's his/her idea in the first place...