Help! Awful buyer - how do I get out of this?

[carovioletfizz]

Am selling a computer on ebay, starting price £50, buy it now £70.. One guy has bid on it for £50 and then contacted me asking if he could buy it now for £60, also that he is having problems with paypal and is going to the bank at the weekend to sort it out (obvious lie), and would i consider swapping him the mac for an ipod Nano!!!
I checked his feedback and it's awful - a non payer, lots of feedback saying he bids on things and doesn't pay then makes up excuses. I just know he's not going to pay for the computer, which ends on Saturday. Can I get rid of his bid somehow, there are 5 watchers on the item so hopefully someone else can get it instead?
Also, v angry as for some reason all his negative feedback appears as positive, so he looks as if he has 100% good feedback?

You can remove a buyers bid .... I've done it once at the request of the buyer but can't remember how. I think you click on the bid and somehow find it from there ..

add him to your blocked bidder list, then they can't bid at all.

I guess other sellers have broken the rules and left negative statements on positive feedback ratings for him, and he hasn't reported it and got the feedbacks removed.

Cancel the bid and add to your blocked list

Ring the eBay helpline - they are very helpful.

And point out that he is breaking the rules by offering to swap instead of paying!

I actually like the no negs rule for buyers as it means you get more honest feedback for sellers, so it's useful. People used to be very chary about leaving even deserved negatives because they were scared of repercussions. You couldn't ever block automatically, so if someone with terrible feedback bid at the last moment you were stymied anyway. And the left feedback tells you all you need to know, IMO, anyway.

A bad seller will be a bad buyer, and someone who is trigger-happy with leaving bad feedback is likely to be someone who'd get it. There was too much tit for tat before and I've bid on things before, reassured when a bad feedback, calmly responded to, came from a serial loon.

Having said that I think repeat non-payers should have a mark of shame by their names - a yellow X for 1st offence, an orange for second, and a red X for three or something. Right now there's no embarrassment at all, and too many sellers only find out they can ban regular non-payers when burned once.

Oh, and cancel off this guy's bid, and then add his name to blocked bidders.

You're lucky you had advance warning of what a numpty he is. You can cancel his bid now before it's too late, and also as suggested block him from bidding on anything else of yours.

Why is it always me who gets the stupid buyer and doesn't know till AFTER they have won.