Ebay slow payers

[BridgeRunner]

Gah!  Why, oh, why, do people think it is ok to withhold payment for days because they are "waiting for other auctions to end"?  Yeah, if you want me to combine items to ship, I will, but you still need to pay me for them. 

And then there's the "sick kid" card.

This woman has owed me money since July 31.  She refused to pay until Aug. 3 because she was bidding on another of my auctions.  Fine.  Well, not really, but not much I can do about it. 

So, August 3 she now owes me three payments, totaling $170.  Nothing.  Not a word.  No messages for days.  Filed a non-paying buyer notice.

Finally I get a message.  Her kid is sick and in the hospital and so she can't get to a computer and so she can't pay me until net week.  Wtf? 

How is it that someone can get to a computer long enough to explain why she can't pay for a week, but she can't get to a computer long enough to actually pay?  This does not make sense to me.  And no, it's not that she's just doing some quick emailing. This is on the eBay messaging system, so she's logging in to ebay.  If she can log into ebay, she can log into paypal.  I wonder if she expects the other people she buys things from to just manage without getting paid because she'll get around to it next week.  Is she just grabbing her milk and eggs from the grocery store, because she'll send a check next week, maybe, if she feels like it? 

I can be as sympathetic as the next person to a disaster that prevents one from functioning, but I have very little sympathy for disasters that don't prevent one from entering new agreements, receiving the benefit of those agreements, and not actually fulfilling their obligations under the agreements.  An having the time to make excuses, but not to fulfill the obligation.  Even when the obligation and the excuse-making take roughly the same amount of time and effort.

/rant

[wmenorr67]

I hope you haven't shipped the items yet.

I would just turn around and put them back up on Ebay and give her account a bad review.

[Manedwolf]

I hope you haven't shipped the items yet.

I would just turn around and put them back up on Ebay and give her account a bad review.

I don't think you can do that anymore.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

It is nigh impossible to make any money by selling your stuff on ebay.  It just doesn't work.  Buyers have all of the leverage and bargaining power, and they aren't afraid to use it. 

[Gewehr98]

Nope.  Sellers can't give buyers bad reviews anymore.  Now I don't care to sell stuff there, since if I get stiffed on payment, I have little recourse other than filing a claim with PayPal, eBay's evil twin brother. I was doing quite well there before the new policies went into effect, but now I can't sell cartridge brass, and I can't give deadbeat buyers bad feedback.  That's supposed to help business somehow. 

Then there's the flip side of the coin, where an item's been paid for, and there's no delivery.  I'm in just such a pickle right now, paid for in mid-July and nothing in the mailbox yet.  I have a USPS tracking information number, but it just says that the item's electronic shipping info has been received.  Of course, as I drill futher back in the seller's feedback log, I see similar events.  Wunnerful...

When I do have auctions, I make it very clear that payment is due within 7 days of the auction's close, or the winning bidder will get a non-paying bidder action initiated, and the item will go up for auction again.  If there are questions, then ask them before bidding. 

[Manedwolf]

Nope.  Sellers can't give buyers bad reviews anymore.  Now I don't care to sell stuff there, since if I get stiffed on payment, I have little recourse other than filing a claim with PayPal, eBay's evil twin brother. I can't sell cartridge brass, and I can't give deadbeat buyers bad feedback.  That's supposed to help business somehow. 

It seems they've gone to the cellphone carrier model. "For every customer we piss off and chase away in a screaming rage, two more sign up, and we still get all the fees".

They do still get the listing fees even if the transaction goes down in flames with the buyer and seller threatening each other over nonpayment. They do not care. Paypal gets its fees, too. And when there's someone with 999 "FIND OUT HOW TO GET FREE IPOD LOOOOOOK" auctions, I would expect they're considerable.

Due time for a competitor, but it needs to have a good engine.

[BridgeRunner]

I hope you haven't shipped the items yet.

Of course not.  I'm ever-so-slightly less dumb than I look. 

[BridgeRunner]

It is nigh impossible to make any money by selling your stuff on ebay.  It just doesn't work.  Buyers have all of the leverage and bargaining power, and they aren't afraid to use it. 

Eh, so far we've made enough this month to pay the bills and to buy a bicycle.  On the retail market the goods we've sold would be worth about $3000.  We netted about $900 so far, and may yet eventually get another $300 or so.  We had all these dumb Royal Doulton pieces that my husband inherited.  They are hideously ugly, but worth a bit of cash.  Quick ebay sales really kept us afloat this month, and even got us a fun new toy.  But this one bidder is really getting under my skin.

Btw, she has now paid me the first $50, the one I filed with ebay for.  She hasn't yet paid the other $130.  Apparently she only had time to pay the money that could get her in trouble quickly.

[Gewehr98]

Sorry you had to find the stinkers out there, BW.

They do indeed exist, and only get proactive when threatened with non-paying bidder action. 

I've done quite well on EvilBay, but with only about 260 auctions under my belt so far.  When I see the folks with 12,000 auctions and 100% feedback, I have to wonder where HTG gets his "you can't make money on eBay" info from.   

Don't forget about Craigslist when selling stuff, too.  Although it's somewhat creepy having people meet you in person, you have to be on your guard. 

[Nick1911]

Sorry you had to find the stinkers out there, BW.

They do indeed exist, and only get proactive when threatened with non-paying bidder action. 

I've done quite well on EvilBay, but with only about 260 auctions under my belt so far.  When I see the folks with 12,000 auctions and 100% feedback, I have to wonder where HTG gets his "you can't make money on eBay" info from.   

Don't forget about Craigslist when selling stuff, too.  Although it's somewhat creepy having people meet you in person, you have to be on your guard. 

Craigslist rocks.  It's a lot easier to not get screwed meeting face to face.  You give me cash, I give you item.  Done deal.

A buddy of mine is working on a site that will aggregate craigslists results, allowing you to search within your state, or even nationally.  It's really slow right now, but I'm helping him get multi threading set up.

[Gewehr98]

Good idea!  I've always wondered why one couldn't do a national or statewide Craigslist search, vs. having to drill down to individual cities. 

[Nick1911]

Good idea!  I've always wondered why one couldn't do a national or statewide Craigslist search, vs. having to drill down to individual cities. 

I thought it was a cool idea.  We always talked about doing that and running google ads to keep the site self-funded.

[Tuco]

Good idea!  I've always wondered why one couldn't do a national or statewide Craigslist search, vs. having to drill down to individual cities. 

Heres a national craig's list search engine

www.crazedlist.org

Won't work with IE, but none of the cool kids use that, anyway. (except me at work  )

[MillCreek]

I just discovered something new, at least to me.  I bought a K&N motorcycle air filter from a vendor who showed eight units in stock.  I paid for it immediately and got a shipping notice.  Several days later, I serendiptiously discovered that the payment had been refunded.  No communication from the vendor.   On eBay, the transaction was shown as refunded and then the transaction vanished.  I could not leave feedback.  This is the part that was new to me.  I could leave feedback on all my previous transactions.

I am assuming they were out of stock and cancelled the order.  But it would have been nice to have been told that.  Had I been able to leave feedback, I would have downchecked them for that.

[never_retreat]

Nope.  Sellers can't give buyers bad reviews anymore.  Now I don't care to sell stuff there, since if I get stiffed on payment, I have little recourse other than filing a claim with PayPal, eBay's evil twin brother. I can't sell cartridge brass, and I can't give deadbeat buyers bad feedback.  That's supposed to help business somehow. 

Due time for a competitor, but it needs to have a good engine.

I have a friend that is doing some free lance codding for a couple of guys that are going to unleash a competitor. Don't know when, But the few little tid bits he has shown me look good.

[Manedwolf]

Nope.  Sellers can't give buyers bad reviews anymore.  Now I don't care to sell stuff there, since if I get stiffed on payment, I have little recourse other than filing a claim with PayPal, eBay's evil twin brother. I can't sell cartridge brass, and I can't give deadbeat buyers bad feedback.  That's supposed to help business somehow. 

Due time for a competitor, but it needs to have a good engine.

I have a friend that is doing some free lance codding for a couple of guys that are going to unleash a competitor. Don't know when, But the few little tid bits he has shown me look good.

You would need a programming and debugging team of hundreds to test for the kind of load it would have to handle on a per-second basis.

That short-lived "cuil" search engine that got hyped and then imploded showed that.

In trying to tackle the daunting challenge of providing an image for every search result, Cuil's search algorithm has run into some big snags. Users are upset that pictures of their companies' products or people are running alongside rivals' search results. Cuil responds.

Two days into general public use and startup search engine Cuil is already in hot water.

Thanks to quirks in Cuil's search algorithm, search results of some brands are popping up with pictures of competing or even irrelevant brands.

Cuil Vice President of Communications Vince Sollitto just told me Cuil's engineers are working on the problem. Sollitto indicated that the bug was a bump in the road of the company's challenge in trying to provide an image next to every search result.

FAIL

[Balog]

Nick: why is it that every time you mention something you're working on I go "Damn that sounds interesting"?