Problematic ebay customers?

Of course. All the time.

From my experience:

Don’t deal with China. Their postal system sucks. Thailand is touch-and-go. Japan has one of the best postal systems in the world.

If you don’t pay in 3 days, sucks to be you. These days, I’d probably make it 24 hours. Then I start offering to the next highest bidder. (Can you still do that? It’s been a few years)

Local bidders still need to pay via PayPal before scheduling pick-up. No, I will not haggle over cash prices in person. I still need to pay the eBay fees, so you need to pay me what you bid.

After years of tremendous success selling on ebay, I have been forced to quit completely for EXACTLY the reason described by poisonedantidote. Ebay is no longer a safe marketplace for sellers. Unfortunately, eBay is now full of deadbeat bidders and scammers who will waste your time and rip you off. Even the feedback system has been ruined to the point that is useless. I have no problems with buying off eBay… but as a seller… no way!

Re-posted – (First version was moderated due to it containing instructions on how to do the scam.)

WARNING – eBay Scam

Personally, I have never had any problems with eBay, however, there is a scam you should be aware of if you are planning to sell anything of value, and plan on accepting paypal as a form of payment.

If I bid 200 bucks for your camera and win, I can pay you the 200, and then scam you out of your camera and get my 200 bucks back.

[Details removed, so to not give scam artists instructions on how to scam.]

Now, you may be thinking, what about the so called buyer/seller protection offered by both eBay and paypal, well, there is a loop hole.

The terms and conditions state: “You are not covered when you’ve received a claim or a chargeback, and the shipped item is found to be significantly different than it was described.”

You are covered if you never get your item, and you are covered for a few other things, but there is nothing you can do if the buyer is claiming that the item is different to how it was described.

The decision to issue a chargeback or not is not made by paypal or eBay, rather it is made by the bank owning the credit card, and by using paypal, you are agreeing to allow the decision of the bank to be final and legally binding.

You will get a couple of automated messages, and they will wash their hands of you, and you will lose, and will be left without item or cash.

[Details removed, so to not give scam artists instructions on how to scam.]

Once this happens to you, your only chance for justice is to contact the police in the area the buyer is from, and well, good luck with that.

When selling on eBay, always: Sell to people with substantial positive feedback, only ship to confirmed paypal addresses, require signature confirmation for items over 100 bucks, and if you are selling anything worth more than 100 bucks or more than you can afford to lose, then don’t use paypal at all.

As I said, I have never had any problems with either eBay or paypal, but you have to know what you are doing, and be careful at all times.

As for your personal situation, I would offer the deal to the next highest bidder, or list it again and see who bids.

No, I haven’t but these two links should help you.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item.html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/unpaid-items.html