Fed up with non-payers and joke/vendetta bidders
Summary: gruselpuppe complains about buyers on a selling platform who often don't pay, and suggests allowing negative feedback for buyers again to reduce this behavior. perfect-sally and lidor3073 agree that there should be measures against non-payers, but are skeptical about introducing negative feedback because it could be abused. lidor3073 explains that certain settings can be used to exclude problematic bidders, while sunrise1605 points out that bad ratings afterward don't do much. gruselpuppe emphasizes that many negative ratings could have a deterrent effect to prevent future misconduct.
Hi there,
even if this only ends up in the community - maybe some people from Ebay are reading along after all, or maybe the pressure will increase: I’m honestly really fed up with carefully listing things here, putting effort into photos and item descriptions, only to keep running into buyers who then think they don’t have to pay. Every time it means more work for me, the sales get delayed, and I’m stuck with things I want to get rid of for longer.
I immediately added the last non-paying buyer to my block list; a few days ago the item he hadn’t paid for was bought again - by a profile with 0 ratings - and of course no payment came through... Of course I don’t have any proof, but that is already suspiciously obvious and smells like a revenge move. Unfortunately this isn’t the first time I’ve suspected revenge bids - apparently because I canceled transactions from these buyers due to non-payment and then blocked the users involved.
I keep noticing bids that seem to be placed out of boredom or on a whim, but don’t show any real intent to buy.
My specific demand is: please finally allow negative ratings for buyers again, to raise the barrier for bids like these! Ebay isn’t a one-way street, and without sellers there are no customers either. Otherwise I’ll put more into classified ads in the future - there at least I know, despite the risks, what I’m getting in the end, because hardly anyone goes out of their way to come to me for nothing. Then you can see where your highly valued customers end up.
Bye and ciaoi!
sunrise1605
·1 week agoBut you'd only see the bad ratings from the buyers after they've already bought from you and therefore have a legally binding purchase contract with you.
After the fact, those ratings won't do you any good at all.
gruselpuppe
OP1 week ago"But you’d only see the bad ratings from the buyers after they’d already bought from you and thus already had a legally valid purchase contract with you.
Afterwards, those ratings won’t do you any good at all."
The person who didn’t pay for the last items at least has 162 ratings. I do think that too many negative ratings would have a deterrent effect on such users in the long run. It’s not just about my specific case.
sunrise1605
·1 week agoThe negative reviews could still be completely irrelevant to the buyer; he can still buy as much as he wants.
lidor3073
·1 week agoHello @gruselpuppe
You can set it up too. Here:
https://www.ebay.de/bmgt/buyerrequirements
Since I set it up the same way, it’s been peace and quiet!
But I absolutely agree with you that buyers should also be able to be rated again in the different colors - however, as @perfect-sally says: Then this turns into a battlefield of revenge ratings - because dishonest people would abuse the rating system even more than they already do now.
Best regards and don’t let it get to you.
perfect-sally
·1 week ago@lidor3073
the checkmark for: This limit only applies to buyers......
I would remove that because it partly circumvents the initial settings.
And why would you voluntarily restrict your buyer base by not allowing buyers to purchase more items?
I would also remove this checkmark: Block buyers who are currently the highest bidder or within the last 10 days
But of course, the decision is up to you.
lidor3073
·1 week ago@perfect-sally
Unfortunately, this only works in a bundle with this setting (fewer than 5 reviews, which I selected in the drop-down menu). This excludes bidders who have only a few reviews. Unfortunately, as mentioned, this only works in a bundle, and I don’t like that either. The question is how else you could handle it. Or eBay optimizes the settings or filter function here. But that will probably remain a noble wish. 🫣😏
perfect-sally
·1 week agoOk, that's up to you. But as written, you don't really need the last two "restrictions". And we all started with 0.
And what I've noticed with my own users, and I really have very few non-payers: it's not the zeroes, it's mostly those who have more reviews or haven't bought anything in a long time, or who simply haven't received a review for a long time.
lidor3073
·1 week agoOk, then I’ve updated that.
I actually hadn’t had any non-payers yet, and no joke bidders either, unlike my husband, who had one of that kind. And I ALWAYS give people with only a few ratings a chance. At least I regularly check the user’s ratings when bidding. That’s why the auction format suits me better than Buy It Now.
lidor3073
·1 week ago@perfect-sally
“This limit (as selected) only applies to buyers with a rating of up to 5.” Everyone above that can bid.
That’s how I interpret it.
perfect-sally
·1 week agoAnd still, you’re limiting your own potential customers with that.
lidor3073
·1 week agoIt has been updated. 😊
perfect-sally
·1 week agoOh man, what do you think would happen then if buyers could be rated badly again? An endless back and forth and revenge ratings with no end. Nobody needs that.
However, I’m also in favor of eBay doing a bit more against non-payers, and according to eBay the first step has already been taken, and such users can no longer so easily open more accounts after 2 warnings where they are blocked by the sellers - as I said, according to eBay. Time will tell whether that works.
gruselpuppe
OP1 week ago"What do you think would happen then if buyers could be rated badly again? An endless back and forth and revenge ratings forever."
Not necessarily. It would depend on how the rating system is regulated. A buyer who hasn’t paid should not be allowed to leave a rating at all. This function could only become available after payment has been made, unless other serious reasons for a negative rating on the buyer’s part were justified (e.g. if the seller behaves badly until payment has been made or something like that).
perfect-sally
·1 week agoActually, non-paying users are also not allowed to rate / can’t rate, but sometimes something slips through. But eBay should be able to fix it in no time.