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PROBLEM SOLVING
In General:
If you have a bidder who is not
responding to your e-mail request for payment, or is not paying you in a
timely manner, or has given you a hot check, this is a list of suggestions
and advice for the things you can do. The term "buyer" in this list will
refer to a back-out winning bidder, a non-paying winning bidder, or a
winning bidder who pays with a non-sufficient-funds check.
Slow Payer or Non-Responding Bidder: Remember:
This is business! You expect a winning bidder to pay you promptly,
and you comply with eBay rules and policies. Your status as a seller with a
good reputation is important to your success in business and your continuing
to doing business on eBay.
It is very important in
business to set your own policies about how you will conduct your business
and to remain very calm when dealing with difficult situations or difficult
people. A calm, unemotional manner in dealing with the public can insure
your success in business.
1. Keep good notes and
document everything about the transaction. Print out hard copies of:
(a) all your e-mail
correspondence to and from the buyer:
(b) the auction listing; and
(c) the End-of-Auction Notice from eBay.
2. Develop your own policy
about the time limit in which you expect to be paid after the auction is
over, such as a 12-day time limit for receipt of payments.
3. State your time limit for
receipt of payment in your auction listings and in your payment-request
e-mails, such as "Payment must be received within 12 days after auction
ends."
4. On the fourth day after
the auction ends, if you have not received a reply from the buyer to your
payment-request letter, send another e-mail which states something similar
to this:
"I have not heard from you about
whether or not you are sending your payment for this auction. Please let
me know within 24 hours [or whatever time limit you prefer] whether or not
you intend to complete this transaction."
5. When writing e-mail to the
buyer: Be very firm, but polite, and make specific points about what you
expect from the buyer. Set a deadline for compliance and tell the buyer
what it is.
Remember: You do have the
right to insist that the buyer complete the transaction. You do have the
right to insist that the buyer comply with the terms of your policies,
especially if they are stated clearly in your auction listings and
payment-request letters. You can refuse to accept payment after the
deadline you have determined is right for you. You can refuse to do
business with anyone you feel uncomfortable doing business with.
Do NOT engage in any
personal attacks against the buyer's character or personality.
Refuse to participate in any
arguments that the buyer may present. For instance, you do not have to
decide if the buyer's mother/father/child or other relative really
died, nor do you have to believe that the buyer has any catastrophic
problems which prevented the buyer from paying you. What you HAVE to do
is deal with the problems as they occur and remain calm and act
in a professional manner at all times.
Giving the buyer an
extension to pay later than your normal deadline is okay, if you feel
alright about doing that. If you do decide to give the buyer an extension
to pay beyond your normal deadline, remember that you are granting a gift
which you do NOT have to give, and you can decide what you want to do
about agreeing to an extension, depending on how you feel about it.
Do NOT make any statements
which could be interpreted as threats. (Threats against an eBay user are
against eBay's rules.)
Do NOT threaten to leave negative
feedback if the buyer does not pay. (Threats of negative feedback are
against eBay's rules.)
6. Do not engage in any
activity that is against eBay's rules or is illegal.
Do not contact other sellers
who have open auctions which the buyer has bid on (this is called "auction
interference" and is against eBay's rules). *See the "Note About
Contacting Other eBay Users" below.
Do not post any personal
information about the buyer on any of eBay's boards. Specifically
forbidden by eBay is the posting of another user's e-mail address, name,
mailing address, or any personal information. Also, new interpretations
of the board rules on eBay include being forbidden to post about any user
who is no longer registered or any posting of auction reports or member
violations. Click here to read eBay's Board Rules:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-board.html
For a list of activities which are
against eBay's rules, read eBay's Safe Harbor Information at this
URL:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/investigates.html
7. If the buyer behaves in a
manner which is against eBay's rules, use eBay's form to report such
violations of eBay's rules:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-RS.html
8. If payment is not received
within your time limit, notify the buyer by e-mail, and give the buyer a
deadline to reply (24 hours or 3 days).
9. Request the buyer's
user-registration information from eBay by going to this URL and
completing the form:
http://pages.ebay.com/search/members/user-query.html
This is especially helpful
if you are not getting a response from the buyer, because your request for
the buyer's eBay registration information will automatically notify the
buyer of your request and provide the buyer with your user-registration
information, which might provoke a response from the buyer.
It is important to obtain
the buyer's user-registration information from eBay as soon as you realize
you are having a problem with the buyer paying you, because you will NOT
be able to obtain that information if the buyer's registration is canceled
or suspended by eBay.
If the buyer is
no-longer-registered on eBay, contact eBay support for the seller's user's
registration information, by using the support form at this location:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-support.html
10. Attempt to contact buyer
by phone (and proceed as suggested in numbers 5 and 6 above).
You do NOT have to do this, it is
only a suggestion, and the cost of a phone call may not be worth it to
you. However, many users do succeed in completing the transaction by
contacting a buyer by phone, which they were unable to achieve by e-mail.
11. Leave a request for the
buyer to contact you on eBay's Emergency Board. Also check the Emergency
Board to see if the buyer left a message there about not being able to
complete transactions on eBay. Catastrophic events do happen, such as
illness or death in the family, computer failure, bad weather and loss of
electricity, etc., and it is helpful to know that if the buyer is not
responded for a good reason.
The URL for the Emergency Board
is:
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewBoard&name=emerg
12. If you do not receive
payment within your deadline or receive an appropriate response from the
buyer:
(a) Send the buyer an e-mail
notice which states that you are canceling the transaction. Also, state
that you are forbidding the buyer to ever bid on your auctions again, that
you will cancel any bids made by the buyer on your auctions in the future,
and that you will request that eBay suspend the buyer's user privileges if
the buyer bids on your auctions again.
(b) Block the user ID of the
bidder so that the bidder cannot bid on your auctions. You can block any
user from biding on your auctions by setting an option found on the
selling page in My eBay. Click here to sign in at My eBay:
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MyEbayLogin
(c) File eBay's Non-Paying
Bidder Alert and then file a Final Value Fee Credit Request.
http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/finalfee.html
You MUST file a
Non-Paying Bidder Alert
(1) before you may request a final value fee
credit, and
(2) within 45 days of the end of auction.
10 days after you file for
the Non-Paying Bidder Alert, you can then file for eBay's refund of the
Final Value Fee, if you have not received payment by then.
eBay sends warning letters to
all winning bidders when the seller files a Non-Paying Bidder Alert and
requests a Final Value Fee refund. After three deadbeat-bidder
warnings, eBay will suspend the user's registration.
(c) Re-list your item, if
you wish to.
(d) Leave appropriate
feedback in the buyer's feedback file on eBay at this URL:
http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?LeaveFeedbackShow
Use a professional tone
when leaving feedback, leaving out all emotional responses to the
buyer's behavior in not paying you. State the problem in factual terms,
such as: "Payment NOT received 4 weeks after auction ended" or "No
response or payment after 4 weeks." Do NOT use derogatory terms about
the buyer's character or behavior.
Keep it non-personal,
non-emotional, and non-flaming. You can suggest in your feedback that
anyone in need of more information can contact you, but be careful about
what you post. eBay can and will remove feedback under certain
circumstances, and eBay specifically forbids: Feedback that makes any
reference to an eBay or law enforcement organization investigation,
i.e., "eBay is investigating this person."
For more information on
eBay's Feedback policies, go to these locations:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/fbremove.html eBay Feedback
Removal Policy
http://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback.html
eBay Feedback Forum
It's best to NOT post
negative feedback until after you have exhausted all possible means of
communicating with and obtaining payment from the buyer.
You must post feedback
within 90 days of the auction's end, or you may not be able to do so
after that, because the auction will no longer be available in eBay's
public data base. It is NOT always in your best interests to file
negative feedback, and it certainly is NOT advisable to do so before you
have exhausted other methods to attempt to complete the transaction.
If the buyer leaves you
negative feedback, remain calm and post a neutral explanation in
response to the negative feedback (replies can be left from your
feedback page). Most experienced eBay users are knowledgeable about
retaliatory feedback, and it is relatively easy to recognize retaliatory
feedback in a seller's file, especially when the seller does not have
other similar complaints or similar negative feedback from other users.
See the
Square Trade section of this article, for information about getting
feedback removed.
Arbitration and Mediation
Services:
If your problem with the buyer
is one that might be resolved with the help of a third-party arbitrator or
mediator service, file a report with such a service. Most arbitration and
mediator services do charge fees.
SquareTrade.com:
eBay
recommends Square Trade, which offers an online dispute resolution
service, which is a voluntary service, meaning that a buyer and seller
do not have to agree to the suggestions that the service makes in an
attempt to settle the dispute. You can go to eBay's page to get more
information about Square Trade by clicking the link below:
http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/disputeres.html
or visit Square Trade's
site at this location:
http://www.squaretrade.com
However, it may not be
worth the cost of using Square Trade, if the buyer does not respond
to or cooperate with Square Trade's efforts. Arbitration services rely
on voluntary compliance, and the buyer may choose to ignore all attempts
at arbitration.
New: eBay now
allows the removal of negative feedback, if you pay Square Trade, and
if the other user does not respond, or if buy buyer and seller agree
through arbitration to remove the negative feedback.
If the Buyer Gave You a
Non-Sufficient-Funds Check or Stopped Payment on a Check:
Returned Checks:
If
the buyer stopped payment on the check, and you had already shipped the
item, you can get help through the fraud sites and other agencies listed
below. You may also wish to obtain the services of an attorney. For help
in finding an attorney or obtaining legal advice, click the link below:
http://www.mindspring.com/~bookdealers/attorney.html
NSF Checks:
Remember:
The buyer knows long before you find out from your bank that the check is
NSF, because the buyer's bank notifies the buyer promptly. Your bank may
attempt to clear the check twice, and you may not receive notice from your
bank until 3-6 weeks after the check was deposited. If the buyer has not
contacted you about the check being NSF by the time you find out the check
is NSF, you can be reasonably sure that you will need to take further steps
to collect from the buyer, including legal and criminal ones.
1. E-mail the buyer and
request immediate payment of the amount due, plus your bank's fees for a NSF
deposit. You may want to state that this payment may be made by money order
or cashier's check ONLY.
2. Do NOT return the NSF
check to the buyer until you have received a valid payment for it. Request
that the buyer send you a stamped self-addressed envelope for the return of
the NSF check.
3. If your bank did not
attempt to clear the check twice, deposit the NSF check again.
4. You may request that your
bank "protest" the check. This means that the check will be held at the
buyer's bank until sufficient funds are deposited to pay the check. The
buyer's bank may not like this, and may refuse to allow the buyer to do
business at the bank again. However, your bank may charge you an expensive
fee to protest the check, so ask first how much it will cost to protest the
check.
5. If you are unable to
obtain payment for the NSF check:
(a) Send the buyer a letter
by certified mail/return receipt request, stating that unless you
have payment within _____ days (10 days or 2 weeks is probably a long
enough time), you will be turning the matter over to law enforcement
officials. Be sure to include all the fees your bank charged you in the
amount you expect the buyer to pay, plus your costs for the certified
letter. Keep a copy of this letter, and when the return receipt is
received (or your letter is returned undeliverable) keep it with the copy
of your letter to show to law enforcement officials.
(b) Contact your local
sheriff or law enforcement agency to file a complaint against the NSF
check writer. Also contact the law enforcement agency in the buyer's area
and file a complaint.
(c) Notify eBay of the
problem and about all charges and complaints filed with legal authorities,
by using its Support Form at this location:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-support.html
Also provide eBay with
copies of all legal complaints and actions filed by you against buyer by
mail to:
Attention: Fraud
Prevention
eBay
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125-5905
(d) Leave appropriate
feedback in the buyer's feedback file on eBay, following the guidelines
for leaving feedback listed above.
(e) Notify the buyer's
Internet Service Provider (ISP) of all charges and complaints filed
with legal authorities, by e-mail to support@[ISP name].[com or net] or to
go seller's ISP site and find a place to e-mail the webmaster of the ISP.
(f) If you feel that you
have been defrauded, file complaints with the agencies listed below.
These organizations have the power to investigate and initiate legal
proceedings that your local police may not have. Often a report to one of
these agencies will result in the prompt payment of money due to you, once
an investigation is initiated.
(1). File a fraud report
with the FBI. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC),
http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp, is for
consumers and businesses to report suspected internet frauds. The
Internet Fraud Complaint Center is a partnership between the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and The National White Collar Crime Center
(NW3C). For victims of internet fraud, the IFCC provides an easy-to-use
form to report fraud. For law enforcement agencies, the IFCC provides a
depository for information, help with identifying fraud trends, and
access to statistics on fraud trends.
To file a complaint,
click here:
http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/cf1.asp
(2) If the transaction
involved the use of the United States Postal Service (the buyer mailed
the NSF check to you), file a Mail Fraud complaint with the Postal
Inspector's Office.
Click here to file the
Mail Fraud Complaint Form:
http://www.framed.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm
It does help to file a
Mail Fraud Complaint, because not many people will refuse to make good
on an NSF check, when the Postal Service notifies them that a Mail Fraud
Complaint is being investigated.
(3) Feel free to contact
the National Fraud Information Center if you have questions concerning
fraud. You can prevent future fraud by filing a complaint at this URL:
http://www.fraud.org/.
Several people who filed a report with this organisation have reported
that they received a refund of their money, so do file a complaint with
the NFIC.
(4) There is also the
International Web Police, which is an organization to protect the
Global Internet Community. You can file a report there:
http://www.web-police.org/
(5) Another private
organization, which reports consumer complaints to agencies that are
interested in investigating and taking action, is The National
Consumer Complaint Center for Internet Fraud, False Advertising, and
Breached Warranties and you can file a complaint there:
http://www.alexanderlaw.com/nccc/cb-ftc.html
(6) File a complaint with
the Federal Trade Commission. While the FTC does not resolve
individual consumer problems, the FTC does compile complaint data and
investigates criminal activity, and your complaint will help the FTC to
investigate fraud and can lead to law enforcement action. You can fill
out the Complaint Form at
https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm or go to the Federal Trade
Commission Web Site at:
http://www.ftc.gov and
click on Complaint Form (at the bottom of the page) to report an
internet scammer.
You can also file a
complaint about Internet auction fraud with the Federal Trade
Commission by calling the FTC toll-free at 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357).
The FTC also has a
helpful article for buyers and sellers titled "Internet Auctions:
Secrets of Success" at this location:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/gonealrt.htm
Also, the FTC has a
publication titled "Internet Auctions: A Guide for Buyers and
Sellers," that offers more information about Internet auctions.
You can order a copy of the guide at:
http://www.ftc.gov or
by calling the FTC toll-free at 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357).
Also, the FTC provides a host
of pamphlets to help consumers recognize the warning signs of various
financial cons at:
http://www.consumer.gov
(7) File a complaint with your
State Attorney General and the Attorney General in the
state of the person who commited fraud. Many state's Attorneys General
have special investigative units for internet fraud. You may be able to
find a form online to report internet fraud directly to the State
Attorney General. To find out how to contact an Attorney General in the
50 USA states, go to the National Association of Attorneys General at
this location:
http://www.naag.org/ag/full_ag_table.cfm
Miscellaneous:
Remember, if the buyer is not
paying you, the buyer's probably not paying other sellers on eBay too. There
might be others who will get hurt like you did, if you do not file
complaints with the proper authorities and eBay.
It is very important to file a
report with the proper authorities and notify eBay, because eBay and the
legal authorities can only act if you report it.
If you provide sufficient
evidence and file complaints, eBay can suspend the buyer's registration and
the authorities will have what they need to file charges and prosecute.
Seek help and comfort from a
friend. You are NOT alone and good people do care!
Post a message on the eBay Q&A
Board about your problem and ask for some moral support.
Remember, other eBay users do
not want deadbeats and non-paying bidders on eBay either.
* Note About Contacting
Other eBay Users:
It may be helpful to contact
other eBay users who may be having a similar problem with the same eBay
user. It may be very helpful to form a support group with other eBay users
who have suffered a similar problem as yours. A group action may be more
effective than a single action. Also information can be pooled about the
criminal, which may be helpful in aiding the authorities to track down and
prosecute the criminal. Moral support can be provided to others to
encourage them to file complaints and reports to legal authorities, as well
as other actions which may prevent future fraud.
However, do be careful to not
break any of eBay's rules or do anything to cause you to lose your user
privileges with eBay.
Be particularly careful about
what you write or state to any third-party user on eBay (who may not keep
your correspondence confidential).
Do not make any statements
which are untrue or speculative or may endanger you (such as libelous or
slanderous statements).
Phone numbers for the
proper agencies to file complaints with are available:
(1) in your local phone book;
(2) through your phone company's long-distance
information or 1-800 information; and
(3) by using an Internet search engine.
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