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Ah, the deadbeat bidder! Just the thought of it makes me cringe! When you think of the time you invested as the seller taking pictures, listing the item, and watching and waiting seven days to see what your precious listing sells for, it can get pretty intense. You've not only invested your time into it, but are out some eBay fees as well. Finally, your auction has ended, and it has sold! You promptly send an invoice to the high bidder congratulating them for their win, and instructing them how to proceed with payment. Three days pass and you've not received payment, and have no response from the other party. The end of the seventh day after the auction's close has come and still nothing. You feel that knot in your stomach that something isn't right, and you have this sense that someone has just jilted you.

Unfortunately, this is a thing that all sellers will experience at some time or other on eBay. Your best bet when dealing with non-paying bidders is to not be threatening. As a seller myself, I give my buyers seven days for payment. I send an initial invoice asking for payment. If I receive no response, I send out a reminder on the third, and a final one on the sixth day if necessary. When I send my reminder invoices, I leave courteous messages to the buyer. I never am hateful or rude blasting them for non-payment. If I have heard nothing from the buyer, I file my non-paying bidder dispute after the seventh day. Of course, then eBay generously gives that buyer another seven days to pay. This is one of my pet peeves. Why give deadbeats another week to pay if they aren't going to pay the first week? I've only had maybe two or three incidents in my seven years on eBay where people paid after I had to file a dispute, and they actually had a legitimate excuse.

Once the seller has filed the non-paying bidder dispute, and the bidder still does not respond, you will be able to close the dispute after the waiting period. The bidder will get a non-paying strike against his account, and you as the seller have the option of leaving negative feedback. This is where a lot of people do the wrong thing. Don't be rude, nasty, and threatening when leaving negative feedback. The worst thing about leaving that type of feedback is it really looks back on the seller when other potential customers look at the feedback you've left for others. Plus, you have just left yourself wide open to get a retaliatory negative comment left on your page. There is always the possibility of mutually agreeing to remove the negative strike, but never the comments left. Think before you type when leaving negative feedback. Keep it as simple as No payment. No communication. Poor eBayer.' I've seen some negative feedback where people find it necessary to use profanity, and that just really shows poor business skills.

Learn more about this author, Emilie Grace.
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