The big 3!

• Didnt bid, someone must have hyjacked my account
• Bid but changed my mind
• My son used my account without my permission

There are many reasons people give when they bid then decide not to go ahead. Although there are systems in place, in our opinion Ebay has not done nearly enough to ward off non paying bidders, whats more in our opinion Ebay has just went and made things a whole lot worse with recent feedback changes.

I wont go too much into the feedback changes, needless to say we're not happy with them, without sellers Ebay would not work, sellers are as important as buyers, in the end Ebay earns most fees on Ebay.com/.co.uk and any other regional domain, from sellers, from Ebay listing, insertion, listing enhancement and final valuation fees. By making things hard for sellers, Ebay's long term strategy is in question, combine this with increased listing fees accross the board (Our fees have effectively increased in the past 2 months by 80% )

So, its not hard to see that sellers are at the short end of the stick, and that sellers need to protect themselves from non paying bidders. Maintaining an Ebay business is harder than ever to achieve with the current restrictions on feedback and fees, protecting himself from those who place their finger on the "Bid now" button either intentionally or maliciously should be discouraged and sellers should be active in taking effective action when an item is won and the bidder doesnt intend to go ahead with the sale.

Certain categories are binding on Ebay, that is that, in a court of law in the jurisdiction of the item sellers location, a sale must go through with or the seller is able to take legal action against the winning bidder if they do not intend to go through with a sale. A non binding auction is one where the seller cannot hold the buyer to the sale, in other words, a buyer can bid then walk away with, at worse, a strike for non payment, so note that although its non binding the winning bidder may get a strike against their account for bidding without the intention of going through with the auction at the time of bidding.

So, with binding categories, it could be thought that there is more chance that an a sale going through once the item is sold...True, but if maaged correctly this doesnt have to be the case!

Managing bids, managing bidders:

Really, only if you make it blindingly clear in the next of your auction that he auction is binding will you cut down on bidders who dont intend to go through with auctions, however even this wont stop some, we're known people to come in from the pub at 2am, go on Ebay, win a load of things on Ebay then next day email the sellers to say they are sorry, or...that someone accessed their account without their knowledge!

There are other ways however of making sure that only those who you want to bid, get to bid, this way you sort of filter the users to make sure that each bidder is thought to be a suitable candidate to buy your item.

In MyEbay you will find tools deep in the menu system giving the ability to block bidders and cancel bids. I find that by checking previous feedback, and importantly feedback left by a potential bidder, I can work out who i think would be a good Ebayer and one which i dont think is so beneficial to the Ebay community. An Ebayer who leaves negative feedback on a regular basis may be one who doesnt work things out with their trading partner before leaving feedback and just goes ahead and leaves negative before trying to work anything out, its possible of course that the buyer just had bad experiences on Ebay and this is why they have left a string of negative, however I think this is pretty unlikely, for a user who has left a string of negative, cancel or block their bids!

Selling high value items? Check the feedback of the bidders on your list, its not uncommon for bidding rings to be in place, it may be that competitors zombie accounts are bidding on your item just so that, whilst shill bidding on their real Ebay IDs items, it doesnt look like they are only bidding on their own. If a lot of feedback has been left by your competitors on the ID that is bidding on your items, ask yourself why, if course there may be legit reasons, but remember the new Ebay rule, this leaves you vulnerable to neg feedback and theres not much you can do about it, especially with non binding sales!

Managing bidders during the auction is important, by blocking and cancelling bids of suspicious bidders, and bidders you think may present a problem during the buying process (Check their withdrawals, feedback left and feedback received, and of course what the user has purchased in the past - It may be that you are selling a high value car and the user has 5 billion feedback for Ebooks and plastic cups, do you really wish to risk your sale on this user?), you minimise on potential non paying and problem bidders. For those selling non binding items, its even more important to manage bidders effectively, because remember that there are no relist, fnal valuation or in fact any fees refunded if a winning bidder of a non binding auction, doesnt want to go ahead with a sale.

What to do with binding sales!

If a user wins an auction, and doesnt plan to go ahead, get the reason from the user in writing, get the user to email the reason through Ebays communication console, this way you can forward this to Ebay. Wait for the waiting period where you cant yet file a non paid, then file for a non paid item, the buyer will most likely get a strike against their account, you will get your insertion fees paid, but not listing enhancement fees, and most importantly the user will lose their feedback privelages, which is great because they really shouldnt have the ability to leave a negative when they have wasted your time and money. Note that between the 7 day period and the time you file and win the non paying request, the user can leave negative feedback, guess what....You cant even though its your money and time wasted!

What to do with non binding sales!

Non paying sales are a different kettle of fish than binding ones, the law dictates that certain items and types of items cannot be sold with a legally binding contract on Ebay. Managing your auction is even more important, so with this in mind you need to cancel bidders who you feel leave too much negative feedback for no reason, cancel bids from bidders who have suspicious feedback, cance bids from those you think may be affiliated with competitors and block and cancel bids from those that ask questions that you think will go on and on even after the sale, in other words if someone asks questions that have much doubt in you or your product, you may find that this will go on and on after the auction and ultimately lead to the buyer not going through with a sale because he or she isnt sure what they want at all. I contact all 0 feedback or low feedback bidders and ask them to contact me toward the end of auction, if no contact has been made a block and bid cancellation action is put in place!

OK, so you blocked suspicious bidders, you cancelled those with 0 feedback that havent been in touch, you cancelled the bid from the joker, the auction has finished, and...nothing...

The user wont be going ahead with this sale im afraid...

Because..

• The daughter bid and didnt mean to bid, the user wont be going ahead
• Someone hacked the users account and bid on your item, the user wont be going ahead
• Bid in error, not sure how this can happen
• The user changed their mind, note that by clicking on the bid now button, I beieve that the user is making an action that they are aware of, that the user is commiting to buying.

For non binding auctions

The reason is the most important aspect to find out when someone bids and doesnt intend to pay, forward the reason to Ebay. If the user advises that the account had been used without their authority, let Ebay know this, if the user is genuine then they will also contact Ebay to say that their account has been compromised, this will allow their account to be reset and the password changed. Note that i believe that 50% of the time any users say that their accounts have been compromised, it hasnt! Block any non paying bidders, whilst you are at it if a user has cancelled once, twice of more their bids on your auctions, then it means the user may be indecisive, you may want to block further bids from the user. We have letters sent out from a UK arm of our Bulgarian attorney's office, this is to request listing fees from the winning bidder who doesnt pay, we always take legal action against winning bidders who bid with no intention of paying, it may be non binding, but with the high cost of Ebay listings, you need to at least ge your listing fees back from the winning bidder.

Note: Managing auctions, cancelling bids and blocking bidders will inevitably mean that your item will be sold at a lower price, but if you sell many items, in the long term having more successful sales and reliable auction partners is more important, hence why Bulgariadirect is almost certainly the most successful overseas property auctioneer on the web today!

Also note: This guide was written for sellers, however by letting buyers know a few tips of the reade, hopefully we'll all get somethig out of this, the think twice moto may be relevant in this one. I intend to make all sellers aware of their rights and what action can be taken against non paying bidders, i intend to let buyers know that by bidding and not going through with auctions without real reason, you affect businesses and ultimately individuals and families!

I hope that you have found this guide useful, i havent put anything to specific, if you have any questons feel free.