Ebay etiquette
Discussion
H22observer said:
Vaud said:
It does take 2 mins if you live with constant internet access. I think 2/3/4 days is reasonable
It's 2014, not 2004. It just isn't reasonable at all. You wouldn't get away with it anywhere else.I travel a lot and when I am travelling , I can be in the air for 10/12/14/16 hours, or in meetings/dinners with scarcely enough time to check work email, let alone personal. In these events 2/3/4 day IS reasonable providing I follow through on the terms in the bid.
It's about mutual expectation setting...
H22observer said:
tr7v8 said:
I agree, generally I can log on & pay but I travel extensively & sometimes struggle to pay for a few days.
but you know when the auction is due to end !maybe not bidding in the first place would be better than expecting people to wait for you all the time...
Also on US auctions would you get up to check outcome of snipe & pay in the early hours GMT/BST?
I recently sold a cycle part to someone in USA.. The postage was set at £16 for non-uk, so he'd seen this, and my request to email for an accurate figure if bidding from overseas. He'd not emailed, however I sent a mail to him stating shipping of £8, thinking he would be doubly pleased if he won the item. He won it and didn't pay after 4 days so I sent a copy invoice, then another after 6 days, then a request that he contact me. Not once did he make contact (I even said if he'd just be honest and say he'd changed his mind I'd understand). Very strange behaviour, and ended up as a non-buyer strike. Some people just have no manners.
Juat part of life's great tappestry
Juat part of life's great tappestry
I am selling my car on ebay through classified with best offer. I had set it up to accept offers over a certain amount but wish I hadn't now as someone with zero feedback and no communication whatsoever has "won" the car. This has meant the advert with a lot of watchers has now gone because of this one idiot. I'm giving 24 hours before re listing and I feel that is generous
Vaud said:
As I said... it depends what the seller puts in their terms. If they say "payment expected in 48hrs" then okay... but not everyone lives on their phones... and I won't bid on anything that I can't fulfil the terms of.
I travel a lot and when I am travelling , I can be in the air for 10/12/14/16 hours, or in meetings/dinners with scarcely enough time to check work email, let alone personal. In these events 2/3/4 day IS reasonable providing I follow through on the terms in the bid.
It's about mutual expectation setting...
I would say that the onus would be on you to state in a message to the seller BEFORE BIDDING that you are an extremely important and busy person that travels extensively & may take 3 or 4 days to pay the bill. Then ask if this is ok. To arrogantly expect people to wait for you in this day and age of technology is bordering on selfishness and possibly even narcissism.I travel a lot and when I am travelling , I can be in the air for 10/12/14/16 hours, or in meetings/dinners with scarcely enough time to check work email, let alone personal. In these events 2/3/4 day IS reasonable providing I follow through on the terms in the bid.
It's about mutual expectation setting...
Out of respect for the seller, i would simply not bid on an item if i wasn't ready to pay for it. That's just me though. I have manners.
There appears to be 2 different types of mentality in this thread :
1 group are the type of people that walk into a busy corner shop, quietly queue up to buy an item with the correct change or thereabouts, thank the shopkeeper and promptly leave.
The other group are the type of people (powerfully-built company directors?) who stand at the front of the queue whilst conducting business on their phone, slowly rummaging through their pockets for loose change. Said person will then ask the shopkeeper if he accepts credit cards or can hold the queue whilst he walks to the nearest cashpoint. Said person would then return to the shop, barge to the front of the queue (with everybody tutting and rolling their eyes) waving a £20 note whilst still on the phone and blaming the shopkeeper for not accepting a credit card for a pint of milk and a newspaper.
tr7v8 said:
No 2-4 days to pay is perfectly reasonable as a few of us are saying. If I can I may pop a mail saying I'll pay in x days. It is very rare, I normally pay within 5 mins of the auction ending.
Also on US auctions would you get up to check outcome of snipe & pay in the early hours GMT/BST?
i do not and would not bid on US auctions.Also on US auctions would you get up to check outcome of snipe & pay in the early hours GMT/BST?
H22observer said:
tr7v8 said:
No 2-4 days to pay is perfectly reasonable as a few of us are saying. If I can I may pop a mail saying I'll pay in x days. It is very rare, I normally pay within 5 mins of the auction ending.
Also on US auctions would you get up to check outcome of snipe & pay in the early hours GMT/BST?
i do not and would not bid on US auctions.Also on US auctions would you get up to check outcome of snipe & pay in the early hours GMT/BST?
@h22
No, I just bid on the terms laid out in the offer. If I pay, for example, after 2 days, that's when I expect the delivery terms to start, not from point of winning the bid.
I have never had bad feedback, by email or other - 100% so far. No narcissism here. I am a good ebayer, I follow the terms laid out in an offer an fulfil them. If I can't fulfil them, I don't bid.
No, I just bid on the terms laid out in the offer. If I pay, for example, after 2 days, that's when I expect the delivery terms to start, not from point of winning the bid.
I have never had bad feedback, by email or other - 100% so far. No narcissism here. I am a good ebayer, I follow the terms laid out in an offer an fulfil them. If I can't fulfil them, I don't bid.
TomS09 said:
I am selling my car on ebay through classified with best offer. I had set it up to accept offers over a certain amount but wish I hadn't now as someone with zero feedback and no communication whatsoever has "won" the car. This has meant the advert with a lot of watchers has now gone because of this one idiot. I'm giving 24 hours before re listing and I feel that is generous
A friend of mine did this to a seller using another friend's ebay account. I told him that he was out of order & that he should honour the transaction. He simply shrugged his shoulders and said "Oh well. I've changed my mind now. I don't want it now. The seller can just relist it!"I can't decide whether this is classed as selfishness or a lack of manners...
Vaud said:
@h22
No, I just bid on the terms laid out in the offer. If I pay, for example, after 2 days, that's when I expect the delivery terms to start, not from point of winning the bid.
I have never had bad feedback, by email or other - 100% so far. No narcissism here. I am a good ebayer, I follow the terms laid out in an offer an fulfil them. If I can't fulfil them, I don't bid.
So how long would you allow for delivery after you've eventually paid for the item? Would you accept the fact that the seller only does his post office runs on a thursday afternoon? If you won an item on a monday, then paid for it Friday lunchtime, which day will you be e-mailing the seller complaining that your item hasn't yet arrived? Would you be patient enough to wait 10 or 11 days?No, I just bid on the terms laid out in the offer. If I pay, for example, after 2 days, that's when I expect the delivery terms to start, not from point of winning the bid.
I have never had bad feedback, by email or other - 100% so far. No narcissism here. I am a good ebayer, I follow the terms laid out in an offer an fulfil them. If I can't fulfil them, I don't bid.
H22observer said:
So how long would you allow for delivery after you've eventually paid for the item? Would you accept the fact that the seller only does his post office runs on a thursday afternoon? If you won an item on a monday, then paid for it Friday lunchtime, which day will you be e-mailing the seller complaining that your item hasn't yet arrived? Would you be patient enough to wait 10 or 11 days?
Yes, happy to wait. My slight delay should cause a delay in shipping. I'm flexible.Vaud said:
Depends what you set out in your description.
I always ask for payment within 48 hours (allowing for the fact that people can be away with work, weekends, etc).
On one of my items i clearly stated that the product had an expiry date and that payment would be required "within a few hours of auction end, due to the nature of the product"I always ask for payment within 48 hours (allowing for the fact that people can be away with work, weekends, etc).
The buyer took nearly 3 days to pay, finally completed the transaction on saturday evening, then expected it through his letterbox within 36 hours because i only lived 4 miles from his house and he needed it asap.
H22observer said:
On one of my items i clearly stated that the product had an expiry date and that payment would be required "within a few hours of auction end, due to the nature of the product"
The buyer took nearly 3 days to pay, finally completed the transaction on saturday evening, then expected it through his letterbox within 36 hours because i only lived 4 miles from his house and he needed it asap.
Your terms were fair, but I would tighten "few" to 2/4/6, etc.The buyer took nearly 3 days to pay, finally completed the transaction on saturday evening, then expected it through his letterbox within 36 hours because i only lived 4 miles from his house and he needed it asap.
Vaud said:
Yes, happy to wait. My slight delay should cause a delay in shipping. I'm flexible.
That's fair enough. You seem like a patient man.Unfortunately, my experience of selling is that many buyers expect despatch on the day of payment, like some kind of Amazon parcel processing centre.
Sometimes sellers (like myself) will deliberately schedule the auction to end on a saturday afternoon, with the intention of posting on a monday morning/afternoon.
If the buyer then pays at an unexpected random time, then their needs cannot always be met.
It's not a case of sellers getting twitchy about payment, it's just a way of trying avoid buyers getting annoyed and cancelling the transaction after despatch.
With nothing pertinent to add to this thread, I thought I'd post an anecdote. I placed a low bid on an item that I wasn't expecting on winning (low bid), of which the auction ended while I was on holiday. Surprisingly, I won the auction, but I was away when it ended and didn't pay until three days after the auction ended.
I paid promptly on my return and sent the seller a message apologising for the delay and explaining how I'd been away, I didn't expect to win the item at such a price, and I'd be happy to add a few quid onto the price for his peace of mind and inconvenience. The seller was very understanding and didn't ask for any extra money - I paid within 10 minutes of his reply and chucked a fiver onto the donation option. The seller had advertised as fast and free - and I'm now sitting here with a £4.99 collectors vinyl of the Carpenters.
It's not always bad on the Bay. I bought an old computer last month and, on the off chance, asked the seller if he knew if any good graphics cards to buy for the machine. He replied with a two-page detailed description of what cards to consider and their benefits/drawbacks, as well as a rough price guide. I do think that for every d
head on eBay, there's a reasonable human there to help and make the experience pleasant.
I paid promptly on my return and sent the seller a message apologising for the delay and explaining how I'd been away, I didn't expect to win the item at such a price, and I'd be happy to add a few quid onto the price for his peace of mind and inconvenience. The seller was very understanding and didn't ask for any extra money - I paid within 10 minutes of his reply and chucked a fiver onto the donation option. The seller had advertised as fast and free - and I'm now sitting here with a £4.99 collectors vinyl of the Carpenters.
It's not always bad on the Bay. I bought an old computer last month and, on the off chance, asked the seller if he knew if any good graphics cards to buy for the machine. He replied with a two-page detailed description of what cards to consider and their benefits/drawbacks, as well as a rough price guide. I do think that for every d
head on eBay, there's a reasonable human there to help and make the experience pleasant. Non payers are a pain, like mentioned here quite a few ebayers buy something and have no intention of paying, open an unpaid file after 4 days at least you get your selling fees back.The type that gets me is people that buy your item take 5 days to pay then message YOU to say post the item as quickly as possible!To which I always reply "you would have received the item sooner if your payment had cleared sooner".
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