Dealing With An eBay Customer Who Does Not Pay

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EBay is a great tool for anyone who wants to get rid of their old, unwanted stuff or wants to make some extra money. But while eBay is great for selling your items, it is not always great for getting you paid for the items that you "sold." After all, on eBay, you do not get paid first and then give the customer the item - the way you would in a regular store - but instead, you have to wait for the person to pay you after they win the bid, and sometimes they can leave you waiting for a while!

If you are dealing with a customer who has won a bid but has not yet paid you, the first thing you should know is that they have four days to pay. Even though this seems like a while, eBay will not take a complaint unless it has been at least four days from the day when the auction ended. At the same time, however, eBay usually takes these matters very seriously if the four full days have passed without the payment.

The first thing you need to do, if someone has not paid you, is contact them and see if you can work things out. If they are uncooperative or - perhaps even more frustrating - unresponsive, you then need to take things to the next step, which is filing the complaint with the Resolution Center at eBay.

The buyer will again have four days to pay after you file a complaint with the Resolution Center (and will also, of course, be notified of the complaint). Although they are allowed to contact you and try to work out an extension or another arrangement during this time, you are not required to oblige. If they do not pay you within four days, and you have not agreed to any other arrangements, it will go down as an unpaid item.

This unpaid item will be listed permanently on the buyer's account, and you are then able to list your item again, or you can give a Second Chance Offer to one of the bidders who lost on the item. And keep in mind: you can look at people's accounts when they are bidding, and if you run into a bidder with an "unpaid item" on their account, you can block them to keep this from happening to you!