Hey guys...

I recently sold one of my Waverunners on ebay. Reluctantly I did not cancel what seemed like a bid from a suspicous bidder. The high bidder had zero feedback, but was an ebay member for 16 months. He was also from CA and I'm in MI and in the ad I indicated that the winning bidder must pick it up. Anyway, I wanted to give him a chance (everyone has to start somewhere...referring to the zero feedback thing).

Auction ended. He never contacted me. I sent him three emails wanting to know status. Still no response. So I got his contact info from ebay and called the number listed. When I talked to him he told me that I never contacted him so he bought another Waverunner. I explained to him that he engaged in a binding contract to purchase the item by bidding. I also told him I'm doing him a service by me calling him because he'* supposed to contact the SELLER (says so right in my ad).

Now...what to do next???? Is the non-paying bidder process on ebay a PITA??? Seems like it is. I want to do a second chance offer to the next high bidder, but will the commissions be based on the sale to the high bidder, or the second chance winner? And, most important to me, if I leave negative feedback for the winning bidder for being a NPB, can he retaliate and leave the same for me?

I know, lots of questions, but the automated response from ebay was literally a carbon copy of what their "Help" section reads on the website...

Contact ebay, I can't remember how or where, but its somewhere on their site. They will help you out.

As far as leaving him negative feedback, I don't think ebay can stop him from leaving you negative feedback. Personally, i'd contact ebay and see what they say to do. If you have little to no feedback, then negative won't be good, if you have lots of good feedback [100+] I wouldn't worry too much about one or two negatives...


-justin

It is a PITA, commission based on second-chance offer, and yes, he can.

I've got 31 positives. It could do me some harm with getting a negative.

It'* the principal of the thing.

I contacted ebay and they sent me back the BS automated response. Does anyone have an email address or phone number in which a real, live person will work on your issue?

go into your seller screen and you can access the file a npb form. It isn't that difficult to file. I would wait to leave negative feedback until something gets settled and if he does leave you negative feedback you can add a response to explain that he just did it out of vindictiveness. You can wait until 89 days after the end of the auction because you can leave feedback for up to 90 days past the end and then he won't be able to respond. Ebay will contact them and also warn them about the consequences and if that person gets a couple of more or has had a few they might ban him altogether.

That'* a good idea....wait until day 89 and then just hope that he doesn't retaliate back against me. I'm going to do a second chance to the next highest bidder. Hopefully he'll buy it. And then I'll leave a negative to the original high bidder.

Just re-sell the item. yes, he can leave negative feedback on yours, but you can contact ebay and they will take it off for you, yes I have done that before.

How did you contact them? Is there a secret way to get a real, live person to answer your question?

With everything that I've sent to them I always get an auto-reply. It'* annoying and never answers my question!!

I think the auto-reply is just a "soother" of sorts until your email can be reviewed and answered by a human being.

Yea, eventually they will reply to you, but Im sure there swapped with tons of emails each day. As long as you got the auto email, give them maybe a week, and still nothing, then send them another email complaining about the complaint