Questionable Buyer - Any Suggestions

He bought 2 items on different days and then didn't pay. First I think it was he still wanted to bid on something else (he is in Indonesia and his English is bad), then it was he was having problems with hos credit card, then he asked me for all my banking info (I declined), now he wants my address saying he wants to pay by Western Union. No mention of PayPal.

I should just cancel the sales, but I already filed a non-payment and ebay won't let you cancel the sale if you have filed a non-payment. I fear if he does finally pay with PayPal that the shipment will magically never arrive. Its only about $12, but still...

If he pays you can cancel the sale. If you choose "problem with address"
you will probably avoid a defect.

thanks for the suggestion

ebay makes you wait a week or so after filing a nonpayment. Then you cna cancel the sale.

Joe

After telling him I don't take Western Union he responds by asking again if he can pay by Western Union.

And wouldn't the Western Union fee far exceed the purchase price?

and that is one of the many reasons I am suspicious

Just say no. Report the buyer to ebay and cancel the sale.

After a series of purchases from bogus user accounts, I set higher priced listings to Immediate Payment required. After encountering a couple of issues in Europe, I changed shipping charges to cover outrageously high First-Class Package International rates for higher priced items, and for all items to less developed or problem countries. Since then, unwanted international sales have mostly dried up. In case anyone missed it, UPU regulations prohibit sending merchandise by First Class Mail International.

Just to be clear, if you open an unpaid item case after 4 days you can close it and receive your final value fee back and the sale is canceled. I've literally watched the clock and closed cases 1 minute after the four day window just to be done with a problem client. You should block him immediately so he doesn't purchase other items and start the clock again.

Its a bit complicated since he bought something on 2 different days, so I couldn't file non-payment on both on the same day. I also didn't realize that I wouldn't get an email from ebay on their conclusion and instead just found a note from them with the item in the Awaiting Payment list saying I could file for a refund of their final value fees, which I then did along with putting him on my blocked bidders list, and I was finally able to file non-payment on the second item.

I've had nearly $4000 unpaid items since last June. I've gotten pretty militant about filing unpaid item claims not just for myself but to help other sellers avoid these deadbeats. I have the filters in my "Site Preferences" turned on and no bidder with 2 or more Unpaid item strikes can bid on my material. I recommend all sellers use this feature.

What about buyers who claim they never recieved the lots? I have put Bulgaria on my list of
reject countries; repeated problems.

Lots of people are in bad financial situations but countries that are also as a whole in a bad financial way are too much of a risk for me!

Have been burnt too many times!

Some of the many different mail service that take your stamp some remote buyer in a 3rd world country has to be a worry as well!

"What about buyers who claim they never recieved the lots?"

I just got one of those from a U.S. customer. Odd how I've never had a ebay lot never get to me, but non-received claims on my shipments happen a bit less than 1% of the time, so it is merely frustrating.

eyeonwall,
That's why we require minimum registered mail, so it's traceable. ebay will do 0 for you if a buy claims didn't arrive, and you have no method of demonstrating that.
I got a refund from Japan post one time in 15 years when a shipment went "missing". It was a stamp of about $50. But that's the only one I've ever had lost.
Every item I've ever bought in near 20 years from ebay has arrived... one did take a strange 4 months, but it still eventually got to me. So I don't buy the 3-4 a year that I get claiming "we didn't get it"...

Several items that I've bought on ebay over the years have never arrived. I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, not some third world country, and some of these items have been from places like the U.K. and Germany. I'm not saying it happens often; I'm talking about maybe half a dozen times in the 20 years I've been buying stuff on ebay. (That's not including a few where the seller's feedback later clearly showed that they were total ripoff artists and almost certainly never mailed anything in the first place.)

Right now I have to deal with a situation where a U.S. seller was supposed to send me items from two different auctions together, but he only sent one. Grrrr.

So be as incredulous as you like, but it certainly happens.