How long's too long?

[jonf]

Opinions, please, good ladies and gentlemen of the caff. You as well, Bill.

I sold an item on eBay and am still waiting for payment. It's not been long, only a day and a half. How long should I wait before sending a nice polite note asking when I can expect to see the payment? I always make a point of paying as soon as possible after the end time, and I find myself getting a bit annoyed if I have to wait. It's not a big deal, but I wish he'd get on and pay so I could get the item to him and finish the deal. So, how long do you reckon I should wait before chasing him?

 

[DaveW]

I would wait about 5 days Jon and then remind them.

 

[Taz]

I would tend to agree with Dave. The person may have won the auction by using a pre set sniper program and they may be away from their PC for their working week or even a holiday. I would say that 5 days is a reasonable time. However, any later than that and I'd be getting really miffed!

 

[Jeanette]

Not used ebay much but isn't there an option for the seller to send an invoice, have you done this? They may be waiting for contact from you first.



Jx

 

[jonf]

Not used ebay much but isn't there an option for the seller to send an invoice, have you done this? They may be waiting for contact from you first.



Jx

Yes, I sent an invoice straight away.

 

[Jeanette]

Yes, I sent an invoice straight away.

I think I would leave it a couple of days, 5 seems a bit long to me. If I was going to be bidding and not around to make payment straight away I would warn seller in advance.


Jx

 

[Targa]

If somebody hasn't paid after two days I send a polite message along the lines of I'm going to the post office tomorrow so if they could pay it would be convenient, usually works.

 

[Moz]

Annoys the bloody hell out of me. I always pay within ten minutes and I expect people to pay within 24 hours or I start to get quite irritated. There are many reasons why people don't pay quickly but only premature death is an acceptable one to me. I have had to do the unpaid bidder process once and that was most annoying as it takes bloody ages as ebay expect you to allow the winning bidder about seven days to pay up then you have to wait another long period before you can relist. You can't leave negative feedback and you are never given the reason the bidder did not pay.

These days I tend to put payment required within three days or the item will be relisted. That way you can leave negative feedback and still get the thing back on the market. Following this method however means you don't get your listing fees back and you may have an arguement with ebay about final value fees as as far as they are concerned the item was sold.

One poster is right though, a gentle reminder about having to go to the post office and could you pay now please as that would be most convenient [you conniving, blood-sucking time-waster, I hate you ].

 

[old git]

Oi Jon,
You've never sold me nuffin, so why tou namen mer?

If your kontaktin CaSLM, well we do set a brocun finger rate, kan pmu a leaflet.

 

[MandyH]

As others have said, I personally pay within hours of winning a bid, but given the time of year (lots of school holidays in various countries, not sure about Betelguese mind ) the winner could be away for a few days, so maybe the original suggestion of 5 days is not unreasonable. Try with the polite reminder bit after a couple of days if you wish, though. If it's polite, I'd be surprised if they would be offended by such a message.

 

[kevgermany]

If someone takes paypal, I pay immediately. Otherwise it may take a few days before I have time to get to the bank. And I may forget. An email reminder after 3-4 days would seem right to me.

 

[MellowD]

Whenever I've sold on eBay, I've put in the write up regarding payment and postage that I will expect payment within a specified amount of time of winning bid. Its quite a standard practice to do this now and does tend to encourage a more prompt payment. Hope this helps for another time

 

[jonf]

If somebody hasn't paid after two days I send a polite message along the lines of I'm going to the post office tomorrow so if they could pay it would be convenient, usually works.

Good suggestion. Will try that.

 

[jonf]

Thanks for your advice everyone. He's now finally coughed up.

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

I know you've been paid now but what i do is wait a couple of days, then if nothing i send out the ebay invoice, then after a couple of days if i don't hear anything i send them a message asking if their still cool with the deal, seems to work.

What does annoy me is someone who wins then wants to pay cash and collect but don't know when they will next be in your area, had that a couple of times this year, waited about three weeks with one to sort himself out! trouble is if you tell them to sling their hook they just give you bad feedback

 

[Colin the Bear]

Some of us have to sometimes wait till pay day. I'm always bouncing off the bottom of my overdraft these days. I've seen sales with a no pick up in person caviat. Paypal and post only. You can understand why.

 

[Targa]

The thing that annoys me most is people who don't let you know something has arrived.
One case when I was selling a unique item that I had no idea what interest there would be in it I put a start price of £10 and postage of 75p, it was small and light. It sold for over £120 so I put a lot of protection round it and sent it special delivery for over £6.
I asked him to let me know when it arrived, checked it anyway on PO tracker, he eventually left feedback over a week later.
Very discourteous.

 

[Moz]

The thing that annoys me most is people who don't let you know something has arrived.
One case when I was selling a unique item that I had no idea what interest there would be in it I put a start price of £10 and postage of 75p, it was small and light. It sold for over £120 so I put a lot of protection round it and sent it special delivery for over £6.
I asked him to let me know when it arrived, checked it anyway on PO tracker, he eventually left feedback over a week later.
Very discourteous.

I know what you mean. I've sold a lot of things on ebay and the two most expensive things, a Yanagisawa Soprano Sax and a £1000 telescope, received no feedback, no acknowledgement of receipt, nothing. I've rather given up on ebay now as I have had to deal with some right dickheads, rude, ignorant, slow-paying (if at all), plus getting your item visible amongst the hoards of commercial buy-it-nows is just too much trouble. All of that plus the fees for ebay and Paypal has just turned me off it. It's a shame because in the beginning it was fun both to buy and sell on ebay but as with all things, it's been ruined by commercialism, greed and complacency.