Ebay advice

Hi, I was just after a bit of advice, I am trying to sell my fuji s100fs on ebay (since buying the kr) and after having been messed about a couple of times by people, I sold it again yesterday for quite a low price and took a low offer. I messaged the guy late last night asking if he was definately going ahead with the sale as I hadn't received payment, and was in urgent need, which is why I sold it cheap, and he got back to me, saying that he definately wants the camera and would pay first thing this morning. Well, he still hasn't paid and I have messaged him a couple of times since but with no response. I know it's still quite early and some people take there time but he did tell me last night that he would pay first thing this morning and now nothing. Problem is, as I have explained to him, I was relying on this money to buy some Christmas presents. Any advice? thanks.
Now he has just emailed me saying can I ring him as I am not receiving his messages, but I just received that one not sure what to do. (sorry for the long post)

Difficult position that your in, personally I would have put in the description of said item, "Immediate payment required". Maybe you should have listed it as "buy it now" which requires immediate payment.

All you can do now is hope that the buyer keeps his word, it can be very frustrating at times, I have nearly 600 Ebay transactions and only one that has not paid. I think Ebay's rules allow quite a long time to pay, 14days, I think.

You can only hope that he wants said camera as an xmas gift also, in which case he should pay quickly in order to get it before xmas.

Issue an invoice. Then you really need to allow four days before issuing a reminder invoice. If I don't get a response to the second invoice I start a non-paying bidder case. They almost always pay then, but if they don't they will get a non-paying bidder strike against them.

You really have no way to hurry the buyer at this point and trying to do so could be classed as harrassment. I think it's safer to be patient, difficult though that may be.

ok, thanks, seems a bit strange that he managed to get the message to me asking me to ring him, but said he couldn't get any other messages to me just have to wait and see I guess.

Buyer has now come back to me and said that he has tried to pay through paypal this morning but it wont allow him to, as he has to verify his bank account first which takes several days, and can I give him any other payment options. Dont know if this is right or not, and I dont know why he couldn't have told me this, this morning. Also I noticed that he has already bought something on ebay before on 7th December so I dont understand why he cant do it now.

I smell a rat!

If you don't go via PayPal, you're not protected by PayPal.

There are a number of scams involving stolen credit/debit cards, cheques, etc that are used to fund accounts that in turn are used to pay 'you'. Once the balloon go's up the bank(s) recover the money by 'charging back' from your account. You lose the money and the goods.

Tell him you want cash or find another buyer.

I appreciate you're trying to get money for Christmas, but I'm sure your family and friends will understand that this year Santa might arrive a bit late.

Hi, thanks, to be honest, I would like to just end the transaction and cancel the sale, I can maybe borrow some money for Christmas, but this all looks a bit suspect to me. I think I would rather start again or sell it somewhere else. Trouble is, can I cancel the sell based on the fact that he can't pay for a few days?

Cash is actually prohibited by eBay, plus there's no evidence you've been paid and have sent the goods, so beware.

Whatever you wrote in your auction is the binding agreement, so if you said PayPal only then it's PayPal only.

You are best to follow the rules properly, so he has four days to pay after which you can file a case to end the transaction. For the details, check the T&Cs on the website.

You'll find the process in the eBay 'Help' section, but the best way is to cancel the transaction by mutual agreement.

Here's the link to the 'Unpaid Item Policy';

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/unpaid-item.html

I agree with this being the letter of the (eBay) law, but sometimes when you rattle someones cage how they respond speaks volumes.

Well, I have replied saying that I would like to mutually cancel the transaction as he will not be able to pay for at least a few working days (this will exceed the time he is supposed to pay anyway) so I will just see what happens now.

It is suspicious that he is bidding on items without having his paypal account verified beforehand.

Yes, I agree, well, I have just had a message from him saying that I can cancel the transaction and that he is sorry it didn't work out. So I will start again thanks.

PayPal can do that if you reach a threshold of spending I got caught out with it a couple of years ago luckily for me it was only a small item and the seller could wait the 3 days it takes to verify the account

I had to cancel a transaction a while ago because the seller could not receive my payment through PayPal (Something to do with his eMail address)
it seemed he just didn't know what he was doing in PayPal.I do think PayPal can be quite unhelpful.