Bidders! AAAUUUgghhh!

What did you say in response to their question?

~~ Sooz To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. ~~Joseph Chilton Pearce

That sound so frustrating. Stick to your guns and don't open them back up to bid.

Lara

I think 10 days is too short a time to try to resolve an auction. Think about all the things that could occur in 10 days... especially if people work full time, have families, get ill, go out of town... the time it might take to get a money order and mail it and so forth. Not to mention email problems, which could take more than 10 days to resolve! Promptness is not a virtue that everyone has.

You can certainly request payment within 10 days of auction close and send a notice that payment wasn't received at the end of 10 days, but to demand payment and block a bidder after only 10 days probably will prevent return business. I usually send a second notice in 20 days or so. And don't get too excited unless 30 days has gone by. Then I'm apt to leave negative feedback and call it quits. Of course, you have to decide what time frame you want to negotiate through... it just seems 10 days is not very long IMHO to terminate a potential buyer/seller relationship.

I think 10 days is too short a time to try to resolve an auction. Think about all the things that could occur in 10 days.>

agreed-- case in point

I just found out on 4 October - that AOL has been BLOCKING ALL MY incoming EMAIL from my website (dragonbeads.com) -- apparently for almost two weeks!

Since I funnel my auction notices and paypal notices through my ISP mail - to my AOL account - all of them were blocked by AOL !!! Needless to say - this has caused some really irritated customers - and a really irritated ME!

the reason AOL does this - ? spammers - spammers who FORGE FALSE HEADERS for their nasty SPAM - and put my email address as the "return" - thus AOL has decided that all xxx @dragonbeads.com mails were spam - and blocked them...

Sigh -- you can't win these days....

I have a buyer who is raising heck with me and told Justbeads.com I ignored her auction wins -- I never got notices - she emailed me at cheryl@ dragonbeads.com - and all of it got eaten by AOL spam bot controls... also - I had customers emailing me about making orders - and they were either being bounced - or just disappearing forever... so I don't know how much mail I've missed...

sigh - My ISP contacted AOL and got the ISP unblocked -- but they can't guarantee how long it will work - since AOL's "blocker" software works on a formula -- if enough spam is sent out in my ISP name again (forged headers) -- my ISP will be blocked again.... without notice...

GRRRRRRRRR so - maybe your customer COULDN'T get in touch with you -- for reasons beyond her control.

On the flip side -- I am probably the world's MOST tolerant seller - I generally send at least THREE notices - one week apart before I give up on a buyer who won't respond.....

Cheryl DRAGON BEADS Flameworked beads and glass

spammers - spammers who FORGE FALSE HEADERS for their nasty SPAM - and put my email address as the "return" - thus AOL has decided that all xxx @dragonbeads.com mails were spam - and blocked them...<

Heh, it's not even only AOHell. I use MailWasher (a godsend!!!) to screen my email. It blocked ME a few days ago....but let through a forged email with my address. Oy!

KarenK

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@aol.combeads (Cheryl) :

]My ISP contacted AOL and got the ISP unblocked -- but they can't guarantee how ]long it will work - since AOL's "blocker" software works on a formula -- if ]enough spam is sent out in my ISP name again (forged headers) -- my ISP will be ]blocked again.... without notice...

that would explain about a LOT of mail that misappears when addressed to AOHell!

]On the flip side -- I am probably the world's MOST tolerant seller

seconded!

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Karen_AZ" :

] I use MailWasher (a godsend!!!) to screen my ]email. It blocked ME a few days ago....but let through a forged email with ]my address. Oy!

ROTF - i'm sorry - but THAT is FUNNY! so far, that's at least one problem i haven't had!

What really stinks is contacting someone with a question before you BIN an auction and never hearing from them. That to me is bad business. Happened the other day. I went ahead and BIN'd the item but am not sure if they got my email or not. Now I will not buy from them again & won't recommend them.

Not you Cheryl. I'm still drooling over your beads & have to save.

I just want some response within 10 days. If a buyer lets me know within

10days that they are paying by check and I have not received it, I still keep their account open if it has not been received in time. But if I haven't heard from them within 10 days and they are able to still bid on items. Then they can contact me through ebay to let me know what is going on. I am very understanding and have let buyers pay a month late. But they let me know that they wanted to bid on more stuff and when they were going to pay. I was completely OK with that.

My response to her question why she is blocked:

You have never paid for your original purchase. You used the checkout, but have not paid through Paypal for your original purchase. I wrote you many emails and no response and you did not respond to my phone call. Plus you left neutral feedback for me without contacting me that you needed help with your check out. I wanted to work with you on this purchase. You never allowed me to help you and explain some alternatives for you to pay for your item.

4910547280 100 6mm ROUND DRUK GLASS CZECH BEADS ORANGE BEAD

I do not have any more of this item available for sell. I am a very understanding seller when I get a response from a buyer not just feedback when they are dissappointed. I wanted and tried very hard to contact you to work this out with no response from you. Just feedback left with no further communication. I block all buyers who do not pay for their purchases after

10 days of non payment. Payment is expected within 10 days of auction end. This prevents dead beat bidders on my auctions.

I don't think this letter was harsh. I tried to let them know if they would have just emailed me at any point I would have understood. I have even let bidders go from auction who did not ever pay, but they told me they had some sort of emergency. Communication is all I want in this annonymous world of Ebay. I know things come up all the time. I even tried calling this bidder to call or email me with a response. NOTHING.

Amy, I think you were perfectly reasonable. I ask for payment in my Ebay auctions within 7 days (somehow that text has wandered out of my Justbeads listings, but I'll be fixing THAT with my next auctions). Call me a hardass (my kids do, so this is nothing new LOL) but this is my income and my business. If a buyer wants to delay actual payment they can use their credit card with Paypal and proceed accordingly, but that's not MY gig.

I'm very willing to bundle auctions together if they're occurring over a few days and they're a proven good customer, but in general I figure you want the goodies, you need to be prepared to pay for them. You don't go into most bead stores and put things on layaway, so why should I do anything different?

In the last 2 years since I started doing auctions again, I've only had two flaky bidders, so I'm counting myself very lucky. I DO pay attention to national weather and make allowances for, say, folks in Florida the last few weeks (months, now, I guess). I'm not a total bitch, honest. And I find that, in extremis, filing the first step of the NPB process on Ebay works wonders for slow payers.

Hang tight!!! KarenK

I disagree... ten days is plenty of time to make contact. If something unexpected has come up, a family emergency or a hurricane or whatnot, it's not going to hurt them any if you block them and relist your item. They can always contact you and make an explanation later, if you've blocked them... in fact, I had someone blocked for no contact, no pay, and she contacted me over a month later with an apology and an explanation. I unblocked her. No biggie!

I will wait just this side of forever for payment if they let me know it'll be late, but if there's no contact, I need to resolve it and move on. I usually send a second invoice after one week, a payment reminder after two, and start NPB after three.

-Kalera

Karleen/Vibrant Jewels wrote:

How long did you give them to answer? I usually figure I need to give them a day. They might be at work, shopping, out of town, sick in bed, etc. Usually I'm too impatient to wait that long, and just figure I'll have to return it if it's too far off. Though I've never returned anything.

Tina

At least a week to answer back. I realize people go on vacation. But I have been try to deal with this person since July. With no response except for feedback. I have also found that if someone cannot bid that usually initiates the communication process. Most of the time if I have not received payment within ten days and I have no response. I usually don't get the payment. I send reminders out after 3 days and again after 7. On the seventh I ask them to please contact me if they need help with any thing and to please let me know I am very understanding. I use email and I also try to use email through ebay (contact button) in case my emails are not getting through.

it'll be late, but if there's no contact, I need to resolve it and move on. I usually send a second invoice after one week, a payment reminder after two, and start NPB after three.<

Exactly. Contact is the most important thing. I have nervous breakdowns every time my email takes a dive.

KarenK

I am with ya! I had a lady email me from Florida saying she was on her way out of her house. But she was going to have to wait to pay until she got back. I was completely understanding. I wished her the best of luck. And I also noted it on her invoice. I write a hand written thank you on all of my invoices, write thanks on my b-card and write thanks once again on the envelope. I am gracious to my paying customers. I have just had about four to five lately that haven't paid anything or any contact. I have over $150.00 in product that has not been paid for in over a week. So I want to get a little tougher in hopes of getting some money.

-Amy:)

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 16:11:54 -0400, Kalera Stratton wrote (in message ):

I'll give you guys the other side. As the people who I buy from know, I usually pay within minutes of the end of an auction. But, I've been late in paying on auctions in the past because between the time I put in the bid and the time the auction was over, I ended up in the hospital.

At these times, and it happens more than I'd like, it's not like paying for my bead auctions is not a priority for Bob. I've always followed up and apologized profusely, but one time it was three weeks. (ugh) It's not something I can anticipate, and I feel terrible about it happening, but there's not a lot I can do about it.

There are two other gotchas: one is that Bob has bid on auto parts in the past without telling me, and the seller required a money order. I don't check Ebay unless I know I have a bid in, and as we all know, AOL is not good about getting all the emails through. I went way too long on one auction because of that.

The other is with Just Beads: I no longer bid on Just Beads auctions (save the breast cancer one) because emails just do not get to me. Their site is wonky with my Mac, and even checking on old auctions is a gigantic pain. I got a personal and rather ticked off email from Bettina (presumably from some other account. It's the only one I ever got) calling me a deadbeat bidder or some such, when I had no idea that the auction had ended. It certainly wasn't a deliberate thing, and sometimes there are mitigating circumstances.

Just my two cents,

Kathy N-V

It's been about a week since I sent the email. The thing that upsets me is no contact.

Wow. I don't see why people bid if they can't buy it right away. I always pay as soon as I get an invoice. Or if it's a single auction or BIN then I pay it right away.

I would unsuspend the buyer if they pay and gave a good explination. I really have no problem with that. I just don't want someone bidding on my auctions again and again with no hopes of payment and no contact. If I can get another bidder who will pay.