why do people bid on stuff on ebay that they have no intention of paying for?

some people just think it is a big joke, others are just mean, they bid to make the bids higher than they have to be, just to see how much somebody would pay for something, Either way it is not nice.

You as a seller shouldn't have to track or chase them down if they are going to bid on it then they should pay for it. I think some do it because they find it amusing to jack the price up for serious buyers. I know when I bid and win it is paid right when the auction ends or no later than next day.

I wish I did because I feel the same way, I'm a seeler on ebay and I have had people bid and win on items and when you send emails after emails and still nothing it just gets under my skin. But I also explain(state) in the email, that if theres a money issue all I ask is you let me know and I can and will work something out with them. Because I do know time are hard but in the same sense if you know that you didn't want or afford it you(they bidder) shouldn't bid on. But that is a very interesting question and I son't think anyone can give that an good interesting answer. But I'll keep reading back to see if someone can really answer this one because I would love to KNOW myself. Thank u for asking this one.

I think the buyers get buyers remorse. It is just like gambling some buyers just like to bid to see if they can win they item but then when they do they don't have the money to pay for it. It is just a chance that all sellers have to take although it is not a good thing.

Hi Cher, Luckily for me I have only experienced this once and this woman bid and won and then didn't pay and when I phoned the number given she didn't even live there so I reported her and went on to resell to another bidder as a second chance one. It is very frustrating I agree. Especially as I needed the money from this item to go away with and the funds didn't come in in time so had to borrow £100 from my daughter instead. Huggles. Ellie :D

I haven't had this happen to me on ebay, but it happened to me twice when I was a member of ebid. Both times the person who had bought kept asking me if I had received their money and I kept telling them that once the money came through I would pass on the goods. In both examples they said they were paying through pppay and neither time was any money credited in. I tried to give them as much help as possible into setting up the account, but I don't think either were serious about buying. I also said to them, that the could use other methods if required including paypal, or my cheque or postal order to be fair to them. I let both incidents go for a while, and stayed patient before I ended up leaving them negative feedback. I only did that after warning them that unless they got back to me regarding a suitable payment method, that I would be doing this. I ended up leaving ebid in the end, and prefer to use ebay, despite its higher fees

In my case, someone hacked into my account and bid on 3 items. I won all three items. I had to tell all three sellers that I was sorry but I did not bid on their items and that I was not paying. At least I let them know why I was not paying and did not leave them hanging. Ebay was going to give me an unpaid item strike on one of the items. I disputed it and they removed the strike. I changed my password. I don't know who did it but I was so pissed off. Oh and one time I sold an IPOD, brand new still in the box. Some guy bid on my item and on another ipod at the same time. He won both items. Never paid for my ipod. I wrote to the guy and had no response. My guess is he bid on two of the same thing on purpose to see which price is lower at the end of the auction and then pay for the one that was cheaper.

Hi cher. Well... Can't really tell why people bid and then end up not paying. Most of them are joybidders and since they feel that they're anonymous, they feel that they can do whatever they want. Right now I have three items that three different people have bid on and have not paid up to now. It's been almost two weeks and I have not heard from any of them. I plan to inform Ebay about this. I just hope that they can do something about these people. On the other hand, I've had some buyers who were unable to pay on time because of some emergency. At least they had the decency to inform me. I don't mind if people don't pay. What I do mind is not informing me as to why they are not going to pay.

Hi there cher913! Yeah, the joybidders! People find it amusing to bid on stuffs posted on ebay even if they do not intend to buy them. Just like what has been mentioned already, there are those who just do that to pump up the digits and make the serious buyers suffer the consequences. It is so unfortunate that we can only do as much as leave them negative feedbacks which does not even affect them much. I hope one day, ebay would come up with something that could help track down where these people are so they would be reprimanded.

I know exactly what you mean. As a seller also it seems like we have no rights anymore. We cant leave negative feedback or even neutral, but the buyer can. It is really unfair