If they did not pay, what makes you think they will tell you the truth, even if they will talk with you? Doesn't Ebay have a protection policy that will allow you to claim compensation directly from Ebay when you don't get paid? There are devices that record televison conversations. The law requires you to notify someone that they are being recorded before you do it.....but if they are not aware of that law, the recording makes a useful tool sometimes. You might be able to speed things up by reporting the buyer to his home state police for fraud and theft.

The correct answer is NO. You don't want to call someone you don't know, to intrude into their life over a few dollars. Plus you don't know that they won't complain about your "harassing" call, that could get you "booted" off eBay. Refer to eBay's infomation about handling non-payers of winning bids, and instructions to follow in order to get your posting fees reimbursed. When an auction has ended, the invoice you send should state how much payment is due within X number of days. Clearly state, if invoice is not paid, or contact made to make payment arrangements, they will be reported to eBay for non-payment and Negative Feedback will be left on their account. If or when an invoice is not paid, send a message via eBay's system informing them they need to contact you immediately, that payment is due ASAP. If no response, report them to eBay to get your posting fees reimbursed and to be able to repost your item. Leave appropriate feedback then, nothing nasty, just say the bid was won, but buyer never paid for the item or replied to your messages. Then let it go! You don't know what's going on with their life, what family emergency is keeping them from caring about a winning bid and it's not important really what the reason is. Maybe they changed their mind and don't know what to do . . . Which isn't right, but it happens. Just do what you need to do and carry on. It's best to follow eBay's rules and regulations, so there's a record of all contact. Do not send emails directly from your own email account to a winning bidder. Only contact them via eBay's message system, that way it's all there for the record and you can be assured they got the message, as your own email address might be blocked or put in their junk file with them not getting it anyway. In the future whenever you post something up for auction, put in your description that anyone who bids and does not pay within X days of their winning bid OR does not contact you to make arrangements to pay will be reported as a non-payer to eBay and given NEGATIVE FEEDBACK. It won't solve the problem totally, but this at least puts anyone on notice that their winning bid is a contract and obligation to pay and should be honored as such.

If someone bids on your auction and doesn't pay (unpaid item on ebay), then by all means give them a call. I've done thousands of ebay transactions and sometimes picking up the phone has saved the day. Most of the time non-paying bidders are willing to pay for their unpaid items. Never, have I had someone react negatively. I've heard all different sorts of stories as to why they didn't respond though: my kids use that account, I've been out of town, my computer broke, I thought I had changed my email on ebay... etc. 9 out of 10 times the situation is easily resolved, and they say "How can I pay?" An alternate solution is to try ReliaBid.com, I've been using them and reduced the incidence of unpaid items and non-paying bidders in my auctions significantly. I've found that non-paying bidders have pretty much just fallen off in my auctions since using ReliaBid. They put a seal in all your auctions and that seal simply deters non-paying bidders. ReliaBid also offers access to debt collection services, so non-paying bidders become paying bidders, knowing there would be consequences for an unpaid item. I really like this service, it has removed a lot of headache from my business. Drop me an email or comment here if you want some more info. I highly recommend.

I am totaly sick and tired of morons like you giving endless reasons as to why other people CANT do something, or just generaly "procrastinatiing". Its simple - Pay up, or expect the seller to want to know WHY you didnt pay up. Also expect him to want to call you, and then to ask you why you havent paid and insist that you DO pay! I am using Reliabid and if a customer won't comminucate with me or forfill their side of the legaly binding contract (i.e. by placing a bid on my auctions), then they can expect a bailif around their house, quick fast! Times are changing... and I am turning the tables upside down on all of this non-payers out there! So, anyone who sets out to harrass me, instead becomes harrased themselves. And as soon as they see a balif coming to collect and knocking on their door, it'll be time for THEM to wake up and smell the coffee! Thats how I do business, so get used to it. Regards, from a shrewd ebay Powerseller ;-) PS: I got rubbish grades at school and my spelling is attrocious, by dont worry, if you ever by anything of me, I'll run my emails through the spell checker first, before I send them to you! :-D (And dont say that you'll never buy anything from me, because you dont know what my ebay ID is). lol. I earn around £120,000 per year on ebay... and I'm not interested in grades, qualifications and ego-tastical certificates and bullshit... all that really matters at the end of the day, is whats in your bank account. Cash. I rest my case.