Regarding Ebay: Can buyers who don't pay or respond to messages leave negative feedback?

[The Night Owl]

10 days ago, a new Ebayer (member since Jan. 01, 2009) with no feedback history won an item I put up for auction on Ebay. The buyer has not responded to the invoice, to any of my messages, or to the Unpaid Item Case I opened 8 days after the end of the auction. If I eventually close the case by reporting the item as unpaid do I leave myself vunerable to negative feedback from this ghost buyer should he or she materialize at some point in the future?

I tried finding an answer to my question at Ebay help pages but they are vague in regard to how much power unresponsive buyers have.

[Vinca]

1. Apparently they'll remove it if the deadbeat leaves it.

Feedback (ratings and comments) may be removed in the following instances:

There is a violation of the Feedback Abuse policy.

A member is unable to form a legally binding contract at the time the item ended or Feedback was left.

A member provided eBay with an email address that is invalid and could not be contacted at the time of the transaction.

A member mistakenly leaves negative or neutral Feedback intended for another member, informs eBay of the error and has already placed the same Feedback for the correct member.

If a member is suspended by eBay, negative & neutral Feedback left by that member is removed. If a member is suspended within 90 days of registration, all Feedback is removed.

eBay is provided with a valid court order requesting Feedback Removal.

A buyer fails to respond to the Unpaid Item process.

When the communication and comments left by the buyer within the Unpaid Item Dispute Console undermine the integrity of both the Unpaid Item process and the eBay Feedback system.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-removal.html

[old mark]

2. I just came back to selling on eBay afte being away for several years.

Last time, we sold for maybe 2 1/2 years, had 1 non-pay/non-responder in all that time.
I am in my 3rd batch of items on sale now, and I have already had 2 non-payers, and eBay has made it a pain in the ass to deal with them.

The eBay big shots have made it much more difficult to sell there, and I don't understand why - they seem to be taking much more money than tey used to.

Do others have this experience too, or is it just me?

mark


ADDED: I am selling as oldmark47 if you want to see my small list for this week - mostly books.

[DollyM]

3. 2 non paying bidders this week on two items . . .

The NPB are increasing because they know there is no form of punishment for them. Without being able to leave a negative, we have no recourse. If we cancel the transaction to get the fees refunded quickly, we can't leave any kind of feedback. Of course, I understand if you leave a negative comment next to the positive sign you have to leave, ebay can remove it and punish the seller. ebay just sucks so much anymore.

[Dulcinea]

4. My blocked bidder list keeps getting bigger.

If someone stiffs me, all I can do is block them from bidding on my auctions. They need to bring back negative feedback!