Do nothing. This is one of the few problems in selling that genuinely resolves itself, on a fixed clock, and the things sellers do while waiting make it worse rather than faster.
The clock
- Won while watching: thirty minutes to pay.
- Won while away: twelve hours.
Two windows because they answer two situations, and the longer one exists because plenty of auctions end while someone is asleep. How long do I have to pay.
What happens when it runs out
Automatically, without you:
- The win lapses.
- The item is offered to the under-bidder at their own bid. They get twelve hours to decide — they were not expecting the message either.
- The buyer gets a strike. Three inside ninety days and they cannot bid for a while.
If the under-bidder takes it, you have sold it at one step down. If they do not, it comes back to you and you relist it. What a second chance offer is.
What not to do
Do not pack it. An unpaid order is not a sale. This is the expensive mistake — a packed parcel for an order that lapses is wasted materials and a wasted hour.
Do not chase them in the first few minutes. Most people pay inside the hour. A message four minutes after the show ended reads as panic and buys you nothing.
Do not offer to take payment another way. Off-platform payment removes every protection either of you has, including yours, and it is how sellers get defrauded. Why off-platform deals are risky.
Do not cancel it yourself. Let the window run. Cancelling is your action and counts against your cancellation rate; letting a window lapse is the buyer's and does not. How to cancel an order.
That last one is worth repeating, because it is counterintuitive and it is free: waiting protects your store health, acting damages it.
What you can do
One polite message, once, after a reasonable wait. "Hi — just a note that the payment window on this closes in about an hour." Some people genuinely did not see the notification, and email is not switched on, so the in-app notice is all there was.
Block a repeat offender. Someone who has done this to you twice is not a customer. Can I block a buyer?
If it keeps happening across many buyers
Look at your start prices. A room that bids past what it meant to pay produces unpaid wins — that is the format working on people who got carried away, and the fix is at the pricing end rather than the chasing end.
More: what happens if I don't pay, how to find your store's numbers, how to end a show properly.