I’ve been waiting for payment for a CD I’ve sold for over two weeks now, and I’ve sent a payment reminder and a couple of other emails. How long should I wait before going down the Non-Paying Bidder route?
Most people will wait a total of 10 to 14 days. If you’ve sent the buyer several e-mails and he/she has responded to them all with a resonable explanation for the holdup, politely make it clear to them that you do not intend to wait more then two weeks at the most. If they ignore your e-mails and more then two weeks pass…screw em. leave neg feedback. After two weeks of waiting, if they don’t have a legitimate reason for not paying, then whatever feedback you leave they will have bought upon themselves 
I invoice with in a day or so of the auction end.
After one week I send a notice that payment hasn’t been received.
After two weeks I resend the invoice and give a warning.
After three weeks I give a warning that they must contact me in three days, then I give the negative feed back and file a non paying bidder report.
I recently went thru a spell where bidders with perfect feed back in the 40 to 100 range were deadbeats, and I gave them their first negative feed back.
On the day the auction closes, I send a confirmation email requesting a reply. (Sometimes they reply, sometimes they don’t. Many people don’t reply deirectly, but go immediately to PayPal and send their payment.)
If payment hasn’t shown up 10 days after the auction ends, I send a reminder requesting an immediate reply.
Three days later, I file the Non-Paying Bidder alert with eBay, and the buyer gets the official notice from eBay. Most of the time, this is as far as it goes. I usually get the payment within days.
If I still receive no response, though, I file the Final Value Fee refund request as soon as eBay’s system allows. To minimize the chance of retaliatory feedback, I file a negative feedback on the last day allowed (sneak it in under the wire.) I also add the deadbeat’s name to my Blocked Bidder List so they can’t place any more bids on my stuff.
Um, what did your listing say about how long to pay? Mine says that payment must be sent within 7 days.