Is Layaway a bad idea on Ebay these days?

OK The lady who wants to buy Fred and George is a newbie (4) and she wants to make payments. I want to make the downpayment and subsequent payments non-refundable but using ebay and paypal she would be able to back out at anytime. Is this true…or am I thinking wrong. I am also allowing ebay to take and tie up my money until all the payments are made at least 60 days.We both want to be protected by ebay but it seems there is no good way to do this. I am tempted to let the auction end, pay my stupid fee again and handle this the way I would handle any of my other sales. I know ebay hates that but there is no Win Win at least not for me. Maybe I should tell her I researched it and a payment plan is just to difficult. What do you think???

Thanks. that’s the way I am leaning…letting the auction expire and handling it offline. I hate the idea of not being in charge of that kind of transaction. I really don’t understand why people don’t just pay with a credit card through Paypal. Then they have their purchase. I have my money. AND they get to make payments. of course it’s that sneaky interest they don’t want to get stuck with. It only seems fair that the buyer should be the one to pay the extra not the artist… You have given me something to think about.

Yep, that’s what I’m worried about. This women seems very sincere and everything but I don’t want them sitting here in a box for a few months while she pays them off and ebay holds my $$ and then have her changer her mind. They’ve been sitting and she gets all her money back and is out nothing. I told her if she wants to do it under the protection of ebay she will have to pay in full using a credit card then make her payments to her cardholder. As far as I’m concerned that’s the best for both of us. I get paid…she gets her baby…and she pays of bit of interest the way we do when we use credit. I’m just not in a place to offer credit to someone I don’t know when at the end I could get nothing. We’ll see what she decides. I did write up a contract for a layaway/custom order that seems pretty complete if she decides to handle it away from ebay.