posted on September 4, 2000 04:21:31 PM
Make a looonnnggg story short.... Buyer with 20 feedbacks, 2 negative for non-payment wins auction on August 6 for a total of $7. Payment was due to be mailed about by August 13 (not received by August 13).
Approximately 3 weeks after EOA, I email asking where payment is. She was very vague about when payment was sent, but it looks like it was not mailed until August 21.
So, I waited 2 MORE weeks for payment to show up. I then emailed her again saying if it does not show up by September 16, I will notify eBay blah blah.
Well I get this lovely email today:
I MAILED THE MONEY ORDER!!!!!!!I WILL SEND YOU MY RECIPT TO PROOVE I SENT IT!!!! YOU STOLE MY MONEY ORDER OBVIOULSY BECUASE I SENT IT A LONG TIME AGO AND I HAVE THE RECIPT TO PROOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WILL ALSO LEAVE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK STATING I SENT THE MONEY AND YOU NEVER SENT THE ITEM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I REFUSE TO RE-SEND ANOTHER 7.00 OUT ON SATURDAY.......
This kind of attitude from buyers is about to drive me up the wall. I am so close to quit selling on eBay.
I have been very patient with this person. I don't need people threatening me with negative feedback. I have never received any payment from this person.
Should I still wait until Saturday 16? Should I forget the whole thing now and file for my fees? How do you respond to a person like this?!?!?? And yes she SCREAMS in all of her emails. And yes I feel she is yanking my chain.
posted on September 4, 2000 04:30:30 PM
Be thankful you run an online sale. Its much worst meeting this people in public because they are exactly the same. There was a posting a few days ago here about this person who visited an antique, broke an expensive antique worth about $1500 & refused to pay.
His excuse, well the store is too crowded (aren't all mum & pop stores crowded) & just claim it from your insurance. Afterall what's $1500 to a big corporation & besides you pay insurance so might as well use it. And guess what, people actually think this guy is right. Just fill for a FVF claim & forget about it, $7 isn't worth all the e-mails that will be transmitted.
posted on September 4, 2000 04:50:34 PM
First, I look at the email and see if it's one from AOL. For many, many years AOL users have seemed fond of typing in all caps and they often are unaware of what it looks like to other net users. Be that as it may...
You may just have to deal with this patiently. Mail *does* get stolen or lost so the next step really needs to be to say "OK, please show me the receipt for the MO, but I didn't receive it or cash it. Let's both calm down? You may have to go to the issuer of the MO and apply for a refund and they'll eventually confirm it hasn't been cashed with my endorsement." And perhaps, "Please understand that it isn't businesslike for me to send the widget to you without having been paid, so if you need the item quickly you'll need to pay again."
Out of many many hundreds of checks and MO's received over the last year+, I think I did in fact once receive, endorse, and deposit a MO without noting it or sending the purchase out. I at least managed to confirm it from MY bank when the customer inquired, and before HE had to produce the endorsed copy. Several months ago I had *4* letters contaning checks and MO's stolen from my suburban mailbox, too, with a check for $50 eventually cashed with my "signature" forged onto it. Customer was patient, re-sent payment, item delivered, and I gave him followups on the theft and forgery reports I was filing at this end, and sent his bank a notarized "affadavit of forgery."
So, keep in mind "sYYY happens." My style is to be patient, set the item aside, and regard the time delay as yet another normal, expected, sort of overhead in this sort of business.
posted on September 4, 2000 05:15:02 PM
Send her a nice email asking her not TO YELL AT YOU, lol;
also tell her that you would like to see a copy of the receipt (she can scan it and email it to you as an attachment);
recommend to her that she should contact the place she purchased the money order from and file a claim cause she should;
Than wait 48 hours and if she hasn't notified or sent you a copy request NFB from eBay and state to them what has happened and if possible 'cut and paste' her emails to you. If you have to send it to safeharbor the emails than do so, let them aware that she threaten a negative;
also info this bidder that she can do what she feels she has to with eBay but that you have already sent them email asking them to intercede in this matter (she won't know for sure weather you did or not);
BET YOU she makes things right real quick like.
BEEN THERE done that a couple times with 'bitches and bastards' from hell. They changed there tune real quick like.
Thing is to make them think you beat them to the punch with eBay. Works everytime.
posted on September 4, 2000 05:34:00 PM
I absolutely swear that I have the same buyer! The e-mail is almost identical. Same thing-under 10.00 item. Go figure. I have a Dutch auction for 3 items and I get 2 NPBs! I already filled a NPB alert with eBay because Ms A never bothered to answer my EOA. Got partial fees back. Well, Ms B keeps telling me she sent 2 money orders and this is a period of over 6 weeks but won't show any proof. eBay won't send her a reminder because they only allow one filing.
I really think we have the same person here or my buyer (excuse the expression) has a twin.
posted on September 4, 2000 06:38:20 PM
I worked for Chief Auto Parts for a few years....some years ago. The buyers seemed always to be angy. Understandable (cars were broke down) but there was at least one a week that acted like raving maniacs.
Once I told a guy who was threatening to come over the counter, that I'd knock him off his #ss with a shock absorber if he did.
The angriest customers, like the one above, were the ones that were wrong. They gave incorrect info on the vehicle and therefore got the wrong part.
posted on September 4, 2000 06:52:01 PM
OK -here's my rough draft to Miss Screamer. I haven't sent it yet. I picked up some words and phrases from you all. You have been really helpful!
A side note for clarification: I have already filed the reminder to pay your seller form and I can file for FVF in about 10 hours (It has been almost 10 days).
I've just never had a customer act like this. Oh and yes she is on AOL. How did you guess?!? LOL I've had some buyers' payments "get lost" in the mail and they have always been cooperative with me.
My technical advisor (hubby) will be home from out of town shortly and he can help me clean up the email if I need to.
Hello -
Please show me the receipt for the MO, but I have not received it or cashed it.
I would like to see a scanned copy of the receipt sent via email as an attachment.
You may have to go to the issuer of the MO and apply for a refund and they'll eventually confirm it hasn't been cashed with my endorsement. Please understand that it isn't businesslike for me to send the XXXXXXX to you without having been paid nor is it businesslike for me to "steal" $7 with the chance of ruining my reputation as a seller.
I have already sent an email to eBay asking them to intercede in this matter.
I stand by my feedback and reputation as a seller with over 2000+ completed transactions on eBay. It is your responsibility to make sure payment is received by me, just as it is my responsibility to get your XXXXXXXX to you when I have been paid. If it is your prerogative to fail to get payment to me by Saturday, September 16, six weeks after the end of auction, I will notify eBay of your failure to pay.
posted on September 4, 2000 08:30:39 PM
>>First, I look at the email and see if it's one from AOL. For many, many years AOL users have seemed fond of typing in all caps and they often are unaware of what it looks like to other net users.<<
posted on September 4, 2000 08:59:22 PM
I had a similar case on Yahoo whom I had repeatedly asked him to email me his address.
I do not send any packages out without an emailed address as confirmation unless I already have it on file.
Well he told me to stop spamming him in the same rude manner as here. I quoted his little spat verbatim in my negative feedback.
I'd report this guy to safeharbor for feedback extortion--he wants a free item and that's definitely against the rules.
posted on September 5, 2000 12:06:06 AM
I've already forwarded that email to safeharbor. I haven't heard any thing yet. I'm real cautious to email her back until I hear what eBay has to say about this one. I'm sure I'll set her off and get an immediate negative from her. UGH!
posted on September 5, 2000 06:52:14 AM
IMO you don't need customers like that. Any neg they leave you will likely be hysterical too and others will see it for what it is.
When I was in high school and college I worked at various dry cleaning establishments. The last one I worked at before having my first child was in the most affluent part of town and I was shocked to learn that THOSE customers were the RUDEST, most foul-mouth and arrogant people I'd ever met in my life. One woman in particular would have a cow over every item when she picked it up, and she dropped off about 30 items every 2 weeks or so. She was never happy, and would scream and cuss at us (the clerks), who had nothing to do with the cleaning in the first place. The dry cleaner is not a miracle worker, and if you eat like a slob and garden in your silk dress there's only so much the cleaner can do, ya know?
Well, after one incident where this woman was reducing a new girl to tears, my boss (the owner) had had enough. He came out and calmly told this woman that he didn't need her business badly enough to allower her to verbally abuse and intimidate his VALUABLE and HARD WORKING employees, and that he'd appreciate it if she'd take her foul attitude (and business) elsewhere! I will always have a huge amount of respect for that man, for telling her where to go! How many bosses would do that? For him it *wasn't* all about the bottom line, and I can honestly say he's the only "good boss" I ever had. His business is thriving to this day, btw.
Moral is, people like this only hurt your business in the end, making you irritable and possibly unjustly impatient with others in the future, giving you headaches and grief... ugh. Wait a bit more if you feel you should. Then, nuke 'em. Calmly and politely. Stay off of their level. There are plenty of rational, sane folks out there who will want to buy your stuff.
Sheri
[email protected]
[ edited by BlackCoffeeBlues on Sep 5, 2000 06:53 AM ]
posted on September 5, 2000 08:29:21 AM
I have only been screamed at a few times in all the years I have done business. Each time the customer was very wrong. I think the reason they scream is to block out the voice in their head that is telling them that they are wrong, wrong, wrong as they refuse to listen to that voice. I always look them directly in the eyes and I speak in a very quiet calm voice as I explain the situation and they usually quiet down. Maybe try writing them back in the smallest font available?
posted on September 5, 2000 08:58:15 AM
Rarely, if ever, can you deal with these people in a civil manner. They are openly aggressive and argumentative;unteachable and so forth. If they aren't desperately in need of meds, they certainly could use a liberal application of a Size 12 attitude adjustment tool--both of which are hard to administer via the Internet.
posted on September 5, 2000 09:32:17 AM
to that i say, 'amen.' we have a neighbor whose small children came into our yard and took some of my children's playthings. when my son (11) went over and asked for his ball back, she made him identify the last name and phone number he had written on it. he barely got it back when he saw his sister's volleyball. he didn't have the nerve to ask for it, so i went over. she yelled at me, called me names, and was obviously in need of SOMEthing--meds or a lobotomy! it is my experience as well that those who holler and make complete fools of themselves know they are wrong. the saddest thing of this is, those kids will learn from their mother's example.
posted on September 5, 2000 10:03:51 AM
I had a problem like this, payment never arrived despite initial contact with the customer (also an AOL customer whose e-mail address was in alternating lower and upper case, not that this should be a major concern). After a few weeks, I did the NPB Alert, he wrote back with an "I don't give a poop" attitude, something like "Oh well, that will teach me to send to Canada." When payment was not received after 10 days, I did the FVF routine, which prompted him to send me an e-mail full of obscenities. I still haven't given this guy the negative he so richly deserves, he has a few already, and I was quite disappointed that my FVF didn't get him kicked off. His history suggests that if he is negged, he will give revenge feedbacks, but I have a very nice reply all ready for him (not to mention a very nice negative).
And yes I feel she is yanking my chain.
uh huh. that's what i thought!