I am a seller from Hungary, so you might think my question has risen due to some 'cultural differences'. At any rate, I find it strange that I have some buyers in the States who won't ever let me know whether they have got the piece or not. If they don't leave feedback - that's OK. But some won't even reply when I e-mail them wondering if the item has got there safe.
posted on September 30, 2000 10:24:18 AM
I am a seller in the US and have the same problem. I think people are just busy...certainly we hear from the ones who have an issue so I guess we just have to assume no news is good news.....
posted on September 30, 2000 11:43:45 AM
I don't think this is limited to US buyers. There are buyers from other countries who also do not let the seller know whether the item as arrived or not. There may be more US buyers who don't send a confirming email upon arrival simply because there are more US buyers. IMO it is not a cultural difference.
This has nothing to do with being busy or mere culture. It is just plain rude. If I email someone or someone emails me, it is simple enough to
Hit the reply key
Type "Yes I did;thanks very much!"
Hit the send button
How much effort is that? Yup...near zip! If it isn't rude it is another four-letter word: lazy.
I won't excuse my fellow American bidders from a lack of manners. If they already left feedback, you know, but otherwise they really should reply.
Sorry you get this; most of us older Americans have manners and reply. I suspect you might be dealing with younger ones who view courtesy as optional. Probably a lack of the board of education being applied to the seat of understanding when they were young.
posted on September 30, 2000 02:29:50 PM
It is common courtesy to let a seller know that an item has been received no matter where you live on this planet. Bad manners have no borders.
posted on September 30, 2000 03:03:50 PM
I dont know what the trouble with most buyers is lately but I have been selling on ebay for nearly 7 month now I have sold many things I still have 0 feed back and the only email I ever receive is if there is a problem.
when I frist started doing this on yahoo every buyer and seller would give feed back and email letting you know they received there item now the only time you here is if there is a problem of any type for the most part now I never receive feed back good or bad.
so if I hear nothing I assume things went well and all is good and I am concidering leaveing feed back after all sales are complete and if there is no reply or feed back from buyer they will simply get average or nutral feed back with a comment about payment and lack of fallow up comunication.
WWW.dman-n-company.com
posted on September 30, 2000 03:45:17 PM
I've been selling for almost 2 years now on eBay. I'd say that the number of bidders who actually EMAIL me to let me know they've received the item is about 1%. Never understood this. About 65% leave feedback though, which is how I finally know they got it.. but some leave it so long after the fact that in the interim I am wondering if they're unhappy or didn't get it or what.
I used to email them to ask if the item had reached them safely but no more.. I figure if it DOESN'T, then they'll let me know! As it is I'm sending the EOA, then a "your payment has been received" email to those who pay snail mail, then another "your item has been shipped" email with trackign number... I don't wish to add yet ANOTHER email to my list at this point.
I do wish that those purchasing especially fragile or expensive items would let me know something because I worry about those packages regardless of how well I pack or how much insurance was purchased. I also wish the International customers would drop a note since I worry about things going astray there too, and since it often takes so long ANYWAY to get somethign to them, it'd be nice if they'd just say "Hey, got it today, thanks"... but like others, I've had those who do NOT respond even when I ask. I agree, it is rude.
Has little to do with age, though. I'm fairly young (late 20's) and we were just raised better... and not by punishment and spankings and threats, either. My mom treated us with respect and used good manners and common courtesy in her dealings with us and others, and we learned by example.
posted on September 30, 2000 09:45:20 PM
Next time I buy a book from Amazon, I will be sure to write them and tell them that it arrived OK. Don't want to be rude.
posted on September 30, 2000 11:17:08 PM
I'm afraid I disagree with MBallai wholeheartedly here. It is much more complicated for a large seller like myself to simply hit the reply button and confirm receipt of payment or item. I run 320 auctions a day. Assuming I take 1 minute to look up each item's status and 1 minute to send a confirming email that's 720 minutes/day just telling people I got their money. Now take into account we sell 7 days but answer email over just 5 days and I've got over 900 minutes of time to spend each day just telling people we got their money and shipped their item. 900 minutes divided by 60/mins hour is 15 hours, or basically two full time employees per day that I would have to hire and train and pay, just to tell customers that we got their money and are sending their item.
For a smaller seller the numbers only get worse, not better. When I sit down to answer email I can answer 200-300 in a sitting. That's a lot of business in a relatively short amount of time. A person doing only a few auctions probably logs onto the internet to answer and send email about as often as I do, but sends/receives fewer messages and probably spends more time per-item doing so. He has not streamlined (ie, depersonalized) his responses to the degree that I have.
FYI, I am selling a commodity product and make only a little money on each one.
Big question: why is it that buyers expect BETTER PRICES as well as BETTER SERVICE from eBay sellers then they expect from other on-line dealers, or even their local malls? Question I hate the most: 'I don't bid on your CDs because they're almost the same price as in a store'. Many of our CDs are brand new and IDENTICAL to the price in stores: why SHOULD they be any less, and why SHOULD I provide better service and followup than other on-line dealers do?
posted on October 1, 2000 07:25:33 AM
mballai: "Probably a lack of the board of education being applied to the seat of understanding when they were young."
posted on October 1, 2000 07:42:50 AM
As far as FB goes, if you are not receiving it from your buyers you are doing something wrong. I always leave +FB for a buyer when I have received payment and have shipped the item. I don't wait for the buyer to leave FB for me, that's stupid. If he has done his job by paying promptly, part of my job is to leave +FB. And more often than not, my buyers return the favor.
posted on October 1, 2000 07:48:56 AM
Marie, what's the upside to buying a new cd from you if I can pay a little more for it in the store and exchange or return it if I decide I don't want it? Do you sell rare ones? I'm not trying to be difficult, I really want to know.
As far as buying online, I don't expect the same level of service from ebay sellers that I do from Amazon and Barnes&Noble. I know that from these two I can return an item just because I want to, they have 24 hr. customer service and if I have a problem, they correct it immediately. I don't have to worry about insurance with them, they guarantee I will receive it.
I don't expect this with ebay sellers, I know they won't be available 24 hrs a day with an 800#. I go to ebay to look for bargains and for rare items and I also don't expect to pay the same for shipping that I pay to Amazon because the level of service is different.
posted on October 1, 2000 07:55:50 AM
Now Vinnie, that statement is hardly fair. I leave positive feedback upon payment receipt, ship my items quickly and pack them well, describe them painstakingly and note ANY flaws, "dress up" clothing shipments with tissue paper and protective plastic, send a packing slip with profuse thanks for their business as well as an invitation to email me if there are ANY problems or concerns, send another email letting them know their package is on the way and giving them a tracking number for it. In other words, I fall all over myself for customer satisfaction, yet a good chunk of bidders do NOT leave return feedback.. even those who are repeat customers! So it's not fair to assume you're "doing something wrong" if FB isn't left in return. Some people just don't place much importance on it, and back when I was a buyer only, I didn't see quite the importance of it either once I hit 60 or so positives. I always left FB anyway but never would have understood what the "big deal" was until I became a seller. For a seller, IMO, FB is much more essential. People won't bid if the FB isn't there, but if you're just bidding, you generally don't have people cancelling your bid due to lack of higher FB numbers.
Sheri
[email protected]
[ edited by BlackCoffeeBlues on Oct 1, 2000 07:57 AM ]
posted on October 1, 2000 08:25:31 AM
To light the problem a little more why I started this topic, I wish to bring up the case of a buyer of mine who keeps bidding and winning my items, communicates with me until I ship the item and have left - of course - feedback for them. After that you'll never hear a word about that. Then he will buy again. Interesting, isn't it?
posted on October 1, 2000 09:42:04 AM
In over 500 purchases, I think I may have emailed the seller to inform him/her that the item arrived perhaps twice.
Rude? I don't email Amazon that I received their package either (except for that time when they were supposed to send me 1 of something but sent me 1 case, about $1,000 of merchandise more than I had ordered - then I wrote them AND called them).
On the other hand, I leave feedback the same day the item arrives.
posted on October 1, 2000 07:19:30 PM
Marie
I was referring to the bidder not the seller.
If someone asks me status, I will check for them. I use a database and it's no big deal. Mind you I may get an email at work and I will email them saying I will have to get back to them and then follow through. It's customer service.
Customer service is not an option regardless of volume IMHO.
I also work in a business in that does a billion dollars plus annually. We run it as if each customer were our only customer. Is there a correlation between the dollars and the service. That is a no-brainer.
posted on October 2, 2000 10:13:00 AM
i have hit on THE answer to getting my kids to write thank you notes: you don't wear it, play with it, read it, eat it, or spend it until you've written a thank you for it. of course, that would be a little hard to apply to ebay buyers!
posted on October 2, 2000 12:06:48 PM
Bandika: Maybe I've gotten to the point where my feedback number doesn't really matter any more, but I would personally choose a repeat bidder (and, more importantly, payer) than a feedback giver. If the buyer in your example bothers you that much, you could always request that they no longer bid on your items (you would need to cc a copy to safeharbor to make it official).
Jereth: Hey, another Marie on the board!
mballai: I am not sure what exactly you have against "younger" people, but I do notice that this is not the first time you have made a negitive statement about the "younger generation". Your statement was, " I suspect you might be dealing with younger ones who view courtesy as optional. Probably a lack of the board of education being applied to the seat of understanding when they were young." I would like to know how you are able to determine the age of someone online (unless they tell you), is this a program you have discovered or do you just assume that people who don't do exactly as you do (or how you wish they were done) are "younger" and therefore somehow a lesser person than yourself?
Also, could you please point out how beating a child makes them more polite?
uh huh. that's what i thought!