posted on December 3, 2000 12:06:33 PM
We all know how tempting it is to send a rude email when you know you won't have to deal with the other person face to face. Well, I pride myself on staying polite and professional, but this time I lost it.
There is currently a "rare" CD up for auction. The auction title gives the artist and the first few words of the CD title (it indicates that it is a soundtrack, but not which one). There is NO description, just the seller's big a$$ TOS and a pic that won't come up. I email the seller, tell them the pic won't come up, and ask the title. Response: "I'll fix the pic". Two days later, still no pic (Netscape or IExplorer), and I email again, providing auction # etc., "Can you please tell me the full title of this CD". Response: "Please see image".
So I lost it.
This is the third email I sent:
IF THERE WAS AN IMAGE, I WOULDN'T HAVE TO ASK YOU THIS, WOULD I???
This is the third email I have sent you trying to find out the answer to
a simple question. If you are too busy or too stupid to provide basic
customer service, I suppose it is for the best, as I wouldn't want to
buy from you anyway!
I am just SOOOO tired of powersellers who think quantity is more important than quality. I can't tell you how many auctions I have seen end without bids that I would have been willing to bid on if there had been a decent description (or even a response to my question).
posted on December 3, 2000 12:28:00 PM
Well, I wasn't in the best of moods last week and I sent my first ever curt e-mail to a winning bidder.
In response to my usual end-of-auction e-mail the winner had the nerve to reply that he was going to pick the $9.95 item personally when he came into the city and to please give him my phone number so we could meet "somewhere" on a Saturday or Sunday. This was to save him the $2.50 shipping charge which was stated in my auction.
posted on December 3, 2000 12:34:09 PM
Irene, I had the same problem recently....a winner emailed that he lives in my city and wanted my address to pick up the item or if I didn't want to do that, then "let's arrange to meet somewhere". I emailed back and told him politely that i had no intention of making such arrangements, that my time is limited, and that my business is, by design, mail-order only. Do people think that everyone lives to fulfill their special needs and/or desires? The item in question cost a total of 1.50 in postage!!
posted on December 3, 2000 10:39:16 PM
I can see both sides of that one. I don't think that their requests were reasonable in light of the fact that the postage was so low. But recently I bought a box lot of vintage Barbie dolls with clothes and shoes, a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff. The seller lived close to me and I asked if she would let me come pick them up because I didn't want the dolls to be damaged in shipping. She refused, promising to package them carefully. Well, her idea of carefully was to stick each doll in some bubble wrap- which might have been OK if she had taken their shoes OFF of their feet & put them in a baggie before doing so. When the package arrived all the doll shoes were in various places all over the box- 2 were missing completely and 3 were split. Whether they were split in shipping or misrepresented to start with is not clear to me, but I was really mad. The shoes would have been the best part of the lot. I thought about egging her house in fact, but I didn't- I'm not actually the vengeful type- and I got over it.
Do you guys list your items regionally? That was how I found that particular seller in the first place- by searching Ebay L.A. It never occured to me that someone with their items listed regionally wouldn't allow me to come pick up my stuff. You probably shouldn't list regionally if you won't let someone pick their items up. Just a thought.
posted on December 3, 2000 10:58:54 PM
I had to send an "annoyed" email to a buyer today. I had quite a few auctions close last night. Today I sat down at the computer and brought up the email to see one from a buyer with a note that he wanted to pay by Billpoint. Since I hadn't got any EOA notices out yet I began with those. I use automated software so the job is painless and quick. That way everything would be "legal" as everyone got their notification and very quickly I might add.
The next step was to email that buyer to tell him I would be issuing his Billpoint invoice right then. Mind you, about 15 minutes had passed since I had read his email and sent out all of the EOAs. I go to write that email and there's already one waiting from the same person saying... I already told you I want to pay with Billpoint. I send a nice email to him explaining that I am following ebay protocol by contacting him at the end of the auction. I then told him that his Billpoint invoice would be along momentarily.
I go through the process of writing up the Billpoint invoice and figure all is well. Two hours later this person pays with PayPal. At this point I'm a bit annoyed. I ask the bidder if he received the Billpoint invoice as one was sent two hours prior and I see he has paid now with PayPal. No answer yet, about 10 hours later.
[ edited by avaloncourt on Dec 3, 2000 11:01 PM ]
posted on December 3, 2000 11:04:34 PM
CAgrrl: No I don't list regionally. I don't think my buyer had any right to expect me to personally deliver an item to him. I was very tempted to reply that I would do it for a charge of $50/hour for my time plus the cost of gas.
posted on December 3, 2000 11:18:19 PMIrene ..... A "curt e-mail", from you?
Tisk-tisk.
You'll get a kick out this, maybe? I get local yocals asking me all the time if they can pick up their item, only once have I allowed it. Long story, but he was a safe bet with BIG $$$.
Most times I tell them I'll either deliver it to them [if they live close enough], or I'll meet them at the local coffee shop.
A couple months back a high bidder from Edmonton was all excited over her $20 figurine that she just HAD to drive down from Edmonton & pick it up. [within an hour of the auction end] She had sent me several email telling me all about her collection, and herself. Sounded fairly young & sassy so I fugured what the hey, and told her to phone me when she got into town.
Before I left the house I told my wife to call me on my cell phone in 10 minutes, just in case she was a whack job, or was looking for a date. [her email were kinda kinky/strange sounding] Wife laughs & says sure, 10 minutes it is.
When I got to the coffee shop much to my surprise/horror, the she, was a he, that apperared to be half way between the conversion.
A couple bars of LOLA ran through my head & we did the swap [from the side of my car] & I was back home 5 minutes before my wife was to phone me.
posted on December 4, 2000 01:32:35 AM
Yea those local "let's meet" requests really bother me. They want to save a couple bucks at my expense. Free local delivery, I think not! Ok, "I'll come to your house." Uh, no. It's bad enough waiting around for the plumber.
posted on December 4, 2000 01:43:55 AM
I've done a couple of local pick ups myself. I always asked first and if they'd said no, it would've been no problem. One said sure, come on over. I was like, are you sure? Don't you want to meet somewhere? But she was cool with it. I'm just glad my husband (I took him with me both times, for my safety) are good people for her sake! The other one met me at the post office. She got to deliver all her packages in one shot
posted on December 4, 2000 04:31:32 AM
I read this and thought how glad I was that I didnt come across this problem before. Even though I have had bidders who live close, they never asked. THEN, and I am not making this up, last night I got an e-mail from a bidder who just outbid someone on an auction of mine. She wrote asking where I lived as if she won, she wanted to meet so she didn't have to pay the shipping cost ($2.00). I wrote that I don't have time or do "meeting" deals which is true. That it would be a long drive to meet at a few locations she mentioned (much more gas money for me)which is also true and that I hoped she understood. I even dropped the price of postage hoping it would help if that was the problem. She wrote back that it was no problem but never commented on the shipping.
My email wasn't angry but I hope it doesn't cause any problems that I said no.
posted on December 4, 2000 04:54:39 AM
I in no way mean to be morbid, but unless you are set up with a storefront, having people come to your house to pick up items is just asking for trouble. Most regular home-owner type insurance won't cover you if a buyer falls and breaks a hip on your steps. If sued, you could stand to lose everything. Many zoning regulations would also prohibit having "customers" come to your house.
There is also the issue of safety...Ohio had a horrible thing happen with a young couple selling a jeep this past summer. A young pregnant woman was to meet a prospective buyer for the jeep...and she disappeared. They eventually found the baby unharmed, but the young mother had been killed, the baby actually taken from her body. The woman responsible for the crime took her own life as the police stormed her house. This story made the national news...it is not an email scare story.
This was the second killing of someone selling a vehicle in our area of Ohio in less time than a year.
I would never allow someone to come to my home to pick up an eBay item. No way.
posted on December 4, 2000 05:31:24 AM
LOL! THANKS!
I am glad to know I am not the only one who occasionally feels like murdering a customer - actually, that is why I don't normally work at our shop - I don't like face to face selling - and if a face to face customer irritates me, or is acting like a total dodo bird, I don't have to say anything - you can read it in my face, which isn't good for face to face sales.
On line I can take time to cool off and try to handle the situation in a professional manor -
BLONDSENSE - I understand your frustration - and I don't blame you -
BLONDSENSE: There is also the other side of this coin, which happens to us all the time. I do LONG descriptions, and endlessly have buyers write and ask questions which were clearly answered in the description, and they taken the time to read it.
MAYBE NOW WITH FLORIDA IN MIND: When a buyer writes and asks a question about something obviously in one's ad, we can assume that perhaps they are from Palm Beach County Florida and can't read!
RE: REGIONAL SELLING - I have almost never in my 5 years of auction selling had anyone ask to pick up an item - reason of course is I live in a small, rural area, and seldom if ever have a "local" customer. I did sell a Victorian 1800's Buffet to a man who lived 600 miles away, a few years back, who we did agree to allow to come to the shop to pick up the buffet. He was a delight and in fact purchased the mate to the buffet when he picked up the original one he had won on eBay.
Living a long ways from any seriously large city probably keeps the "can I pick it up," requests to 0 for us. Of course we do have a shop so there is someone I can direct customers to "if" I ever had a local who wanted to pick up. IF I had customers wanting to come to my house the answer would be a resounding NO for many reasons.
I might agree to drop it by their house if it were convenient - or meet them some where, but I would not allow them to come to my house.
posted on December 4, 2000 06:56:33 AM
I don't have a problem with a buyer coming to my home to pick up their item. It has happened to me twice. I always like to have someone else there with me but I guess from reading your stories above, it's a good idea. The first person to pick up their item was a buyer who turned out to be a Federal District Attorney and when he got to the house to pick up his item, I told him I had other similiar items that might interest him and he ended up paying me almost double the original price for some similiar items. The second person to pick up his item at my house turned out to be a city cop. The only problem I had was explaning to my neighbors why a cop car was in my driveway.
posted on December 4, 2000 07:03:19 AM
I make a point of not being listed regionally in order to avoid this type of "pick it up" situations. But I've still gotten the request I mentioned plus a couple of more over the past year.
I resist these types of customer interactions not because I'm afraid---I have a male roommate and a big dog. I'm sure all three of the people who asked to pick up at my house were nice people. The reason is totally different. Unlike some people here, I am not gregarious and I don't like meeting new people. I particularly don't like having guests of any kind. I don't like making small talk with strangers even for 5 minutes, and even if they are sweet, nice people. Basically I'm a hermit and that's why I adore selling online. No pressure!!! When someone asks to pick up an item, they are doing something that causes me stress even though they have no idea they are doing it (probably because they are outgoing people who have no problem meeting new people and having conversations with strangers, which is fine, it's just NOT ME). I'm sympathetic to the desire to save large sums of money on shipping and avoid breakage of fragile items. However, my sympathies don't extend so far as to have bidders over to my house. Sorry, not going to go there. Other people should remember that not every merchant who does mail order WANTS to be in face to face sales.....and be willing to take "no" cheerfully.
posted on December 4, 2000 07:32:05 AM
Just a note to clarify Meya's post.
The woman that was kidnapped and murdered was killed by a NEIGHBOR and the perpetrator had staked her out and plotted the crime well before the "Jeep" ruse. It really was much more than a chance meeting with someone coming to your house to buy something you had for sale.
If you sell an item in the newspaper, or have a garage sale, you allow people to come to your home to view the items for sale. Everything you do carries SOME risk but I doubt that these contacts being discussed are any MORE dangerous.
You are more likely to meet a whacko at your place of employment, if you work out of the home, that is!
posted on December 4, 2000 08:17:13 AM
Twice in the last week we have had requests by winning bidders to pick up their goods. We live about 4 to 5 hrs away from each of them so they did choose the postal system after all.
Last week someone e-mailed me about one of our items that did not sell and he asked if I could bring it to his state and meet him so he could have a better look at it and maybe we could deal. It would be about a 6 hr. drive for me. I have always gone out of my way for our customers but I am not prepared to go this far.
Edited to add that I am smiling about the "LOLA" story. I once hired someone over the phone to come into work on a trial basis......nuff said.
