posted on December 18, 2000 05:08:58 PM
After spending the last week non stop packaging and mailing things to be sure my winning bidders get everything quickly AND spending hours researching shipping/tracking info on the dozens who email daily with paranoia of delivery trouble, I got an email tonight that set me off and I could not contain it.
Just returning from 2 hours in line at the post office, I get an email that reads:
" PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT I MADE ONE BID ,(OF $xx.xx ON THE xxx....I WILL
PURCHASE ONLY AT $8.00....PLUS 4 FOR SHIPPING....I TRUST THIS ISAN'T A SCAM
TO FOOL THE GENERAL PUBLIC....'CAUSE I'M NOT FOOLED....PLEASE ADVISE..."
Now, this was an item that had an opening bid of five dollars less than the buy it now price, but the customer used Buy It Now.
I was so personally offended by this email from a user with near 50 feedback that I almost broke keys responding. In the spirit of sharing, I thought some of you with similar customers recently might enjoy the reply I sent...
" The last thing I want to get after spending 12 hours today entering orders,
packaging, and waiting 2 hours in line at the post offices to mail our
valuable customers packages is someone saying we have a SCAM of some kind.
I am sorry but the tone of your email INSULTS me personally and I would love
dearly to know what on earth you are talking about..........
The auction notice you got by email and attached here is our standard end of
auction message, sent automatically at the scheduled END of every auction to
every customer. The email explains how much the auction ended for, our
payment options, and contact info.
When an auction was ended early, by the BIDDER as yours was with BUY IT NOW
option, the machine still sends this notice out at the time the original
auction WAS scheduled to end - before the BUY IT NOW bid ended the auction
early. If you already got this info directly on how to pay for the auction,
this is only a copy.
According to the auction page located at:
xxxx
You used the Ebay BUY IT NOW feature to end this auction EARLY. The BUY IT
NOW price was $ xx.xx and according to Ebay records, you bid
that amount and ended the auction early with a bid you entered on Dec-15-00
xx:xx. The BUY IT NOW price is $ xx.xx. The opening bid price was $
x.xx, but when buyers choose BUY IT NOW, the BUY IT NOW price is the amount
they pay when they end the auction early as you did here.
If you made a mistake by bidding using BUY IT NOW or don't understand how it
works fully, I suggest you visit Ebay's instruction page for that Ebay
feature. END IT NOW is a feature of Ebay and the info page is located at
http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/buyitnow-buyer.html
To clarify - you made a BUY IT NOW bid on the auction and ended it early.
Your BUY IT NOW bid price is $ xx.xx. Add to that amount the $ 4.00 we charge
for s/h ( Priority US Mail with Delivery Confirmation ) you have a total due
of $ xx.xx, which is the amount that is shown on the auction notice you are
questioning.
Now, what's the problem ? I don't see one here, and would greatly appreciate
your filling me in on why on earth you would email me and make accusations of
a scam here. As I said earlier, I work nonstop to be honest all the time and
am deeply upset by your email.."
What do you think - was it better than the string of obscenities I had been shouting since I got his email ?
posted on December 18, 2000 05:24:50 PM
You went a tee wee bit overboard on this one. If the user forwards your email to safeharbor they might see it different (who knows).
Anyway, this is the email I send out when I get bidders who won an auction and are trying to re-negotiate the deal.
"Your winning bid was $xx.xx plus shipping of $xx.xx which makes your total payment $XX.XX
Please send payment of $XX.XX ASAP, Thanks"
DONE
If they email me again, I send the exact same email.
Not only is this the proper way to handle it, but it will make then so mad you will have them bouncing up and down (instead of you bouncing up and down).
posted on December 18, 2000 05:52:37 PM
Agree with cix. I would add, "if you don't understand how 'buy it now' works, please view the help file at eBay."
posted on December 19, 2000 05:10:14 AM
What, exactly, does this bidder have to do with your "spending 12 hours today entering orders, packaging, and waiting 2 hours in line at the post offices to mail our
valuable customers packages"?
This bidder maybe OTT, but he's just Joe-on-the-Net; you, OTOH, have a business selling (however small), and should've acted more professionally than to claim being - what was it? deeply offended or insulted?
For all you know, bidder has been scammed before, and to him, YOUR email was the "last straw".
You should've responded as cix and twinsoft suggested. And if you're so irritated by the labors of your biz that you're not capable of writing a civil email to a confused and irate customer, maybe you should cut back.
posted on December 19, 2000 06:02:33 AM
Do I understand correctly that your software goes ahead and e-mails the bidder after the auction was completed and after they were contacted for the BIN with an extra unneeded e-mail at the normal auction time?
The buyer probably did not appreciate being billed twice if that is so.
I very seldom buy but I can appreciate that
people who bid a lot of auctions have as much trouble keeping track of them as soneone who sells a lot. Having false requests for payment could be very confusing and they might think it wqas a ploy to be paid twice.
You would surely be upset if Sears sent you a second billing for something and just said "Oh our software does that and we have no control over it."
Why don't you correct this software problem or at least stop using this software for BIN until you have a fix? I see this as something you could have prevented from happening. Surely you can stop that e-mail from going out when you see the BIN.
[ edited by gravid on Dec 19, 2000 06:07 AM ]
posted on December 19, 2000 09:29:33 AM
If you do not penalize idiots for being idiots you legitimize idiocy. When you legitimize idiocy, you get a proliferation of more idiots.
The rules of this society need to be changed:
1. The Customer IS NOT ALWAYS right!
2. If you do not read the rules, it is YOUR FAULT
3. The instruction/Information IS NOT for finding out what you did wrong.
posted on December 19, 2000 10:36:54 AM
People seem to be losing it.
We had a buyer that didn't pay for 2 months, payed by PayPal on Friday, did not send a shipping address and then demanded a refund on Monday when we emailed to ask for a shipping address (Threatening to dispute it with PayPal for non-delivery). We just refunded his money and left it at that..
