posted on November 3, 2008 08:34:18 AM new
I had a buyer offer me $100 less (off ebay) than my starting bid for an item. I politely said no - she bid and won for almost double my opening bid.
One way to ship the item is Greyhound and was the quoted shipping rate but I clearly stated no paypal if shipped by Greyhound(the listing started before paypal only). I even sent her an email clearing stating this prior to her bidding. Other shipping would have been $500 to $600 instead of $125.
Of course she paid with paypal including the Greyhound shipping rate so I refunded it and told her to send a money order if she wanted that rate. That's when the battle began.
I was ready to void the whole transaction so she agreed to send the money order.
Now I feel sure she will give me a negative and bad DSR's. I am considering sending her a note stating that anything other than positive FB left for me will be consider as retaliatory for not taking her offer to sell outside of ebay and will be report.
Dumb or not???
posted on November 3, 2008 08:49:11 AM new
Don't do it. Go take a long walk and get refocused on your next big listing.
You are in a deal with a bottom feeder but that does not necessarily mean that she is a nasty bottom feeder. Why send an email that could do nothing but create a bad situation when nothing has happened yet?
IF she should give you neg, that would be the time to communicate your concerns and remind the buyer that she had agreed to your conditions of sale. ebay now allows buyers the option of changing their feedback so if you should get a neg, educating your buyer as to why you had set your sales requirments as such could go a long way towards changing the buyer's perspective. But let me state again, why create the problem or worry about a potential prblem before you actually have one?
posted on November 3, 2008 08:49:14 AM new
Don't send the note.
sending that note might create more ill will than good. The buyer obviously wanted this item and is willing to pay the price. Let the DSR's fall where they may and enjoy the extra cash gained from this sale.
posted on November 3, 2008 09:07:30 AM new
"anything other than positive FB left for me will be consider as retaliatory for not taking her offer to sell outside of ebay and will be report"
There is no report for this. I suppose you could have reported her for trying to take the sale off eBay when she first made the suggestion but that ship has sailed.
Not to mention that such a message would only serve to make you seem angry and unbalanced.
posted on November 3, 2008 09:14:03 AM new
There isn't any talking you out of it, as you already seem to know you should talk yourself out of it just by the subject line.
Seriously, what I would do is email the buyer after you receive payment and thank her for working with you. I would explain to her the reason for not accepting Paypal and even point her to Paypal's fraud protection policies so that she understands that it isn't you, but rather the policies implemented by Paypal that you have to adhere to. Also, let her know that by shipping via Greyhound you are saving her hundreds of dollars, but b/c they do not offer signature tracking (I am guessing this is why you are not accepting Paypal for this transaction), that you are left in a difficult position and are grateful for her cooperation.
On a side note, I attempted to list a few domain names last night without Paypal as a payment option (Paypal doesn't offer protection on domain names), but ebay has set forth new rules requiring sellers to offer an online payment method (more or less forcing us to use Paypal). Ebay listed a small group of other payment processors excluding Escrow.com-which safely processes payments for domain names and is my preferred method outside of Money Orders/Cashier Checks.
In the info provided, eBay made it clear that it is a violation to misrepresent Payment methods, including offering Paypal, and then rescinding it when the bidder pays, or pursuading bidders to pay using certain methods over others.
Ebay has lost its direction, and instead of promoting the peer to peer network it was, ebay has become their own marketplace where they control everything without selling any product other than a listing service and payment processing through Paypal.
They should have worked in the direction of helping sellers instead of hindering them. In the end, ebay will lose sellers, lose money, and the shareholders will wonder why this happened. All they need to do is ask a seller, and they'll get an ear full.
[ edited by shagmidmod on Nov 3, 2008 09:16 AM ]
posted on November 3, 2008 09:29:00 AM new
I know it's tempting, but you'll regret it. I always avoid mentioning feedback now - you don't want to give her any ideas. Just bite your lip, be glad you closed the deal and kill her with kindness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Caroline
posted on November 3, 2008 09:32:08 AM new
Yeah I'm just venting I guess. I finally got my DSR's up to 4.9 5.0 5.0 & 5.0 and I hate to see them take a big fall right before Christmas.
I did explain everything to her (over and over as a matter of fact) and even called paypal for their help. Of course they said to ship it UPS or Fedex - not Greyhound.
LtRay I hope you are right that she may be a bottom feeder but not be a nasty bottom feeder.
In the future, I plan to have the buyer pay shipping directly to the shipper. It's not total protection but at least I won't be at risk of going in the hole for hundreds in shipping cost and the item.
Caroline