posted on September 25, 2000 08:41:36 PM new
Ok letting out steam here. Buyers buys a few books from me last month. I mailed the order but it went missing. Hey never even questioned the buyer & promptly ordered & mail out 2nd package last week.
Got confirmation that order was received today & also a freaking e-mail from buyer friggin me for slow delivery, actually when I reread her mail she is saying she has not received it yet even tho tracking says yes. I mean, I've already apologized like 20 times to this arghhh...don't want to say it. What is she trying to do, scam me?.
I am not even mad at the PO because when you deliver in quantites, you must expect a certain % of missing packages & so far they have been very low. I really have a lot of time to reply to all this mental cases (sarcasm). And even when you do, they don't friggin appreciate it. My assistants are all leaving this thankless job because of this 1 or 2 pric***.
You guys got any horror buyers. Not talking about the deadbeats but the ones trying to scam you or just plain trying to be a pain just for the sake of being a pain.
posted on September 25, 2000 10:22:22 PM new
I had one buyer who asked me to mail to his office address, the package was returned to me with a "We do not accept personal mail for employees" notice. He refused to give me a different address & insisted I resend to the company. Then he wanted to argue about who should pay the new shipping charge. DUH! They accepted it the 2nd time (I guess. It's been 6 months and I never heard from him again.)
I used to visit the eBay outlook board and recall plenty of stories about buyers falsely claiming items never arrive. Luckily it's never happened to me. In hundreds of shipments only 1 person ever said their item didn't come. I asked them to wait a few more days and they emailed the next day saying it finally showed. (Inexplicably took 9 days to go a few states).
I know fellow sellers who get insurance or DC or both on every single package (regardless of value). They claim it's the only way to protect yourself from scammers. I have never used DC and only get ins. for items over $25. I've saved a lot of fees and never had a single problem.
I wouldn't really say I've had horror buyers, just the deadbeats with the usual excuses "I've been in the hospital, relative died, lost my job" etc. I don't understand why they can't just email quickly saying "I changed my mind-relist" instead of letting us wait around for weeks then giving such stories after final notice.
As far as scammers, I have been alerted to a guy with several user ID's sending phony Paypal "you've got cash" emails. He actually thinks sellers are stupid enough to ship without checking their Paypal account first. I hope no one falls for that.
posted on September 26, 2000 04:55:47 AM new
I had buyer once who said they were displeased with the item. They stated all sorts of things that were supposed to be wrong with it. All of which I knew were NOT true. So I calmly and politely asked her to return it to me and I would send her a refund. At which time she began telling me that "is not the way it works" I was supposed to send her "all her money back" and then she would return the item.
Well, this went on for a couple of days. I told her that if she would return it I would issue her a refund at that time, but it would have to be returned first. Then she got nasty. Told me I didn't know how to run an auction and that I must not know the rules, and she was going to neg me if I didn't send her the money back NOW!
Well, since I knew the item had nothing wrong with it. And since she was getting more and more nasty by the day. I figured that I would never see the item returned. Sure enough then she emails and says she only adds "Store Bought" items to her collection (I make woodcrafts) and she wanted her money back NOW!
Now, since I "knew" that she "knew" that this item was made by me, and that she had bid on it in several different auctions before she won one, that something was just not right about her attitude.
Well, in the end I, still politely, asked her to send the item back and I would refund the money.
Can you guess what she did?? Yeah, that's right, she negged me. Never sent the item back. I gave up. I tryed but there are some people who just can't be worked with.
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."---Mark Twain
posted on September 26, 2000 06:49:19 AM new
this is when I first started out...
had one buyer that is a scammer
she claims she sent payment online (at that time, I wasn't accepting any).
I told her that it must be check or MO. but noooooo... she says it must be online payment!
to cut the story short.. she got the @#%$ package! and told her by e-mail to NEVER to bid on my items again!
posted on September 26, 2000 08:06:03 AM new
You know what this reminds me of, back when I was working in Boston Market earning some moolah for college. There was a lady that order like a whole roasted chicken through the drive through window.
She came back like 5-10 mins later through the drive through claiming that the chicken was all messed up & that she wanted another one. Ok supervisor said, lets keep our customers happy. So she comes up to the window, she gave back her bag of chicken claiming its all torn etc. & we gave her a new bag. She then quickly drove of & when we opened the bag she gave back, it was all bones. She & her 3 kids had eaten the whole chicken & scammed us for another one.
She was driving a decent mini-van too. What kind of people exists out there for pete's sake. What kind of example is she teaching her kids.
Recently someone posted in eBay Outlook that there is a buyer out there who would buy children clothing, use & then return. And people buy, use & return stuff all the time to the super stores. Its not defective, they just want to get things for free. U know its unfreakin believable what kind of deadbeats & scammers we have out there.
posted on September 26, 2000 08:50:42 AM new
jwoodcrafts--Do you do "special orders"? I'm trying to find someone to make me a small wooden sign for my nephew that just became a dentist. I wanted to have his motto put on it. Drill em, Fill em, Bill em. [email protected]
posted on September 26, 2000 11:59:42 AM new
I had a buyer order 300 uncleaned Roman coins from a dutch sale I ran. From his beligerent e-mail at the end of the auction I could tell he would be a difficult customer, so I upgraded 100 of his coins to a better grade uncleaned coin without saying anything about it to him. After receiving the coins he e-mails me that he is not at all happy with the quality of the coins and wanted his money back. I told him no problem, just send the coins back and I would refund his money. When I received the coins I could see that at least 80 to 100 of the coins had been replaced by low quality culls (worthless coins). I politely e-mailed him back that perhaps he had gotten the coins mixed up with some other coins he had as these were not all coins that I had sent him and my return policy states that all coins sent must be returned for a refund. Once again he sent a beligerent e-mail threatening me if I didn't send him back his money. I checked with my lawyers (wife is office manager for a legal firm ) and told him that onless he returned the rest of my coins I would be forced to return the coins to him that he had sent to me. He checked with his lawyer, offered me some better quality coins to go with what he had sent, I replied that that would not do, to send the remainder of the coins that I had sent him with in 7 days or I would have to send his money back. He finally relented and accepted his money back. He even at one point had the nerve to tell me that he had bought coins from the dealers in the country in which these coins originated and knew what type of condition to "expect". I asked him "if he could buy the coins from the source why on earth he would order 300 from me?".
The scam has probably worked for him before and will again I am sure, but I refuse to be scammed out of a couple of hundred dollars.
posted on September 27, 2000 05:26:04 AM new
I can tell which buyers will be trouble from their first email to me. I read it and get that sinking feeling in my stomach, then wish I could cancel the whole transaction right then and there.
One buyer lived in my state but refused to pay sales tax (said she'd sold on ebay and Yahoo for 2 years and never HEARD of sales tax), then asked for cheap book rate shipping when I'D QUOTED her book rate shipping (what does she think $2.50 will get her?????). In every email I offered to release her from her bid (all of $8.99), but she HOUNDED me for two days and a dozen emails before she finally backed out of it. Then she informed me she'd give me feedback because I wouldn't sell to her (not with free shipping and free sales tax I wouldn't, by golly). I told her I hadn't planned to give her ANY feedback, which I didn't. She left me a long, whiney neutral that said I charged "hidden" sales tax, I refused to ship at book rate, and refused to sell to her.
Then there's the one from Brooklyn who screamed the second she found out she wasn't getting priority mail for her $2.75 (can't people READ when you write them the terms???). ENDLESS emails and negative feedback accusing me of GOUGING her, selling STOLEN GOODS (yeah, right, I steal books???), selling DAMAGED goods (suddenly it's damaged?), then declined to return it for the full refund including shipping I offered her, because I'm DISHONEST, SHADY, MALICIOUS, and my promises don't mean SQUAT.
My family had a fabric store when I was a teenager, and my mother always gave the customers refunds, even when they returned FABRIC THAT HAD BEEN CUT INTO WITH SCISSORS (make a mistake? no problem, just return it to the store and say you found it "slashed" when you got it home). At the end of busy sale days we'd find EMPTY BOLTS hidden throughout the store, where people had slipped 30 yards of cloth off the bolt and STOLEN it.
In my antiques mall a couple years ago, a woman kicked a mirror leaning against a booth wall (which she cracked), then looked at the manager standing close by and said, "You're lucky I wasn't HURT." He didn't DARE ask her to pay for the mirror.
toomanycomics, you asked about the woman who ate the chicken with her kids and returned the bones for another chicken, "What kind of people exists out there for pete's sake. What kind of example is she teaching her kids." I'll tell you what she's teaching her kids---she's teaching them to STEAL.
It's too bad we can't throw these people on a remote island together. Talk about a SURVIVOR story....they'd all KILL each other within six months.
[ edited by granee on Sep 27, 2000 05:35 AM ]
posted on September 27, 2000 06:14:22 AM new
The problem is that we keep giving in to these losers. We accomodate their needs by giving in. They threaten us with bad feedbacks & we the seller try our best to please these jokers without getting our pockets shredded open.
To those who have run a brick & mortar business, I am sure you've met these people. Always waiting for an oppurtunity to sue. When I was in college I know a fellow student from Morocco who would buy or get stolen telephone card numbers so that he can call his friends (from a pay phone). He even offered to give me a few. When I asked him why was he doing this, he told me it doesn't hurt the individual but all those big rich corporations. This guy was going for his MS.
Sometimes we have to be tough & tell this scammers to take hike. Once they know its profitable, they will do it to every other seller (not that they won't anyway).
posted on September 27, 2000 06:17:37 AM new
I also want to add, I am sure very glad I don't sell glass, antiques or anything that cracks. To those who do dabble with selling fragile products where a hairline crack does matter, you guys are brave souls indeed. Have you ever been scammed by a switcheronny?.
posted on September 27, 2000 07:13:14 AM new
Just to present another side:
I had a customer who typed in all caps with lots of mispellings. I thought it was a kid. He ordered a monitor and five days later sent me an angry note "Where is my monitor? Do I have to contact the FBI and Fraud investigation?"
I sent him a polite response that it has only been five days since the auction, three days since he paid me and he should really start off with a polite letter rather than threats. I also added the tracking number and the fact that it was scheduled to be delivered that day.
He apologized and said that he had just been ripped off by someone else and thought it was happening again. He also mentioned that he had an eye problem and found it difficult to read his screen, which was why he ordered a 19 inch monitor and typed in caps.
That was a year ago. Since then he has ordered dozens of items for himself and his family, given my name to friends, etc.
posted on September 27, 2000 09:33:00 AM new
I recently had one that made me hold my breath. I received a nicely worded, but intense note that the book was received damaged and that it was a Book Club Edition which devalued it and they went on to educate me about ensuring that I listed things like that and said that they felt they could only leave a neutral at the very BEST because of this. I could tell the poor people had been scammed before and were sorely disappointed and were trying their best (probably biting their tongue nearly off!) to let me know they were disappointed without coming out and saying I was a liar, a cheat and scammed them.
I looked at my ad because I ALWAYS try to let people know if it is a book club or a 1st edition or just a book and with all but the book club editions, I include a scan of the title page. I am NO expert on the subject, so I try to give enough info to the buyer so that they can determine if it is worth a bid.
My ad did say Book Club Edition, so I copied the exact phrase from the ad and sent a URL so that they could check it out again and I also offered to send a prepaid padded envelope that they could slip the book into it and just mail it back and when I received it I would refund the money for the item plus the original shipping.
The people sent a WONDERFUL note back apologizing for their error in not seeing Book Club on the original ad, gave me some good advice on shipping hardback books and left me a STELLAR feedback! It was very nice of them to write to me BEFORE leaving a bad feedback and I told them that I truly appreciated the courtesy.
I hope to be able to do business with them again because they turned out to be such nice people.
posted on October 2, 2000 09:51:57 PM new
IMHO,Delivery conformation is the greatest idea of the U.S>Postal service since the introduction of Express and priority mail.
For a mere 35ç (60ç for Book rate) you get peace of mind and it wards off thoses who want to scam you.
I'm fortuanity my problems have been with 2-3 deadbeats and no one with delivery,or damaged goods. Dealing wiht oop videos and 16mm/8mm film prints,you got to wach out as there are becoming harder to find,even on line. A lost or 'stolen' print is hard to replace.
It's worth it-even if you have to 'swallow' the cost from your proifts-think of it as the 'cst of customer service.' Doing Delvery confromation also shows you are enough to make sure it gets to the buyer.
posted on October 2, 2000 11:02:01 PM new
stevevideo,
Delivery confirmation requires standing in long lines at the Post Office to mail packages, something I refuse to do anymore. And it doesn't reimburse you or the buyer if the package is damaged or "lost", even with tracking.
The money would be better spent INSURING the package for 40 cents with U-Pic and using your own metered postage labels from SimplyPostage. Then you can SKIP the lines and just drop your packages off (or leave them for your route carrier to take, if you're one of the lucky few).
posted on October 3, 2000 09:58:04 PM new
I'm happy with Delivery Conformation service,and don't mind taking the time to go to the post office and send it this way.
I'm not conserned with damage as much as I am with non-delivering,or the claim it did not. in 17 years of selling mail order of comics-movie collectables,I've only had 5 or 6 damaged packages,but atleast 20 lost.
Well,everyone has their own way of sending packages-what works for them. This works for me,but not for others,and visa-versa.
posted on October 4, 2000 07:09:20 AM new
I've enjoyed reading this thread and just wanted to post a little humor in response to a few...
It's too bad we can't throw these people on a remote island together. Talk about a SURVIVOR story....they'd all KILL each other within six months........
Did you know that is exactly what England did with their troubled people, the bad ones they couldn't make follow the rules.....they sent them to North America.
also want to add, I am sure very glad I don't sell glass, antiques or anything that cracks. To those who do dabble with selling fragile products where a hairline crack does matter, you guys are brave souls indeed. Have you ever been scammed by a switcheronny?.
I sell china and have found the best way to avoid a switch - I initial all my china with a water soluable felt pen....if they want to return the item, it must have the initial intact and not smudged..... and no one can copy your own initials. Ever since I started this initial...no one every complains.
posted on October 4, 2000 08:47:04 AM newpioneerDid you know that is exactly what England did with their troubled people, the bad ones they couldn't make follow the rules.....they sent them to North America.
posted on October 5, 2000 03:58:53 AM new
If you state terms and shipping in your auctions description it should eliminate any problems with unreasonable bidders or scammers. Regardless of value, postal insurance is optional in all of my auctions descriptions. "Buyer accepts risk for uninsured items lost in the mail". It's true that the buyer can decline to pay for insurance and still leave negative feedback if you don't replace the item. It's also true that a reneging non-payer can claim he mailed the payment and leave negative feedback because you didn't ship his product. There are flakes out there than can make up false claims and leave negative feedback no matter what you do. If specific terms are stated in your descriptions, none of these a$%#@! can jerk you around unless you let them.
) and told him that onless he returned the rest of my coins I would be forced to return the coins to him that he had sent to me. He checked with his lawyer, offered me some better quality coins to go with what he had sent, I replied that that would not do, to send the remainder of the coins that I had sent him with in 7 days or I would have to send his money back. He finally relented and accepted his money back. He even at one point had the nerve to tell me that he had bought coins from the dealers in the country in which these coins originated and knew what type of condition to "expect". I asked him "if he could buy the coins from the source why on earth he would order 300 from me?".
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