AHHH !!! I'm getting Christmas NEGATIVES !!!!!

[blackrocketgraphics]

If I hear one more friggin angry customer yelling at me because their purchase hasn't arrived yet I'm going to lose it. I've gotten at least 10 negatives this Christmas because my email screwed up and sent 40% of all payment notification emails from Paypal into my deleted folder only to be found a week later and Canada Post is slower than ... heck I don't know. My Grandfather could have gotten stuff there faster in his golf cart. What is everyone doing about negative feedback ... it's killing my business !!!!

[shoplineca]

I had been very up front with all my customers about delivery times before shipping. I approximated when they could expect receipt based on what I knew about the promissed delivery times, Christmas volumes and border delays.

I had about 5 that took an extra ordinary length of time and as soon as notified by the Buyer, I re-guestimated how long I thought it might be based on more recent information about postal delays.

I responded promptly and advised what I believed to be the problem and have not only avoided negs (so far) because of later than expected deliveries, but received positive FB for suggesting when they could expect delivery after learning of the reasons for the delays.

As far as CP is concerned, I have been extremely pleased with their service this Christmas however USPS or thier broker, is taking about a week to 10 days to clear items through customs with the exception of Express Post which on average is only about 2-days longer in reaching my US customers.

Our problem is that the US customers are accustomed to 1-3 day delivery with USPS and cant understand why Canada Post is taking 1 week to 10 days to get the mail to USPS when the problem is USPS is not equipped to clear the volume of mail it is receiving within 1-2 days from CP.

Malcolm

[knarfdotca]

2 neutrals this season, One last season. I love it when you get neutral or negative feedback with out any contact about the problem.

[jakeeangel]

I've avoided the problem altogether by driving to Buffalo to mail my items. (touch wood avoided, anyways) 🙂 I found a 24/7 post office right beside the Buffalo International Airport. Packages in the front door and out to the planes through the back door. Ya gotta love it! :^O

[jakeeangel]

OUCH! Poor you. Some folks sure have their knickers in a knot. 😞

[imagi.nation]

Blackrocket:

You rely on PayPal notification e-mails? If you are, that's a recipe for disaster. PayPal's e-mail servers are historically notorious for suddenly not sending out e-mails. I always log into PayPal and check that I haven't missed any payments. I use an auction management system that retrieves payments made through PayPal and it has been 100% error-free so far and I *still* go into PayPal to make sure nothing has been missed. If you give technology enough rope, it will hang you.

Cheers,
Ernie.

[auctiondropnship]

Ok first things first open a squaretrade account . You are only allowed 5 mutual withdraws per month. After that point you will need squaretrade to get them removed

If you do not already ...stop giving feedback whent hey pay


Next if you use Sellers Manager Pro, pull all your paid sales for the month of Dec. Anyone who has not given you feedback in Dec . Write Bulk letter to everyone who has not given you feedback , Telling them of the situation

Tell them if they have not gotten the item to email you and you will given them the tracking or info

Sellers Manager Pro will allow you too bulk email each customer a form letter at once


I have had this exact same thing happen before

Todd

[auctiondropnship]

Sorry the letter should be to those who have NOT given you feedback

[shoplineca]

Not because of late delivery but I am on the verge of getting a neg.

Guy does a BIN for one of my keyboards and pays on Sunday night. I email him right away and ship out on Monday and he gets it Tuesday morning.

I get a real nasty email calling the keyboard junk that he expected to get a Yamaha keyboard and I had better tell him how to return it to me and give him a 100% refund or he was going to report me to eBay (He also threw in that his wife would divorce him if he gave her the keyboard).

Thats like someone ordering a Cat when they wanted a Dog and holding the Cat breeder responsible for their stupidity.

Without going into details, I told him that I dont take kindly to his threats but was insulted by his remarks and demands given the service I provided. I invited him to report the matter to whomever he wished and that I would be more than happy to provide the parties with full disclosure of facts including his threatening and demeaning email.

Fortunately I have reserved giving FB until the Buyer leaves FB and he is 100% with a FB rating of 6 so I dare say his will hurt alot more than mine.

Malcolm

[shoplineca]

So far the bozo has sent me two apologies however I have not yet answered. One side of me wants to lay it on thick telling him where he doesnt know his a$$ from a hole in the ground and the other side of me says to ignore his emails.

If I answer, it could be a neg. If I dont answer, it could be a neg.

I guess I wont answer as I already did by telling him in my first email to proceed and file a complaint with whomever he wanted as I was not at fault.

Malcolm

[shooger]

the Buyer leaves FB and he is 100% with a FB rating of 6 so I dare say his will hurt alot more than mine

Actually, he's probably not a seller, so it won't hurt him in the slightest. Also, at 6, it's easy to just start over fresh at 100% and buy thirty $0.60 items to get thirty positive feedbacks. I doubt he cares what kind of feedback you leave. In fact, he's probably one of those people who don't even look at their feedback, or anyone elses' for that matter.

So far I've just got one neutral this month, about 400 positives. A few "where's my stuff!!!!!!111" emails, though.

[shoplineca]

Bozo sent in his 3rd email and now accepts that his attitude, clearly reflected in his first email, blew me away from responding to him or trying to work things out and he seems to have resigned himself to now owning something that he didnt want.

Stupid a$$hole as I am the type of person that had he come back with a nice email and said that he made a mistake and asked if there was anything we could do to take the item back for a full or partial refund, I probably would have worked with the guy.

Without even opening up the box, he recognized it wasnt the brand he wanted and went on a rampage of throwing insults and "threats of take it back or else". After geting home and opening the box, he realized that it wasnt a piece of junk although it wasnt what he wanted so he started changing his tune.

After he re-read his 1st email, he realized how he had gone ballistic with me for no fault other than his own and accepts that he blew all chances of me considering anything.

I am still holding off giving him any feedback and havent decided if I will email him any final words (likely not).

Blocked Bidder List? Darn Tootin he is on it.

Malcolm

[gloriaguides]

I've been avoiding them so far by sending out my "calming" email quickly [although not selling now, I check email regularly] which reminds my buyers about customs, says CP is slower than USPS and I guarantee them that they will get a 100% refund if the item doesn't arrive (CP has been excellent on the 2 claims I made this year!). Where there is tracking, I send them whatever I can get from the CP website. I also commisserate that if it doesn't arrive for Christmas it will be too bad, but suggest printing out the picture. It has kept the wolves at bay so far, but I'm worried when I will be away for a few days what will happen-they like that I respond quickly and don't "duck" them. I usually get a couple this time of year...just life in the big leagues! For such a joyous time of year, good will towards etc etc etc ....people sure are cranky! Merry Christmas....bah humbug! Gloria

[sparkklingjewels]

The Best advice is to go directly to Paypal for payment information and not Ever rely on e-mail.( As previously stated.)
Rule 2. If a customer goes ballistic presume that they have emotional problems and not take it personally. I found that by answering aggression with an affirming letter most people become disarmed. Christmas is an emotional time for a lot of people and we as sellers have to sometimes got on a "therapist" hat.
Rule 3. ( My achilles heel.) Put your ego on the back burner and presume/pretend that the customer is right even if you don't think so. I offer 100 % money back guarantee no questions asked .
E-Baying is more than selling. Every sale is an opportunity to make a difference in a stranger's life who we only encounter on cyberspace. Through kindness we augment their life and ours as well.
Have a wonderful Christmas !

[shoplineca]

Well Bozo leaves me a neg on Christmas Eve. My rating drops from 98.9% to 98.5%, his from 100% to 87.5%.

Get aload of his comment left: "delivered as advertised. BUYER BEWARE, I wasn't . Expensive Ebay shopping lesson"

I delivered exactly as I advertised but not what he was expecting. He expected me to deliver something that I wasnt advertising so I get a neg because he was stupid. He even used the word 'Stupid" when referring to himself in an email to me.

This morning I emailed him after leaving him his Chritsmas neg and said "Lesson Number One is that when you leave someone negative FB you are likely to get negative FB in return and yours will look alot worse and cause you problems where as what he left me will be burried in a couple of days amongst more positive FB.

I also said how ridiculous it is to neg a seller who ships exactly what he advertised and then warn other buyers that is what the seller has done so Buyer Beware. I then suggested that there is an eBay mechanism for mutual FB withdrwal.

I said I could accomodate him in starting the process or he could simply discover how much more difficult it will be to purchase on eBay with an 87.5% FB rating while wearing the comments that I left him.

End of my rant, not an unexpected neg, not warranted even in the words of the buyer who left it for me, but a lovely Christmas present never-the-less.

Malcolm

[shoplineca]

Bozo responds to my email and says that he prefers to let the negs remain as his neg clearly reflects how he felt the deal went (that I deliovered exactly what I listed and he didnt want what I listed).

He comes back and states he was ready to pay $600 for another brand on eBay but saw mine and bought it for $125 and was upset that it was not the same as the $600 one.

DUH, I could have told him that. The features are completely different as clearly indicated in the listings.

Well, it tool all of 5 minutes and I received my first positive of the day so his neg is starting to head towards the bottom og the page, one FB at a time.

It is too bad as I only needed one more positive to get to 90% positive FB and then it gets ruined by some bozo.

Oh well, his purchase has helped towards my geting my silver back or maybe better if I can keep my sales up in January as I will close this month with over $10,000 in sales.

Malcolm

[rlrdist]

Malcolm,

these things happen everyday. for every good buyer there are 10 dingbats out there.

using the auction medium will bring out the good and the bad.

i deliver on what is listed in a timely manner and as of yet have not received 1 neg, however there have been a few close calls but have been able o handle them.

neg's move down the list and disappear fairly quickly.

keep the faith and happy holidays.

[mapleleafcollectibles]

We've got two negatives this week - both from complete idiots.

It just doesn't matter anymore to us.

You cannot even reason with the type of person that leaves un-warranted negatives.

Thank goodness the MAJORITY of users on eBay are honest, trustworthy people. For every one negative comment we receive, we get 5000 positives....that's what keeps a seller from going crazy !!

[shoplineca]

I finally had to block my guy because he keeps emailing me. A real certified whacko.

Malcolm

[**niko***]

I did as jakeeangel and drove to Buffalo. Even so some of the Dec 21 Priority Mail didnt arrive on time but since they were all notified that their packages had been mailed, they were happy. (Actually I think jakeeangel stole the idea from me!;-))

Malcom, had a whacko recently and as soon as the nasty emails with a NYC accent started coming, I refunded her with the comment "I don't want your business, take your money back please." Felt REALLY good!!