How to handle customers with difficult request

[vivivi333]

Recently, I have several customers with difficult request. I would like to hear expertise's suggestions.

First one. He bought only one digital chart from us and then ask us send totally 7 charts to him for free.

Second one, he bought digital charts (7charts) from us and then ask for refund since he could not open the digital charts on his computer.  We have already mentioned clearly no refund for digital files due to special products.

Third one, a customer left a negative feedback without any communications. He even did not ask for refund, just want to left negative feedback.

I am still new here and would like to hear some suggestions to handle customers professionally, both fair for customers and us. Thanks.

[mr.elmwood]

There is no such thing as "no returns"  or "no refunds". Paypal and eBay each say buyers can return for any reason.

#1. "No. You only purchased one. Purchase the others for delivery."

#2 "Return for refund"

#3 That is just tough luck. Nothing you can do. Buyers have no obligation to contact you first.

[vivivi333]

I saw several used item selled on ebay. It mentioned it was final sale with no refund.  Is it reasonable ?

Digital file is special products. We sent it and the customers got it for sure. They can not refund our products.

By the way, if we refund money to customers, How can we get our final value fee and paypal fee back. Last time, I think I directly refunded the money to customers and we were still charged the final value fee and paypal fee for the purchase.

[reallynicestamps]

Because Paypal will refund your customer's payment if you cannot prove delivery, it is useless to say that you do not give refunds.

Actually, it is worse than useless. Saying "no refunds" makes honest customers go away. They will not buy from you. But scammers know that they can get a refund from Paypal if you do not refund voluntarily.

You cannot prove delivery of digital products. If you do not refund voluntarily, Paypal will refund and come to you for payment.

If you do not refund voluntarily, you will have a black mark on your selling record.

If you do not refund voluntarily, your unhappy customer can leave negative feedback and trash you (much more important) Detailed Seller Ratings.

So.

Put all those bad customers on your Blocked Bidder List. It is on the Site Map under Manage Bidders.

Do not give in to bullies.

Be aware that you can have up to eight eBay accounts. While each needs its own email address, they can share a Paypal account.

When you refund through Paypal, you get your fees back. It takes one click on the original payment document.

Look at your Seller Preferences. Block bidders with Unpaid Item Strikes, policy violations and who do not have active Paypal accounts. These blocks will protect you from many common scams.

[reallynicestamps]

Most of your products are not digital.

Your digital products are very cheap.

Your digital products attract scammers.

Your best business practice? DO NOT SELL DIGITAL PRODUCTS.

[tobyshitzu · Accepted solution]

Neither ebay nor paypal say "Paypal and eBay each say buyers can return for any reason", though the one listing I looked at the op has voluntarily listed with 14 day returns in the return field.  Obviously it isnt' really possible to 'return" a digital item once deliveredi

While there are lots of digital items for sale on ebay, they stopped allowing them outside of the .com classified format (among other conditions) a few years back.  Paypal offers neither buyer nor seller protection for digitally delivered items.  In fact for ineligible items including digital they say to buyers:: "Even if your payment is not eligible for PayPal Purchase Protection, you can file a Dispute and try to resolve the issue directly with the Seller; however, PayPal will generally not find in your favor if you escalate a Dispute to a Claim for an item which is not eligible for PayPal Purchase Protection."

Granted that isnt what op asked about.  If they keep leaving negs you won't be selling here much longer, so you can be in the right but gone anyway.  I suppose the buyer see that they don't cost you anything to send so are trying to take advantage and get more without paying

[cumos55]

link to digital items policy

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/selling-digital-items.html

Digital items, delivery through email can only be listed in the Classified Ad format on eBay.com

Not on regular eBay 

From that link

You can advertise digital items on eBay as long as you follow all of these guidelines:

• You can use only the Classified Ad format from eBay.com

• You can only list your item in the Everything Else > Information Products category.

• You have to confirm your identity through the PayPal Verified process.

• You need to state in your listing that you're the legal owner of the information (sometimes called intellectual property) or that you've been authorized to sell it.

• Digital items can't have any sexually-oriented adult (pornographic) content.

• If you sell software, make sure it doesn't damage anyone's computer, doesn't violate the user's privacy (so no spyware or cookies), and can't be used for malicious purposes like sending spam emails or spreading a computer virus. For more details, see our guidelines on HTML and JavaScript.

[cumos55]

OP specifies shipping using Canada Post  and then says email delivery only  in the description....

read the policy about this......

[nuvistors]

---

@cumos55 wrote:

OP specifies shipping using Canada Post  and then says email delivery only  in the description....

read the policy about this......

---

That is  dishonest and unethical.

The OP should educate themselves about ebay policy before selling.

[vivivi333]

nuvistors wrote:

That is  dishonest and unethical.

The OP should educate themselves about ebay policy before selling.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Before you jump into a conclusion, you had better be careful to your words. That is ethical.

We are honest here to sell something and try to learn something to be fair both for the customers and us. Can you say that you know everything regarding ebay policy totally ?

We choose the choices closer to our situation from the selling format and clarify something in our description. That is our best way to be honest to the customers.

[vivivi333]

After selling for a while, I do find some bad customers although most of them are reasonable. Ebay should not allow the customers to leave negative feedback without any communications. Ebay should has a policy to block the scammer.

The seller has no choices to identify the scammer. Even I block some suspicious ID, there are still lots of them there.

We have a description clearly there. If you do not agree with it, do not buy it. That is it.

[vivivi333]

Good to know it.

One more question, how to get the final value fee and Paypal fee back if customer want a full refund. Last time, I think I directly refund to customers and we were still charged the final value fee and paypal fee for that purchase.

[rose-dee]

---

@vivivi333 wrote:

Good to know it.

One more question, how to get the final value fee and Paypal fee back if customer want a full refund. Last time, I think I directly refund to customers and we were still charged the final value fee and paypal fee for that purchase.

---

You should be able to get your fees back if you refund via Paypal, from the original transaction.  

I agree with the other posters here regarding digital files.  You must be very careful about how you list those, i.e. only in the Classified Ads on eBay and not as an eBay item.  There was a lot of abuse around digital files a few years ago on eBay, so eBay severely restricted how they could be sold.  Read the digital items policy carefully ('cumos' has the link in his message above). 

The fact that digital items have to be listed in Classified presents obvious problems in trying to market these goods anyway (which was probably eBay's intention), and all I can say is that it's far more trouble than it's worth.  I doubt most buyers would even know how to find those items -- Classified? -- where is that?  

My advice would be to drop the digital items before someone reports them and eBay removes the listing anyway (which will go against your seller record).  That risk, and the problems with false return claims, means these items will continue to get you into trouble, which is particularly bad if you're just starting to get established on eBay.  

You can put the digital files on a CD and sell the CD as a regular eBay item, but you must be careful about copyright restrictions, i.e. you must be authorized to copy the material, or you could find yourself in 'real world' legal trouble.  

[vivivi333]

Well. I think last time, I refunded the money via Paypal. They did not return my final value fee and partially refund my paypal fee, not totally. That is why I would like to know how to refund money and get our final value fee and paypal fee back at the same time. Is that mean we should open a  case to refund the money to customers ?

Our digital files are quite popular, especially for international buyer. My sale was just a little bit improved, and we can see something bad come with it at the same time. Just like toby**bleep**zu(1936) said,  "I suppose the buyer see that they don't cost you anything to send so are trying to take advantage and get more without paying".

I do know that is the reality world and personality for human beings. However, I would like to know the professional way to handle it.

[rose-dee]

You really should read the policy on digitally-delivered items before you list any more of them.  They must be listed in the "Classified" area of eBay, and nowhere else.  

All of us who have mentioned this are I'm sure just trying to help you avoid a really serious problem that could affect your ability to continue selling.  

[vivivi333]

Well. I have already finished reading. I got to collect a little bit more information to see which way is better for me to do.

[lady.stark]

---

@vivivi333 wrote:

Well. I think last time, I refunded the money via Paypal. They did not return my final value fee and partially refund my paypal fee, not totally. That is why I would like to know how to refund money and get our final value fee and paypal fee back at the same time. 

---

If you refund through PayPal from the original transaction, your fees will be refunded, except for the $0.30 base fee that is not refundable.

As for eBay, I think you have to ask the customer to cancel the transaction in order to get your fees back. You can also try to phone Customer Service, but be prepared to wait.

[pjcdn2005]

As mentioned by others, digital files are supposed to be listed under 'Everything Else' in the classified section

ebay's policy.....

We consider digitally delivered goods to be information or content that you can download from a website or receive by email.

You can list most digitally delivered goods on eBay as long as you follow these guidelines:

• You need to list your item only in the Everything Else > Information Products category using only the Classified Ad format.

• Your listing clearly states that you legally own the content (sometimes called intellectual property) or are authorized to sell it by the owner, the owner's authorized agent, or the law.

  More of the policy ....http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/downloadable.html
  

  However,  just for fun I did a search for digital file on ebay .com. Total results - 1829
  

  Listing under Everything Else - 4
  

  Perhaps ebay doesn't really care where they are listed.
  

[pjcdn2005]

---

---

@nuvistors wrote:

---

@cumos55 wrote:

OP specifies shipping using Canada Post  and then says email delivery only  in the description....

read the policy about this......

---

That is  dishonest and unethical.

The OP should educate themselves about ebay policy before selling.

---

Dishonest and unethical?

nu, since there is no digital delivery option under shipping options and since ebay requires a shipping option to be listed, what exactly should the OP put for a shipping option?

cumos, I'm sorry but which policy are you referring to?

@vivivi333 - your digital listings are confusing. You say no refunds but you have a 14 day return policy.

Those listings also state that the file is sent by email but later on you mention free worldwide shipping and give a time estimate in your template. You also mention in that template that you accept refunds. I'd suggest that your digital file listings have a different template than your 'physical' listings.

Also,  it's really not necessary to have your pics within the description as you already have them showing in the ebay gallery. For mobile users it is best to have pictures in the galley only. The less scrolling, the better. Actually, that statement is true whether you or looking at a listing on a cell or on a pc.

[rose-dee]

---

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

As mentioned by others, digital files are supposed to be listed under 'Everything Else' in the classified section 

• However,  just for fun I did a search for digital file on ebay .com. Total results - 1829
  

  Listing under Everything Else - 4
  

  Perhaps ebay doesn't really care where they are listed.
  

---

Hi 'pj' - yes, you're right.  There are plenty of illegally-listed digital files on eBay.  I know some of my indirect competitors still do.  I expect these are just ones that haven't yet been reported or noticed by eBay, but it's probably only a matter of time before they are removed and the sellers punished for it.  

Here's a little anecdote on this.  I was considering developing a line of digitally-delivered products and happened to ask one of the "Pinks" a question about it, referencing an item that was listed on eBay which was somewhat similar to the idea I had in mind.  The eBay rep. told me that that particular listing was absolutely not allowed on eBay, and I noticed the listing was taken down the next day.  Poor unsuspecting seller.  I didn't intend to 'out' her, but she really should have known better.  Having listings taken down is one side of the problem. 

Another side (which I considered when thinking about listing digitally-delivered products) is the returns issue, as the OP has discovered.  A digitally-delivered file just doesn't work well within the existing eBay returns/INAD policies.  And what happens if the seller can't properly deliver the file or the buyer can't access it for technical reasons - a refund I suppose, but also an unhappy buyer.  More trouble. 

The third side (this is a square box ) is that if you do list these things per eBay's policy, in the Classified Ad format, you pay a lot more than you would to list the item in the regular way.  

Lastly, fourth problem, is the intellectual property issue.  So many sellers who list digital files for sale have no legal right to be copying them in the first place.  This can be even bigger trouble if someone points you out. 

In the end, for the first three reasons I decided my digital offerings just weren't worth the hassle and expense.  I own the copyright, so that wasn't a problem for me, but the above issues could put an end to selling, especially for a newer seller. 

As I mentioned, if a seller does have legal copyright, he/she can put the files on CDs and sell them with no worries whatsoever, and at very low shipping cost.  Good for lots of positive FB and 5-star DSRs, and the smart way to do it.