eBay

musicyouneed · ‎05-09-2017

Well I sold a pattern that I have had listed since last April 2016. I have one more place to look tomorrow but if I don't find it, I need to inform the buyer that I have been looking for it for (Sun, Mon and Tues) 3 days and that I have to cancel. Any one have a sample of what to say? I know this is going to leave a black mark on me, but what can I do?

ypdc_dennis · ‎05-09-2017

@musicyouneed wrote:
Well I sold a pattern that I have had listed since last April 2016. I have one more place to look tomorrow but if I don't find it, I need to inform the buyer that I have been looking for it for (Sun, Mon and Tues) 3 days and that I have to cancel. Any one have a sample of what to say? I know this is going to leave a black mark on me, but what can I do?

The last one I sent out (on a different platform in 2016 for a book):

Hello:

My sincere regrets but I'm going to have to disappoint you and cancel your order. I've looked through the book boxes and book shelves and have been unable to find [item].

It was here when I took inventory last August (the book cover does stand out) but the book is not where it should be.

I will email you if I do find the book and will guarantee the same book price if you decide to repurchase,

I will ask [website] to cancel the purchase order in a few minutes. [explain how cancellation will work]

My apologies,
[name of seller]

-..-

momcqueen · ‎05-09-2017

What ydpc_dennis said with one additional thought. Can you offer them something similar at a discount? There may be no way to avoid the defect for cancelling the order but you could still potentially keep your buyer happy by offering them some sort of consolation prize. Just a thought.

sylviebee · ‎05-09-2017

If you cancel the item and choose the option "buyer requested cancellation" you won't get a defect, as I'm sure you know.

You could give your buyer the head's up that you are going to do this (or not).

You could simply use the note suggested by dennis above and add that detail and explain exactly what you're doing and why.

If you cancel and choose the option that the buyer requested the cancellation, then the transaction will be cancelled. Period.

IF the buyer is really p_____d at you and calls eBay you'll get a defect.

If the buyer doesn't notice or care about that insignificant (meaningless to the buyer, not to you) detail, then that's the end of it.

Odds are the buyer won't care.

If you can't find the item the buyer will in fact want to cancel and make that request, right?

I'm not advising or suggesting any particular cause of action. I'm just explaining how the system works. What you do is up to you. The system is set up to work for you. I

ricarmic · ‎05-09-2017

Because I'm one of those ~~crazy~~ people that likes to prepare for every possible problem in advance, I've written up a form letter for just this situation.

I am so very fortunate that I have not had to use it yet (so the wording is not tried and tested yet), but please feel free to use whatever works for you.... (note that XX will be a bigger number than the price of the item they purchased, probably double)

Hi! Thank you very much for your purchase!

I humbly apologize because I cannot find the item you have purchased.

I can provide a number of options to resolve this:

-I have a similar item. I can send it instead, with a free bonus to make up for the fact that it won’t be exactly the same as the item you purchased

Or

- if you see any other lots in my store that you are interested in that are valued anywhere up to $XX I can send it instead. (please just advise me of the title and item number you do not need to purchase it)

Or

-if you see an item that is worth more than $XX send me a question about that lot and I will send you an offer reducing the price by $XX which you can accept and then follow the normal payment process

Or

-I can provide a full refund

I apologize again for being unable to provide the item, let me know which option above you would like when you have a chance and have a great day!!

vintagenorth · ‎05-09-2017

Have you looked to see if the item is available from another seller? It happened to me once and I found a seller in the US who had the same item listed. It was also in the same condition and so I purchased and added my buyers address and had her ship direct to my buyer. I did ask her to not include a packing slip and explained why. Worked out just fine, although I did have to pay a little extra.

Emergency drop shipping!

musicyouneed · ‎05-09-2017

Hi thanks so much for all your input. I used several of the suggestions and this is what I came up with. What do you think? The person is in the UK so I tried to get the same pattern from another seller but they don't ship to the UK.

Hi! Thank you very much for your purchase!

My sincere regrets but I'm going to have to disappoint you and cancel your order. I've looked desperately over the past 3 days for the pattern and have been unable to find it. This is the first time this has happened to me since I started selling in 2003. I am so sorry to disappoint you.

I listed it last April 2016 and it is not where it should be. I haven’t sold it, just can’t find it at the moment.

I can provide a number of options to resolve this:

-Is there another pattern that you may be interested in. If so, I will give you a 50% discount on it.

Or

-Is there a CD (which I primarily sell) that you may be interested in that I can sell you at a 25% discount.

Or

-I can provide a full refund

When I do find it I will let you know. It is just around my house or in my storage unit.

I apologize again for being unable to provide the pattern, let me know which option above you would like when you have a chance and have a great day!!

ypdc_dennis · ‎05-09-2017

@musicyouneed wrote:
... I apologize again for being unable to provide the pattern, let me know which option above you would like when you have a chance and have a great day!!

I'd drop the "and have a great day!!" -- it's already been a disappointment for them...

ricarmic · ‎05-09-2017

YPDC has a good point, I don't like the wording of my last sentence either.

However I do believe in ending with a happy style so I've changed my draft version to:

I apologize again for being unable to provide the item, let me know which option above you prefer when you have a chance. Thank you very much for your understanding and have a great day!!

musicyouneed · ‎05-09-2017

Thanks again everyone for your advice. I did send what I said I would send and she came back that she wanted a refund. And that if I came across the item to let her know as she really wanted it.

I just have to keep better track of my inventory.

hlmacdon · ‎05-09-2017

@musicyouneed wrote:

I just have to keep better track of my inventory.

It can be a bit of a nightmare. I have thousands of small items and have done the grand tour of premises to find the bloody thing hike on more than one occasion. There are some decent inventory programs/services out there, but integration is still a headache. I spend way more time in excel then I would like.

tyler@ebay · ‎05-10-2017

@ricarmic wrote:
YPDC has a good point, I don't like the wording of my last sentence either.

However I do believe in ending with a happy style so I've changed my draft version to:

I apologize again for being unable to provide the item, let me know which option above you prefer when you have a chance. Thank you very much for your understanding and have a great day!!

Hey @ricarmic - I know I'm late to this party but I think the wording you've put together is really effective. I echo the idea of wanting to end on a happy style, so some wording you could consider in the future (god forbid it happen again):

"If you'll let me know what works best for you I'll get it sorted right away, thanks for your time!"

"Please keep me posted on what you'd prefer. Apologies again for this, and l appreciate your understanding!"

Just a few thoughts. 🙂

Tyler,

ricarmic · ‎05-11-2017

Hi Tyler!

THX for the additional thoughts!

One drawback of my form letter being unused (so far) is that it hasn't been adjusted over time to ensure that it translates well to other languages (about 35% of my stuff goes outside Canada and I do a lot of translating to Russian, Chinese,German, Portuguese (Brazil) etc.) normally each time I translate it I adjust the base wording to make it a "better translatable" document...

A couple years ago I engaged this group to come up with wordings for some of my other form letters (neutral negatives, and missing/delayed shipments). As I recall Rose and others were a big help in coming up with the final wordings that translate well to other languages that I've continued to adjust over time.

That was a long segue into a caveat that wordings like "get it sorted" and "keep me posted" may not translate well (they actually translate ok into most languages, Chinese not so good though).

Having said this, my base letter up above does not translate well either, especially into Chinese so adjustments will be necessary depending on the likely language of the recipient.....

pocomocomputing · ‎05-11-2017

@ricarmic wrote:
Hi Tyler!

THX for the additional thoughts!

One drawback of my form letter being unused (so far) is that it hasn't been adjusted over time to ensure that it translates well to other languages (about 35% of my stuff goes outside Canada and I do a lot of translating to Russian, Chinese,German, Portuguese (Brazil) etc.) normally each time I translate it I adjust the base wording to make it a "better translatable" document...

A couple years ago I engaged this group to come up with wordings for some of my other form letters (neutral negatives, and missing/delayed shipments). As I recall Rose and others were a big help in coming up with the final wordings that translate well to other languages that I've continued to adjust over time.

That was a long segue into a caveat that wordings like "get it sorted" and "keep me posted" may not translate well (they actually translate ok into most languages, Chinese not so good though).

Having said this, my base letter up above does not translate well either, especially into Chinese so adjustments will be necessary depending on the likely language of the recipient.....

I am curious as to how you know that the form letters do not translate well.

ricarmic · ‎05-11-2017

Hi Poco, it is actually quite easy!

Cut and paste the english into google translate and translate it to whatever language.

Cut and paste the translated result into the "from" and "English" as the to and it translates it back into English, sometimes with somewhat surprising results! (if one is old enough and remembers what CTRL Z does it backs the screens out and you can repaste the english back in to and try another language if you want to try a few out).

This assumes that the buyers use Google translate instead of one of the others out there...... if they use something else to translate, their results might be different.

Of course if you're friends with multilingual folks the likes of Rose, they are so much better than relying on bots, but then again the Rose's of the world have their own things to do like try to earn a living too!

So far I have not had any unforseen altercations since I've used the google translate back and forth before sending.

Prior to my double checking rule, I had a fellow in Italy that got offended and would not talk to me anymore and I think I offended a buyer in China as well.

jt-libra · ‎05-11-2017

@musicyouneed wrote:
Well I sold a pattern that I have had listed since last April 2016. I have one more place to look tomorrow but if I don't find it, I need to inform the buyer that I have been looking for it for (Sun, Mon and Tues) 3 days and that I have to cancel. Any one have a sample of what to say? I know this is going to leave a black mark on me, but what can I do?

I'm probably a bit late with my response. This happened to me only once. I apologized and told the buyer I would send her a gift (if I recall, it was a mascara or a cosmetic bag) to hopefully make up for her disappointment and inconvenience. She was very happy.

tyler@ebay · ‎05-11-2017

Ah - good point, I hadn't thought of that - I'm a fan of colloquialisms, to be sure. They just add a little flavor. Your way will definitely be more useful in the long run. Hope you find a format soon!

Tyler,

pocomocomputing · ‎05-11-2017

@ricarmic wrote:
Hi Poco, it is actually quite easy!

Cut and paste the English into google translate and translate it to whatever language.

Cut and paste the translated result into the "from" and "English" as the to and it translates it back into English, sometimes with somewhat surprising results! (if one is old enough and remembers what CTRL Z does it backs the screens out and you can repaste the English back in to and try another language if you want to try a few out).

This assumes that the buyers use Google translate instead of one of the others out there...... if they use something else to translate, their results might be different.

Of course if you're friends with multilingual folks the likes of Rose, they are so much better than relying on bots, but then again the Rose's of the world have their own things to do like try to earn a living too!

So far I have not had any unforeseen altercations since I've used the google translate back and forth before sending.

Prior to my double checking rule, I had a fellow in Italy that got offended and would not talk to me anymore and I think I offended a buyer in China as well.

I thought you might be translating then taking the translation and translating it back. But I thought I would ask to be sure.

As for CTRL-Z, yes, I am old enough to know about that from the old DOS days. I go way back to FORTRAN on punch cards in early 1970's. I ended up learning quite a few languages, lol, but they were computer programming languages.

ricarmic · ‎05-12-2017

Yep it is nice to be speaking in a place where probably many folks remember the old days.

It is funny when I'm on the phone with the technical support folks these days, many of them weren't even born when I was supporting the original desktop computers!

Too bad I've devolved to be only semi-competent on the modern stuff (I like to tell the support folks that I only know enough to be dangerous anymore).