Another new buyer with attitude!

[sunset_sports_cards]

Just a story I thought I would share.
I had a buyer from the US purchase an item off of me on a Tuesday, sent the invoice, I get a reply that says "I will send out payment on Monday". I thought ok no biggie, lettermail from the states takes about 4-5 days in some instances. I send out a Unpaid Item Reminder after ten days just in case it was missed or forgotten, which sometimes happens. So I send this buyer an unpaid item notice after 12 days. He sends me an e-mail that says..."why an unpaid item notice? I sent the payment out a week after I won the acution." I says no problem, it is just a reminder. Then he sends me another e-mail saying..."I only send payments out every Tuesday and thats' it!" I told him I am not interested in when he sends payments out, I want to be paid in a timely fashion and asked him to review my auction terms again.
Last e-mail from him was..." you should recieve your payment in a timely fashion" I said to him our definitions of "timely fashions" must be different. He e-mailed back and said that he would not bid on any more of my auctions again. I said "perfect, you have been blocked anyways"!

I know this a loaded question, but I will ask anyways....Am I being un co-operative with this buyer?

BTW...It has now been 20 days since the auction ended and still no payment from this buyer.

[shoplineca]

Yes and No (how is that for a sitting on the fence answer).

First, you can no longer assume letter mail takes 3-4 days from the US. Second, assume that payment will not be sent for at least 2-days. Give the guy a chance to get to a post office to purchase a money order, stamps and mail it.

However after 12 days from end of auction, there is nothing wrong with sending out an unpaid item reminder although I tend to send out a standard email follow-up and not eBay's automated notice which can be misinterpretted as a threat.

Remember, when a Buyer has a problem with a Seller, he always threatens that he will report the Seller to eBay falsley assuming that any notices to eBay can cause suspension or other penalties.

That being the case, by receiving an eBay notice he has likely assumed that you reported him to eBay despite his communicating with you that he is getting payment out to you.

I also would not tell him that he has been blocked because if he hasnt mailed payment, he likely wont now.

How will you feel should his payment arrive postmarked only 5 days after the auction ended and it was simply tied up in the system for a couple of weeks?

Similarly, when payment arrives and you ship the item out, how will you respond to him should the parcel takes as much or more time to reach him?

Again, nothing wrong with notifying a customer about their payment not being received however given all the threads addressing shipping delays, I wouldnt be so fast to use eBay's Unpaid Item Notice.

I suppose it is the same thing looking at how I would like a customer to advise me the item they expected didnt arrive yet.

Would I prefer them going through eBay or simply having them send me an email stating the item has not yet arrived and allowing me the opportunity to try to explain or determine why it hasnt arrived yet? Easy,I would prefer a direct email from the customer.

I guess in your case, its not the message, its the messanger.

Malcolm

[imagi.nation]

IMHO you should have stopped at " I says no problem, it is just a reminder."

Psychology is an interesting thing. You had control of the situation by filing the UPI, and then telling the buyer that it was just a reminder. The buyer obviously wanted to feel in control of the situation so he sends you HIS policy to make him feel like he's in control. He's not, but it probably made him feel better to be the Alpha Male in the situation.

It's not always necessary to respond back to a customer as oftentimes they just want the last word. If you let them have it you'll have 1)a happier customer 2)less hassles.

It's impossible to start an argument with someone who doesn't want to argue.

Cheers,
Ernie.

[sunset_sports_cards]

I appreciate the comments and will take your advice in future transactions with buyers. Thank You Malcolm and Ernie for taking the time to give me some input. I am not a bad seller really!;-)LOL!

[shoplineca]

Never entered my mind that you were.

Sometimes we can allow things to seem bigger and worse than they really are. We then become defensive.

It is important to sometimes put ourselves in the other person's shoes and try to understand where they are coming from.

I ocassionally will react too quickly to a situation and it inevitably turns out worse than it needed to go.

On the other hand, you may have a NPB and he (or she) deserves the immediate reaction or response of sending out the eBay Notice and telling them they are blocked, just as you did.

Its a real crap shoot selling on eBay and we have less to work with than someone in a store who can read aBuyer's body language and even see their attitude in their facial expressions.

Malcolm

[imagi.nation]

Absolutely you are not a bad seller! If you were, you wouldn't have come here seeking an outside opinion! 😉

Ernie.

[sunset_sports_cards]

Well...it has been 30 days now since auction ended from this individual. I filed for my credit and he gets unpaid item strike. Here is the e-mail he sends me, quite funny I might add...
"Kelly:
You are truly unbelievable...I recieved a notification from E-Bay that your complaint was what got my account suspended for you filing a Unpaid Item Strike against me...my 3rd in the last 30 days, which is a joke...they have all come from Canadian E-bay auctioneers. So from this point forward once my account is re-instated, I just won't deal with people North of the Border...by the way...here's a funny thing, I mailed 13 auctrions out the day I mailed payment to you...One of the auctions was in British Columbia...he just got Payment yesterday and said that the post mark was Febuary 18th...it took almost a month....gotta love the "New" Postal Regualations of mail going into Canada...for goodness sakes."
So I guess I am to blame for his not paying two other sellers for their auctions as well. Just thought I would share for a chuckle!!

[sunset_sports_cards]

BTW this guy has 38 feedbacks...all positive. Until now.

[catseye*]

And it's stories like this that made me change to 'no mail-in payments'.

Now, 3 days you get a 'friendly reminder' sent out automatically via Marketworks.
7 days UPI is filed (again, automatically) then FV. Sure keeps things moving along and a lot less deadbeats and excuses.