Buyer problems

[surplusbydesign]

Hello,

I am currently having an on going issue with a buyer and at this point I do not know what to do with him. He is a frequent buyer who purchases about 5 items a week from us. Since I started dealing with him he has constantly been sending me e-mails with issues he is having with our products ranging from bad parts or wrong accessories etc. At first I would always agree with him give him his partial refund or send him extra parts for free. Now this is about 4 months later and it has gotten to the point where EVERY shipment I send him has issues with almost all the parts and complains and constantly looks for partial refunds NOT full he only wants to get partial or free parts. I have customers who buy over 10 items a week and I never have issues with them but with this one user it seems I cannot get a shipment right for him or he is trying to scam us. I sent ebay an e-mail but I know they wont do much for me because they will just tell me they cannot get in between a buyer and seller. My plan was to tell him to send back all the items and I will give him a full refund and then block him but he has outstanding feedback and once I block him I do not want 5 negative feedbacks in a row because of him but if that is my only option then I may have to take the hit. I am looking for advice or similar cases any powerseller has had in the past, this is frustrating and stress full I have sent him so many parts just because he says in the e-mail it is defective he does not even send the defective parts back. I want to stop working with this buyer now, but how do I go about this without risking my reputation?

Any adavice will be much appriciated thank you

Regards,
--SBD

[cottonwoodindustries]

I would send him and email and thank him for his orders in the past.

Explain to him that it seems that your company as not been able to fulfill his needs as everything you send him has had a problem, and it might be a good idea that he finds another company to do business with.

Thank him for his past business, and hope he finds a company that will fill he needs better. And just say you have to move on. Then block him :-).

Hope that helps you.....

Loré

[surplusbydesign]

Hey Lore,

Thank you for the response, I did just that I sent him a very polite e-mail pretty much summarizing what you just said. I just hope he takes it well and does not get offended.

[coxengines]

Loré gave you excellent advice. Follow it and stick to it.

Surprised you waited that long.

Whether or not your products really give cause to complain plays no role in this case. Obviously, your buyer's perception is such and, as you continually humored him, it has become part of how he buys from you.

Good luck!
Bernie

[dipmicro]

Don't be surprised if you get a card with apology later on. Don't be afraid if he gets offended or not, he should be. Some people need to learn to value their suppliers.

You please them once, and they want more. Training cats/dogs 101.

[fatdane]

Partial refunds or knocking something off the price always have come back to bite me in my ample backside. Now I just say return the item ( and all of the item) for a refund - and I don't enter into any discussion about discounting the price. About half the time I never hear from the customer again about the item, and the other half will return things for a refund. If I think that they are being extra picky about something that I feel is described honestly and accurately I will place their name on my BBL. Some customers just aren't worth the aggravation

[futuretech_liquidations]

Surplusbydesign - we have similair issues by in our case we sell mainly working laptop omponents and in the past we got bitten quite alot wiht bogus claims - over time the claims have dropped to one or two questionable claims a month which we merely write-off and move-on as it is not worth the time and effort. Needless to say our block list is growing rapidly - hope ebay increases it again - lol.

Like the others here have said, cut ties quickly with this buyer as they are most certainly scamming you since you were so accommodating in the first place.

I would wait until they left their outstanding feedbacks and then BLOCK them immediately.

GOOD LUCK,

TIM @ FTL

[wesycool]

I think the cause of this problem is that you first agreed that the error was from your end and you were willing to pay partial refund or send extra parts for free. It actually let buyers think that no matter if the product actually has problems or not, you are willing to benefit them more whenever they complain.

What you should do is this:

1. If the buyer complains about your product for the first time, tell them to send it back so you can make an exchange.

2. If they agree, that's good. If they don't because they don't want to pay shipping fee to send it back (which normally happens), tell them that you will either send them a partial refund or send new parts for this time only.

3. If it occurs again, tell them that they will be in your blacklist(block list) and that they will not be able to purchase any items until they return the item. If they ask for a refund, just refund it. Better have a loyal and honest buyer than a cheap one.

[bestbranddeals]

Well, you can block that user so he does not bid on your items. If something like that happens with me I block that user.

[faerywishes]

Hiya
From my experience I would make sure he has given you your feed back before emailing him.

I blocked a buyer who I thought was sabotaging my DSR's, but she hadn't given all her feed back yet. I got 30 neutrals because she was upset that I blocked her.

Have a Good one
Colleen