CAN BUYERS THREATEN NEGATIVE FEEDBACK IF I DON'T SEND $10 ???

[jerseysfromcanada]

Hi there,
well i was hoping someone could help me or just say something nice.
Tonight, this guy takes the title...WORST EBAYER EVER
This guy is a YOUTH PASTOR. Now he bought a jersey & i sent it to the address provided "Seller should ship to...", like so many before him. To this day his address says he lives in Ontario and that's where i sent it to! Now he writes that this is his old address "he doesn't know how I got a hold of that address" ....He writes, luckily his parents still live there & now they need to send it to him which will cost around $ 10. I need to pay this $ 10 or he will leave negative feedback. How can I be bribed into paying $ 10 just so he doesn't leave bad feedback ? Is this fair & an accurate feedback system ? I loss powerseller status ( or tarnished reputation) for his mistake? I have this guy's email & have reported it because i just don't think people like that have a right to hurt other people and on top insult & threaten me. You should read his ignorant comments. Not very pastor-like. Imagine this behavior with the youth he directs? Anyway, this ruined my evening, thinking i have a negative looming over me, for i feel is his fault; insults & threats ? Do i deserve this kind on treatment ? And I'm the bad guy ? But sold one item today for a whooping $17.

I have been nothing but XXXX on throughout my short Ebay career, and have lost faith in humanity, to all those who have ripped me off because i can't afford to have tracking for every single item because fees are too high because prices have to be higher and no buyers, bad business; everyone who claims non receipt gets his money back! Sounds like a lottery win to me!. Great Marketplace to evaluate the value of stuff though,which doesn't help me.and on & on..every day a new problem!
by the way, my fridge is empty, bills overdue, and i spent my last $40 sending mail today!

So mark my words, the evil in people will pervail watch...I predict a negative soon! The trans.i.d. is 160195681000...Can someone give me a suggestion? What would you do? He says customer is always king and I'm rude for suggestioning the obvious he says; I'm indignant, whatever that means. I said he needs to update his address & his parents could send it for $2.88 as an oversized letter! Sounds insulting to you? Would someone like to bet with me that the pastor isn't a forgiving & caring person who teaches youth? Watch his feedback coming soon! I wrote him back that the address on Ebay is still in Ontario and i apologize for the trouble. I said if he needs $ 10 it's no problem. But come to think of it, i'm a stubborn, stupid German, and I'd rather burn the bill before being bribed! Help me please ! What am I doing wrong to be attracting these people? I could cry, financially, emotionally, and just life in general has really gotten me down. I take it to heart, thinking what this world is really like! I close my door and stay alone!

[westernstargifts]

I find that when I take the responsibility, the other person very often tries to take it back....I think they brace themselves for a defensive attitude and it throws them right off when your actions are the opposite of what they expected. It really works with Canadians especially because we are known for being apologetic....lol.

Good advice Xena....

Judy

[wesycool]

I do believe we have another Monique on our hands. Whatever will tea and his minions do with another reasonable voice in the wind.

What do you mean by that?

Anyways, I not complaining anyone's method of doing things. I only suggesting the way I would do things in this situation. Most people do think that customer is always right. However, I believe this thinking is really wrong to do business. Instead, I will convince my clients that they are not always right.

I've been in customer service for fido telephone company and most of the calls I've receive are complaints. If I keep apologizing to them, they will start yelling louder and louder until I give them what they want. If I put them as "always right", they will call back to take as much advantage as possible because I already allow them to have what they want. Being nice will only make your company worst. If you are dealing with nice people, of course you will be nice. And if they are bad people, should you be nasty? No, just neutral in a way that makes people feel bad about themselves. This is what I mean by pressure, and both seller and buyer keep yelling to each other.

I think that the best way of solving any situation is to ignore the "who is responsible for the mistake". It is better to find a solution since the mistake is already done and even you argue about it, it will lead to nowhere.

[wesycool]

* and not both seller and buyer keep yelling to each other.


Forgot the "not" in my sentence. Big different in meaning just because of one word. lol

[katiusciav]

assuming the customer is always right is one approach to running a business-to a certain extent you cannot run your business with a 'come and do whatever you wish because you'll always be right' attitude because that will eventually hurt your business, i don't think anyone can deny that. making the customer THINK they're always right is a smart strategy for keeping them coming back and helping them feel good about themselves, but when it comes to crooks, you can't apply the same strategy. i wouldn't apply op's original post to a scenario where we're dealing with a crook (10.00), but we know they're out there.

xena-if you assume that the customer is always 100% right and you say you actually DO take responsibility even if its NOT your fault, why do you reply to your neutral feedback you've received in a way that is defending your position? and then why after that, do you in turn leave neutral feedback for the buyer if they're right? this would indicate to me you think they're not right in your comments that you left both in your reply and in leaving the feedback...this doesn't indicate that you thought they were 100% right (even if they weren't as you clearly describe in your feedback)? if you say your ego isn't involved, your feedback and replies to the feedback you received doesn't indicate this. also, assuming that ebay considers neutrals a 'negetive', you'd also be incorrect to say you don't act upon 'revenge' because 'they are 10x more likely to have an impact on the positive ones'...

...i'm not picking on you, i'm just trying to illustrate the point that we ALL, including yourself, act with our ego's..after all, we are human, and we will all run into that customer that is wrong and makes us leave 'negetive' feedback and defensive replies.

the feedback you left that cx and the replies you left to the feedback you received all go against everything you've said so far.

so when i say we all deal with things differently, its true, but in another way, we all deal with things the same too.

JMHO...no hard feelings...

[whoscloset]

What do you mean by that?

Just pointing out that Xena appears to be a voice of reason who isn't afraid to speak out and isn't intimidated by numptys. We haven't had enough of that around here.

I'm sure if you read up on a few threads you will be enlightened as to the thoughtful, constructive advice offered by our good friend tea.

[wesycool]

WOW very deep and totally agree with kat thanks =D

[coxengines]

Uh-oh!

Same thing happens here as when I stand in front of a crowd and hold my speeches:^O

As I woke up this morning, I had this vision that someone would pull a "toolhaus" after my last post and I would have to answer questions.

Nomen est omen LOL, except I expected it to be the negs and not the neutrals.

I guess I never did view neutrals as negs but perhaps I need to change that point of view?

The last neutral I left because the buyer did not respond to my mail asking why he did not contact me before leaving FB, what was wrong, what could I have done better and would he like a refund? I was fully prepared to refund all of his money (and let him keep the merchandise on top of that), if he could at least communicate to me why he thought what he received was not what he bought.

Since he did not reply, leaving him FB was my way of communicating with him again. I could have left a neg with no repercussions (would never do that) but, I guess I could have also have left him a pos or nothing at all- fair enough!

You know, Kat, it's a point well-taken and surely something that I will reflect on.

Yeah, I do reply to feedback that is not pos as that is what my buyers see and, of course, it's a defense mechanism. I am not implying that a seller should be a doormat.

What I meant was that I go by the premise that all customers are good as opposed to "hope I don't get screwed". If a customer complains, there is a reason for it.

The most difficult customer is the one that does not complain, communicate or otherwise gives you the opportunity to make good - even if the customer is technically in the wrong.

As for the genuine crooks/scammers, I don't consider them customers.

Xena

[coxengines]

I do believe we have another Monique on our hands.

What a great way to start off my day!!!

... just checked who my cell-phone carrier is...

...nope, it's not Fido... ]:)

Xena

[katiusciav]

xena-i wish you the best of luck in your future business endeavors...you certainly sound like one smart and dedicated cookie! :-x

[gamers_place]

Hi Haderudo, Wow! You caused more disputes in replies here than most of us received on eBay! lol.

Here's an example of a letter I wrote a buyer today that recently emailed me claiming 'not as described' (with a lot of explicitives). (I feel that it was perfectly described).

Dear John (aka):

I'm very sorry that you are not happy with your item, perhaps I made a typing error in my description? I also realise that the listing also says 'exchange only', but since these a duplcate items I will be very pleased to refund you in full!

You may certainly return this item to me at your convenience and I will issue this refund immediately!

Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can assist you any further.

Have an Amazing day!

Jeff
per: Gamers Place

Follow-up letter from John:

OK, But I leave feedback I want you to also REFUND ME IN FULL for My Shipping back to you!!!

Reply today from me via phone:

Hey John!

Hows business? Listen, it's only a few bucks so, no problem, I will be more than happy to pick that up for you as well.

After some 'squabbling' from John. I reapeated. "Your very right, I'm very shure that we probably did make a typo or 2 in the description, so don't worry, just a courteous call & of course we will refund you and pick-up your shipping. Did you open the item? I have a lot of bids and 2nd chance offers for this item so it's not a problem at all".

To make this short it now resulted in him wanting to keep this item, requesting 2 more similar items, leaving pos. FB within a few minutes!

Not alway's my approach to feedback extortion, but a good example of what has worked for me so many countless times over the years.

While I agree that you should always remain very professional and unemotional, I still applaud all those that report the 'blackmail' type issues to eBay! I personally am not afraid to take negative feedback when an issue has esculated or especially when no opportunity is given by the buyer to resolve issues before getting 'trigger-happy'! Remember, the buyer is still communicating here, in your case, and in mine!

-Jeff

[wesycool]

You can report a blackmail type issues to ebay? I didn't know that. How do we do it?

[coxengines]

Excellent, Jeff!

It's pretty well how I react to unsatisfied buyers myself.

I had a few last year that squabbled and, after offering a full refund, they kept the item, some even apologizing.

Better yet, two of those are now customers that buy almost every month.

Business is all about relationships, attitude and perception and can be soooo much fun!

Thanks Kat, and the very same to you. I looked and saw that you sold some pretty nifty items - very impressive.

It sure puts the rumor to rest that art does not sell on eBay, methinks.

Xena

[katiusciav]

hi xena, believe it or not, the market for art right now on ebay is soooo soft, it used to be that paintings would sell in the six figures all the way down to a buck, and the highest i've seen lately is in the low low five figures, mostly in the four figures. either the interest has dropped, or there have been more and more sellers saturating the art market. its sad how things change so quickly, a year ago this time, i was making superb money buying and selling art on ebay, now, and most recently, have actually lost, and lost big.

[coxengines]

Sorry to hear that Kat.

I guess the glut of "made in china" doesn't do much to help with credibility.

I have always wondered how/why people buy art for, say, 10k on eBay. That would scare me...

But then, we have bought automobiles for 50k+ on eBay so, I guess, it's what one is familiar with, to ask the right questions.

Hopefully, things will pick up again after people have digested the bills from their x-mas excesses.

Last 2-3 days I have been absolutely hammered on eBay. Don't know if it's the January blues or I finally managed to (over) saturate the market LOL.

Xena

[numero_1]

play his game:

tell him i sincerely apologize for this mistake and i'm fully willing to co-operate by giving you a refund, however i'm asking you to first leave me a postive feedback so i can proceed with the refund.

then to be nice give him $5 because it doesn't cost $10 to ship a shirt within canada
what can he do after ? nothing
u played him on his own game
yeah it cost you $5 but not $10...

[gbayemporium]

Heck, when I get a jackass buyer I neg them first just so it can't be considered "retaliatory".
Hell, when you get 26 negs from the same buyer because he had to pay duty on a $150 dollar order, what does it matter anymore? Might as well get the negs in now while I still can.