How Rude!!

[shoplineca]

I have an item listed with a MSRP of $1,499 that I am selling for $375 USD.

I just received an inquiry from an eBayer that went something like this: "How can you sell a $1500 violin for $375 and tell me where the web site is for the manufacturer".

I started to answer it several times, then I looked at the guy's FB of 100% with a total of 5 FB since 2002 with a change of name and only one purchase in 2004.

I decided to delete his inquiry rather than get into a pi$$ing match.

Am I taking this too personally or do you agree that people who likely have no interest in what you are selling in terms of purchasing it but choose to attack what you are doing, are best to be avoided?

My options were:

To provide him with an answer that might satisfy his curiosity.

Tell him its none of his business.

Ask him if he is interested in purchasing the item and if not, pi$$ off.

Or delete his inquiry.

I chose tha latter.
Malcolm

[ospreylinks]

Tonight I had a buyer purchase an item and then demand that it be received by next Friday (Ontario to California) or in his words "I will not be buying this item"..

Now with money, anything can be shipped anywhere in just about any time frame. So I emailed him back and asked instead of executing the Buy It Now Purchase, that means he bought the goods and cost us closing auction fees, why didn't he just send us an inquiry. We could have quoted the cost of shipping given his terms and then he could make a decision.

The item he bought is quite large in terms of shipping size and it will cost him in excess of $100. US to have it delivered within 3 days for guaranteed delivery by next Friday. So I can get it to him by next Friday, but will he be willing to pay the cost.... his demand only said he had to have it by next Friday and didn't stipulate that freight cost would be a factor....

Don't think I will win this one!

Jeff

[whoscloset]

Tonight I had a buyer who is the first bidder on a popular item e-mail me and ask if he could have 2 at the current bid price. The item still has 2 days left in a 3 day listing that will run over one of the most busy weekends of the year!

I said, "Sure you can BIN" and provided him with the link to the same item in my store that sells for double the opening bid price.

These ones are getting kind of frustrating and they seem to come out of the woodwork this time of year.

Monique

[sunward-hobbies]

People tend to get cynical after all the sales out there. ( Boxing Day 90%off MSRP comes to mind ).

I had a question this week asking for a stupid price for a listed item. Told him nope.

I think you took the question the wrong way. Just because the buyer hasn't purchased much doesn't mean anything.

Where did the 1500.00MSRP come from?

[systemagic]

I had a rash of difficult buyers this week. One purchased an unpopular item via barter dollars and wanted to pay postage via barter dollars - this just isn't done if it's not prearranged. He's gone silent and feels like an NPB. Another bid $15 on a cookie jar and a newbie's bid took his proxy bid to $20. Then the newbie bid $25 which he later retracted. The auction closed at $20 and the buyer feels that, because the newbie retracted his second bid that I should retract the first. This is also, almost certainly, an NPB. I'll probably end up negging these two setting up some probability of retaliatory negging at Christmas. Then I had two newbies who just couldn't get the hang of PayPal and completing their transactions. I finally walked one person through it but I couldn't seem to help the second who seemed to be an old man trying to get his grandson a toy robot in time for Christmas. Despite my best efforts the payment didn't come through today - which was the deadline day for shipping US packages air mail in time for Christmas. I feel bad about this one. It seemed like these buyers all arrived at once.

[zarzuella]

Reading this thread is making me feel a little better - I thought I was attracting every irritable looney out there, but obviously there are enough of them to go round for all of us!

Just had a woman buy-it-now from my store inventory at $8.75, then she noticed that the same book is running at auction - 5 days to go -opening bid $5.95. She is demanding that I "honour" the "correct" price of $5.95. I offered to cancel her sale if she wished to bid on the auction copy, but no ..... she is acting as if I set up some kind of conspiracy to defraud her of $2.80.

Shipped a book via US Expedited on October 27th. Had numerous 'where is my item" emails from the buyer, despite having provided tracking and links. Nov 26th CP tracking still showed the package 'Out for Delivery November 8th". I finally called the delivery PO who confirmed that they had attempted delivery twice, left cards, etc, but the package had not been claimed. I emailed the buyewr with this information and heard nothing more until this morning:
Book FINALLY arrived today - its great - do you have another one at the same price
aargh!

Ann

[shoplineca]

reliable-quality
You asked where did the MSRP come from:
I buy wholesale, direct from the manufacturers through a buying agent (I pay about 2% over delivered price).

For most of the brands I carry, I have the exclusive International rights to market, to franchise a chain of music stores and to distribute to music stores and sell to individuals.

I use a local music store that carries the same lines of instruments as I do to photograph their open and displayed items and I quote their listed price. Many times that price can be seen in my pics within my listings.

None of this is of any relevance to eBayer buyers and is strictly on a 'need-to'know' basis. He dont need to know.

Its not much different from someone asking anyone else here, where they source their materials and what is their cost to purchase them and whay should they make a profit and why do they think there stuff is worth anything mnore than a couple of bucks.

It must be Christmas, bringing out the weirdos. I just feel better walking away from them rather than debating as I can get pretty nasty if I want to and lets face it, its a no win situation. The guy is not going to purchase my item and he is not someone that lives next door so I dont have to deal with him on a day to day basis and I like it like that!

Malcolm

[shoplineca]

Ann
Tell her its too high a price to pay (for you, not her).

Malcolm

[coastwindchimes]

I like the buyers who don't answer end-of-auction emails for two or three days, and then suddenly email saying they need the item in time for Christmas!

[rd1000]

I always answer with a polite email. I never take this personally when it comes to rude customers. There will always be some in any group of people. Part of doing business. If the conversation gets too ridiculous or is really wasting my time, then I just don't answer any more.

You never know, it could be a sale.

Rob

[shoplineca]

In my books, a customer is someone who purchases from me. Until then, they are either a shopper or a voyeur (having no intention of buying).

If I suspect they are a voyeur, I prefer not to waste my time with them. I can ususally tell the difference in the line of questions and the way they approach asking me.

When I started on eBay, I debated with them. Now I ignore them and it is much easier to handle as I save myself not only the frustration but also the time, which leads to nothing but waste on those types of people.

If they may have turned out to be a customer, they likely would have turned out to be one of my customers from hell so it is no loss for me loosing a sale to someone I suspect to be trouble in the end.

Malcolm

[blackcatthunderbay]

I always figure that I get a conversion rate of about 10% on the kickers, but they do take a lot of my time to deal with. If I have the time I try to respond politely and usually regret when I am short with someone... it sometimes bites me in the B**.

[javax.swing]

Eh, you'll always get bidders who are idiots. I'm consistently have to dumb down my listings to make them as simple to read as possible.

And on the issue of lowballers, I just ask them if they'd be willing to do the same if our positions were reversed. I don't care whether they reply or not, I don't let them waste any more of my time.

Honest questions, sure, I'll answer those as honestly as I can...the stupid questions...man oh man. All in a day's work (online) U suppose.

[thebidwatcher]

Malcolm, you are a leader on these boards for examples on how to do things. If your gut told you to dump the e-mail then by all means DUMP.

I think there is a percentage of the eBay population that cruises the auctions looking for either deals or ways to contact sellers and irritate them. They do this by correcting minute details in the auction or reporting infractions with no intention of buying or competing. It is just something TO DO.

I only answer e-mails that I think will benefit me today or somewhere down the line, and the people have to be the type I want to deal with. I am getting better at spotting PITA's every day.

My recent adventure with Singapore/Nigerian unwanted business is going to make me even more grateful for the good customers I have.

Lisa

[shoplineca]

I had to bite my tongue on this one and hold back from calling the customer an impatient liar.

Some guy on the east coast of Canada purchases a left handed 12 string guitar vary late Saturday night. He then makes a PayPal payment.

Sunday morning I fire off a Thank you and tell him that his guitar will be shipped out on Monday via Express Post and he will get a confirmation from us within a day after it has been shipped. I further tell him he can expect delivery in 2-4 business days.

Tueday morning I get an email from him through eBay's email system telling me that he has sent me 4 emails that I have not respponded to as to when he might expect delivery of his guitar that he paid for late Saturday night.

We dont have any spam blockers and we operate our own server and have not received anything from him aside from the PayPal notice that he paid to which we responded.

Either he has us mixed up with someone else who he has spamm emailed or this is going to turn out to be a buyer from Hell. Why would someone who purchases something on the weekend, purportedly fire off 4-emails (none of which were rec'd) on Monday wondering about when his item will arrive after all that information was provided to him?

Malcolm

[scouttech-outfitters]

I get the occasional person challenging my prices and threatning me through both eBay and my regular business. I just ignore them if they do not back up their claims in the least or offer some empathy if it is a reasonable complaint. I find some people just like to whine! Mind you some of my customers that whine the most turn out to be some of the most valued customers!

[shoplineca]

SO the gu who claims he emailed me four times, emailed me four times AFTER he emailed me telling me that he emailed me four times.

They all came in this afternoon, dated today in the afternoon. I swear he is trying to set me up.

Malcolm

[imagi.nation]

Not sure if you know about this, I started using this about a month ago:

http://www.msgtag.com/home/

It works fairly well, I now can tell when people are getting my e-mails.

Amazingly, the number of "I haven't received any e-mails from you!" e-mails has dropped significantly, as have unpaid items.

You might want to try it out on this guy. At least this way you'll know for sure. 😉

Ernie.

[shoplineca]

Ernie

Thanks. This guy is a simple jerk who got my emails but doesnt bother to read his emails. He works for a provincial government so he probably receives 200 emails per day, 1/2 of them silly joles emailed over from other government clerks with nothing better to do.

He claimed he sent me 4 emails that I did not answer and an hour later I receive 3 emails all with a date and time stamp showing that they were emailed after he sent his 1st email.

There are idiots in this world and every once in a while each of us end up getting the idiot as a customer , or his brother or sister or mother or father and it just complicates our lives a little bit more than we needed.

Right now I am swamped with legitimate emails from customers and the last thing I need is an overpaid civil servant spamming me with 4 or so emails complaining that I didnt answer the emails that he forgot to send but is now sending them all at once.

Malcolm

[ospreylinks]

Unbelieveable, but the guy I referred to in post #1, paid for 3 day select delivery from us in Ontario to California ($105.00 US)....

The Paypal email said his address was confirmed and we have a UPS tracking number, so I hope all is legitimate and I have not set myself up for some kind of Paypal charge back scam while delivering an expensive item at record speed.

Jeff