eBay

deltone · ‎10-30-2003

I just received this email from an buyer. This is the complete email. I'm a bit peeved at the curtness of the email and I did compose a reply, but I haven't sent it as I know it's probably a mistake to send it as it's a wee bit confrontational which I know will come back to bite me in the a$$. It was therapeutic writing it, but I could really use some help in composing a bit of an a$$ kissing email which is what all good little sellers should send to all pita buyers. THANKS

I paid for this item using Paypal back on October 20th to get faster
delivery. It's been 10 days. Pretty poor service, wouldn't you say?

Anita XXXXX

jaymor8 · ‎10-31-2003

Malcolm - LOL...I see you have REALLY thought this through. Have a lot of arrogance in your town, do ya??? Oh well....whatareyagonnado, huh? Folks are just folks and hopefully one day everyone will learn the 'golden rule' by heart - and not have to use Google to look it up!!

Jackie...

amberwoodottawa · ‎10-31-2003

Jackie,
Waht Arogance in my town? I live in Ottawa, you know Parliament Hell. I probably have more arogant people per square mile when the House is sitting than anywhere else on earth.

And, oh yeah, they only pay about $2.50 for steak and shrimp lunches on the Hill. Subsidized you know.

Even with those great prices, these guys find ways to go to all the French Restaurants we have and spend $800 of taxpayers $$ for their dinner.

That is when they arent on the East Coast fishing for their dinner at the Irving's fishing camp (I wonder if their fishing camp has running water and a toilet?)

Malcolm

jaymor8 · ‎10-31-2003

I hear you and I give an empathetic head shake to all of the above!!!

Jackie...

treasure-pot · ‎10-31-2003

Malcolm... the Irving camp does have running water but it is trucked in from the Rockies. There is nothing quite like glacier fed toilet water...

And the $2.50 steak and shrimp on the Hill is only matched by the absurdity of subsidized haircuts for all MPs.

Ottawa has more restaurants per capita than any other place in Canada. Places like Al's and Mama Teresa's have built their business on the expense accounts of MPs and senior bureaucrats. And it doesn't really matter what party is in power... those restaurants have been there since the 60's.

Cheers!

Bill

Bill

www-labels4less-com · ‎11-01-2003

"labels, with your familiarity with CP I would have thought you would be well familiar with the potential for customs delays."
I am very aware that parcels go through customs. I am also aware that when one ships an item with an approximate delivery time of 14 business days (read 3 weeks) to arrive , telling the customer that customs probably is the reason for it is one way I notice people are handling the situation.
I agree that it is ODD that I ship by small packet air and there have been no delays (with the exception of 9/11 and xmas season).

zarzuella · ‎11-01-2003

Hmm ... here's one I got last week:

Hello. My name is M***** P***** (c*****@hotmail.com) On Oct. 18, I won your auction for a book about Boston Terriers. I am starting to wonder where it is. I have never seen an item from any ebay seller take this long. Please email me with a response. I already left feedback and you have claimed my payment from paypal.

Auction ended Saturday 18th October
Mailed Monday 20th October
Email received Monday 27th October.

jaymor8 · ‎11-01-2003

Why on earth did they leave feedback before they received the item?? But as for the question - way to butter up your seller. It's like everyone is primed to think that the items are never sent. Yeah, I need to compromise my rep to cheat YOU out of $11....you stupid moron you!!!

Jackie...

deltone · ‎11-01-2003

You have to wonder what the heck some of these people are thinking when they are so confrontational in questioning the length of time of delivery. I can tell you this much, if that seller sends me another rude email, I WILL let her have it. I treat everyone with respect and good manners, but I'm getting sick of the accusatory tone that some people take. Thanksfully MOST of my buyers are actually very nice, but these few nimrods are just too much.

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-01-2003

I try to never stoop to someone else's level. They are rude and arrogant, why be the same way if it is not in your nature.

These are the same idiots who would sue you if they dropped the item they bought from you and it fell and broke their foot.

What does the idiot think, he pays you with PayPal right away and you have a postman standing by to take it to his house immediately?

Tell him the date you sent it out, thats all you can do!
His bitching to you isnt going to get it to him any faster, nor is anything you say going to make him feel any better or retract what he is thinking or has said in his email.

People think that buying on eBay is the same as walking into a store and making a purchase. They pay for it and take it immediately. They dont like the colour of it when they get home, they return it and get a refund.

He had a choice by accepting the shipping method that I am sure you set out in your ads. If they bum wanted it right away, he should have asked you to send it by overnight courier for $150 or whatever the cost to deliver to his house, next day.

Just dont waste your time writing and sending a nasty email to him. Be better than him and be professional. He may be looking for a nasty answer so he can engage in an email fight wth you.

Its not worth it. Be as short in your response as possible and simply illustrate you fulfilled your end of the contract by giving him the date shipped.Period!

jaymor8 · ‎11-01-2003

That's easy for YOU to say Malcolm - you're one of the good guys. Glo and me, we're nasty creatures and when we're confronted viciously, our claws come out and the backs of our necks start to vibrate. We have no self control nor do we want self control. We roll with the punches but we like to roll with our victims and create a verbal 'hot bath' that the ignorant will not be able to tolerate. Right, Glo?????

Everything you said is true, Malcolm. Glo - what DO people think when they buy on ebay? I would dearly love to get inside some of the heads and maybe massage a little sense into some brains.

Jackie...

amberwoodottawa · ‎11-01-2003

I buy my instruments directly from a person who has most of the instruments manufactured for him, under his specs and under his private labels directly from the manufacturers.

This same character runs a small retail store (although his love is buying the instruments, not retail).

You could take some great lessons from him in the art of "How to Treat Nasty Customers".

On any given day, this 70+ year old man kicks out no fewer that 5 people from his retail store, sometimes physically escorting them out the door with he and the clients yelling back and forth at each other.

To heck with reports to the BBB, he tells the BBB the complaitant has no right to complain until they are a customer and he threw them out before they bought anything, so they were not a customer.

Sure he has lost sales, repeat business and referrals, tons. When I am there I see opportunity going out the door with each person being booted out. Never in my entire life have I ever witnessed a daily event like this.

It comes from being in the business for 40 years and having 75% of the people that come into his store, buy somewhere else after he has spent time "educating them" as he puts it, about the instruments they are interested in, only to have them go to his competition and they match or better the deal he gave them, after he invested all his time.

His solution, kick out 75% of the customers a day and sell only to 25% of them.

It certainly is an interesting sight to see. But I have a feeling that you and Glo might enjoy working in his store for a couple of weeks every year to blow off steam, you know, let loose and get rid of all those frustrations that build up from those nasty eBay customers every week.

Maybe you could take a 2 week vacation every year, come to Ottawa and work in his store and do nothing more than kick butt. I am sure it would be better treatment than any spa you could find.

As a matter of fact, I offered that he run my e-commerce business for a week and send nasty emails to some of my nasty customers (especially the non-payers) and I promissed that I would kick out at least 3 people a day from his store.

It is truly a comical thing to see. I have even been there when the police were called in. You gotta love this crazy political town I live in!!

Malcolm

hugelyimpressive · ‎11-05-2003

One man's rude is another man's businesslike... My wife often complains that I sound rude on the phone. Actually, for long periods of my childhood we didn't have a phone and I lived in terror of using them. So it takes me a while to "warm up" on the phone, usually longer than it takes to deal with somebody from Bell or wherever.

As for shipment times. Usually the time an item takes to arrive is exactly 24 hours longer than a person's patience while waiting for it. In poker parlence, this is known as the Moan And Win theory: complain you haven't won a hand all night just before picking up a pair of Aces.

I simply record the date I post an item and quote it if anybody asks where it's got to. Usually, things sort themselves out. As a PS, I received a letter from somebody sent to me last January, on October 3rd. It was postmarked 30th Sept. So either he forgot to send it or it fell down the back of the heater at USPS!

Either way, given the odds of anything arriving in our overloaded postal systems, it's a miracle there are not more genuine problems.

Ashley

ospreylinks · ‎11-05-2003

I often sit down and compose a nasty email... read it a few times, make the necessary revisions.....then delete it and don't send anything....or just the facts....

Just writing the email and stating what I would like to say seems to be appropriate therapy and the time it takes to write and revise allows me to cool down, probably be a bit more rationale and move on....

To be honest, most of the rude emails I have sent are the result of a none-completed auctions, and I don't think one ever resulted in the buyer coming back and completing his/her obligation.

Jeff

deltone · ‎11-05-2003

I agree that it's best to not reply rudely to rude customers. I also like to write the email, and read it a few times, and delete. It helps get it out of my system.

I have to admit though that I had a VERY rough weekend (soon to be daughter in law is a real piece of work) and a bunch of ebay garbage happening........a real weekend from hell and a bidder emailed me, basically suggesting that she hopes I'm not scamming her, blah blah blah, so I did reply, and I must admit, not very kindly. Jackie, you would have been proud! LOL

I'm not even sorry I sent it as I don't care what side of the fence you're sitting on (buyer/seller), nobody deserves to be treated that way, and I felt the need to educate her. LOL