Inpatient buyer...

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

buyer bought a book on Friday night, then this morning sent me a rude message asking why I haven't shipped the book... I guess weekend doesn't exist in certain American's mind. Taking BC family day into account, it hasn't even been one business day yet...... [/end rant]

[pierrelebel]

Americans know their own experience.  USPS works on Saturday.  So, for many American buyers, when they see a seller offering next day shipping, they expect the item to be shipped (mailed) on Saturday if they buy and pay on Friday.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I never offered next day shipping. My handling time for all items are 5 business days with economy shipping, so clearly this buyer didn't / can't read. I guess not all book buyers are literate, after all...  800+ feedbacks as a buyer is pretty meaningless.

[dutchman48]

Get used to these types of buyers as they will continue and get worse due to Ebay's buyer entitlement programs.A lot of buyers are also in the I want it now group.

Feedback totals means nothing other than the number of bought and/or sold items they received feedback for.

A lot use phones and a lot of the information is not visible. Ebay's mobile app has a lot of issues.

And yes, I am getting very jaded with Ebay due to all the unnecessary issues and problems which they have created.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I just replied to this guy's message explaining how "business days" and how post offices outside US work. I pointed out to him that my listing said handling time 5 business days. Let's see how this guy takes the memo. You'd think someone who bought regularly on eBay for 10+ years would know how all these work already, but clearly not. This definitely was one of the rudest message I have seen over the past couple year... or should I be grateful that the majority of my buyers do read and do have manners?

I'm not gonna leave feedback for him now (yes the book is shipped before I saw his message) because I'm soooo tempted to write prompt payment, but buyer's communication leaves much to be desired...   Now to go to bed since I just came home from working a graveyard shift...... precious sleep time wasted on writing a response to this dude 

[femmefan1946]

You can manually mark a sale shipped, even if it isn't technically in the mailbox.

But if it's in the mailbox, it's out of my hands, so I consider that shipped.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I know I can manually mark sale shipped and that's what I do most of the time since I don't use tracking unless the item is expensive enough. 

The buyer replied with a simple thank you for your kind reply to my lengthy rant lol. I guess I'll see if I become the first seller he ever negs because I'm long-winded...  

[pjcdn2005]

I bet that he won't leave a neg. If he thanked you for your kind reply he probably feels dumb that he ranted at you in the first place.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Here is a different story with another buyer...

I saw that I got an INR case today when I came home from graveyard shift. The catch here is in the case the buyer said he didn't receive his puzzle pieces... I sold him a comic book. I have never sold any puzzle pieces on eBay. Part of the name of the comic book does have the word "PIECE" in it though. I'm wondering if he simply opened the case against the wrong seller (in this case eBay better take this defect away, but then I don't want to waste my precious sleep time to phone eBay about it), or he is illiterate enough to really thought he bought puzzle pieces from me when the listing is obviously for a comic book... I reply to the buyer saying I sold him a comic book and not puzzle pieces, and asked if he opened the case against the wrong seller...... The buyer is from UK yet his English in the case details is kinda bad... and this is the guy who I previously mentioned, bought the book at its original price despite I counter-offered a $1 discount for him. I did partially refunded the $1. 

Selling on eBay seems to be too much headache nowadays, maybe I should give up on this hobby. My full time job is stressful but I'm paid adequately for it and I don't ever need to take my work home.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Now the buyer replied saying yes he ordered a comic book from me and he is still waiting for it. Now I'm not sure if he is being honest anymore, from saying he didn't receive a puzzle to saying he didn't receive a comic book simply because I corrected him......

[zee-chan-jpn-books · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for your help and advice over the years. I was looking forward to getting that purple star with 500 feedback in a couple years but it's not gonna happen anymore. I think I'm done with three INR cases just this year (I had ONE INR the entire 2015). It's more stressful getting one of these "a case is open" e-mails than missing my meal breaks with a busy work day, I tell ya. These refunds for INRs pretty much drained my cookie jar empty. So far no one re-paid me for the refunds. Did the books really gone missing, or did these people decided to keep a free book for themselves? Who knows. I'm gonna let my current listings run until the end date since there are still some watchers, but I won't relist them afterwards.

I considered increasing my prices to cover shipping with tracking but I don't think I'll get any sales with the big jump in prices so it's probably not worth the effort. To the small sellers who are still hanging on in eBay, you have my utmost respect  

[maximus7001]

What countries did those inr cases come from? We have 2 right now. One is brazil and the other is equador. Both $5 cassette tapes. One more from that region and we hve to stop selling there. We can't keep paying $6 shipping to give away cassette tapes for free. We did not get them for free. Also the hours on the phone to get defects removed that are suposed to be defect free countries. Both started with "where is the tracking number routine" the day after they shipped. I think when that happens that they are checking to see if their scam will work.

We had to stop russia and ukraine years ago for this reason.

[dutchman48]

Send light packet and insure through insurepost to only the countries they insure to. It ends up about half the cost of tracking, or less, and if a loss at least you are covered.

[hlmacdon]

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@dutchman48 wrote:

Send light packet and insure through insurepost to only the countries they insure to. It ends up about half the cost of tracking, or less, and if a loss at least you are covered.

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This is good advice for the small Canadian seller sending light/small packet untracked shipments. Build that (or a portion of) into your cost and restrict the list of countries and insure where it makes sense. For the small amount of business you'll lose by omitting a few countries and slightly higher shipping charges, one may find this process to be less of a headache. As long as you do your part with proof of acceptance (scan of label with postal acceptance stamp), insurepost is very easy to work with, even when you have hostile buyers who do not want to cooperate. All they ultimately require is proof you have refunded and proof of shipment.

[pjcdn2005]

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@dutchman48 wrote:

Send light packet and insure through insurepost to only the countries they insure to. It ends up about half the cost of tracking, or less, and if a loss at least you are covered.

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I will sometimes buy insurance for a higher priced item sold overseas but for the most part, I think that in many cases insurance is just a money drain. I know that in years of paying for house and car insurance that the insurance companies are the winners..not me.

It usually makes more sense to use my own cookie jar insurance than to pay an insurance company.

Each seller has unique needs but if I insured every untracked item that I sent out or even every untracked item that was more than $30, I would pay out more in insurance than I would ever get back.

[dutchman48]

You add the insurance into the shipping and no drain out of your pocket. International buyers are not near as postage conscious as they are in the US. Everyone but Asia pays considerably higher shipping fees than the US does.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

The INRs are from US and UK. I don't ship to Brazil and Equator to begin with. Somehow these shipments were really slow to get to the buyer.

I'm not gonna buy extra insurance since the books are not too pricey to begin with. While it did eat into my cookie jar it didn't eat up my profits yet. The buyer promised to repay me if the book arrives so I hope she'll keep her promise.

Either way work is pretty busy lately, I'm better off working more overtime. At least no one is gonna suddenly say I owe them money lol 😛 Maybe after a long selling break I'd decide to sell again. 

[pjcdn2005]

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@dutchman48 wrote:

You add the insurance into the shipping and no drain out of your pocket. International buyers are not near as postage conscious as they are in the US. Everyone but Asia pays considerably higher shipping fees than the US does.

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Imo you are better off (in most cases) to charge that extra amount and keep it in your pocket to use as self insurance.  Once you pay that money to the insurance company it is gone. If you use it for self insurance you keep the money unless an item gets lost.  Unless you have a high loss rate or sell very expensive items, I think that you end up with more money in the end with self insurance than with paying for insurance.

You'd have to base that on your own sales of course.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

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@zee-chan-jpn-books wrote:

Now the buyer replied saying yes he ordered a comic book from me and he is still waiting for it. Now I'm not sure if he is being honest anymore, from saying he didn't receive a puzzle to saying he didn't receive a comic book simply because I corrected him......

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Today this dude closed the INR case saying he received the book after I messaged him asking about it *shrugs* He's gonna go to my BBL anyway since it was a headache dealing with him  

[Anonymous]

Check the Watch Count tool to see if he purchased a puzzle lately.... I know it is won't do anything to help the situation, but it may put your mind at rest knowing that you were correct in that he was mistaking you for another seller.  I love using this tool to figure out certain/red flag/problem buyers!

 http://www.watchcount.com/bh.php