eBay

ricarmic · ‎11-17-2016

Was busy listing items this morning and I see the orange "1" show up, click on the little notices bell and I see I have a message on an item that tends to be popular everywhere and as a result has more than usual INR issues.

Ugghhhh I think to myself, some sort of complaint or where's my item kinda thing, so I distract myself away from it to continue listing stuff for a while.

When done, I grudgingly go and open the message to see what today's complaint is about.

And lo and behold, it is not a complaint or problem. It is a happy buyer wanting to buy more stuff and wanting to make sure the other items they're interested in aren't overlapping with what they bought.

It is pretty darned sad that my first impulse for every message anymore seems to be a doom and gloom one, when in reality actual doom and gloom messages only arrive fairly rarely.

I somehow need to figure out how to turn my frown upside down...... in a legal, non-addictive kind of way of course!

kiralicious · ‎11-17-2016

Ah I know that feeling all too well as I'm sure most of us do at this point...even after 12 years I get it! It's so true though...when I open my email and see a message about an item I've already shipped my heart goes into panic mode before I actually open it for fear of a complaint, INR or other issue :(. You're right though it is all perspective....more often then not recently when I get a message after a sale it's been an appreciative customers thanking me for the item, telling me it arrived way quicker then anticipated, the condition was better then they though or even a lovely story about how the item is to replace a much loved lost item.

I spend a couple moments these days first thing when I wake up with coffee in hand...reading some positive quotes and inspirational stuffe from various books to just try and get my perspective in the right direction...doesn't make the world right all the time...but certainly makes me take pause when I want get into gloom mode 🙂

Cheers!

zee-chan · ‎11-17-2016

The most recent message I got is a haggling one. At that point I was quite discouraged by my lack of sales so I turned down the haggling message and said I only accept lower offers if she would buy multiple books. She said she's only interested in that one and tried again, which I turned down again. She's was quite apologic though in her messages though and then bought the book at listed price and gave me 5 stars positive after she got the book. So I suppose it was still a good message (honestly I thought she'd give up and look elsewhere).

And then just two days ago one buyer from Germany bought 7 books from me ($240 total). I was happy about the sale, the buyer left all positive feedbacks to other sellers, but thanks to ebay conditioning me to think of the worst, I forked out another $14 to upgrade to tracked packet wren I normally would just with small packet. It's probably just paranoia that's costing me the $14, not the buyer =/

rose-dee · ‎11-17-2016

@zee-chan wrote:
... but thanks to ebay conditioning me to think of the worst, I forked out another $14 to upgrade to tracked packet wren I normally would just with small packet. It's probably just paranoia that's costing me the $14, not the buyer =/

I wouldn't call it paranoia at all, but self-protection. A lot of us are using TP far more these days for the same reason. You're right that eBay has conditioned us to be afraid of things going sideways, not because we fear dealing with an unhappy customer, but because we fear the punishment from eBay that may result.

To my mind, this is the selling world turned upside-down. Left to our own devices, I think most of us are quite willing to, and accomplished at, working out any issues with buyers to their satisfaction. It's eBay's stringent rules that make that interaction fraught with consequences for sellers. Those ever-tightening rules and policies make me think of a schoolroom where nobody is allowed to be trusted and everybody suffers from restrictions because of one bad apple.

I wish eBay would give experienced sellers with a top track record some leeway in terms of on-time delivery in particular. Will that ever happen? I doubt it.