posted on January 31, 2001 04:08:03 PM new
We should have know it was going to be bad from the beginning.
We had a buyer who wanted to combine shipping on several different auctions. He had won 2 items from one week and 2 from another week. He also wanted to bid on something from the next week. We happily agreed to wait and combine everything into one package to save on shipping costs for him.
When everything was ready, we gave him the grand total. Then we got a phone call. I spent 10 minutes explaining the total cost of the invoice to him and everything seemed okay again.
One week later, the payment had not yet arrived. No problem. We are in Canada and things take a bit longer to get here. We are understanding about the mail system.
We get another phone call. This time I spend 20 mintues convincing him that we really had not received his payment yet and that mail really does take longer to arrive in Canada. After a lengthy explanation, he finally agrees to wait a bit longer.
Two weeks go by, no payment yet. I guess mail was really slow this month. Sure enough, we get another phone call. One of my partners spends 30 minutes on the phone explaining that we are not thieves, crooks or liars. We simply do not have his payment. He finally relents and hangs up.
17 days after the end of the last auction, the payment arrives. We pack up his items and ship them off. We send him an email indicating that the packages had been sent and that they would take around 2 weeks to arrive because they were coming from Canada.
Each and every day since he was notified that the items were sent, he sends an email saying that his items have not arrived yet. I try to placate him by telling him that international shipping can take some time but no dice. The emails continue to get more irate until last Sunday when we get another phone call.
Sure enough, he thinks we've ripped him off and he's not afraid to tell us. My partner spends a full hour on the phone explaining the situation (yet again) and asking him to be patient. The conversion ends with us telling him that the package has been in the mail for a week and will likely need some more time to arrive and there is not much more that we can do for him. He's not happy but he hangs up.
Then the negatives appear. 5 of them.
So we have spent 2 hours of phone time with this buyer, sent dozens of emails and combined shipping from auctions over a 4 weeks period to save him money, and we still can't satisfy him.
To top it all off, when I check the payment amount against the auctions, he has not included the cost of shipping at all. In fact, he has short-changed us another $3.00!
The only silver lining to this cloud is that we only give feedback once we have received feedback so we can respond in kind to this buyer. If we had given him postives as soon as we shipped, I think my head would have popped off by now!
posted on January 31, 2001 06:15:37 PM new
Ugh! That's the kind of bidder I have nightmares about. All that coddling and then they give you negatives....
My condolences! Thank goodness you hadn't left feedback yet, you can forwarn other sellers!
Martiniswiller (not my name on eBay)
posted on January 31, 2001 06:52:53 PM new
Contact eBay [email protected]
according to their feedback policy: I quote:
Circumstances Where eBay Will Consider Removing Feedback
Multiple (3 or more) feedbacks left by the same user as part of a campaign to harass one or more users.
good luck
[ edited by igolf on Jan 31, 2001 06:53 PM ]
posted on January 31, 2001 07:04:08 PM new
I hope the bidder paid for the phone calls & that they cost alot. What a creep, hope you can get some negs removed by eBay & then leave him some.
posted on February 1, 2001 08:06:32 AM new
That is a nightmare experience!! However awful it is, you must pick yourself up and dust yourself off. There are people who are just so distrustful of people they are forever painting everyone with the same brush. It must be awful to live in their world. Your negs or neutrals will help everyone else out though find these few Nervous types before an auction ends.
The following general info may or may not help someone (expecially to new Canadian sellers) in the future but for what it's worth...
I explicitly point out delivery time estimates in the auction and many times in the email invoice with a link to canada post.
Most items I ship are also small packets & are uninsurable/ untrackable- so I provide the option for buyer to purchase "registered mail" with D/C card for a discount. Most (especially the nervous ones) have chosen to pay the extra in exchange for peace of mind. I also now email a copy of all postal receipts - registered or not - to the buyer same day as shipment. I have had only a couple of really impatient buyers (that I knew about) and I certainly try to sympathize with them, but I wont get into a "back and forth" except respond with something similar to this "Thank you for note. Your item was shipped on XX/XX/XX. Please let me know when it arrives. Thank you for your interest in our auctions."
All of these things help the majority of nervous buyers and for the ones that it doesent - estimate 1%- there is not much to do.
If after 30 days item has not arrived a refund is due.
