posted on April 19, 2001 06:37:00 PM new
Tonight when I confirmed a half order, up came language basically saying that if a book doesn't arrive, they will charge the seller unless we provide proof of insurance and tracking [DC?]. I can't see that all this is covered by the shipping allowance, which often doesn't cover even the price of mailing the book in the first place.
Does anyone here routinely buy all that for half.com sales? I don't plan to.
posted on April 19, 2001 07:34:11 PM new
I wondered about the need for DC, mainly because of the potential for buyer fraud. Here's the e-mail I received from them on March 14th:
At Half.com, we understand that sometimes items may occasionally get
lost in the mail and we would not penalize a seller for such instances.
If a buyer reports that an item never arrives, our Trust & Safety team
investigates the matter with the seller, and cooperates with the buyer
to reach a resolution suitable to all parties. If you always confirm
and ship items on time, your selling experience at Half.com will be a
fun, exciting and profitable experience!
posted on April 19, 2001 07:57:17 PM new
I put my account "on vacation" while I think about this. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't keep part of the shipping allowance PLUS their percentage of the sale. I felt that was okay as long as they were absorbing the losses when a book never reached the buyer. Now they want us to take all the risk, and they are STILL keeping part of the shipping allowance!
posted on April 20, 2001 05:39:49 AM new
plus, there is no way for us to communicate directly with the customer. I just had an ebay customer email me 3 times about a book sent media mail. I was getting ready to scan in my postage receipt to prove I mailed it, when I got the "oh, it came today, sorry" message.
I believe that a customer on half can't request a refund for at least 30 days, though. That should take care of most slow deliveries. The only one that I know of that never arrived that I mailed actually came back to me many weeks later. The buyer had given an incorrect address of some sort, but I had no way to email them to ask for a new address.
posted on April 20, 2001 07:17:32 AM new
I just noticed this wording on half this morning while confirming. If they do not compensate us for this, I certainly cannot use it except on an expensive book where it pays to CYA.
The best policy is to verify the address on USPS or National Address Server. This gives you a zip+4 too. I've been doing this for quite some time. With a complete barcode, most of my packages get to the customer in record time.
posted on April 20, 2001 08:13:45 AM new
The idea that we can't contact the customer made me dump Half.Com after a customer waited two months for a video that I shipped out, before they got a refund.I could have easy replaced it if I had known.Instead I got a negative feedback and the customer had to fight with Half.Com to get a refund.I have learned Half.Com is a waste of time,and alot of headache I don't need.
posted on April 20, 2001 08:55:29 AM new
I was on half.com last night and you can now contact the buyer, if you go to recently sold items, there is a link "report a problem". Buyers can ask you questions as well before they buy. That one I'm not too thrilled about.
posted on April 20, 2001 11:36:24 AM new
bevhead - I had no idea. thanks for the heads up. I don't mind questions if it prevents grief down the road. If asked, I would also strongly suggest Priority mail to West Coast buyers, as I do for ebay buyers.
posted on April 20, 2001 05:25:07 PM new
Unfortunately, the Report a Problem link, while an improvement (and you have to click on "Details" to get the link to come up, BTW), does not provide you with the buyer's email address. You have to send your message through the half.com gatekeepers. Gee, where'd they get *that* idea?
posted on April 20, 2001 08:16:55 PM new
When buyers use the new Ebay message system, I get email that says "I have a question, please email me" so I have to write back "OK".
They don't want to actually write their question so that ebay can read it. And they have been innocuous questions, too.
posted on April 20, 2001 08:40:59 PM new
That one rubbed me the wrong way, too. They're not upping reimbursements, so they want us to absorb hefty costs like that into already razor-thin (if not nonexistent) margins.
This from a company that hiked seller reimbursements by the exact amount of a postal increase (13 cents for 1 lb. bulk mail), but charged buyers not 13 cents more, but 30 cents.
Simply put, both eBay and Half are being told by Wall Street that they have to make a higher % of their money upfront regardless of whether an item sells. I guess they see us sellers as maybe the 2/3 of the Titanic passengers that won't get on the lifeboats and want to be like the character that sneaked on.
Wall Street also is counting on eBay to enforce pricing power through dominant position (a la Microsoft). So much for the idea of serving the customer better. Both eBay and Half need more competition but it seems like Amazon and Yahoo aren't rising to the challenge.
posted on April 21, 2001 04:08:14 AM new
My sales on Amazon are doing pretty well. I generally list on BOTH half.com and Amazon so I am able to see which sell where. There's no particular pattern. I am tempted to dump half.com because of their many unsavory qualities, but the bottom line is continued sales there...so I am biding my time for now.
