posted on June 12, 2003 06:59:29 AM new
This is probably small potatos compared to some of your problems.
But the thing that absolutely drives me up the wall is when some newbie bidder wins one of my auctions -- and then up and disappears -- you never hear from them again, they don't pay, or respond to e-mails!
I've got two of them now from last Sunday's auctions, both bidders with only 1 feedback each, on books that sold one for $103.50 and another for $31.00. These dolts beat out better feedback bidders, and now its in the 4th day since auction ended, and not a peep from either of them, with three e-mails now sent to each.
About the 6th time this has happened this year so far -- last month I even got one of them thrown off eBay, because I finally pulled their contact info & phoned them only to find out no one at the other end had ever heard of the person!
Not only that, but on the small percentage of bidders who ultimately deadbeat, I've found that fully 75% of them are bidders with feedback of 9 comments or less.
Sorry -- I needed to vent! As I say, probably small potatos, but these people sure piss me off.
Starting with my next auction group I've decided to include this paragraph at the end of my regular terms:
NOTICE TO NEW BIDDERS WITH FEEDBACK OF 9 OR LESS: You’re welcome to bid, but if you win one of my auctions, it is vital you contact me immediately to arrange for payment. If I do not hear from you within 3 days of auction ending, negative feedback will be left. Also, if your feedback is 9 or less and contains ANY previous negative feedback comments, don’t bid – I simply will not accept or honor your bid, no exceptions or excuses.
posted on June 12, 2003 07:13:40 AM new
The auctions ended only 4 days ago and you've already sent 3 emails each? I send out the initial WBN after the auction ends. I wait another three days. If I haven't heard from them by then (now technically the 4th day since the auction closed), I will email them a reminder. Three emails in the course of 4 days is too many. I've ntoiced a couple of things lately:
1. A lot of my new bidders are using the computers at work. If an auction ends on a Friday, they don't get my email until Monday.
2. Checks and money orders just show up in the mail or a payment through Paypal will show up with no prior email contact.
3. If you are sending an automated email (such as with Vendio) it's a good idea to make your reminder email one you wrote yourself. Some bidders have told me they don't want to use the Vendio system or the eBay system.
Just when you assume the worse, you hear from them or receive a payment. Put more days inbetween your emails or you'll come across looking like a pest to your bidders. JMO.
Cheryl
My religion is simple, my religion is kindness.
--Dalai Llama
posted on June 12, 2003 07:29:41 AM new
I hate to beat this one to death but are they on AOL? I know that AOL is trying not to spam block regular e-mail but it is still happening. If that's the case, send an invoice through eBay instead of your ISP.
You are a bit anxious with all of those e-mails. It's a busy time of the year. If you don't hear in a week you can NPB alert them. That should get a response. Personally, I wait until the two weeks I state in my TOS is up.
You might also check their bidding history. If they are spree bidders or won the same book for less I'd go right to the NPB alert at seven days.
I disagree about the 3 e-mails sent. Initial e-mails were sent on Sunday evening. Usually that's it for me, just one e-mail to 99.9% of bidders, most using Paypal to pay pretty quickly.
However, one of these bidders is in Canada, as I am, so I needed their postal code in order to calculate postage -- requested that, no response, waited 2 days, sent 2nd request, no response, after 3 full days passed, told them that if no response by Friday evening, game's over.
Other bidder, with only 1 feedback, this is the one on the $103.50 auction, a fairly high amount for a bidder with no bidding history to go on -- I'm working from past experience here, having sold full-time on ebay for 5 years now -- so 1st e-mail with payment info sent Sunday night, after 2 days & no Paypal or anything else, asked politely if they could inform me the method by which they would be making payment, then again, after 3 full days, gave them 2 more & then I call it off. After all, for me I do this for my income, I really don't care to screw around, or be screwed around, on a very decent sale.
I had 95 auctions end on Sunday, and only 27 are not yet paid for, and everyone else has been fine -- these new bidders have to learn to play by the rules or get off eBay!
BTW, one is in Canada, the other is an earthlink.net address. I've really never had any problems at all with aol communication.
I agree basically -- my TOS states payment within 15 business days, that's actually 3 weeks -- and generally that's what I wait for, however, I'm extra vigilant for very low feedback bidders, just because I've been burned by them so frequently before, and these two were special circumstances each.
I don't bombard regular bidders with anything more than 1 payment e-mail, and an acknowledgement if they send a response, or a Payment, then I acknowledge that & let them know when I'm shipping their item.
posted on June 12, 2003 08:44:41 AM new
Upriver,
I think you should do the NPB alert at seven days. Why waste your money on a long distance call. It might shake them loose. And it will protect your FVF should you have to re-list. You are right, if I paid over $100 for a book, I'd want it sent ASAP.
Are they busy bidding on other things? I hate it when you get some excuse like death in family or sick or out of town and then you check the bidding history and they have been busy burning up the keyboard with bids.
You don't need a Canadian postal code for USPS. For some reason it costs the same to mail to Nova Scotia as to Yukon. Go figure.
posted on June 12, 2003 08:49:14 AM new
Hi again Jensmome,
Yeah, the postal code is because I'm in Canada too. All my U.S. destination stuff is flat rate delivery listed in the auction description, because I pop across the border to mail it from a USPS post office, but the Canada items all vary region to region, so I need their info to get the rates.
We don't have book rate here either, so Canadian bidders often freak out when they see how much the shipping cost is!
