Forum

I handle tricky situations on eBay by means of stock messages. These are ones I have made up at my leisure and I just cut and paste them to suit.

I NEVER get into arguments with wiseass buyers - life is too short.

My one for buyers who try to advise me on how to do my job goes like this:

Thank you for your interest in my auction/sale item. I have been trading on eBay for almost 10 years but I am sure I can still benefit from your wise advice. Your comments have been notes.

A Brit would recognise this as mildly sarcastic. But I have found from experience that very few Americans (95% of my customers are in USA) DO sarcasm. They tend to take this message as absolute gospel and face value.

*I also never argue with buyers who want to return items. I just give them the address and lay out my terms of trade.

I recently had an Australian buyer claim three antiques I sent her were ⊗⊗⊗⊗. I was tempted to ask "what would you know about European antiques anyway?" However I just sent her the address and told her I would pay her return shipping.

Insead of just returning them she opened a Paypal dispute which Immediately escalated to a claim and picked the option "I will refund the buyer". That means that the buyer has to pay her own return shipping and Paypal holds the funds until she provides tracking info and I confirm that I have the goods.

Buyer was not at all happy about this and so far the tracking # has not materialised. I told her "I would have refunded your shipping but you chose to involve Paypal. So now you must play by Paypal's rules Paypal's rule is that buyer pays return shipping.

I bet she had a fit when she found out how much the tracked shipping was.

If she doesnt return the items & provide tracking Paypal will find in my favour and return the funds to my account. She has only another week.

There is no better feeling than when somebody does that to themselves!

Yes I am a great believer that you make your bed and then have to lie in it. So I try not to do thinks like leaving bad feedback in haste. It often jumbs up to bite you in the bum - or rear as you Americans would say.

But I just spend quite a bit of time hand holding with a Spanish buyer who speaks little English. He ordered and item and unfortunately it emerged broken from storage.

I offered a full refund or partial refund if he picks something else. Buyer wants to see picture of broken item so I sent one plus others for him to choose. He picked one and then wants me to send the broken bits as he believes he can fix them. Well I dont think he can but its his call so I will put them into the box.

Perhaps he thought I was trying to scam him and the item was not really broken!

I once won a real good deal on eBay but obviously the seller didnt think so. He refunded my money and on an abrupt little paypal note simply said "item damaged during packing!"

Well I was pretty mad but I thought well hey items get damaged. So I sent a message asking for the pics as I have a jeweller friend who can fix delicate items. No response. I sent 5 messages in all stating that if he failed to provide proof that the item was legitimately broken I would file a "non performing seller" report and leave a neg and low stars across the board. Seller did not even respond so he got his neg and low stars.

I dont often leave negatives but in this case I think it was fully justified. If you are going to tell a lie then make sure you can back it up.

In handling fussy or difficult buyers another tool I employ is the "virtual" staff member or employee. That is - I come online as a relative or stand in (newbie) employee who is "just minding the store" while my aunt/boss is away/out of town/ill in hospital etc.

My virtual staff are always VERY polite but somewhat clueless and have no authority to do anything.

So you want to get off my aunts blocked bidder list? Sorry I can go against her wishes.

So you cant bid? My advice is to contact customer services. Sorry I could not help.

So you want an extra discount? Sorry Id like to help but I cant ...

All very limp and apologetic but its amazing what stand in employees can get off with.

And several times I have talked a buyer out of leaving a neg because my "elderly and disabled aunt" is having a heart operation and the money she makes on eBay is all she has to live on! Oh wow! I could write a book on some of the tall tales I have told. But what would sound whiney coming from a seller is like a "loyal and concerned" relative when someone else does it.

BTW: I am a senior and disabled as well so its not a 100% lie. But the art is in the telling.

I love your story , you are so cool. I will call you my suphu = master :D ,

I love this ! I have fired many " virtual" staff & employees because they hurt a buyers feelings.

Statements like " Oh I cant imagine that you did not get your item sooner we must let our new assistant go. He was suppose to get your item out days ago ! "

Or

WOW our new staff is incredibly un reliable , thank you for calling this to our attention we will fire them and never let this happen again.

I always reffer to the Negative feedback people choose to leave as the following ...

Imagine having a store front . Leaving a negative is like walking into the store , throwing paint on the goods for sale and walking right out with out any retaliation .

Ebay has rendered us sellers as helpless ! Taking away our right to leave negatives is disabling and un fair. In the real world you can call the cops on some no good A-Hole who chooses to damage your reputation on ebay ... you have to refund, send out free items and bend Over & take it .

OGE.. are u really Tupac?? U must have millions, on all the albums that keeps and keeps on coming out..
why are u on this forum? selling them on ebay? lol:pop2:

Lol i have had that happnd sooo many times smh

I have also telephoned buyers as a "virtual relative" and got them to do feedback revision. People are very different on the phone and buyers in USA are VERY surprised to get a transatlantic phone call! They think it costs the earch but its cheap from my BT hub phone - same price as Skype.

I tell them things like "I know you didnt mean it that way but by leaving a low star you have taken the bread from my aunts table just as sure as if you walked into her house and robbed her. How would you feel if someone did that to your mom and she was a disabled senior?"

and

"Well I believe theres a higher power than eBay that watches over us all. You cant hide behind an email address from him. And one day we all have to pay for the mean and nasty things we did in this world."

LOL people like that make me laugh

Oompah - you are a star!!!:clap:

Yeah...sometimes as a buyer/seller its chicken one day, and feathers the next.
Last year I bought an intercom office phone on eBay. The seller used a stock photo and claimed the item was new.
When it arrived the phone didnt even have a receiver so I messaged him and asked where was the phone receiver.
Long story short he was an @sshole about it and lied and said it was shipped and the box was unopened.
I asked him to either send the receiver or issue a refund and to my surprise the dummy tried to claim I never paid for the item....HA HAAAAAAAAA
This jerk must be as dumb as a bag of toenails because the tracking number was in the PayPal invoice and after contacting Paypal and explaining how I had been scammed, PayPal sent me an immediate refund on the spot.

Needless to say I purchased the receiver for 2.99 on eBay, and left nasty feedback for the seller who not only gave me a free phone, but never changed my positive feedback he left for me after the sale.

Some people are just born dumb, others master it over the years.

Those kinds of customers are the worst good response on your part tho.:hail:

be very careful!!!!

This is a scam. There are buyers out there that look for people who are on a new account. The know that you wouldnt want negative feedback so its kind of like extortion. What i do is...i email them back sayn that you just emailed ebay with with their info and problem that they are having. And i usually say, once they get your info and send my back a suggestion i can refund you. Try that out. I bet they wont email youback after that.

that is actually a good response eencn9 unless they are a ebay employee selling stuff then you are screwed but ofcourse the chance are none.

The best customer service is to smile and nod just like when you girlfriend is telling you about there day after you came from work.

Yes I have come across this several times, I believe this to be true. You get buyers that quibble but do not start a dispute, they want you to budge on a partial refund and keep the item, and I bet they do it on everything they buy and have a good success rate, I do not budge usually when it comes to unreasonable request for refund, these types then go away and never here from them again...

I have had buyers on Ebay who threatened me with a negative if I didnt refund them. One even said "Well you cant leave return negative"

First I Googled their local newspaper. Then I told them "well I can't leave a neg on Ebay but I can do something much worse. I can out you as a blackmailer and petty crim in the XX your local paper. Then all your friends, neighbours, the people in your workplace, church, your kids school etc will know you for a cheapskate petty criminal who thought you could get off with threatening a disabled senior because she lived in another country. Local papers are always looking for juicy human relations shories and I will sure enjoy sending the editor your blackmailing emails with full headers. Yadda yadda."

After that the buyer became silent.

And yes I would have done it!

I have also threatened buyers and sellers who owed me money with debt collectors and having their credit rating trashed.

Yeah, the people who open cases after an ebay account goes down, those are my favorites. There is no mercy, the negative doesn't bother me, the threats don't bother me. Bottom line is, you're sending it back for a refund, when and if it arrives you''ll get it from us or ebay. lol

We should all gang up and create a bad buyers list. i almost have around 1000 in my blocked list on my second ID...... last night after 36 emails tried to explain the client its courier fault proving the consignment number she had but NO she wont budge. Then i said i now feel you are harassing me and my entire conversation is recorded and bad luck she is gone.

Really admire your high EQ!! :thumb:

Re: got a newbie lecture today aka How to handle a fussy buyer
 

you catch more with honey than vinegar, more people should understand that - not just for ebay, you can get 2 different answers depending on how you handle it. call up ebay all accusing and get worse than you expected, call and ask for their help and you are inexperienced and they are so kind and they bend over backwards haha.

Re: got a newbie lecture today aka How to handle a fussy buyer
 

I have a policy of blocking any buyer who asks three stupid questions in a row.

More often than not, it is the buyers that ask a lot of stupid questions that end up complaining and leaving bad feedback.