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Answering ebay questions
 

Could I ask you experienced sellers how you deal with ebay questions.

I have always answered them quickly but now that I've moved into different products the same old question keeps coming up "Is the item genuine *****". I obviously cannot lie but wonder if just ignoring the request has any adverse effect with ebay?

I have noticed that those who do ask questions rarely win the auction!

I have searched through previous threads but they all seem out of date.

Any advice would be much appreciated.:ranger:

eBay doesn't require that you answer your potential customers emails. The only adverse side effect would be that you could possibly miss a sale.

You say you notice that those who do ask questions rarely win the auction, but as long as they were bidding they made you more money by increasing the final auction price, and if you wouldn't have answered them they might not have bid at all.

I always answer all questions promptly.

I have many different pre-written emails saved for answering repeat questions and my keyboard is set-up with shortcuts to them. This saves me alot of time.

I don't answer questions, except in very very rare instances. Never had a problem, and this avoids scammers and sneaks.

Hmm, 2 completely opposing points of view.

I don't mind answering questions, in fact I always have. However as I have moved from "white hat" to "black hat" or certainly very dark grey, some of the questions are difficult to answer without leaving myself open to a trap.

I think I'll simply ignore the questions I don't wish to answer.

Thanks again.

I figure it this way, most questions I get are too stupid to dignify or obvious attempts to solicit a lie or whatever.

If by not answering, I lose a potential customer, I don't care. There's 6.9 billion people on planet earth in line right behind the reject I just ignored. And that's just planet earth. You know those martians have satellite internet and shop on ebay, right? That probably explains the mentality of some buyers, eh?

Look at it this way: a real buyer or a time-waster buyer? Why take up your time answering inane questions? I find that if they 'want' your item, they will buy it.
imo, an eager buyer gives less problems. Besides that listing should jump out at them to sell quickly ;)

If you are selling Used, Vintage, Antique, Unique or Rare items...

Expect to answer a fair amount of questions.

But I agree, stupid questions don't get answered and I automatically block that buyer.

You have to realize that alot eBayers (people in this world) just don't see what's in front of them. And with the economic times the way they are, if a buyer is going to spend his or her's hard earned money and doesn't understand something in your ad and asks a simple question, I know if it were me, I would expect a response.

I understand vic's point of view completely. He has helped me alot, always makes complete sense, and has something of great significance to say to everyone on every occasion as far as I have seen.

I always take advice from vicvelcro with complete trust and certainty and never doubt him for a minute, but for once I do disagree about his views on answering questions about auctions.

I completely understand vic's point of view about not answering questions from eBayers to avoid giving information to potential scammer's, sneaks, competitors, or even eBay employees posing as eBayers themselves, (you never know) (I have had this happen and lost an account over it) but, to say you shouldn't answer questions from anyone but on rare occasions, I disagree with unless you determine that most all of your questions come from eBayers with bad intentions.

This can easily be determined by the seller.

I say, answer ALL questions but determine what you say to who by assessing the question itself.

It is then you can control what the questioner thinks and does there after. If he is a potential scammer, point him in the wrong direction, bigtime! (F*** with him.)

But if he was a legitimate, potential buyer just asking a simple question that now since you never answered his simple question, he goes elsewhere to make a purchase and you loose a sale, or worse yet you loose a bidder that could have increased the final sales price of your auction by getting into a bidding war with another eBayer.

But that's just my opinion.

I make good listings. Before I submit my listing, I look at it from every buyer point of view I can imagine. I cover everything and then some. If a person reads the content, they have NO legitimate question. If they didn't read, screw their silly @sses. If they DID read but still ask me something, it's suspect.

I list BIN only, no auctions. I don't need people fighting each other to up my sell price. My stuff always gets me how ever much I want to collect.

There are more shoppers than I have inventory. So even if 1 million people ignore my stuff, it's still going to sell.

I don't need everyone to be my customer because i couldn't supply them all anyhow.

No need to answer questions and can only lead to trouble. If you answer a question and the buyer saves that communication, it becomes binding in the eyes of ebay and PP if a dispute or claim comes up. If you answer a question, a dispute will happen and become a claim. You lose your stuff and the loot you collected.

Nothing good comes from answering questions, unless you did a poor job making your item description.

I Agree. It's all good.

I will say that for some people, answering questions may matter. But in general, even for rare or antique items, a good description should cover any contingency.

How often are the questions nonsensical? How often do people ask about something already covered?

My observation is that anyone who doesn't read the entire description I was so considerate to provide - they'll probably misinterpret any answer I give to any question anyhow. Let them go SNAD somebody else. I don't want to be *that* guy.

So many reasons NOT to let them steal one more second of my ever shortening life... Besides, if we answered everything, all those google employees would be out of work and living in boxes.

I agree 100%

It's just that I have closed many sales by communicating with potential buyers after they had initiated contact by asking a stupid question.

I don't bother and all my items always sell. There's a possibility that some things would have sold 5 minutes sooner if I hadn't ignored a question. But then there's also the same probability that while I was typing an answer, somebody else would have bought the item and the answer would have been wasted.

There's no way to ever know, really. My position is that I don't need any one person for any reason, so if I blow somebody off, the only one who's gonna care is that person. Since I've never met them and I don't owe them anything, too bad.

Once they've bought, it's a whole different thing. Before that, so what?

I see your point.

But then again there probably is a big difference in what I sell and what you sell.

I deal in strictly Non-Tangible items. Websites mostly, website scripts, Hosting ect. There are legitimate questions that can be asked when dealing with these type of products regardless of how good you describe the product in your auction ad.

There is nothing like making a full-time living from selling the same thing over and over again without having to actually ship any actual product.

Good point in re: difference of sale - making questions more or less significant. I really didn't consider that level of virtual/vapor/service type item. I can see where questions could come up which are more likely to be valid questions than oh say somebody asking me if my USB devices run on diesel or do they wind up...

I agree with both, Vic and Webguy cause each is correct in their point of view. It all boils down what is that we are selling, what kind of auction and how much we covered any of potential questions in item description.

I too get ennoyed when asked something that is obvious or clearly stated in my auction.
I judge each question on case to case basis and answer only the legit ones.

Thank you to everyone who responded to this thread. Especially to vicvelcro for your incisive and matter of fact contributions. I have certainly taken your posts on board.

The question I hate most is "is it a genuine ******?"

When a shopper ask you that, give them my email address and send them to me. Tell them to provide me all their background info including PP and ebay login/passwords, PLUS the listing number.

I'll rough 'em off for you.