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First the good: those sweet customers who leave a thank you message when they pay and then message me with another thank you for shipping so quickly!
The bad: okay, I know this is a rant, I’m sorry! But I’ve had 3 customers in a 24 hour period who paid for more than 1 item, didn’t request a combined invoice, and then later messaged me (once AFTER I’d already shipped the items) saying that my shipping is too high and that they expect a refund for combined shipping. These are not newbies either, they all have lots of feedback.
I guess if my shipping was out of line I’d understand it, but my shipping literally just covers my eBay discounted postage plus the eBay/Paypal fees I’m charged on postage. I’m charging LESS for postage than USPS.
If I wanted combined shipping then I would message the seller first, and ask if they would be willing to combine shipping for me. It seems rude to pay and then tell the seller to refund, when the buyer already knew and paid the posted shipping price. I understand doing that when it’s a large discrepancy but for less than a dollar?
Just to be clear, I don’t mind combining shipping and will happily do so, but it irks me that instead of being asked first I’m being TOLD to refund $ AFTER the items have already been purchased. The last customer said in her message: “You can ship these 2 items for WAY LESS than you are charging so send me an invoice with the CORRECT shipping”.
I wonder when she sneaked into my house and weighed the items? I don’t have any weights posted on my items, just the flat rate shipping cost. The difference for the combined shipping in that last case was a whopping 90 cents. Sigh.
Anyway rant over, and to be honest it’s been a really good week with good numbers! Guess that 3rd request caused me to temporarily lose it. Does anyone have any strategies for not letting irksome customers get on my nerves?
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Wow! That sounds very frustrating.
Try to be matter of fact about it and treat it as just another facet of selling. You are the seller, not them. It is on them to say something ahead of time and not wait and then tell you what to do after the fact. I would not refund the shipping if you have charged them accurately and they accepted what was charged. I would offer that you not respond to the messages. If they have a problem, they can send the item back or call ebay. I would move on the next thing. Everyone has an opinion, so you will have to choose whose to follow – yours (who knows the facts) or theirs (whose facts are based on thier perception of the facts). Other sellers may have a different opinion.
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Jay,
That makes sense. And the request for refund because they did not ask for combined shipping until after the items were shipped causing them to be charged for each shipment?
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All depends. If the buyer is aggressive/annoying/condescending, we often use the silent treatment and let them open a case since we know we would win with eBay. Some buyers are just looking for a fight.
But we also always combine shipping and refund for the buyer no matter what. Just makes sense for us since we like to ship efficient.
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Thanks Jay.
I remember another seller noting on one of the SL’s threads that they had a problem because they combined shipping when they were not asked to leavinv them without tracking on the second item which was reported as not arriving.
Have you and Ryanne experienced this? If so, how did you guys handle this?
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when you combine shipping, you need to manually add the tracking number to the 2nd transaction to have it show up, it’s generally not combined by ebay unless they purchased using the shopping cart (though sometimes ebay even splits those transactions up for whatever random reason).
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The issue with combined shipping was because the buyer used a guest account. Both purchases had different account names, so they couldn’t be combined even though the address was the same.
I use the bulk shipping tool, and eBay will notify me if I have purchases that are available for combining. It will automatically combine the two purchases if I give it the OK.
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If I see that the same buyer bought items in different transactions, I’ll combine the shipments and refund any overage *even if the buyer doesn’t ask me to do it*. Because it’s the right thing to do, and keeping an extra $3 or whatever is not worth an angry buyer and negative feedback.
The exception to this is if Item A is something fragile and Item B is a heavy book, (for example), and putting them together would break Item A. Or they bought Items shipping via different carriers and combining the shipping would end up costing more. Then I send a message saying “Your items are coming in separate shipments due to <reason>. Thanks for the sale!”.
Don’t assume that buyers know what you know about shipping or combining purchases, even if they have high feedback and theoretically “should know better”. If they are asking you about it, they are proving they don’t know better. Maybe they only intended to buy Item A but after the sale ebay suggested Item B to them, and they said “Yes, I want that too!”.
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Liz, we follow pretty much what you outlined. Even have a short blurb about it that we cut and paste to the buyer saying we noticed two purchases and will combine if the objects and sizes make sense. If not then they will arrive in separate boxes. Then a short sentence or two that shows them how to request a combined shipment invoice if they so desire.
Mike at MDCG in Atl.
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Let me guess.. they bought inexpensive items…
At this point it becomes an exercise in appeasing an unreasonable buyer. Since the buyer, seems to have all the power these days, I would give them a refund and say something nice to them. You can’t fix whatever is really going wrong in their lives. It makes sense to appease them and don’t engage unnecessarily.
My favorite strategy for getting over it is remembering all the good buyers who pay full price and leave me great feedback.
Good Luck.
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Any time I have a buyer complain about shipping I just send a brief reply stating I charge actual shipping based on actual weights and measurements of the item. If they don’t like that they can pound sand. I’m not getting in an argument with an unreasonable cheapskate. They are not my target buyer.
Typically my concise message shuts them up.
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If someone buys two things with Priority Mail shipping, I’ve noticed if I combine both items into one shipment, I am not allowed to insure the package for more than the value of one item. That leaves the second item uninsured. Anyone found a way to overcome this?
Example: If Item A is $20 and Item B is $30 and I use the Print Shipping Label link for Item B, I am only allowed to insure that package for $30, not $50.
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I don’t buy additional insurance very often, so I’m not 100% sure of the answer. However, I wonder if you are using the bulk shipping tool to combine those items or not. I use the tool, so eBay should know ahead of time that the value of the package is the combined amount. If you simply add the tracking number to the other package after the postage is purchased, then eBay wouldn’t allow more insurance than the one item.
Also, I don’t think that additional insurance is needed in your specific case. Priority mail already comes with $50 worth of insurance; $100 if you are TRS. So, in your example of $20 + $30 items, you would not have any reason to buy additional insurance.
If you are unable to buy additional insurance for a combined package using the bulk editing tool, then you will need to call eBay. Otherwise, consider using the tool, even if just for the two items you are combining, and see if that fixes the issue.
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Huh. That’s interesting. The last time (last week) someone bought two items for me, ebay automatically combined the shipping – there was only ONE “print shipping label” link, not two. And I actually lost money by combingin shipping b/c of dim weight. 🙁
Sorry, I think I went a bit off track. Hopefully others will chime in to help with your particular situation.
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I have such a hard time biting my tongue when people tell me things like that. Sometimes I refund but not always. Do you have an automatic shipping discount set up? Sometimes that helps but then you get the people who can’t figure out how to put things in a shopping cart. 🙂
Saturday I had a gentleman purchase a book for 8.79. He then sent a note along with payment requesting a box to protect it from the rigors of the postal system. And also said since ebay doesn’t include email addresses anymore could I please enclose my email address in the package? Uh nope. And he got his book sent in a bubble mailer doubled over so the book was protected by three layers of bubble wrap. I haven’t heard back from that one. Sometimes you just have to roll your eyes and keep going. It’s the rude ones that are really hard to shrug off though I know. I had a lady email me furious about the old skirt I sent her with the seams pulled out. She was also mad because the hook was missing from the hook and eye. I had mentioned that in the listing and she kept asserting it wasn’t mentioned in the listing. I took the return, paid for shipping both ways and refunded immediately because what can you do.. I am 98% positive she washed it and ruined it because it was a linen skirt and it felt wrong when I got it back. Almost like there was a coating on it? But how do you back that up… Sorry not trying to hijack just trying to empathize.:) – Elle -
Thank you everyone for the feedback on my irksome customer issues.
As So Cal Joe said: “Let me guess.. they bought inexpensive items… At this point it becomes an exercise in appeasing an unreasonable buyer. Since the buyer seems to have all the power these days, I would give them a refund and say something nice to them. You can’t fix whatever is really going wrong in their lives. It makes sense to appease them and don’t engage unnecessarily. My favorite strategy for getting over it is remembering all the good buyers who pay full price and leave me great feedback.”
Yes, they were all inexpensive items, and your comments were just what I needed to hear. I had already given combined shipping postage refunds to each of the customers as soon as I got their messages. And I have always used “kill them with kindness” as a strategy when dealing with demanding customers. So you reinforced that I handled this in the correct way, thanks for that! The reminder that people have problems that cause them to act rudely sometimes and that I have mostly wonderful customers is a great strategy for getting over the handful of rude ones!
And Jay, thanks for the reminder that at least they bought multiple items. Better to rudely buy multiple items than no items at all – for sure!
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