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I kind of don’t get it. I had a lady message me today saying my shipping was too high because a set of 14 ceramic figurines couldn’t possibly weigh 4 lbs with packaging, and I must have meant 15 ounces. I get messages like these every week or so and sometimes they are helpful, like I tend to mislabel viking glass and people will point it out, but others are just weird. I don’t charge more for shipping than what it costs, but it seems like people in California especially are upset with my shipping prices. This lady also said she had no intention to buy, but because of the price it’ll take my stuff longer to sell. Like, at that point why bother messaging me?
Ugh, rant over.
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Lauren, you’re not alone. I’ve gotten the same sort of messages occasionally. Once a lady looking for linen fabric read me the riot act because my listing for bedding had the word Linens in the title.
I responded to her message with the definition I looked up in the dictionary: “Linens are fabric household goods intended for daily use, such as bedding, tablecloths and towels.” Then said I hoped she would also contact the dictionary publishers to let them know that according to her one of their dictionary definitions for linens was wrong.
I assume that these sorts of people have anger issues and are looking for a safe place to vent. The up side is it leaves me feeling grateful that I don’t know them IRL.
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Yeah, there are the annoying messages from people who want the item but are just sniping about the shipping, item condition, price. Its a weird haggling technique that doesnt work.
But we also get the messages from collectors who just want us to know we’ve misidentified an item. We make a lot of money because people freely help us to put the right terms in the title.
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I had a guy on the West Coast ask me if a heavy lava lamp was going to the moon and back for the cost of shipping. I said, why yes, it will.
These comments, though, often get me to change the main shipping method to FedEx.
But like Jay says, we get those eBayers offering good advice. Recently, someone informed me that a handmade wood rasp I have is not a carpenter’s tool, but an automotive restoration tool. When I changed the title, eBay told me I had it priced a few dollars too low, so I adjusted that as well. And, of course, thanked the messenger.
Now, there’s another case where I offered my advice, and it was rejected! My husband and I signed up for a Mikasa pattern called Firesong for our wedding. Occasionally, I buy replacement pieces on eBay. Strange, though, is the fact that Mikasa has two patterns called Firesong. One seller had a whole spiel on his listing about the designer and the pattern being active until 1989. We got married in 1999, so I’m pretty sure his information is about the other pattern, so I explained that to him. He told me that he found that information on the internet, and maybe we signed up for leftover inventory. I don’t think Macy’s carries 10 year old, inactive patterns. But, if it says so on the internet, it has to be true, right???
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Lol thanks all.
I’m definitely appreciative of people that help me identify weird things, its a huge help (like I said above, it seems like any glass piece I can’t identify was made by Viking. I should buy a book, lol)
It makes me laugh that it’s a bargaining tactic. This lady flat out said it would take forever to ship at that price for shipping, as if I could somehow make things lighter. I run into this problem a lot from California buyers, since it’s zone 7 for me, so I don’t ship to them often. Then on the other side, I just had a lady pay $40 shipping for a $30 item, through GSP to Canada, for a 10 lb item. Back on my belief that if you really want something, you’ll pay for shipping.
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What I really don’t get is when the customers are insulting.
I got a message the other day “This VHS isn’t worth more than $10.00 and you should be grateful I making even that offer”. I did not respond. [But I wanted to tell the customer, ” I would sooner set this VHS on fire than sell it to you for $10.00″
But I wonder…does that tactic work? Does this guy send out 10 insulting offers a day and 1 out of 10 people accept?
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I got a message the other day “This VHS isn’t worth more than $10.00 and you should be grateful I making even that offer”. I did not respond. [But I wanted to tell the customer, ” I would sooner set this VHS on fire than sell it to you for $10.00″
I have been known to respond in this way. Not my best moments.
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Insults about shipping charges are inevitable result of the Cult Of Free Shippng!
Most questions that come in are now “how dare you charge so much for shipping!” ‘almost always from the other side of the country. And offers come in that deduct exactly the shipping cost.
I just reply “here’s the weight and dimensions, we use calculated shipping, what you see is what you get.”
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I did have an entertaining exchange with someone the other day who offered 20% of my asking price for watch parts. Th offer came with the note “you can get these for .25 a piece”.
I politely declined the offer with the note, “if you can find them for .25 each, why aren’t you buying them from that vendor?”
In a few hours, I got another offer for 30% of my asking price. I declined to comment.
Immediately, I got an offer or 35% of my asking price with the note “please don’t hate me”.
I took five minutes to do some research. I looked at the buyers feedback (Jay, this is one reason feedback is still relevant and useful). From his purchases and feedback on his sales, I could tell that he repairs watches. His last three sales were for over $200.00 each.
I counter-offered him with 60% of my asking price and a note, “I would never hate a fellow reseller. We are both just trying to make a living. It looks like you are doing good fixing watches.”
He accepted immediately.
IMO that’s a great transaction. He was full of B.S. when he offered the first low ball, but he was never insulting.
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I get a few genuinely helpful messages identifying an item or clarifying what it is, but I probably get more from the column of hostile/weird/confused/”negging” my items or listings. This may be extreme, but I block anyone who sends me messages like this. It is basically to reduce drama and difficult customers. They may as well raise their hand and say “Hello, I have emotional and/or mental health issues”. When I don’t block them, without fail 2/3 of them start returns/open cases. I consider those messages a warning that they are going to be demanding or irrational, so they are doing me a favor by letting me know up front.
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workhorse, I completely agree. I expect people to think actual shipping costs are too expensive since Amazon has conditioned people into thinking shipping is free. So those types of messages don’t bother me. And I do appreciate the rare messages I get from people giving me more information on an item I have for sale.
But when people are super dramatic about my eBay listing for no apparent reason? To me that’s a sign that something is amiss with that person. I also block people who send over-the-top and odd messages.
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workhorse, that’s a great point!
Here’s the thing- I sell on Ebay and FBM
On FBM- I have 74 people blocked. Anyone that’s stood me up on meeting, sent negative information, or cyberbullied me (yes, THAT happened last week).
On ebay, I have 7. I only block the worst of the worst. Maybe I need to change my game up and start being more strategic with who I do business with.
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I have to admit I sent one of these emails myself not to long ago. I sell a fair amount of books and there’s nothing more deflating than looking up a book, seeing several prices in the $40 to $60 range and then one person selling it for Five dollars! and half the time they’ve got shipping for a couple dollars or free!
So I decided to email the seller who had numerous other books for sale at $5 and nicely ask why do they do that. As in, how can you afford to spend the time listing a book so cheaply and make money? Why bother?
Not to mention if everyone is $30 higher why go so low?
I did not get a reply :/
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Yeah, on one hand I’d like a message that says I should be charging more for an item, but personally I hate seeing the little “Ebay” notification on something that doesn’t actually have a sale attached to it. I had someone today messasge me if I had recieved an item yet (it isn’t due to come for a month- China regular post) so I woke up to a message, got excited, opened it, and realized it wasn’t actually a sale, and got a little annoyed. Now, if I was selling 30 items a week I feel like I wouldnt have as much excitement as I do now, but I’m still excited any time something sells.
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