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Good morning guys: Don’t ask for help too much here at SL, but need a little advice here. We usually know how to handle most issues, having been doing this a long time, but every now and then we get something that we personally haven’t had to deal with. This is a first for us, a PayPal case opened.
A few minutes ago, we got a PayPal email that a buyer opened a PayPal case for a transaction and the buyer stated “they did not authorize this purchase”. This case was showing the Buyer’s name as Vincent [husband of the lady who purchased I am assuming].
The original order was placed on March 8th and the Ebay email address was his wife’s name [Marian with a 42 feedback rating] and the address was verified in the order. It was a small framed painting for $71.39 incl. the cal. shipping to Zone 8 which is Cal. for us here in Atlanta.Shipped Priority. Not bad to get to cal. in 3 days.
The item is showing the progress and it has arrived in CA. and marked out for delivery but no indication it has been delivered yet.
After some PayPal blah-blah it ends with “we will review this as soon as possible”.
It looks like to me that this guys wife ordered the painting [it is a small 6×10 miniature style], he saw the purchase and is trying to get out of it. As of yet, none of the typical by kid ordered it, or my dog bought it type of stuff we all laugh about here on SL.
I did search the SL forums but all the replies were for long, intricate detailed episodes of more complex situations.
So, what is the standard protocol here, for us as a first time receiver of this. Guess we just wait and see what PayPal says or is there anything you guys can suggest that I can do to be proactive in order to minimize the possibility that PayPal will decide against us and just pull funds and pay them back. secondly, will the buyer be forced to send the item back to us, thirdly should I call Ebay and give them a heads up that this is pending and or any other suggestions.
You guys also know us by now, we look at this like this as a cost of doing business, sort of a “shrinkage” type of thing and $72 bucks won’t make or break us by any means, but if without spending too much valuable, productive things we could be doing, like listing to generate more sales, it would be nice if we could short circuit this from happening or get the $72 dolars back at some point.
Any comments or feedback will be much appreciated.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
yep you are right on the lighter fluid. The Zippo can of lighter fluid is marked as a petroleum-distillate and contains some naptha. It is used on cotton insert / wick style lighters. The butane is for the refillable cartridge-tank lighters.
Good follow up. And as you mention some products will attack plastics to be careful and test a small, hidden area first.
mc at MDCGFA
I think you are correct Jay. I think the only way in this particular scenario would be to buy a private label and then embed the tracking number in an Ebay message.
The pickle is that he has a No Returns policy and he was asked to break that policy. I am surprised he even agreed to it, I know we wouldn’t but we do take 30 day returns on everything because we want the buyer to be happy.
Our automatic returns policy has cut down way down on request for returns that are phishing for partial refunds. Either keep it completely or return it for refund. No in between and partials.
You and Ryanne’s time is worth approx. $.50 per minute [assuming $25 per hour x 2080 hrs. per year = $50,000 annually]. If you spend more than 10 minutes on this you have burned up an additional $5 worth of your own productive time.
So, I would tell the guy sorry to bother you. I aplogize for asking you to break your no returns policy. We will keep it, thanks and good luck with your coming year.
Assign a SKU, list it at more than you bought it for, and store it away and FORGET it. As you always have said, “There is a buyer for everything, and it will sell sooner or later, to somebody”.
Just my opinion for what that is worth.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Seems like another effort for the USPS to try to make some money. If you get a troublesome buyer and you need details, you can go to the PO and ask for them to do this tracking for you for free. But who needs it.
This, for me at least, falls into the same category as paying for “Fragile Handling”. Pay extra to get a colored “Fragile” label and they will handle your package more carefully, Yeah, sure, right. They throw it into the same bins, trucks, conveyor belts, same systems, same trucks, same planes, same delivery mini trucks and into the hands of the same delivery people.
So why “extended, more detailed data than what is provided for free. Plus, this is a USPS option and is available only online at USPS.com so don’t think it is interfaced into Ebay, [not sure of that], but if not then who cares and as Sharyn says, who would want to.
mike at mdc galleries and fine art
Yep like Jay just posted and as well as we all know. Some buyers go off the deep at right away.
I agree, it sounded very crazy at first. You did great just explaining the rational and also as you said very coincidental of the timing.
Let’s hope the neg. does get removed, and may you live long and have as few “crazies” as possible. š
mike at MDCGFA
Just now getting around to doing our business taxes. This post helped very much. I had forgoten where to find the PayPal info. and this was a great help.
Thanks,
Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine ArtD&C: In the past, having been in the art publishing / printing business for many years, each edition we published for other artists came with our shops certificate of authenticity. We generated the master with all the pertinent information about the editions such as number in the total edition, screens destroyed after production, our company name, artists name, dates, titles, addresses, materials used, etc., etc. EXCEPT we left the print number section blank.
The purpose was that the artist or his gallery representative was to reproduce the master certificate then when each print was sold, was to write in the number of the print sold on one certificate and include it with the sold print. [i.e. If we did an edition of 125 prints, then on the certificate would be a line item that was like this ____ of 125]. Of course, the actual print was also hand signed in pencil by the artist with his name, date, title and this number stated as a fraction [i.e. 17/125]. So, print number 17 out of 125 came with its own certificate but it had that space hand filled in as 17 and the of 125 was printed and included on the master.
Also, in many cases we would just go ahead and provide the batch of certificates pre-printed and pre-consecutively numbered for the artist or gallery [whomever our client was].
Ok, in our case we knew that the original certificates were actually original, but anybody under the sun with any type of graphic artists background could easily reproduce a certificate, especially with high end tools that are available to artist and they knowing how to get extremely high rez results using those tools.
Now my point to all this is how do you know that what you had was a real certificate in the first place. Sellers for years who bought Murano, Lladro, Fine Art Prints, anything that they bought without the original box, tags, paperwork and certificate could at least easily make a āfake certificateā and also an original decal in the case of hard goods, to include with their listing and in turn list the item at a higher price and so what if it didnāt have the original box, it at least āhad a certificate of authenticityā and or an original decal. I can make these types of items all day long to include with some of our pieces if I was unscrupulous.So, the big question is how did you validate that the certificates you sold were not faked unless you sent them away to have them authenticated yourself, which gets pricey for just a few items, sent to PSA or others?
Validating some clothing items can be done or if an object is counterfeit but a clothing label can be faked easily and so can original decals, certificates and paperwork. Even old instruction manuals that Stephen Schultz sells many times and shown in his Wed. videoās can be faked. Get an āoriginalā, then scan every page, then publish your our manual in color which would pick up all the old creases, water stains, and one could even add light tea water as real stains, and just publish 25 or 50 manuals, then list one every few months as they sell and through the years pass off dozens reproductions as originals.So, while your buyer is claiming yours are āfakesā and you donāt have any way to prove they are not, then turn the tables on your buyer to have her āprove they are fakesā to support her claim. If she canāt provide you or Ebay with a solid verification method, then it is a stalemate and Ebay should side with you and hopefully remove the negative feedback.
We run into this all the time on Etsy. To list something as vintage on Etsy, the rule is it must be at least 20 years old. Well how in the world does a seller prove a glass pitcher or a plate is over 20 years old, if unmarked or has now distinctive pattern, paperwork or much to identify it. But we still list, because our stance, can they or someone else prove the listing is not 20 years old.
You can only list what you are told from whomever you buy the item from and from what you glean from your research. Most resellers are collectors of many things, not collectors of all things and certainly not experts in multiple fields.
So, we wish you good luck and keep us all informed as to what the out come is because I would assume many of us face the possibility of a challenge such as your to the authenticity of many of the items we sell. Many glass and pottery companies have design knocked off in large quantities and you may never know what you have.
Do you know that every $5, $10, $20 dollar bill you receive is real and if not, unknowing to you, have you then passed it off to others? A quandary that we may never know about real vs. fakes-forgeries-knock offs-counterfeits.Just a morning HHhhuuummmm.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
You may very well have
@Atomic Star: Not “As Nuts” as just a short time ago Ebay was pushing for 90 Returns and Free Shipping of which they backed off of, and we are thankful for the relaxing of that “Amazon Wanna Be push they were on.
I’ll take 30 any day over 90. But also think that some people may order something and then go on a 2 weeks vacation, or order something while on vacation and don’t get back from it until two weeks later. Or someone orders a unique one of kind item as a gift for a friend who has a special collection and just doesn’t want to miss out on getting it while it is on a great Sale, but doesn’t open it and proceeds to wrap it and then discovers two or three weeks later it is not what it was supposed or assumed to be. regardless of who is at fault, they want to return it.
We can live with 30 days easily, but 90 days falls more into the “nuts” category to us.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Sure the heck is. Hey an idea. Sell the $250 one, re-buy the $85 one and smile all the way to the bank. And BTW, give them a good feedback in return for the $165 profit they gave you.
Strange business model – SOP if you ask me. If they do that a lot, we can take bets as to how long they can stay in business. š
mike at MDCGFA in Atl
I agree my Cottage. This is a very minor tid-bit. The only change from the past is that the Buyer will get more days to return and a few extra days to provide tracking as proof of the return. Everything else about the same.
really this point of the Update is of no real concern to use as it applied to our business model and SOP’s. Same old, same old.
Much more interesting talking points in the update of interest to us. But no real concerns.
We are more focused on the Main Category and sub-category changes and the associated Item Specifics changes and how much work will we be involved in to get all those added changes implemented.
Mike at MDCGFA
RTWV… Yep, like Jay says, this is how it has been for a long time. If a buyer has 30 days to ask for a return, that means 30 FULL Days, so up until 11:59:59 PM in there time zone [a full 30 days] they can ask for a return.
Then if a seller is on the automatic system, a label is auto. generated immediately and Ebay sends it with a message they have 5 days and gives a date to re-pack and ship. If after that period of time the item is not showing a return tracking number a seller can ask Ebay to close the case. But that early closing only applies to the time frame Ebay gave them to return the package after they requested a return and it was approved and a label generated.
The 30 day time frame that a Buyer is entitled too, is what it is. 30 full 24 hour days down to the minute before the 30 days expires.
Now we have heard here on SL about Return Requests coming in AFTER the time frame is up and that’s a different situation. If a seller has 30 day return and someone messages them after 45, 60, 70, 90 days, I think a “NO” to the return is in order.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
Good guess Jay. And maybe the punches create the pilot holes for the cobbler to drive his nails in and keep them all evenly spaced.
Or, still some type of pilot holes for a leather item, like Sharyn says, where the hand stitching stays evenly spaced when using a hand awl.
MAYBE .. ??
mike at MDCGFA
Spring Seller Update..
I like what I have been reading and many changes seem to be aimed at helping or supporting sellers.
Some of the information covers things that have already happened in Oct. and Nov. 2019 and details on some newer things.
It is worth a read, in my opinion, and this time I came away feeling pretty good. The Q&A at the end of each section / topic gives some more perspective also.
I think it does some of the things that the Ebay was discussing yesterday at their first ever live town hall meeting. [links to this are above somewhere].
Also more details into what is still to come with regards to Item Specifics. That topic is still going to have more changes coming over the rest of this year.
mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
That’s right. I forgot it was to be a “phased in” approach. Ok, we will see how the first round goes and hope I am not one of the first group! š
They will probably start with the smaller sellers, just in case. Could you imagine the they started with the stores that had 10’s and 10’s of thousands of listings and it glitched! š
mike at mdcgfa
Yep.. you were first. And true, it remains to be seen, but they did mention some topics of importance to all of us and they are working on them.
What I am expecting though is there going to be a big KA-BOOM, when they force eveyone over into Managed Payments. And if so, that may take all their resources thrown at that to fix as quickly as possible.
We can read more details tomorrow when the actual update rolls out. Oh Joy!
mike – mdcgfa
