Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Finally got issue resolved.
Buyer claimed they didn’t see or have the option to cancel. So, I took the bull by the horns. Canceled the sale from my end, with buyers permission of course, selected buyer requested to cancel.
Reworked the listing, took it off of GSP, even though GSP does ship to Sweden, create a new International Priority Mail policy, editing the listing and reposted it.
He bought it right away, paid instantly, knows she is to cover the VAT and Import Fees and paid for everything. It left this morning. $150 lion statue plus $92 shipping.
So everything is finished state side. Now comes the wait to see if he gets it and without any problems.
Thanks for all the input / advice / opinions guys and gals.
mike – mdcgfa
Yep. I knew about having to add the verbage about VAT / Import fees back in and also included that in my last message to her.
She as of now has not responded to my message and request for her to cancel. I assume she still wants to proceed with the transaction. They are 6 hours ahead of us here on EST so it is about 7 pm there. She has had hours to act and cancel. She may not want the small buyer ding of canceling and using changed my mind as a reason.
Since she did include the Ebay rep message to cancel and relist, I guess i could as you say, go ahead and do that for her. But officially, as the buyer, she personally hasn’t asked me to do so or indicated that she is agreeable to a cancellation and relist situation. But I think enough was covered that I would be OK issuing the cancellation from my end. Relisting and editing it and then send her the link to the new listing.
Then if she still wants it she can buy it, ask for an invoice and I send her the new total. I will also bury an AGR fee into it now.
AGR is our in house code for “Aggravation” 🙂 🙂
mike-mdcgfa
That is very interesting MD:
I wonder if it has anything to do with Managed Payments. We were brought into MP about 2 or 3 weeks ago. But no international orders up until now.
Are you in MP? If so, this may be an avenue that I need to check with the local [hopefully] rep when I call them later.
Could be that MP is having an issue with Pitney Bowes doing the billing as a third party and Ebay can’t get it’s share somehow? I even think I remember reading or hearing about MP and GSP not playing well together on the playground. Have to also backtrack that thought and see what I can dig up.
Didn’t Jay or Ryanne mentioned that once they got put on MP that they would have to decide if they are going to ship direct. I know Ryanne has said recently that GSP is still a go to for her, but for some reason think the topic of MP & GSP popped up as bumping heads somewhere.
Hhhmmm… Just too busy to spend much time right now to dig it out of Google or Ebay forums.
mike – mdcgfa
Hey D&C: I just remebered I can’t end a listing until the purchase is canceled. I told them to request a cancellation and we will quickly accpet their request. This will end the unpaid item status [no case is open currently-just not paid yet].
I told them to select “Changed my Mind” as a reason. Then once it is canceled I will be able to unlist it, edit and re-list as I desire. But until canceled it is sort of frozen to edits, changes, cancels and the like.
Sent all this to her and will see if she follows through on the request. I know I can cancel from my end if I have her request to do so in writing, but I prefer to just let her do it. Who knows, she may bail and not do it.
Ball is in her court and I am just going to wait and see what she does.
Thanks all… mike – mdcgfa
Thanks guys. I will call a local rep here first to see what they say. Then maybe just do as D&C mentioned. Unlist it, do it over, take it off GSP and message them and invite them to start over. Only this time ask for an invoice and tell them they will have to pay VAT-Customs stuff themselves.
Maybe that’s all they are fishing for is to by pass GSP and lower the shipping costs.
I will do all of that later.
mike – mdcgfa
Thanks for the reply Sharyn:
I just woke up and saw a message from the buyer She said she contacted the Ebay rep from Sweden. This is the reply she got.
<h3 align=”left”>Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service! I understand that you need help about paying for the item. It’s my pleasure to assist a valued member like you.Mats, I am sorry to hear that this transaction was not yet completed I appreciate your effort in contacting the seller to work things out.
I carefully checked the item and I was able to see here that it’s not restricted and I don’t see any issue on your account that will not allow you to pay for the item.
To resolve this issue, the seller will just need to relist the item not under our Global Shipping Program in that way he will just send you invoice with a shipping cost of the item.
So, it seems you need to relist. I will take the action you said and cancel the order.
Chat later</h3>
So if I read this correctly, the rep said nothing is wrong with the listing, nothing is wrong on the buyers side but seems Ebay can’t complete the Sale. So their solution is for me [the seller] to relist the item and NOT USE THE GSP Program as it is intended to do.I understand many people ship to countries outside of GSP but I have never wanted to do so. By doing that it eliminates all the protection that the seller and buyer have and other benefits under the GSP Program.
I am beginning to wonder if this is something this buyer has done before, says they can’t pay, uses this same Ebay excuse just to get the Seller to pull out of the GSP Program umbrella and ship directly.
Why would a rep that sees everything is OK on both the Buyer and seller sides, sees no issues, yet tell a Seller to cancel the listing, re-list, figure out own our own the VAT and Import fees, then send an invoice and hope everything goes well.
To me that is what the GSP program is supposed to do.
BTW notice the last sentence. “I will take the action you said and cancel the order”. Well that was not done. It still shows as a purchase and is in the “Awaiting for Payment” section of my seller hub.
Even though it is a $225 statue that went for $168 on an offer, I am thinking I should not go through all of this. Since the item also has not been canceled from her end like the Ebay rep said [maybe if real], is cancel it myself stating that the Buyer requested the cancellation. Or no, better still just let her cancel it. Then when it comes through, I will kill the listing and relist as it was before, still using the GSP and let her try agagin. If not then she is just out of luck.
Even though it is a $168 Sale, she hasn’t even seen what the final Import Fees and VAT is and could after all of this still change her mind. To me the $168 sale is not worth the “potential risk of what this may be” or the hassle.
Any opinions from those who ship International and don’t use the GSP?
Thanks,
mike – MDCGFA
Well OD that’s a thought. Even though we have other keywords like statue, figurine, sculpture an algorithm can’t “think” per say but with all the focus on the accomplishments of “AI” these days you would think that 3 or 4 keywords pointing or referencing an inanimate object that then the use of the word “Lion” would be grouped into that circular reference.
But who the heck knows these days. I think I should include in my written daily agenda a section for “DWATCI” [pronounced dwat-chi]. It means “Deal with all the Crap Issues” of the day. 🙂 This section could be a real time suck as i am finding out. Not due to scaling up our business but dealing with all the online “CRa..uh, “Stuff”] 🙂
OK, so much for fun stuff. Have to go and figure this out for this lady and “answer a customer question, How Red is this Red Vase”. No just kidding, but as we all know and have experienced, it does happen.
Fun, fun, fun. But seriously thanks for the point in that direction. It is a $150 offer we accepted so worth the look see.
Thanks,
mike – MDC Galleries
One other suggestion if you are not a face to face talker. Just make up a small several page “Helper Handbook”. Create a table of CONTENTS that list the broad topics to cover. Example: In Office Procedures, Breaks, Getting Paid, Please Refrain From, Attendance [call outs, no calls no shows], Warnings, Parking, Breaks and Lunches, Bathroom Breaks, Use of Office equipment, Rewards, Bonuses and Benefits, Payroll Processes, etc., etc.
Then when a helper first starts, just over over everything, cover all the topics verbally which allows you to just sort of read the booklet or sheets out loud, ask them if they understand everything or have any questions, then give them that copy along with their first time sheet.
I have run very large companies in the past, had several hundred employees and authored 6 Employee Handbooks which all become SOP for us. Mine were long enough to go into “Tabbed” 3 ring binders and had an employee sign off page at the end.
But following that concept on a very small one or two page scale, is very helpful when having to deal with other people. Everything is in writing, it avoids problems and misinterpretations down the road and serves as a point of reference when an emplyee or “helper” in this case does something [an infraction] that was clear not to do from the beginning or forgets.
If things happen that was not in your original “Employee Helper Guidelines”, then the two of you discuss it, listen to their point of view, then state yours and amend your sheet to include the topic and give the helper a new and revised copy. Also at the very back and end of your document always enter the date and time in small text so you have a revision and reference date for your “Helper Guidelines” sheet.
I know this may sound a little too formal for just you and one helper, but believe me it is not, when it comes to people. Personnel was always a point of consuming time for me and as a V.P and my Supervisory staff.
No matter how small or insignificant you may think an issue is or how small your online business is, if you are going to have anyone help you from the outside world, having your thoughts, your beliefs, your processes, your intentions, your direction, processes and flow down in writing is always a good foundation for you in building a company, no matter how small you are.
It is just like getting your own business checking account, your own business credit card, your own tax ID number, your own accountant, keep business expenses. It is just good to know business SOP’s. create them, use them, rely on them. Standardize everything you can and get it down in writing.
Just my opinion from someone who started very small with a few thousand dollars back in 1972 and with my partner built a very large business.
And most of all, have fun doing it, focus your help, and grow your business.
Mike at MDCGFA
I developed a spread sheet for our helpers. One sheet each for each helper, one sheet per month. It is their time sheet. Each row going down has the day 1 -31 rows. The columns going across are Morning – In and Out and afternoon In and Out.
When I first start a helper I give them a sheet and show them how to fill it out. Time start in the morning and out and then I state if they are going to take an extended break other than the restroom, to log out. Take the time they need for personal phone calls and or to eat. Then log back in when finished.
I also state I don’t allow answering personal phone calls, Facebooking, texting or whatever while working, I will be mentioning to log out if I glance over and see it. They all have been ok with it so far. We have gone through 5 or 6 helpers over the last 3 or 4 years.
I also allow them to do work from home on a piece rate basis, which I add to the bottom of the spread sheet if they do any. That is easy to track. If they use TeamViewer to log into the laptop I keep open for them, I can see how many listings they do.
We pay monthly. At the end of the month, I take their spread sheet and just enter the time in decimal format and the spread sheet automatically adds and calculates their pay. Very easy and quick. About 5 minutes. I print out 2 copies one for me and one for them.
I give them their original hand written sheet back to check against my spread sheet one I give them and also give them a new sheet for the next month.
There are a ton of pre-made Excel spread sheets – Time Sheets available that also come with the formulas to calculate everything already filled in. I made ours from scratch and wrote my own formulas so I could customize it the way I wanted. This too was pretty easy.
Hope this helps.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
MDC Concepts, Inc.
Collins Creek Collections
And don’t forget that more and new changes are coming to the Item Specifics area and hard goods, home decor, home and garden and several others are mentioned as getting changes.
Hope they don’t mess it up as bad as when they did this to the clothing categories about a year ago.
The tech team for the third party listing software we use said they are already making the coding changes in preparation and there are many and they are already having some issues with the Ebay API team.
So here we go again, and at the start of 4th quarter and with a bunch of sellers being moved over to Managed Payments.
Lot’s of stuff, we just have to be flexible and change with the times. Ebay is still a large platform for resellers.
mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
Absolutely ship it.
Ebay sees a buyer’s purchase or a Seller’s Sale as a contract. Your buyer created the contract and submitted it. Ebay accepted it and passed all the details along to you. Now it is your turn to fulfill your part of the legal contract. Box it properly, label and address it as the order states and ship it on time.
Then if the buyer has any questions after receipt of the package and completion of the deal, they can message you and ask.
I will caution you, be prepared if the buyer starts messaging you, as we here always suggest. Keep it short, professional and don’t get into long dialogues.
You did what Ebay requires of you, you followed the details of the legal contract put before you just exactly as outline. That’s it.
Here’s to hoping you never hear another word about it.
mike – MDC Concepts, Inc. Atlanta
From our experience when we get more than one or two messages at the most, almost 99% of the “potential customers” do not go through with the Sale.
At the 3rd to fourth about 99.999% don’t buy and we stop replying at about the 3rd or 4th depending on the nature of the questions.
mike – mdcgfa
Heard the same thing from one of the YouTube podcasters and they thought the same thing. Maybe would have something to do with being able to change the handling time.
As you say, we will just have to wait and see.
mike – mdcg
