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Just my opinion.. but if we had used my SOP on his, it states “we want all of our customers to be 100% staisfied”, not we want you to be half baked, sort of happy. No, send it back.
Think of it like this, you buy a shirt at a store and get home and notice a few buttons missing that you didn’t see, or a small rip under the arm pit. You go back to the store and approach the customer service desk. Now what do you think there SOP is? In most cases, probably it will be, OK we will take this as a return, sorry about the issue you found, take the shirt from you and issue you either a refund or if been too long, give you a store credit.
Never been to a store in my experience that says, sorry, here is your money back, and here is some extra money to cover for your gas and wear and tear on your car for having to drive back down here and Oh, By the Way, you can keep the shirt also. Now put this into your mind for second, and just picture yourself working for that dept. store in the CS Dept. and this guy comes up to you with this strap. He said when he opend up what he thought was a new in box strap, he found small cut marks on it. Well I think you would follow the store’s Standard Procedure [SOP], as outlined above.. Sory for the inconvience, we had no way of knowing we will gladly take it back and refund you. Note the take it back, part. and note that you could not allow him to keep it either brcause of the stores policy. If you did you would hear from management the next day.
So same here. Your policy is we want you to be 100% satisfied, if not we refund 100%. Otherwise he is telling you how to run your business, he is calling the shots and is hoping yopu are not a smart business person and willing to emotionally cave and let him keep the item and give him money back. Nope. You are saying you are unhappy and we don’t want you to be. Givee me the starp and i’ll give you your money. And you can tell him, what he is asking is not your store policy period.
As a side note, there is no way you can tell if what he is showing you is your strap or an extra one he had laying around. Your word agaginst his. Time for us as sellers to stick to the way we run business. Customer service with a smile, please our customers within the guidelines of how we run our business, follow our own procedures.
Heck we are a coporation. Susan is Secrtary and I am Pres. but our customers don’t know who is who. That is why we use the “we” in all our correspondence. This guy thinks you are a one person show and is going to try to capitalize on that. I would say you just work for this store as a helper and your employer has policies and you are just follwoing the rules. Either keep it or send it back.
this is one reason I am willing to eat the return shipping on some items because I can stand my ground. You may say, he may never return to my store agagin, my reply “good”.
But again this is just our business model. I have heard before, from amember here at SL, “I don’t treat my customers like that”. This is not a bad thing, it is a good, thing, total restitution to make your customer 100% whole and 100% HAPPY, no questions asked, just give me the item back and here’s your money and an apology about him being unhappy, just not at making me loose double the money.
Again..no malice here, just explaining a way to make dealing with these issues, staright out, standardized procedures. As Jay says, arguing gets you no where and saying too much could give some buyers ammunition.
What he is saying is just his opinion. One thought, is that due to what they are pointing out is why you did not have it priced even higher, but you don’t want to admit to anything.
I really think that some buyers think that all sellers on Ebay are just mom and pop people selling out of their bedroom and have now real business sense about them. How many in the news try to get free meals but just being louder than everybody else.
If he keeps it, you don’t have to refund and he leaves a negative. Then there is your battle. Call Ebay, state your case, show your hptos, they will see what he is up to, and [hopefully] ask Ryanne on this, you will probably get it removed.
Keep us posted.
Mike at MDC Galleries.
We use two email addy’s for our business and Shopify store but the Shopify store is still under construction and not actually very operable but few things can be seen. Currently we are heavily experimenting with our Shopify Store and also our Etsy Store.
Unsure if Jay wants us to post public contact info., but if I shouldn’t he will pull this off. If not… then we use mdcgalleries@outlook.com and mdcgalleries@gmail.com for now until we get our private ones setup on our new online domain store.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
You bet.. Be careful what you ask for.. you may just get it! LOL
Just sent you my whole folder of both Standard and Custom Specific Customer Responses. Some Treasures – some junk but you may be able to edit some for a more generic SOP approach.
Check your “spam folder”.
Mike
We are team relist also. Especially since we use WonderLister and everything is done automatically. We only create and list an item once and everything else is handled just like it was a GTC listing only it is not, and gets refreshed every 30 days.
And why not since the Ebay Employee Engineer that was part of the development team of the Cassini Search stated at the Australia Open I believe, was the one who brought up stale listing, and 60 to 90 days as being stale in Cassini eyes and they built Cassini to look for phrases, titles and keywords that had been lingering around for a while and giving preference to newer listings. Or something along those lines. I believed him and still do.
So why not do 30 relist when it is handled by WonderLister just the same as a GTC in the sense that once we create the listing and upload it, all of the ending and relisting is done automatically by the software. We get the benfit of doing it, if there really is any and not having to do any more work. List it and forget it BUT get a benefit if it is true. With GTC, same amount of work but no chance at all if what the Engineer said was or is true.
I also think that SB and WL both may also do scheduled sales events where we can plan out Sales dates in advance and schedule them to run at those times automatically. Will have to check into that.
TTFN .. Mike at MDCG 🙂
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
You betcha’. Just trying to help. We are all in this online game togther. 🙂
Hey we got a bunch. If you want I can send them to you in a PM to your email addy. They are all MSWord docs. You can edit and save them as you wish.
Let me know if you want them. I just got tired of writing [typing} out the same old responses over and over and customizing them when they were all pretty much revolving around the same type of questions or issues. With the SOP approach, it is more corporate, cut and dry and makes most of the replies just as they are “Standard Operating Procedures”.
mike at MDCG
This is what we do and is offered just as a suggestion. We create and utilize SOP’s [standard operating procedures]. For every situation that has come up through the years we create a best practices SOP in writing and save it as a word document. We have about 2 dozen of them that covers a fairly broad spectrum of topics and issues that have cropped up since we started this business.
The use of written SOP’s makes it very easy to respond to any buyer who has similar issues as previous customers and using a SOP removes the emotional aspect out of your response. We never use our names, always use our corporate company name and note we are Inc. which we are. We also write in 3rd person plural so the reader sees us as a united company and all part of a management team.
In many cases the buyer is “phishing” for a refund or is “bluffing” about the return to ilicite a response for you to see if you will run scared. We use the Hassel Free Program along with our SOP.
Now we have not had many returns or damaged goods claims through the years, but who knows, maybe this communication keeps them from doing so, if they are just phishing. If a legitimate claim, then as we say please return it for a full refund.
But as soon as we get a message about wanting to return something, we copy and paste this and fire it right back. Then wait for them to make a claim. If they have filed a claim, we still do this. And remember Ebay advises to NOT REFUND until you have received the item back.
They only have a few days to return it, and if they don’t, the day the return period ends, call ebay and close the case. If they choose to return it, then once you get it inspect it, photo it, and then do the return within the 5 or 6 days you have. In the Hassle Free Returns you have to give the refund, but that is part of doing business. Now after the refund, call Ebay and fight your battle(s). You may or may not win, but they will see everything you have done, followed Hassle Free Returns Policies and now you are throwing the situation back at Ebay for a reimbursement fr what you feel is a “phony return claim”.
Here is the Copy and Paste SOP we use. Seems that many buyers just don’t want to go through the trouble. And if there reason(s) are baloney [full of it], you won’t win by arguing with the buyer anyway. Don’t plead with them and especially don’t admit to anything. Just say your Sorry to Hear About This and throw the ball into their court to take action. Jay has said this many times also. Just take it to Ebay when all is said and done. But in our case we have had numerous requests but only a few actual returns after we send this. We think the buyer just gives up when they see we are not just falling over dead and throwing a full refund back at them immediately. This makes them have to do something to earn that refund back. A call to action on their part and many just don’t go through with it. In those cases the SOP has done it’s job. If truly a return is desired, then do your part and when we get it, we will do ours. Simple and easy business procedure. If a monetary loss on our part so be it, that is just doing business.
We have received your Communication informing us of an issue regarding the item you recently purchased.
First, we are sorry to hear of your concern and appreciate you bringing it to our attention.
Secondly, we never want any of our customers to be unhappy about a purchase and that is one reason we participate in the “Ebay Hassle Free Returns Program.”
As members of the “Ebay Hassle Free Returns Program”, the returns process is an easy one.
We request that you follow this simple process and request for a return through your “My Ebay Buyer” account. Non compliance may result in an unfavorable decision on the refund process.
• Log into your Ebay account. Go to your “My Ebay” at the top of the screen and click on “Purchase History”.
• Find the item you wish to return and then look to the right of it and click on “more Actions” and select “Return This Item” in the drop-down menu.
• From the drop-down menu select the reason for the return and then click the “Return” button.
• Ebay will send you an automatic return authorization and a Shipping Label for you to print out and use on the return package.
• Please repackage and protect the item as you received it. Utilize all of the same materials, boxes, size and weights for consistency and so it stays protected on the return trip.
• Attach the return label and cover it with a clear protective tape to prevent it from damage and ship back to us within Ebay’s allotted time frame.This link will take you to the Ebay “Returning an Item” page for detailed instructions.. https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behavior-policies/condition-returned-items-policy?id=4763#full%20policy
Despite the rather detailed verbal explanation, it is a fairly simple process.
After we receive the item and it has been inspected for the issues stated we will proceed with the refund process according to the “Hassel Free Return Program Standard Protocols”.
We await the return …..
Kindest Regards,
the management team at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and SmartParts Equipment divs.Hope this may give some peace of mind to some. But it is just how we handle business as usual issues. We did the same thing when we were are large mfg. company. so par for the course for us.
Good luck and maybe many other suggestions from other members may prove to be a better way of dealing with these issues.
the management team at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art
SmartParts Small Equipment divs. LOL 🙂Waited to some of the dust settled on Ebay over this. So I let a few days go by and instead of doing a store wide Sale starting last week, we started one today to run through Sunday night.
We went to Promotions, selected to do a Store Wide Sale and selected to include all of our inventory. we waited during the pending period while Ebay compiled everything and after about 10 minutes or so, 897 listings out of 969 went on Sale. We have a combination of GTC and also auto relist after 30 days that are included in the sale.
The 72 that were not included were all that are set up as auto end and relist every 30 days, and that process had taken place, thus these 72 were not 14 days old yet.
Of the 897 that did get picked up in the Sale, those are a good mixture of both the GTC and the Auto List every 30 days.
So as long as we keep the starting dates all spread out over any one month, then most items will be picked up in our perma-sale process that we use.
This is a hypotheticial example, but if a seller ended all of his listings at one time, then relisted them all at once, then a clear separation would take place, whereby all of his store could be included in a single Sale or several mini sales [based on length] during a two week period and then the whole store would not be able to be put on Sale for a two week period. But this scenario is highly unlikely. So as long as we lsit things daily, use the scheduler to make sure they are spread out over several days, then most of the items should be available at almost any time we want to run a Sale. We just can’t be picky about what we want to include. If we run a 3 day Sale every week, we will still select the “Include All Inventory” button and submit. Then after we wait a few minutes Ebay will report back how many items it included in the Sale.
This is what we did today and the 897 is what was reported back. That is fine with us. Now just a wild guess here, but if we add a zero to the end of these numbers, I guess we would have seen 8,970 out of 9,690 listing included in the Sale. That will be fine. We just can’t be as picky, as i said, after what will be included in any one particular weeks, mini-Sale.
As said above, will just have to wait and see if Ebay does any rethinking on this, but business as usual for us I guess.
07/03/2018 at 6:22 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 366: How To Run A Small, Local Business #44351For the larger sizes Home depot and for a fairly wide selection at half the cost, Staples Office Supply [believe it or not] with Free Shipping on $25 min. order I belive.
Of course Uline has one of the largest selections of every kind of box, bag, telescoping, jewelry boxes on the planet, but not at the low cost of Staples.
We used to order from Uline because their warehouse is only 5 miles up the road from us, but they implemented a $30 Up-charge if you did local pick up at their “will call” desk. Bunch of non-sense, they said in a letter to their customers it was because their yard was getting full of cars and the trucks had a hard time manuvering around. Bunk. Never bought anything from them since because if you only need a $10 item it will cost you $40 with the local pick-up extra charge.
So try Staples, one size box was 42% less cost than Ebay’s price and free delivery the next day or two at most.
Going to print out their shipping supply section and keep on my inventory check list clip board for future oredering. Now how to figure out how to get some real value out of my Ebay $50 coupon. Guess that will have to be 36 rolls of tape!!!! LOL 🙂
mike at MDC Galleries
07/03/2018 at 4:10 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 366: How To Run A Small, Local Business #44336Just an update… The Ebay store has not added to or included any other shipping selections to choose from. Still only have 5 box sizes, bunch of mailers, tape and tissue.
Think I may just buy a bunch of Tape and then create a listing to resell it at 10-15% less than Ebay is selling it for. That way I can at least get cash back to go buy the box sizes I really need. LOL :-). Actually not a bad idea!
Neat little utility. Ran it for our shop and all photos are present and accounted for. Maybe due to using WonderLister, having all our photos on our new 4 TB external Hard Drive and having WL cancel and relist every 30 days. Guess if it did happen then the relist would have grabbed the hptos off of our hard drive and reinserted on the relist [maybe], not sure. But he main thing is we avoided the disappearing photo event, thank goodness.
Mike at MDC Galleries in Atlanta
07/01/2018 at 2:12 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 366: How To Run A Small, Local Business #44138Here is some interesting numbers. Just did a quick comparison of 2 size boxes from Ebay store vs. Staples store.
Size 16x12x8 = Ebay $1.01 vs. Staples price of $.72 per box [29% less at Staples]
Size 10x8x6 = Ebay $.72 vs. Staples price of $.39 per box [ 46% less – almost half the cost]So for a one off comparison $100 spent on the Ebay store for 10x8x6 boxes would buy me 138 boxes. The same $100 spent at Staples for the same size box would buy me 256 boxes. Before someone jumps, yes there needs to be a comarison of the test strength in Lbs. for the boxes and a eye put on the “flute” structure. Are they E flute, C flute, or what, but a size wise comparison shows that I am not a good Scanvenger from a budget friendly standpoint of using Ebay boxes. But then again they are paying for the first $50. But as a far out projection, what if they made the cost $5 ea, we would only get 10 boxes.
I would love to be able to spend my $50 on something else, such as buying inventory from another seller or heck just lower my $75 store cost by $16.66 each month. But doing that they would miss out on reselling the converted boxes and custom printing to us.
Being from the graphics / commercial printing background, I wonder how much Ebay is paying to have those boxes custom printed with their logo and what mark-up they are putting on that process?
I think some of the other sellers who buy nothing but Ebay tape then resell it in there stores have the right idea. Recoupe that $50 then go and buy twice as many boxes as one could get from some place else rather than Ebay.
But what do I know.. just an opinion from some old artist printer guy down in the deep South. who remembers watching Dennis Miller rants on SNL. LOL 🙂
Mike at MDC Galleries
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
07/01/2018 at 1:24 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 366: How To Run A Small, Local Business #44135Also down to our last 5 USPS Size “C” boxes. When we first heard about USPS discontinuing them, Ryanne mentioned about ordering a bunch herself to “hoard” some for future use and we did the same. Ordered about 200 of them. But, alas now only five left when we did our quarterly inventory hard count the other day.
Now for anything much over 12x12x8 as far as USPS goes we have to get elswhere. And the largest Ebay box of 18x14x12 is one of the ones that Ebay is not offering now. So anything over 16x12x8 and looks like we will have to start outsourcing and buying from box sources.
Anybody have any suggestions on where they get good prices for mid to larger size corrugated boxes and Uline is NOT one of them. We use Staples and Home depot for the very large ones, not bad prices. Staples was the big surprise for us but because we are a Gold rewards member the shipping box prices are not bad. Someone mentioned here on SL one time also about Staples.
Will have to see if $50 goes further there instead of the Ebay store.
Mike at MDC Galleries.
07/01/2018 at 1:13 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 366: How To Run A Small, Local Business #44134Just looked in the Ebay shipping supply store and we do not see where they have added any more box sizes. They were offering 10 sizes last quarter and now they are down to only the 5.
They only have 23 items total in their shipping supply store. We would really like to order a few of the box sizes they have now abandoned unless they add some back in over the next few days.
We are going to wait and see before we order. Don’t need $50 worth of tape.
Mike at MDC Galleries
Here you go..
1st item sold for $68.77 and 2nd item sold for $20.49Hope this helps.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
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