Why are buyers so aggressive?

sharpy2010

Just sold an item to a bloke, sent the item and he must've received it. Checked my eBay inbox to find this delight -:

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I received the Item,but you sent NO INSTRUCTIONS, as to HOW TO WORK THIS TOOL. It might be VERY EASY for you, but not everyone have the Savvy to operate these Tools, so, what is it going to be ?; Clear instructions , or REFUND ?
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Surely a better way to get the seller to respond politely would be to word it something as such -: "Hi there, thanks for sending the item, I've received it promptly - I was just wondering if you could help me as I'm having some bother using it. Thanks a lot!".

Not too much to ask for, surely, and certainly there was no need for him to be a keyboard warrior from the off (which is what it seems like to me)!

sharpy2010

Oh, and I'm expecting low DSR's no matter what I do to try to help this customer. Hopefully I've embarrassed him by responding in an unbelievably over polite way. I don't think he'll see the irony, though.

peter_the_piper

""but not everyone have the Savvy to operate these Tools,""
I wonder if they are the right people to actually use these tools.

Okydoky25

I'd be inclined to tell him to use his loaf and google the instructions. What tool was it out of interest?

timbo58

Get him to send it back for a refund if he's not happy.
He'll NEG you anyway, doubt this attitude would be there with some buyers if they could still get NEGS frankly.

RFW

Some people just need a cuddle;)
Either they are naturally aggressive or they've had some bad experiences before.
I was in a supermarket a few days ago and a woman was returning something without a receipt, she'd just changed her mind, so not even faulty. She was aggressive from the start and went worse when she was told she needed a receipt. It's usually the worst approach for getting good customer service. Sadly it occasionally works when the seller will just give them anything to get them out of the way.

badly_dubbed

please say it was a hammer....please!

jeffuk

badly_dubbed wrote: »

please say it was a hammer....please!

+1. :d

Shovel_Lad

I've worked in customer support. You'd be amazed at how many people are aggressive when they have a problem. In my case I was offering technical assistance so it wasn't as if most faults lay with the product itself with which to get irate about. We used to call it PLEBCAK ("Problem Likely to Exist Between Chair And Keyboard")

Strange too, how few people you meet that claim they personally behave this way, despite how prevalent it appears "in the field". And, surely, most people know that this approach gets you a much poorer service than a measured, polite request. Yet I've actually been in the room when my father (having heard countless tales from me) started shouting down the phone to someone who was a) not to blame and b) actually helping him at the time. Then claim he was acting reasonably - he wasn't and he didn't get the problem solved. I called up later and resolved it in 5 mins.

So with that said, I'd tell the person that bought your tool (oo -eer, missus) in the politest way that if he returns it at his expense, you will refund him the purchase price. That way you get your fees back and no feedback/stars to worry about. Then I'd relist it with either a note saying "No instructions, but simple to use and can be easily found on the web"

forgotmyname

I would be so tempted to reply, If you cannot work out how to use that tool I doubt you have the mental capacity to work out howto return it.

theonlywayisup

The only tool here seems to be the buyer.