annoying buyers

soolin

I've got a couple of irritating buyer today, I have packed all my items and was just about to print the postage labels and I got a cancellation request on a vintage brooch I sold yesterday, the reason for cancellation is that it doesn't suit her? It has not been sent , my photos are clear so I have no idea what she means. Obviously it has been cancelled and I am just waiting for her to accept the cancellation.
Edit: I just popped back into my ebay account and note that she has sent me 3 more messages that must have crossed with mine confirming item has been cancelled- apparently I have ignored her cancellation request (sent approx 30 minutes ago) and could I please cancel as requested before she takes the matter further. I checked her feedback out of interest , she seems to have  a lot of issues with sellers shipping things after she cancels them (they get a neutral if they post before she cancels). I have sent a little report to ebay complaining that this buyer is buying maliciously to auction wreck, and have obviously blocked her. 

I also have a potential buyer interested in a vintage necklace , she wants 4 identical ones - despite these being 80 odd years old- I don't think she realises what vintage means!

vacheron

This will be trivial compared to what most business sellers have to endure, but I sold a glass shelf from the inside of an old Samsung fridge last week which had been sitting on eBay for a couple of years after all the other parts had all been sold and sent off to appreciative buyers.

My description stated the component number (and photos of the part number printed into the plastic), and my auction description explained exactly which model fridge it would fit and where in the fridge it fits. 

2 days later I get a return request, Title: "Doesn't fit"... Description of the problem: "Doesn't fit".
No other words or chit chat, or a description of their problem.

Anyway, I accept the return request but send a message apologising for their inconvenience, asking about the problem, what fridge they have, and if I could be of any further assistance.....

No response! 

Anyway, shelf returns back to me, so I refund him the full price and the initial postage (which I have now lost out on), and I send him a further message saying hope everything is ok, and that I have sent him a full refund.

No response at all....  miserable antisocial s*** !

Most surprising thing is he has been on eBay for 11 years and has over 4000 feedback!

edit: Actually, the most surprising thing is how much money you can make selling old fridge parts. The fridge was an American style stainless model which was 6 years old when it failed and originally cost me £900 new.

I disposed of the main fridge body and the doors but kept all the bits that could be removed and sold them for a total price of £760!  
Someone even offered me £160 each for the doors, but I had already disposed of them! 

mimi1234

Sounds awful.  I used to sell a lot and hated it when the item was ready to send and the buyer would message saying I no longer want it.  A few times I had even put the postage on which wound me up something terrible.

I guess it's what is expected if you sell on eBay.  Some people will always change their mind or whatever.  

soolin

mimi1234 said:

Sounds awful.  I used to sell a lot and hated it when the item was ready to send and the buyer would message saying I no longer want it.  A few times I had even put the postage on which wound me up something terrible.

I guess it's what is expected if you sell on eBay.  Some people will always change their mind or whatever.  

In the past I have had worse. I’ve even posted things before and had someone try and cancel and when I explain it has been dispatched they seem to think I can merely phone RM and ask them to drop it back to me. I think one of the worst, and I’ll probably remember others later, was someone who tried to cancel about 4 days after they ordered as they were away. I had delivery confirmation from that morning so told them it had been delivered and they said their lodger must have taken it in, but if I could refund them they promised to send it back as soon as they got home. When I refused I got several messages saying how they were on holiday and had forgotten that they had bought the item and must have the money back as they needed it for holiday money- I got the full sob story, all for something  less than £30. They did open a return request which I accepted, but it timed out before they returned the item. 

coffeehound

soolin said:
 she seems to have  a lot of issues with sellers shipping things after she cancels them (they get a neutral if they post before she cancels). 

Drunk-shopping in the evening, followed in the cold light of day by buyer's regret?

soolin

coffeehound said:

soolin said:
 she seems to have  a lot of issues with sellers shipping things after she cancels them (they get a neutral if they post before she cancels). 

Drunk-shopping in the evening, followed in the cold light of day by buyer's regret?

Actually, I hadn’t thought of that, it would fit the timing. 

forgotmyname

soolin said:

I also have a potential buyer interested in a vintage necklace , she wants 4 identical ones - despite these being 80 odd years old- I don't think she realises what vintage means!

To be fair the amount of unique and rare vintage stuff listed which is available from China in bulk for very little money does

cloud that statement a little.

Mentioned something similar whilst looking on etsy for something one off and hand made, lots of cheap chinese products

available from the usual sources for much less all listed as unique or hand made.

[Deleted User]

As only a buyer, from Etsy and Ebay, i really feel sorry for you sellers when i read some of the games customers play, i do wonder if they think that they can b***er sellers around because they're not dealing face to face with a person.
I take my hat off to you, i wouldn't have the patience you all have 👍

soolin

[Deleted User] said:

As only a buyer, from Etsy and Ebay, i really feel sorry for you sellers when i read some of the games customers play, i do wonder if they think that they can b***er sellers around because they're not dealing face to face with a person.
I take my hat off to you, i wouldn't have the patience you all have 👍

Actually I am beginning to lose my patience ! I have replaced a lot of my ebay sales with sales on private selling and specialist groups - it's a different sort of hassle (manual invoices, explaining how to use paypal safely to newer buyers etc) ) but in virtually all cases the buyers are much friendlier and easier to deal with. I have the luxury of time on my hands at the moment and can afford to spend time following the often very different rules on selling groups and dealing with 'chatty' customers, perhaps when life gets back to normal I'll re invest in my ebay shop and leave the specialist sites behind, At the moment ebay probably accounts for less than half of my sales overall. 

coffeehound

Soolin, can I ask, would it feasible to deliberately wait 24 hours after a sale before sending stuff out, as an unofficial cooling-off period, or would that fall foul of the delivery timescales?

soolin

coffeehound said:

Soolin, can I ask, would it feasible to deliberately wait 24 hours after a sale before sending stuff out, as an unofficial cooling-off period, or would that fall foul of the delivery timescales?

I send quickly to try and prevent late defects, I already show a 2 day dispatch just to cover myself but usually send same or next day - occasionally when I am very busy I might wait until day 2. I really don't want to go back to showing a 3 day dispatch as that just kills the few sales I have, even 2 days loses me the fast and free badge and hurts sales slightly. 

Buyers are used to Amazon Prime, they don't only expect items to be shipped immediately they seem to expect them to arrive immediately as well