Sellers, Will You PLEASE .....

JetpackVelociraptor

I sell a mix of mid to high value items on my business ebay, and happily answer all kinds of questions from customers. There are good questions ("how soon can you deliver"), normal questions ("what is the measurement of x, y and z" even though the measurements are given in the listing), and red flag warning sign questions ("If I squint my eyes just right it looks like there's a huge cosmetic defect in this photo, is that right?"). The only things we don't accommodate are questions where someone appears to be creating a lot of work for us for no real reward - if you're asking for a discount and demanding extra services, you'll get a polite reply stating that you can't have either, which personally I think is fair enough.

However, I also have recently begun clearing out my wardrobe on my personal ebay, and the questions people ask on clothing are enough to drive anyone to distraction! What's the condition, would it fit a size 12, what's the measurement from one part of the item to another part. So far I've answered everything I've been asked as well as I could, but none of the people who have asked questions have gone on to buy stuff. Every sale I've made so far as been to people who haven't asked anything at all! They just go off the information provided, which is generally slightly more than the original retailer provided in any case.

When I buy clothes and shoes and the like on eBay I generally don't ask any questions. If the photos or the description aren't clear, I don't buy, and I always check the sellers' negatives  and neutrals to see what they're for. As a result, I've had two bad experiences in about 15 years of buying all kinds of stuff off eBay, and both of those were items damaged or missing during transit and fully refunded by the sellers.

 I'd imagine that, much like me and my own business where I know what questions are worth answering and what questions are not, people who sell clothing as a business know not to answer the questions that usually don't lead to a sale.

For a buyer it's just one question, for the seller it could be 6 questions about measurements that take ten minutes each to check and answer when their best customers usually ask nothing at all. That's the seller spending an hour for no gain, versus potentially spending that hour on answering "good" questions or just listing more inventory which stands to potentially net them more customers. Time is money.

FFHillbilly

I tend it ignore questions on eBay if I don't think they are answerable. for example, I list items that are well described, measurements included, all the item specifics you can imagine and often 12 photos but...
I get questions like "do you think this would fit my (insert different product/part)" or  "is this the same sort of colour as (insert random material thing)"
and I have no idea so what's the point of replying? I was more likely to try and help until this year when the bots started telling me off for having a conversation with sellers about anything,  so now I just put all the info in the listing and wait until someone buys it

MR1988

I ended up blocking a buyer the other day because they offered me 50% of the BIN price and when I said no they offered 5% more saying it's their last money and that they don't have more. While I was in work they messaged me 5-6 extra times begging for me to be kind and sell cheap. So I stopped responding and I blocked buyer. For all I know I did them a good deed and they should not spend their last bit of money on eBay.

But generally I respond to any question regarding items quality or additional photos (I do not sell clothing though) and a lot of times it helped making a sale.

[Deleted User]

RFW said:

The seller messaging system on Ebay is a bit of a mess. All the messages and notifications appear in the same place.
It's one thing Amazon does better. Seller messages are only in one place and sellers get penalised if they don't answer them in 24 hours.

Really ? That's interesting ! Clearly doesn't have a great impact though.

[Deleted User]

tightauldgit said:

Generally do my best to answer messages and questions on Ebay however it often seems more bother than it's worth at times.

I think I can count on the fingers of one thumb the number of times I've answered a message and got a sale from it, and very very rarely even get a 'thanks but that's not what I'm looking for'

The latest spate is people getting shirty about things cleared stated to be collection only, making lowball offers if I'll post it and then getting shirty when I say no. So I've taken to blocking people. 

The clothing items I have sold have generally all sold to people who are quite happy with the label size as listed (the way people buy clothes all the time from shops) and generally when people ask to measure things they never actually follow up with a sale. It's a pain in the butt to run around finding a measuring tape, finding the item, measuring it or photographing it, responding to the message and then it just going off into the void. Not to mention a lot of the things I sell are still sealed, so no I'm not opening it so you can get an accurate measurement of the width of the cuffs. 

99% of the questions i get asked can be easily solved with a Google - which is half the time what I end up doing. 

Not to mention the bloke that argued with me for ages that I should take the back off something so they can check the internals, i finally caved and did it, he responded that it was all as should be, then didn't bid.    

I even had someone give me the classic FB/Gumtree 'is this still available?' the other day - of course it's still available if listed you absolute clownshoe! 

I'm glad my Ebaying career is coming to an end tbh - moving away next week so everything that's not sold is going into storage until further notice. Made some decent money from it but by god it's hard work sometimes. 

To answer you in order -
* I always thank my sellers, i'm as polite to them as i would be anyone else.

* Because they've seen that it is going to be too large or small. 

* So just respond with the figures, i don't expect photos. 

* So state that in the listing - it would save the buyer all the fuss of bothering you. 

* Absolutely not true of some sellers ... i've bought and enquired about things only to be told "oh, sorry, i thought i'd removed that because it's sold".

Your experiences as a seller are about as irritating as a buyers experiences of sellers - it is definitely not one sided.

[Deleted User]

JetpackVelociraptor said:

I sell a mix of mid to high value items on my business ebay, and happily answer all kinds of questions from customers. There are good questions ("how soon can you deliver"), normal questions ("what is the measurement of x, y and z" even though the measurements are given in the listing), and red flag warning sign questions ("If I squint my eyes just right it looks like there's a huge cosmetic defect in this photo, is that right?"). The only things we don't accommodate are questions where someone appears to be creating a lot of work for us for no real reward - if you're asking for a discount and demanding extra services, you'll get a polite reply stating that you can't have either, which personally I think is fair enough.

However, I also have recently begun clearing out my wardrobe on my personal ebay, and the questions people ask on clothing are enough to drive anyone to distraction! What's the condition, would it fit a size 12, what's the measurement from one part of the item to another part. So far I've answered everything I've been asked as well as I could, but none of the people who have asked questions have gone on to buy stuff. Every sale I've made so far as been to people who haven't asked anything at all! They just go off the information provided, which is generally slightly more than the original retailer provided in any case.

When I buy clothes and shoes and the like on eBay I generally don't ask any questions. If the photos or the description aren't clear, I don't buy, and I always check the sellers' negatives  and neutrals to see what they're for. As a result, I've had two bad experiences in about 15 years of buying all kinds of stuff off eBay, and both of those were items damaged or missing during transit and fully refunded by the sellers.

 I'd imagine that, much like me and my own business where I know what questions are worth answering and what questions are not, people who sell clothing as a business know not to answer the questions that usually don't lead to a sale.

For a buyer it's just one question, for the seller it could be 6 questions about measurements that take ten minutes each to check and answer when their best customers usually ask nothing at all. That's the seller spending an hour for no gain, versus potentially spending that hour on answering "good" questions or just listing more inventory which stands to potentially net them more customers. Time is money.

Because bodies are individual, a measurement across one area should equate to another in a different area ..... but bodies don't make life that simple and there are some of us that have curvatures/disabilities/shortness/whatever - so we ask.
If the answer tells us that it's not going to fit onto that shape body we don't buy. 
If people don't ask, they buy anyway i'll bet a large proportion of bought items get taken to a charity shop because they don't fit.

Yes it is, and i understand that, i'm in business and don't expect Ebay sellers to jump through hoops, just a quick series of figures is fine.

Pollycat

Catsacor said:

JetpackVelociraptor said:

I sell a mix of mid to high value items on my business ebay, and happily answer all kinds of questions from customers. There are good questions ("how soon can you deliver"), normal questions ("what is the measurement of x, y and z" even though the measurements are given in the listing), and red flag warning sign questions ("If I squint my eyes just right it looks like there's a huge cosmetic defect in this photo, is that right?"). The only things we don't accommodate are questions where someone appears to be creating a lot of work for us for no real reward - if you're asking for a discount and demanding extra services, you'll get a polite reply stating that you can't have either, which personally I think is fair enough.

However, I also have recently begun clearing out my wardrobe on my personal ebay, and the questions people ask on clothing are enough to drive anyone to distraction! What's the condition, would it fit a size 12, what's the measurement from one part of the item to another part. So far I've answered everything I've been asked as well as I could, but none of the people who have asked questions have gone on to buy stuff. Every sale I've made so far as been to people who haven't asked anything at all! They just go off the information provided, which is generally slightly more than the original retailer provided in any case.

When I buy clothes and shoes and the like on eBay I generally don't ask any questions. If the photos or the description aren't clear, I don't buy, and I always check the sellers' negatives  and neutrals to see what they're for. As a result, I've had two bad experiences in about 15 years of buying all kinds of stuff off eBay, and both of those were items damaged or missing during transit and fully refunded by the sellers.

 I'd imagine that, much like me and my own business where I know what questions are worth answering and what questions are not, people who sell clothing as a business know not to answer the questions that usually don't lead to a sale.

For a buyer it's just one question, for the seller it could be 6 questions about measurements that take ten minutes each to check and answer when their best customers usually ask nothing at all. That's the seller spending an hour for no gain, versus potentially spending that hour on answering "good" questions or just listing more inventory which stands to potentially net them more customers. Time is money.

Because bodies are individual, a measurement across one area should equate to another in a different area ..... but bodies don't make life that simple and there are some of us that have curvatures/disabilities/shortness/whatever - so we ask.
If the answer tells us that it's not going to fit onto that shape body we don't buy. 
If people don't ask, they buy anyway i'll bet a large proportion of bought items get taken to a charity shop because they don't fit.

Yes it is, and i understand that, i'm in business and don't expect Ebay sellers to jump through hoops, just a quick series of figures is fine.

Agreed - and as I posted above:

Pollycat said:

Even the same size with the same retailer can be different (I have a number of Next linen mix dresses and one size 10 is bigger than a size 14) so I agree with you that the questions you are asking are valid - and should really be included in the original listing.

As for condition...

JetpackVelociraptor said:

However, I also have recently begun clearing out my wardrobe on my personal ebay, and the questions people ask on clothing are enough to drive anyone to distraction! What's the condition, would it fit a size 12, what's the measurement from one part of the item to another part. So far I've answered everything I've been asked as well as I could, but none of the people who have asked questions have gone on to buy stuff. 

...that's very important to me.
I don't want to buy a bobbly jersey tunic or a scuffed pair of shoes.
Even when I buy from charity shops (quite frequently) I carefully check the condition.
Why wouldn't you state the condition of the item you're selling?
I quite like Vinted's policy of 'condition' and often filter out anything that isn't new with/without tags or very good.

I only ask questions that are not answered in the listing and only if I'm really interested in the item.
If the answer means that the item wouldn't fit, of course I wouldn't buy it.
Not everyone is a time waster.
Time might be money but information is very important too.

I'm just a private seller, clearing out my wardrobe and jewellery box.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

RFW said:

The seller messaging system on Ebay is a bit of a mess. All the messages and notifications appear in the same place.
It's one thing Amazon does better. Seller messages are only in one place and sellers get penalised if they don't answer them in 24 hours.

Sellers get penalised if they don't answer them, or don't mark them as response not required, in 24 hours  

tightauldgit

[Deleted User] said:

tightauldgit said:

Generally do my best to answer messages and questions on Ebay however it often seems more bother than it's worth at times.

I think I can count on the fingers of one thumb the number of times I've answered a message and got a sale from it, and very very rarely even get a 'thanks but that's not what I'm looking for'

The latest spate is people getting shirty about things cleared stated to be collection only, making lowball offers if I'll post it and then getting shirty when I say no. So I've taken to blocking people. 

The clothing items I have sold have generally all sold to people who are quite happy with the label size as listed (the way people buy clothes all the time from shops) and generally when people ask to measure things they never actually follow up with a sale. It's a pain in the butt to run around finding a measuring tape, finding the item, measuring it or photographing it, responding to the message and then it just going off into the void. Not to mention a lot of the things I sell are still sealed, so no I'm not opening it so you can get an accurate measurement of the width of the cuffs. 

99% of the questions i get asked can be easily solved with a Google - which is half the time what I end up doing. 

Not to mention the bloke that argued with me for ages that I should take the back off something so they can check the internals, i finally caved and did it, he responded that it was all as should be, then didn't bid.    

I even had someone give me the classic FB/Gumtree 'is this still available?' the other day - of course it's still available if listed you absolute clownshoe! 

I'm glad my Ebaying career is coming to an end tbh - moving away next week so everything that's not sold is going into storage until further notice. Made some decent money from it but by god it's hard work sometimes. 

To answer you in order -
* I always thank my sellers, i'm as polite to them as i would be anyone else.

* Because they've seen that it is going to be too large or small. 

* So just respond with the figures, i don't expect photos. 

* So state that in the listing - it would save the buyer all the fuss of bothering you. 

* Absolutely not true of some sellers ... i've bought and enquired about things only to be told "oh, sorry, i thought i'd removed that because it's sold".

Your experiences as a seller are about as irritating as a buyers experiences of sellers - it is definitely not one sided.

- then you are unusual
- possibly, or they haven't even seen my message or don't care and went down the pub instead. Or they just asked pointlessly on loads of items and didn't really have any intention of buying. That's the point really if you don't respond you come across as a timewaster
- sometimes people ASK for photos though. And normally just 'do you have better photos?' rather than actually specifying what they want to see
- If the item is photographed sealed in its bag and stated in the listing it's brand new and sealed (and do people even read the descriptions???) do I need to state that I am not going to open it to measure things?
- and when you reply 'yes, it's still available' and then they don't bid or offer or anything??? Were they just asking for a friend?

You wanted to know why people don't respond to messages on Ebay - and a few people have pointed out why. It's unfortunate that the good buyers like yourself have to pay the price for the behaviour of what seems to be the majority but that's just the way it is unfortunately. As I said, I do my best to answer anything I get but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with people 

The only other thing I would say is just that generally the Ebay message system isn't very good so in many cases it may simply be that sellers aren't even noticing the messages or getting so many that they don't pay attention to them. 

Pollycat

tightauldgit said:

Catsacor said:

tightauldgit said:

Generally do my best to answer messages and questions on Ebay however it often seems more bother than it's worth at times.

I think I can count on the fingers of one thumb the number of times I've answered a message and got a sale from it, and very very rarely even get a 'thanks but that's not what I'm looking for'

The latest spate is people getting shirty about things cleared stated to be collection only, making lowball offers if I'll post it and then getting shirty when I say no. So I've taken to blocking people. 

The clothing items I have sold have generally all sold to people who are quite happy with the label size as listed (the way people buy clothes all the time from shops) and generally when people ask to measure things they never actually follow up with a sale. It's a pain in the butt to run around finding a measuring tape, finding the item, measuring it or photographing it, responding to the message and then it just going off into the void. Not to mention a lot of the things I sell are still sealed, so no I'm not opening it so you can get an accurate measurement of the width of the cuffs. 

99% of the questions i get asked can be easily solved with a Google - which is half the time what I end up doing. 

Not to mention the bloke that argued with me for ages that I should take the back off something so they can check the internals, i finally caved and did it, he responded that it was all as should be, then didn't bid.    

I even had someone give me the classic FB/Gumtree 'is this still available?' the other day - of course it's still available if listed you absolute clownshoe! 

I'm glad my Ebaying career is coming to an end tbh - moving away next week so everything that's not sold is going into storage until further notice. Made some decent money from it but by god it's hard work sometimes. 

To answer you in order -
* I always thank my sellers, i'm as polite to them as i would be anyone else.

* Because they've seen that it is going to be too large or small. 

* So just respond with the figures, i don't expect photos. 

* So state that in the listing - it would save the buyer all the fuss of bothering you. 

* Absolutely not true of some sellers ... i've bought and enquired about things only to be told "oh, sorry, i thought i'd removed that because it's sold".

Your experiences as a seller are about as irritating as a buyers experiences of sellers - it is definitely not one sided.

- then you are unusual
- possibly, or they haven't even seen my message or don't care and went down the pub instead. Or they just asked pointlessly on loads of items and didn't really have any intention of buying. That's the point really if you don't respond you come across as a timewaster
- sometimes people ASK for photos though. And normally just 'do you have better photos?' rather than actually specifying what they want to see
- If the item is photographed sealed in its bag and stated in the listing it's brand new and sealed (and do people even read the descriptions???) do I need to state that I am not going to open it to measure things?
- and when you reply 'yes, it's still available' and then they don't bid or offer or anything??? Were they just asking for a friend?

You wanted to know why people don't respond to messages on Ebay - and a few people have pointed out why. It's unfortunate that the good buyers like yourself have to pay the price for the behaviour of what seems to be the majority but that's just the way it is unfortunately. As I said, I do my best to answer anything I get but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with people 

The only other thing I would say is just that generally the Ebay message system isn't very good so in many cases it may simply be that sellers aren't even noticing the messages or getting so many that they don't pay attention to them. 

I don't agree that the OP is unusual.
He/she is very similar to me.
You are similar to other posters.
We don't know how many other posters are similar to me and the OP.

I think it depends on what you sell/buy and how you list your sales.
I read some descriptions and think 'WOW! Is it even possible to list with such limited information?'
I skip over those listings.

I buy hallmarked/925 silver jewellery for my own use.
It's important to me to know the weight (kitchen scales approximate is fine) to decide if it's a good buy for me.
'heavy' is subjective. I've seen silver necklaces listed as 'heavy' (no weight stated) that are 20 grams after enquiring.
My latest buy is a heavy silver necklace weighing (as stated by the seller in the original listing) 160 grams. Knowing the scrap price of silver I could calculate how much I'd be willing to pay for it as a reasonable outlay plus the 'I really like this item' factor.

Details are important to a lot of people even if some sellers think it's too much hassle to list what potential buyers want/need to know from the original listing.

I recently sold a silver bracelet.
I photographed the weight, length and size of stones.
My buyer initiated a return request stating it was 'too big'.
I rejected the request pointing out that 3 photographs clearly showed the size.

To me, it's too much hassle to go down the return route as either a seller or buyer.
I'd rather list details that potential buyers may not be interested in or ask questions about a potential purchase than sell something that the buyer wants to return or that I decide is not suitable after unwrapping it.