Naïve / Irritating / Silly Buyers

red_boots2

Recently I have noticed an increase with the above buyers. I seem to be fielding more stupid questions pre/post sale than ever before...

Two recent examples stand out for me:

1. Buyer complained that Evri attempted to deliver their parcel at the weekend which in their words "They shouldn't have done, as my eBay address is where I work in an office and it's closed weekends" 

2. I sold something which was an unwanted xmas gift (even listed in the description) unfortunately it didn't work so the buyer returned it and I refunded. They have since been chasing me to find out when I will get it fixed and posted back to them. I reiterated that I was a private seller and it was an unwanted gift... They continued to chase every week for two months! 

What's the best anyone else has had which has made question everyone's and your own sanity?

Sarahspangles

I sold some Nike kids’ shin guards, stating the brand, size and age with a photo to show that they were little worn. Buyer returned them and left adverse feedback because ‘they looked bigger in the photograph’ and argued they should be able to go on that rather than measurements.

Money_Grabber13579

Had someone recently make a ridiculous offer on something (around 80% lower than I was asking). I declined the offer and then they kept on making offers, which were also declined. When they ran out of offers, they started making offers by messages, including some which were exactly the same as the ones I’d previously declined. In the end, I had to ignore their messages.

zackary71

The low-ball offers are very frustrating. Did get a good tip on this Forum though on handling them, by increasing the price until they run out of Offers. If someone is offering £10 on a £100 item, it's a fair bet they're either wasting your time, have no real interest in purchasing or don't know the actual value of the item. 
I had one on Marketplace who drove me mad. "Collection only" post..."Do you deliver?". I even agreed to deliver as they were old and lived in sheltered accommodation...plus it was a short detour from my workplace. Cue multiple excuses..."won't be in", "at hospital", "can't get to ATM" etc. This was on multiple listings. In the end, I blocked them. Lo and behold, a recent listing got a message through. Recognised the name straight away. Must have signed up to a new account. Cue "do you deliver?"...despite the 'Collection Only' post. My reply..."no,not to timewasters". Blocked again.

soolin

Money_Grabber13579 said:

Had someone recently make a ridiculous offer on something (around 80% lower than I was asking). I declined the offer and then they kept on making offers, which were also declined. When they ran out of offers, they started making offers by messages, including some which were exactly the same as the ones I’d previously declined. In the end, I had to ignore their messages.

I've just put something on the other thread about offers, they do seem to bring out the worst in some people.

soolin

I've been selling online for nearly 30 years now and I've had some really daft buyers, I wouldn't know where to start on here. Just a few from the past couple of years though include a buyer on my private account who bought lets say a vintage vase, the vase was mainly blue- they thanked me for accepting their offer and said they love the shape of the vase- but instead of the blue one they bought- could I please send a yellow one as it fitted their decor better - a vintage, 'one off' item ....

I have in my foolish past sold clothes (never again) and lost count of the people asking things like 'will it fit me' , well if they don't know then how on earth am I supposed to know. 

There's also the 'I need this tomorrow please post immediately' buyers, who had bought on a Sunday night, didn't pay until  Wednesday at 6pm and paid 2nd class and then send the message.

I've had people tell me they need something urgently and if they paid could I deliver it to them myself that day or meet somewhere half way - the latest  being a £4 item .

Just remembered another one from before Christmas, I hesitated as to whether to post this one as I did consider the fact that buyer had  some health  issues- and did in fact report my concerns to ebay. . An unpaid item on day 3 where I was waiting to cancel it next day, buyer sent me a 'where is my item' email and I explained they hadn't paid and it would be sent if they paid but would be automatically cancelled the next day if not. Got an absolute tirade back about how ebay works and how thick and sub normal I must be to expect a buyer to pay before they had a chance to inspect the goods. I did reply and explain on ebay nothing is sent until paid for, but they told me again how I was obviously too stupid for ebay and I needed to learn about it, this was from a low feedback user and on my very high feedback business account. I had several messages from them, all telling me how I must be stupid, when they ventured into some really odd insults I did phone ebay and after a few calls they said they had passed the details across to an investigation team, The user account was closed shortly afterwards so perhaps the report worked. I did consider whether the buyer had some sort of breakdown as these weren't just nasty threats or such like, they were just really odd comments, part capitalised, part lower case as though the user was yelling at the screen.

Pollycat

zackary71 said:

The low-ball offers are very frustrating. Did get a good tip on this Forum though on handling them, by increasing the price until they run out of Offers. If someone is offering £10 on a £100 item, it's a fair bet they're either wasting your time, have no real interest in purchasing or don't know the actual value of the item. 
I had one on Marketplace who drove me mad. "Collection only" post..."Do you deliver?". I even agreed to deliver as they were old and lived in sheltered accommodation...plus it was a short detour from my workplace. Cue multiple excuses..."won't be in", "at hospital", "can't get to ATM" etc. This was on multiple listings. In the end, I blocked them. Lo and behold, a recent listing got a message through. Recognised the name straight away. Must have signed up to a new account. Cue "do you deliver?"...despite the 'Collection Only' post. My reply..."no,not to timewasters". Blocked again.

I put a price over which I'll consider offers (usually 20% less than the bid price).

Any low-ball offers are declined automatically by eBay, I don't even see them.

forgotmyname

So glad I never sold clothes... I think my replies to "will it fit me" would have gotten me banned from ebay forever...

Meet me half way,   sure...  But I will be coming down and halfway is about 15,000 feet a little puzzled how you are coming
upto that height?  Please have exact money change will be unavailable.

Require item urgently....  Apologies but time machine is currently in for repair.  Standard postage times will apply in the meantime.

Do you deliver, sorry midwifery is not within my skill set.


Buyer not working weekends suggest they do overtime at the weekend and they maybe able to afford the item new?

soolin

forgotmyname said:

So glad I never sold clothes... I think my replies to "will it fit me" would have gotten me banned from ebay forever...

Meet me half way,   sure...  But I will be coming down and halfway is about 15,000 feet a little puzzled how you are coming
upto that height?  Please have exact money change will be unavailable.

Require item urgently....  Apologies but time machine is currently in for repair.  Standard postage times will apply in the meantime.

Do you deliver, sorry midwifery is not within my skill set.


Buyer not working weekends suggest they do overtime at the weekend and they maybe able to afford the item new?

About 20 + years ago I got a neutral saying that my Wedgwood trinket dish (remember when they actually had a value!) was too small. I responded to the feedback 'just how big did you want your 3 inch trinket dish then?'

Actually that just reminded me of one fairly recently  - I sold a scale model - it had a recognised scale, lets say 1:76 from a well known manufacturer. Got a message saying that they were a collector of this item, knew all about them and I had misrepresented the size and had sent them the small one. I replied back that the scale was clearly shown in title, item specifics and description- and could be seen clearly on the box - and that 1:76 was that scale. Thought that would be the end of it, except one more message came back saying they felt I was wrong, they knew about these things and my photos were deceptive- and perhaps I should consider putting something like a drink can in photo for scale.....I did actually get a positive from them but they said they felt my photos mispresented the size, but overall they were happy as the price was very good. 

Pollycat

I must have been lucky.
Most of my buyers have been really nice and appreciative.
And I'm the same as a buyer.a
But I do spend time on my photos and descriptions.
Not like this silly AI nonsense that doesn't give me the information I need to decide if I want to buy an item. 🤬

soolin

Pollycat said:

I must have been lucky.
Most of my buyers have been really nice and appreciative.
And I'm the same as a buyer.a
But I do spend time on my photos and descriptions.
Not like this silly AI nonsense that doesn't give me the information I need to decide if I want to buy an item. 🤬

I don't really have that many issues when you consider how much I've sold over the years. Probably nearly 100,000 items taking into account the various sites I've used (I was using online auctions before ebay UK started) . I closed down a business account on ebay about 18 years ago with around 28,000 feedback due to a stalker and just started a fresh main business account.