Ruining Someone's Christmas

RFW

I've been selling online since Ebay was just fields. Every year there's someone's Christmas I ruin. Often because they order something on December 24th and expect it the week before.

I've had the usual round of delays and a couple of foul ups my end. I'll start by saying that the majority of people are lovely, even when you make a total hash of their order. Today's was a customer who ordered late yesterday afternoon, after my daily cut off, so item wasn't due out until today and on a 2nd class delivery that I'd upgraded to a tracked 48 service. The first message I received today was that the item hadn't arrived and wouldn't track. I politely explained the situation and when it was likely to arrive (Saturday or Monday). This was too late and I was a disgrace and why can't I send it next day delivery like John Lewis. I was told that when they receive it they would send it straight back and order from John Lewis. So I cancelled their order and sent a refund. This was then met with a torrent of abuse that I'd ruined their Christmas. 

Anyway I'm starting to switch off my sales as I'm away from Saturday.

I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas and hopefully not ruin any of yours!

twopenny

RFW, that's the nature of dealing with the public.
I've worked on and off in retail and hospitality in my life and it never ceased to amaze me what people will do or how their brains work..

I can remember a couple of customers from 50yrs ago and some since 😉

The woman who insisted she wanted the pink ring in the window. I explained several times it was blue and just the light but she insisted.
I had to remove 30% of the display to get it. She took one look and said "oh it's blue" and walked out. 
The woman who bought a grade 1 listed cottage in a little valley who screamed at me "how can I live without 2 bathrooms and a double garage"

But my favourite was the man who wanted our giant clam display for his swimming pool.
When repeatedly told it wasn't for sale he went out in a huff and said "well I'll get a live one then" 🤣

Hope that makes your Christmas better 🙂

soolin

RFW said:

I've been selling online since Ebay was just fields. Every year there's someone's Christmas I ruin. Often because they order something on December 24th and expect it the week before.

I've had the usual round of delays and a couple of foul ups my end. I'll start by saying that the majority of people are lovely, even when you make a total hash of their order. Today's was a customer who ordered late yesterday afternoon, after my daily cut off, so item wasn't due out until today and on a 2nd class delivery that I'd upgraded to a tracked 48 service. The first message I received today was that the item hadn't arrived and wouldn't track. I politely explained the situation and when it was likely to arrive (Saturday or Monday). This was too late and I was a disgrace and why can't I send it next day delivery like John Lewis. I was told that when they receive it they would send it straight back and order from John Lewis. So I cancelled their order and sent a refund. This was then met with a torrent of abuse that I'd ruined their Christmas. 

Anyway I'm starting to switch off my sales as I'm away from Saturday.

I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas and hopefully not ruin any of yours!

Merry Christmas to you as well. My holiday settings went on this morning, as I did a final early post drop this morning. 

I haven’t, to my knowledge ruined anyone’s Christmas so far this year. I’ve ruined many in the past, from refusing a daft low ball offer on Vinted for something that someone’s child wanted but they couldn’t afford , to refusing to post as soon as they bought something at 8pm as they needed it guaranteed for the next day . I’ve been wished a miserable Christmas for refusing to send items without payment on the promise they would pay in the New Year , and even selling something to someone else that ‘ they ‘ wanted but had been thinking about buying for days and was now sold. 

I’m sure there will be more of the same in 2026, so enjoy some time away from the madness. 

subjecttocontract

You've all just reminded me why I sell items that are collection only. But I still get people that want to collect at ridiculous times. One guy wanted to pick up at something he called 4am......I told him it wasn't a time of day I was familiar with ! He decided I wasn't worth the effort......how lucky was that!

soolin

subjecttocontract said:

You've all just reminded me why I sell items that are collection only. But I still get people that want to collect at ridiculous times. One guy wanted to pick up at something he called 4am......I told him it wasn't a time of day I was familiar with ! He decided I wasn't worth the effort......how lucky was that!

My experience with collection is worse than postage issues. I used to sell a lot on Facebook marketplace (lots and lots) , it was an absolute nightmare , no exaggeration but probably as many as 1 in every 2 collections never happened, buyers often forgot, or turned up hours later. My OH was furious one night at around 12.30 am to have someone banging on the door to collect. I never gave them my full address until they said they were on their way, as this person had done, but failed to turn up as arranged at 7pm. Turned out he was a taxi driver, and there had been transport issues in London so he stayed to earn some decent fares while he still had driving hours left, and swung by me, as he had always intended, on his way home, just 5 hours late. 

I had one at the tail end of this summer, collecting a free piece of furniture. Let me down for 3 days , again though despite telling me on day 1 she was actually in her car and about to set off. Kept me hanging for3 days, I told her I was giving g it to someone else but she said she was collecting it, and ignored everything else.  She then fold me she was at my door but I wasn’t answering, I told her I was there and came outside and she was nowhere to be seen. She sent me her location using that pin thing, turned out she wasn’t anywhere near me but an entire county away on an industrial estate. She accused me of supplying the wrong postcode, but it was there as plain as day on the message thread, she was a bit abusive saying that was where I sent her, but postcode didn’t have a single matching digit to mine. I posted about it on here, I suspect she was some sort of troll but I have no idea why she did it. 

s1ipmatt

RFW said:

I've been selling online since Ebay was just fields. Every year there's someone's Christmas I ruin. Often because they order something on December 24th and expect it the week before.

I've had the usual round of delays and a couple of foul ups my end. I'll start by saying that the majority of people are lovely, even when you make a total hash of their order. Today's was a customer who ordered late yesterday afternoon, after my daily cut off, so item wasn't due out until today and on a 2nd class delivery that I'd upgraded to a tracked 48 service. The first message I received today was that the item hadn't arrived and wouldn't track. I politely explained the situation and when it was likely to arrive (Saturday or Monday). This was too late and I was a disgrace and why can't I send it next day delivery like John Lewis. I was told that when they receive it they would send it straight back and order from John Lewis. So I cancelled their order and sent a refund. This was then met with a torrent of abuse that I'd ruined their Christmas. 

Anyway I'm starting to switch off my sales as I'm away from Saturday.

I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas and hopefully not ruin any of yours!

I disagree, you have not ruined someone's Christmas, the buyer needs to take the responsibility for ordering so late.  

Merry Christmas RFW and to all!

Woodstok2000

At least it wasn't as bad as this: https://youtu.be/4VtlKFyha4I?si=hb69PPHveAiLux1-

RFW

twopenny said:

RFW, that's the nature of dealing with the public.
I've worked on and off in retail and hospitality in my life and it never ceased to amaze me what people will do or how their brains work..

I can remember a couple of customers from 50yrs ago and some since 😉

The woman who insisted she wanted the pink ring in the window. I explained several times it was blue and just the light but she insisted.
I had to remove 30% of the display to get it. She took one look and said "oh it's blue" and walked out. 
The woman who bought a grade 1 listed cottage in a little valley who screamed at me "how can I live without 2 bathrooms and a double garage"

But my favourite was the man who wanted our giant clam display for his swimming pool.
When repeatedly told it wasn't for sale he went out in a huff and said "well I'll get a live one then" 🤣

Hope that makes your Christmas better 🙂

Thank you. 
My parents had a couple of shops and I was a cheap member of staff growing up. I've seen plenty of everything! It's unfortunate we remember all the bad customers when they were overwhelmingly in a minority. It is worth remembering that most people are really nice and honest.
I've used a couple of new marketplaces this year and have been really impressed by how nice a lot of their customer are.

soolin

RFW said:

twopenny said:

RFW, that's the nature of dealing with the public.
I've worked on and off in retail and hospitality in my life and it never ceased to amaze me what people will do or how their brains work..

I can remember a couple of customers from 50yrs ago and some since 😉

The woman who insisted she wanted the pink ring in the window. I explained several times it was blue and just the light but she insisted.
I had to remove 30% of the display to get it. She took one look and said "oh it's blue" and walked out. 
The woman who bought a grade 1 listed cottage in a little valley who screamed at me "how can I live without 2 bathrooms and a double garage"

But my favourite was the man who wanted our giant clam display for his swimming pool.
When repeatedly told it wasn't for sale he went out in a huff and said "well I'll get a live one then" 🤣

Hope that makes your Christmas better 🙂

Thank you. 
My parents had a couple of shops and I was a cheap member of staff growing up. I've seen plenty of everything! It's unfortunate we remember all the bad customers when they were overwhelmingly in a minority. It is worth remembering that most people are really nice and honest.
I've used a couple of new marketplaces this year and have been really impressed by how nice a lot of their customer are.

You are right, I can remember the bad ones, purely because some were so bad they were almost funny, but realistically I meet thousands of buyers so my issues are a very low almost neglible percentage. 

zackary71

I had a similar one recently. Sold an item mid morning on a Thursday. Posted it less than 24 hours later. Miraculously given Christmas postage delays, it arrived the following Wednesday. Checked Feedback and was left a Neutral as although the item was perfect, it arrived 1 day late for a birthday present. Did they tell me it needed to arrive by the Tuesday ? Errrr...nope. If they had, I'd have sent it 1st Class at no extra charge. I appealed it and the Feedback was removed. And Buyer was blocked.

red_boots2

Popped my holiday settings on last week as just wanted peace and quiet!

One that stands out for me was when I was an Events Manager and WI booked a huge conference and dinner party with us, they insisted that our normal 3 course menu was not 'fancy' enough and insisted we let them design their own... 4 days after the event we received a complaint from the person who picked the menu that it wasn't 'fancy' enough and demanding half of their money back.