Buyers request
I have a buyer that has told me they have 7 items of mine in their cart. They want me to create an invoice with discounted pricing on all the items and combined shipping and then she will place the order. My items are Buy it Now items. They have only told me what one of the items is and it will require a 12x12x12 box. I can't figure out how to do this or what to do about this request. Help.
23 comments
thelongball
·6 months agoHello- Just a quick story about making small talk. I have been a retail salesperson my whole life and have always found that being real with people gets you sales. It's harder for a friend to tell a friend no when it comes time to making a buying decision. It has always worked. But that is on a face-to-face sales transaction.
Recently I learned a valuable lesson here on eBay. I fell into the trap of just being way to nice to someone and it turned out to be a nightmare. To make it short, I ended up stuck with a stalker. Figured out my phone number and the next thing I knew I was getting text messages every hour. Was saying things in the eBay message board that could be picked up by the AI as making off site sales. It just kept getting worse and worse. Finally had to block not only ebay but my phone also. It was really eerie to say the least. I'll not do that again. Watching on the news how dangerous it can be now a days using the internet for the wrong reasons can get people in a lot of trouble. Don't even go there as you just don't know what you're getting yourself into.
christworks
·6 months ago@jackrabbitrun9 I'll be very direct: Block. Stop interacting. They are a time waster. They may be trying to get your stuff cheaper so they can resale it. Either way, they are not serious. Their life and/or problems are not yours. It really is okay to hit that block button. Look at how much time you have now invested in this and have absolutely nothing to show for it.
na_833338
·6 months agoInteresting problem, but I guess it depends on exactly what they want to buy, and how much you want a sale. Seems like the first thing would be for you to find out what all the things are to determine if they can even be shipped together.
If they give you a list of items and you find out that you can ship them together in a bigger box then why not try to make a deal? I have had that same kind of situation many times in the last 25 years, and I've never had a problem with it turning bad. Sometimes you get people that keep buying from you if you give them a little bit of special treatment.
If it turns out that the items that they're interested in can't be shipped in one box then the problem solves itself. As a seller, sometimes having a problem a little bit outside of your comfort zone can be a good experience that can help you with future transactions. There's many factors in this type of decision, but until you know what they want to buy, there's no way to make that final decision.
I like the suggestion from someone else said that you should read what type of feedback they receive and what kind of feedback they leave so you have a better idea of what type of person they are.
If some of the things they want to get from you are things that have 'long tails', waiting for that one buyer for long periods of time, that might tip the scales in their favor.
When I go to a retail store and I have a problem trying to find some things that I want to buy & need one of the employees to go to the back room to dig around to see if they have something that's not up on the shelves, or I need them to help me find several different items, this kind of seems like the same thing. It's customer service.
If you don't like doing that, then don't offer to help them. They will choose to buy your stuff or move on. I don't have a job to take up my extra time, so I'm willing to help fulfill a customers 'wish list' from time-to-time.
Good luck!
ryry-jj
·6 months agoIf the 'buyer" wants to request a total from the shopping cart, I'd take a look at what you can offer on combined shipping, but I wouldn't be offering discounts on the items
pickapaper
·6 months ago@jackrabbitrun9
Don't forget, you said one item alone will take a 12x12x12 box so if the other items won't fit in that box, it is going to take an oversized box which will cost a lot more.
theteamsetguy
·6 months ago@jackrabbitrun9 ,
Since it looks like most of your items are less than $20.00 I would give them a combined shipping discount but that's it. If he/she doesn't like it tell them they take a hike.
jackrabbitrun9
OP6 months agoThank you all so much for your responses! I did leave a few details out; I wanted to get an idea of what you would do about the invoice and see if I was just in the dark here. Here are some more details; The buyer started messaging me a few nights ago about one particular item. They asked if I would be willing to take less for it. I told them the best I could do is 10% off. So, it went from a $59 item to a $53 item. Then the potential buyer started chatting with me about their life. They are also an eBay seller (I know this because they told me what they sell). I got many more messages about their life and did not get any answer about the $53 offer on the item. Then silence. The next night I got more messages about their life and what they sell on eBay, I did not respond. Then this morning I was asked about the invoice and a discount on all 7 items. I have just never been asked about an invoice (I usually only sell one or two items to a customer, so have only needed combined shipping). I was afraid that I was missing something that I should know! I am 100% going to pass on this one.
gurlcat
·6 months ago@jackrabbitrun9 Yeah that's screwy -as a seller they should know you can't see what's in their cart. And all that yacking, sounds like they hope you'll give them a "friend" discount. 🤣
EDIT: don't get me wrong; I have enjoyed some marathon conversations with a few buyers, even had long phone calls with a couple, just talking about all kinds of stuff. But I should stress the word buyers, as in people who have established trust with me, by having already bought and not been any trouble. -This person you're talking to is only a SHOPPER.
tobaccocardyahoo
·6 months agoI too have had long conversations with buyers, some of which have gone on for years and across selling venues, but they almost always start after they have become one of my buyers.
The question in my mind is is this shopper a buyer or a lookie-loo.
Reminds me of a story of an antique dealer who dies and goes to heaven. Saint Peter is showing him around. He notices a group of strange looking men standing in a circle around a hole in the clouds.
He asks Saint Peter who those men are and what they are doing. Peter tells him they are antique dealers and they are bleeping on the lookie-loo's.
gurlcat
·6 months ago🤣That's a good one.
ten_o_nine
·6 months agoI am 100% going to pass on this one.
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I would do the same.
chapeau-noir
·6 months agoBefore this post I was baffled at other posters' angst about something that is so routine I even have a blurb about it in my description.
Then I read this - uh...no, I would not deal with this.
meme6253
·6 months agoEveryone has offered some great advice, But I think your best overall option is what mamacassidy has suggested for your situation, I do like to soldier underground suggestion but I would not actually use that advice it's a bit to brash!
gurlcat
·6 months ago@jackrabbitrun9 If some of the replies (so far) aren't helpful because they are based on the authors' not wanting to lower their prices, that's because you have not stated whether YOU want to or not, for the sake of selling 7 items.
We can't read your mind, so any key details left out of your post will leave no choice but assumption-making.
1786davycrockett
·6 months ago@jackrabbitrun9
Tell your potential "buyer" that, due to the USPS price increase on January 18 of this year, you are unable to lower your "Buy It Now" prices any further, but that you will gladly offer the "buyer" a combined shipping discount, once the "buyer" discloses the items in which they are interested.
You will likely never hear from them again -- I just had a similar request last week, and I haven't had a response from that "buyer" ever since.
Seems as if there are quite a few "bottom feeders" preying upon eBay sellers recently.
mr_lincoln
·6 months agoHi @jackrabbitrun9
-Sellers cannot see what a Buyer has in their cart
-Sellers might get a little red banner note that one of their items is in a cart but there is no link to the Buyer
-The potential Buyer needs to provide ALL 7 eBay Item numbers in order for you to know what they are talking about
-You mentioned your items are BIN (Buy it now), if you have Immediate payment required turned ON the Buyer would have to purchase all items and you would have to refund the shipping overage and any additional price off the items you want to give them
-Many Buyers have no clue how eBay works ... yours sound like one of them. You will have to educate them to pull off the transaction
-They may be giving you busy work too, I had that kind of thing happen early on here ... Buyer wanted several items Relisted on one listing before they would purchase ... then would not purchase ... that only happened once before I learned how to deal with unusual requests
-Check their Feedback history, see what kind of FB they leave for others.
ethylsgarage
·6 months agoPass. The more you cater to a buyer's petulant whims the more likely they are to give you negative feedback. I've been selling here since 1998 and it almost always goes badly when you try to do a buyer a "favor."
twk
·6 months agoYou know I find that true. Seems customers I have gone out of my way for never leave feedback. They may email me how pleased they are and how great I did, but not the feedback which is what counts here.
stainlessenginecovers
·6 months agoor....(what I always do) is simply create a listing with all the items in one with one shipping cost. Fairly simple (pick one of the items, click 'sell similar'- change title, description, shipping amount and add pictures as needed. Tell buyer the 12 digit number and what you did in the listing.
If the value is worth the time, probably take you 20-30 mins to create that listing.
tobaccocardyahoo
·6 months agoI would not pursue this because I am lazy and not hungry.
If you want to pursue this, tell the buyer to click request invoice from her cart, If she cannot, you will need to get all of the items from her and create a special listing for her. You will also need to waste time and create an opportunity for you to screw up.
Leading back to my first sentence of this post.
I may have set a record in the past week for answering "No, Thank You" to annoying offers.
ten_o_nine
·6 months ago@tobaccocardyahoo
I would not pursue this because I am lazy and not hungry.
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Lol, as Mr. wonderful says, "I want to wet my beak"
mamacassidy
·6 months agoMy response to this is:
Hi there!
I offer combined shipping on multiple items purchased. Go ahead and purchase the items you want, and once I get them packed up and get a shipping total, I'll refund any difference you paid.
Thank you!
I do not create discounted "bundles" or anything like that.
In a rare occasion I will create a new listing will all the items combined and one shipping cost, but that's only if they specifically (and kindly) ask me to. And again, there's no discount on the items.
tinsoldierunderground
·6 months ago@jackrabbitrun9
Unless you're desperate for a sale, I'd tell your buyer to pound sand. I'm strictly a buyer here, and this reeks of entitlement.