My goodness... My "time away" can't come soon enough...
So due to travel coming up later in February, I scheduled a time away to start on February 12 (still gives me a few days to pursue payments and close out unpaid items, and a little time for items to arrive to deal with any fall out, should anything go wrong with a sale).
On the first 5 days of my vacation I'll have wifi, so dealing with problems will be simple enough, then it will be very intermittent to deal with an internet connection (and plus I don't want to pay to use my phone abroad if I can avoid it... my carrier wants $17 a day to access data services while abroad).
In January I had a massive amount of requests to make up special packages containing a significant number of low value items (to the point the customers did not want to pay postage one each item, or haggle for the price on several individual items).
My latest custom request is to combine a few items to ship to the United Kingdom (for which eBay was charging my customer $16 times three and not letting him request an invoice). I sent him the link of the item and he claims the link is putting him back to the main eBay page. My only thoughts are maybe because he's in the UK and your phone defaults you to the site you are to be using for your country (at least they always direct me to the Canada eBay site on my phone), he's having issues accessing the item.
I followed up on this by telling him what the title was, it's the only thing that will come up in search if you put in all words, so it's easy enough to find. His last message at 9am eastern time was "don't forget about the time zone difference". Well fair enough if we're exchanging messages in the evening, but this was 7 hours ago for which it was daytime in the UK most of this time, and I reply within 2 minutes when I'm working online, so I don't see what the time difference has to do with it when I'm replying within a couple of minutes of each message... he's the one that's taking 12 hours to get back to me on each message... which I find particularly annoying, because if you want to buy something and you're having issues, and the seller is very quick to respond, take the time to sort these issues out (that is if you actually want to invest the time to get your item).
Most of my custom listing buyers will have a few message banter with me as we are often both online at the same time, so that sorts things out easily. (Even the custom listing buyers that I have from the UK are pretty quick to get back to me). So to have to wait a day to respond to a message that results in no progress is particularly irritating. The last time I had someone take a day between each reply, after I week I cancelled their custom listing and ignored all their messages. Sales are good, but I don't need the aggravation of dealing with someone who's difficult from the start.
Because I'm planning time away and trying to "wrap stuff up this week" before I close my store, I have little to no patience for anyone who's a little bit difficult. Generally I just reply to messages and forget about it because I have lots going on. But this past week I've been a bit impatient to resolve issues.
Anyway looking forward to my store being closed... I have big plans to get my auctions ready for when I come back (and have uninterrupted time on my computer each night next week to do this). I have offline software, so I can create the listings and launch them when I come home. I kinda of like the idea of a "break" from eBay.
C.
oldwestcoins
·2 years agoI must have entered a chat room by mistake.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoYou know they do call it a "discussion forum".
C.
oldwestcoins
·2 years agoThis is a forum on eBay for help not for the weather or vacations. I mean seriously. Paragraphs on your downtime have nothing to do with eBay stuff. Just curious, do you post so much just to be highly ranked on forums and chat rooms? At least pick a different category other than "selling" as this doesn't apply or offer any assistance for those looking to or posting to help buyers and sellers. The snow level, trip to Africa, or even a cruise does nothing here for readers other than to clutter the boards. One should ask themselves before posting here, will your post be relevant to helping other eBay'rs or is it a question that you seek answers to? That's all I am saying. That's the difference between "forums" and "chat rooms" and Facebook. Have a good one.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoThe OP was about "time away" (an ebay function to close your store temporarily) and dealing with troublesome buyers right before it starts. That is related to selling.
I find it very funny you think I'm highly ranked on this forum and that I "post so much", because while I do post more than the people coming in here for help on occasion, I don't post nearly as much as the people who live here. There are people in this selling forum that don't even sell on eBay. But yet you target me.
C.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoI'd rather read a thread like this than yet another one proclaiming in all caps that ebay charges their FVFs on the WHOLE buyer payment (yes, including shipping and ST).
gtmstores
·2 years agoThat's just...so rude. One should ask themselves if that kind of comment is necessary before posting, since you obviously took time to read the OP's original post.
frecklesfinery88
·2 years agoI had to take time away after my father's heart stopped and was in the hospital for 9 days. Everything was ok, only 1 customer issue. Very thankful for that. I hope your time away goes well.
Blessings
Mis
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoI should have done "time away" during this storm in California. It has been really miserable. Decided not to go out Saturday to mail items and really not sure about Monday if it will be OK to leave the apartment to mail items. Imagine, when you don't want sales you get them. Luckily, my plastic bags arrived the day before all this rain for mailing. This storm has been really bad for the west coast and not sure how this will affect shipping especially with cancel flights in my area.
I think you should do at least a day or two of wifi while on vacation even if you have to pay for it. These buyers wait until the last day to return something or want to. Don't want any "dings" hitting when you are off wifi for a while.
coastaltechsolution
·2 years ago@12345jamesstamps
I got soaking wet yesterday running to the post office and running errands
Hope it dies down later this evening
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoImagine San Francisco getting tornadoes possible this afternoon.
My concern is where this weather goes and where my mailings go. Which is why the plastic bags really give me a chance to sleep at nights like this.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoIs the plastic bag inside your packaging?
Pending on what I'm mailing, I do some extra packing. Any expensive stamps go in bubble mailers (which are inside lined with plastic anyway), inside a plastic ziplock with a sheet of cardboard. I do the same with expensive banknotes. I take more risks on things like 99 cent stamps to save on shipping, as it's around $4 to mail an expensive stamp to a USA address inside a bubble mailer.
For coins and stuff, they all go in ziplock bags, unless it's just one (or maybe two), in which case I fold it inside the invoice and drop it in the bubble mailer (plastic lined).
C.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoThe California storms haven't been on "The National" (CBC newscast for Canada), so I wasn't aware of the bad weather. Tonight however they are doing a segment on 3 feet of snow in Nova Scotia this weekend. No snow in Toronto... in fact, with the except of a long pile along the edge of the driveway, most of the snow has melted. It's been above freezing most of the time with no snow for the past two weeks.
As for the wifi, the cruise gives me 300 minutes of wifi to use, so I will definitely be checking, but if I have a problem, I might have to be checking frequently, so I don't want to use the wifi frivolously. The good news is that by the time I get on the cruise, almost all packages should be delivered. I don't get returns, but usually if there's a complaint it happens within a day or two of delivery, most of the time.
I still remember the last time I was in Africa some woman throwing a fit over not receiving a $5 DVD and a refund wasn't good enough. I offered to replace the DVD with one from Amazon if it would make her happy, she said "it's not the same used one you had in your listing". I then went and tried to refund and she'd cancelled her credit cards and Paypal account so I kept getting "can't refund this transaction" error. When I got home I called eBay to get them to force a refund, then I got a ding, then I had to call and get the ding removed. The woman told me in message she cancelled all her cards to make sure I couldn't refund her, and that's kinda how I got all that wiped... but wasted a lot of time and irritated me on the last three days I was in Africa using the business centre to send messages (in 2014).
I've got a phone and tablet now, so I won't be using any more public computers.
C.
sin-n-dex
OP2 years agoCorrection, they just started the newscast... they already got 3 feet, they're getting another three feet before the storm is over...
Can you imagine 6 feet of snow? Buffalo NY gets that sometimes (it caused havoc with my packages last winter when everyone had to stay off the roads).
I'm thankful to be a hundred miles inland.
C.