When buyers cancel and become annoying about it...
So imagine this... 11pm an item sells. Sometime soon after the buyer asks to cancel (for whatever reason, doesn't matter to me).
I'm SLEEPING at 11pm ET, and when I wake up I have messages at 2am, 3am, 4am... "why are you not cancelling my item??" "I don't want the item! I asked you to cancel!"
A mistake on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Honouring a cancellation is important enough I will do it in the morning when I'm reading all my email, but I'm not going to wake up in the middle of the night and do it because the buyer made a mistake while I was doing something else (like sleeping).
I have no issue with cancelling (for any reason, better than getting an INAD and having it returned), but have some patience! It's like they think I'm not going to cancel it for them if they don't send three messages at night to tell me they don't want the item.
I don't generally BBL if someone sends a few messages, but I had one message me at 4am for a discount on an item. I was asleep. He messaged me again at 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6, and at 6:30 he bought it and paid full price and demanded a partial refund to get it for the discounted price he wanted it for. I wake up for work at 7:30, so I didn't see any of this until morning. I replied that I did not agree to his discount and I will cancel if he wants.
C.
fm2000
·8 months agoAs someone who does eBay work late at night sometimes, I can say that kind of obnoxious behavior is unacceptable 24 hours a day. One message is fine, one every hour is not. Cancel the order and block them. Don't wait to cancel, don't message them back. Wash your hands of this person and move on, they don't deserve one more second of your time.
buyersellerfinder
·8 months agoYou just need to turn your phone off when you sleep.
People will email and email and email.
Either their up all night obsessing over their purchase or they're in a different time zone or they work a different shift than you.
Alternative solution is to create AI to answer buyer's emails immediately.
12345jamesstamps
·8 months agoI always make the buyer wait 2-3 days before I cancel...for the processing funds to go into the available funds.
I assume if buyer asks to cancel they can't leave feedback...so it's a block buyer in my little black book.
Wonder if it was an expensive item for hundreds of dollar.
gloryglorygifts
·8 months agoI'm sorry. It's because of people like me. 😃 My circadian rhythm is off so I'm answering questions at 2 a.m. EST. As my bro says, I've been up to P twice before your head even hits the pillow.
It IS annoying to get those late night messages tho. It's because people want instant validation and responses. There's no such thing as business hours in the world of technology.
dixiestoolsandtreasures
·8 months agoI used to set an automated reply that said close to:
"My life is crazy, and I work crazy hours. I will answer your question the next time I'm awake and not behind the wheel of a car or in front of a hot stove. I'm great about shipping my sales within 1 business day, though, so if that was your question, we're all set!"
Yes, I really did that.
Truth was that I often worked until about 3am, slept until 7, then had to get the kids ready, feed them, then take them to school and come home to start my day. I usually hit the sheets for an hour around 10 or 11 before preparing my shipping for the day and going to pick up the kids from school and swinging by the Post Office. I had UPS pickup, so that was easier. I have an autistic child who is a night person, and if I wasn't up, he'd wake anyone within 5 square miles. When he finally slept, I went to bed. lol
For auto response, it seems that now either you have to set 'time away' before you can leave an auto response; or I haven't spent enough time bothering to find it.
People really are much more impatient these days, though, and I've received multiple emails from a potential customer before I was able to respond - and I sleep more 'normal' hours these days! Rest assured that it isn't just eBay. Those same people drive, and are equally impatient on the road, where it gets dangerous. So, the next time you get a slew of email before you wake up to answer, be happy that they weren't on the road, passing you on the shoulder! 😊
sin-n-dex
OP8 months agoI'm visually impaired and can't see my phone without my glasses on (which are safely on my desk while I'm sleeping so I don't step on them or knock them off the night stand). There's audio notifications for sales, so I can hear sometimes when it goes off, but I don't actually look at my phone until after I get up.
C.
luckythewinner
·8 months agoDear buyer,
I am sorry for the delay in responding, but I am an individual seller and your messages arrived after midnight local time.
I have already canceled the order for you.
Best wishes,
Your seller
christworks
·8 months agoSo far, I've not had buyers do this. If I do, I'll dust off my block list.
bonanza125
·9 months agoIt has happened to me a bunch of times. Some people don't really realize it until the morning when I reply back to them. In some cases there could be a time difference and they were thinking I was on the same time as them. Most apologize and admit the mistake. Cancellations are getting out of hand though.
iamalwaysright
·9 months agoMy question to you is why are you sleeping when your listings are clearly open and active on eBay, a site that is running 24/7??? Do you know many people get fired sleeping on the job? 😉
Yea I get those messages sometimes too. Not as crazy as the ones you mentioned, but I’ve gotten plenty from the constant numerous elbow nudges from a buyer reminding me that they want a discount, not knowing that I never negotiate. Then they buy it anyway before waiting for a reply and get all mad that I’m not giving them a discount.
I’ll add a 3rd annoyance I have from cancellation requesters. A few times I’ve had the buyer message me to reverse their cancellation request, then later reverse the reversal (which means move forward with the cancellation). It gets annoying especially when I already declined the cancellation.
ekmadonna
·9 months agoI never refund immediately anymore. We have 72 hrs. I always wait for my mornings deposit to go into the bank. If not their refund is deducted from my payments that have already cleared. They can wait.
ten_o_nine
·9 months agoeBay should create a 'Business Hours' feature for managing active times, feature would trigger automated out-of-office responses for inquiries received after hours.
iamalwaysright
·9 months agoI’d always have that out-of-office response enabled 24/7.
ten_o_nine
·9 months ago@iamalwaysright
Lol, me too, just let me know when an item sells and I will be in the office.😅
iamalwaysright
·9 months agoYuuuup. I’ll turn on the lights when a sale is made. Otherwise…
sin-n-dex
OP8 months agoI did that for a while, but I got someone else's out of office (for the same reason I do it) and it gave a date they were out of office until. I had a few messages from buyers thinking I'm really away because they saw the title of the message but didn't read the part I put in about my "answering hours". So I decided it's best to try to answer quickly (even if to tell them you'll check their request later).
C.
stainlessenginecovers
·9 months agoSo did you respond? I would have
'do you have any idea what time it was when you sent those messages!!'
sin-n-dex
OP8 months agoI know an eBay seller that's up at the wee hours in the morning answering messages and sleeping during the day... since eBay is something we can do any time during our 24 hour day, I wouldn't think that would be a necessary response. But since I work during the day, evenings are my only time online. I do try to do cancellations and answer messages during the day if I can (and the email is not too complicated or doesn't involve me checking the actual item).
C.
mamacassidy
·9 months agoI had a similar one where they didn't want to cancel, but were asking a question. They sent multiple messages asking the same question over and over. And then the last message was really rude, something like "if you can't be bothered, then nevermind, I don't want to buy from you anyway". This was all overnight, over the course of 3-4 hours.
I responded with the sweetest, sappiest response I could:
"I'm so sorry I was unable to get back to you sooner. I worked a 12-hour shift at the hospital yesterday, so when you were messaging between the hours of 2-6am, I was just completely asleep! If you're still interested in this item, I'll be happy to answer any questions you have now! Have a great day!"
Then I blocked them.
I know my message was unnecessary, but sometimes I think buyers forget they are dealing with real human beings, so I will sometimes remind them.
iamalwaysright
·9 months agoMy reply would be “Dude you gotta lay off the weed or alcohol.â€
chapeau-noir
·8 months agoSounds like too much caffeine to me.
stainlessenginecovers
·8 months agoIf it were weed, the dufus would've been asleep....
roccotacodad54
·9 months agoThe same people that get upset if they text someone and don't get an immediate text back. Alot of people have lost all concept of patience in their constant search for instant gratification.
A curse brought upon us in this digital age. I recently read where there are two basic types of people when it comes to digital communication. The ones that consider cell phones an external device to use at their convienence and the ones that internalize it as part of their person/personality, part of them.
I believe it's the second group that do these irritating impatient communications....................
sin-n-dex
OP8 months agoI've gotten "I was texting you and you weren't responding". Sorry dude, I don't look at my phone while I'm driving, sleeping, letting it charge in another room... I do look at it at work, but that's mainly so I can listen to music and Youtube music app stays open while I play stuff (which allows me to see notifications).
C.