10-26-2024 12:46 PM - edited 10-26-2024 12:53 PM
I had the following exchange two days ago with a very nice lady who wanted to purchase some extremely hard to find porcelain dinner plates (out of production for the last 35 years or so).
(She saw that the price to ship one plate was $17 (the plates are quite heavy and she lived quite a ways away) and I think that she assumed that if she purchased four, she would be paying $68 (4x17) for shipping, which is of course not the way it works. Hence, our exchange.)
She spent well over $100 for the items... needless to say, these are my favorite customers: people who understand the value of what I am selling and don't try to nickel and dime me to death. (I actually drove to the post office an hour after packing her plates up.)
Sharing here to offset all the gloom and doom that seems to dominate these forums. 😊
10-26-2024 12:55 PM
Congratulations on your peachiness and on a smooth transaction selling 4 plates to a buyer who originally just wanted two!
But I can't help wondering whether she has checked with her sons regarding whether they are actually interested in this china. Being older than either of you, I have seen so many of my peers trying to rehome dishware that their kids don't want.
10-26-2024 01:00 PM - edited 10-27-2024 02:56 AM
My peachiness. 😊 If she only knew.
But to your observation... I think that she is preparing for a big Thanksgiving or other holiday dinner, in which the whole family will be in attendance.
10-26-2024 01:00 PM
10-26-2024 01:01 PM
Good Job, Peachy!
I also sell and ship a lot of dinnerware, mainly piecemeal with a shipping refund for multiples and combining orders. Your exchange with her is almost carbon copy of how I treat my dinnerware customers. Going to the effort of explaining refunds for over-payment of shipping does alleviate the shipping cost concerns.
Cheers, Duffy
10-26-2024 01:03 PM
Really... it does not take much effort. And it feels good to treat others nicely.
The next day she sent a follow up note to let me know that she had sent several of her friends a link to my store.
Regards
10-26-2024 01:06 PM
The one thing which I do and you did was take a photo of package with postage and send it to buyer as a friendly 'item has been mailed'.
If more sellers did this they wouldn't have a problem...especially if seller knows it's going 'freight forward'.
Great job.
10-26-2024 01:09 PM
Thank you for your kind words... I have been treating eBay buyers like this for 25 years.
What is really nice is that when you have accumulated several years worth of positive feedback, it is easy for buyers like this lady to trust you.
I have refunded well over a thousand customers for overpayment of shipping (like in this example), and I can recall only one who expressed any hesitation.
I have no complaints about my experience on this platform, where the golden rule seems to really have worked.
10-26-2024 01:13 PM - edited 10-26-2024 01:17 PM
Nice experience.
Let me see how my last one went....
Oh here. 50% off discount request.
😂
10-26-2024 01:13 PM
I've been doing that for as long as I can remember.
I remember once I received some feedback from a customer who was thrilled to see that the box I had mailed her had fragile stickers pasted on five sides.
I paid $5 for a roll of 500 of those stickers. Its just one more indication that the seller cares, and buyers deeply appreciate those small touches. regards
10-26-2024 01:23 PM
10-26-2024 01:26 PM
That buyer is obnoxious AND stupid.
I have gotten a few of those messages... buyer sends me a dollar figure.
No salutation, no conversation.
To the buyer, I am a non-human object.
And it gives me enormous pleasure to delete the message and simply add them to my best buddies list.
My BBL is populated by 95 eBay IDs... which means I have room for another 4,905.
10-26-2024 01:35 PM
Ha...I have too many on my BBL to count...maybe 400+.
10-26-2024 01:38 PM - edited 10-27-2024 03:55 AM
@nobody*s_perfect wrote:Congratulations on your peachiness and on a smooth transaction selling 4 plates to a buyer who originally just wanted two!
But I can't help wondering whether she has checked with her sons regarding whether they are actually interested in this china. Being older than either of you, I have seen so many of my peers trying to rehome dishware that their kids don't want.
I will echo this! {{{Congratulations on your peachiness}}} @fbusoni
@nobody*s_perfect, I hear you about trying to rehome china. I loved my set of Royal Doulton Real Old Willow, but since I am downsizing, I had to let it go. I don't have anyone in my family who would need (or want) it, so it went to an estate sale auction. I was rather pleased, they sold it for about $250 altogether.
10-27-2024 03:05 AM - edited 10-27-2024 03:57 AM
Thank you for your kind words...
(I'm pretty sure the buyer is preparing for a Thanksgiving dinner... )
Speaking of Willow, I had some that was manufactured in the early 1960s by Johnson Bros. Had it on eBay for a couple of months, lots of watchers but no buyers. Immaculate, almost no signs of use.
I recently put it on FB Marketplace and sold most of it almost immediately. One lady asked me why I was selling it... she told me that it was inconceivable to her that anyone would want to part with such pieces.
Personally, I am not, nor have I ever been, into "things," so the range of inanimate objects that people cherish never ceases to amaze me.