eBay

city*satins · ‎05-12-2019

When a buyer buys and pays for something from me on a weekend, I write and thank them and notify them that I'll ship on Monday and that eBay will send them a message when I prepare the mailing label.

Yesterday, a buyer bought and paid. I wrote my usual blurb. 10 minutes later I got a reply saying THANKS!

Today, the buyer has written me a message asking when the item 'is hoping to be shipped?'

Disregarding the fact that inanimate objects don't have hopes, I have to wonder how the messages she and I exchanged yesterday could have so quickly fallen out of her brain.

Answering such messages without a hint of irritation is sometimes a challenge. Like today when I'm really not in the mood.

/closing vent

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a_c_green · ‎05-12-2019

@city*satins wrote:
Today, the buyer has written me a message asking when the item 'is hoping to be shipped?'

Disregarding the fact that inanimate objects don't have hopes, I have to wonder how the messages she and I exchanged yesterday could have so quickly fallen out of her brain.

From what you're describing, I'd say you might have a language barrier issue here...

city*satins · ‎05-12-2019

@a_c_green wrote:
@city*satins wrote:
Today, the buyer has written me a message asking when the item 'is hoping to be shipped?'

Disregarding the fact that inanimate objects don't have hopes, I have to wonder how the messages she and I exchanged yesterday could have so quickly fallen out of her brain.
From what you're describing, I'd say you might have a language barrier issue here...

You could be right!

Or perhaps she meant to type GOING and her fingers slipped and it came out HOPING

Either way...I've written a nice (not condescending, I hope) reply. But now you have me worried - the item has a fault - mentioned in the title, in the description, in the Item Specifics and Condition text. But who knows what she got from reading the listing?

I guess we'll see. 🙂

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a_c_green · ‎05-12-2019

@city*satins wrote:
Or perhaps she meant to type GOING and her fingers slipped and it came out HOPING

Oh, good point. I hadn't thought of that. One strange word in the midst of an otherwise-normal sentence can indeed be caused by software trying to be helpful, and a user who doesn't notice. Auto-correct is my own worst enema.

jeannicho22 · ‎05-12-2019

@city*satins wrote:
When a buyer buys and pays for something from me on a weekend, I write and thank them and notify them that I'll ship on Monday and that eBay will send them a message when I prepare the mailing label.

Yesterday, a buyer bought and paid. I wrote my usual blurb. 10 minutes later I got a reply saying THANKS!

Today, the buyer has written me a message asking when the item 'is hoping to be shipped?'

Disregarding the fact that inanimate objects don't have hopes, I have to wonder how the messages she and I exchanged yesterday could have so quickly fallen out of her brain.

Answering such messages without a hint of irritation is sometimes a challenge. Like today when I'm really not in the mood.

/closing vent

I ship Monday through Friday only. On a busy Friday I may not get to everything purchased on Friday and those items do not ship until Monday.... and they don't have to. I make no apology and send no explanation ahead of time. On rare occasions I do get an inquiry Saturday, Sunday or early in the day on Monday. Once again, I do not apologize but do send a straight forward message letting them know exactly what I have detailed above:

Dear Buyer,

We do only ship Monday through Friday and we do have a one BUSINESS day processing time. Items ordered on Friday will ship out the next business day which is Monday, holidays excluded. You will receive a tracking number once we have processed your order.

Please let us know if your widget does not arrive by eBay's estimated delivery date. We do hope you enjoy your widget once it arrives.

Kind regards,

Happy helpful seller

I try to take all of the emotion out of it, will not apologize and wish them good tidings... and joy, tidings and joy.

GREAT RANT

yankeebob1951 · ‎05-12-2019

Sometimes on those days when you most don't feel up to dealing w/anyone or anything... the universe seems to pin a sign on your back:

"Yoo-hoo!... Over here!...get in line to dump your random time/effort wasting **bleep**."

Kudos to you for being a pro & venting here instead of to your buyer.

femmefan1946 · ‎05-12-2019

I use feedback to give the shipping date.

"Thank you for your prompt payment. Shipped 12/5/19 Canada Post Air Mail."

Because international tracking is very expensive I use Cookie Jar Insurance. So by telling the customer the date and the shipping service , I find the customer is reassured that their purchase is on its way.

The "Canada Post" and the date system are there to further notify the customer that there may be a border to be traversed.

And yes, 12/5/19 is a Sunday. I have a post box on the corner and everything is dropped off there for the 9am pickup on Monday in hopes of catching the noon ferry to the postal terminal on the mainland.

soh.maryl · ‎05-12-2019

Have a feeling I've discussed this previously, but it's worth repeating.

I believe there are adults who, for whatever reason, lack reading comprehension skills. While they may understand a statement when voiced aloud, reading the same statement causes confusion.

I have a granddaughter who is a Reading Specialist in one of the local school systems and she teaches mainly understanding what you read. Her pupils are mostly 3rd and 4th graders. It might be good to expand that to include adults also.

She tells an interesting story about having a meeting with a parent of one of these youngsters where she explained what she hopes to accomplish with this child by the end of the school year, or earlier, and the parent's reaction demonstrated clearly that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So maybe it's genetic sometimes.

penguins_dont_fly · ‎05-12-2019

Let me tell you a story ...

A few months ago, (probably more than that) I listed some cobalt glass teacups with saucers. I started with 8 ... listed as singles multi-qty.

2 sold almost immediately.

A day or two later, I get a message asking how much to ship all 8 to the UK...I reply that I only have 6 and the calculator shows $xx.xx to ship 6 to the UK (with polite note about combined shipping being automatic and how to look at the Shipping and Payments tab)

One more sells.

A week later, a message asking how much to ship 8 to the UK .... repeat reply (change 6 to 5)

A week after that .... rinse and repeat.

This went on, with a message every week or so until the last cup sold ... P&G sales being what they are ... a total of about 6-8 months or longer.

(The last one to sell was the one that complained about "too much packing material", if anyone remembers that post LOL)

I have no clue what that was all about ... and they never bought any of the cups 😞

penguins_dont_fly is a Volunteer Community Mentor
Buying and Selling since 2013

div_style · ‎05-12-2019

Let me just say that, uhm, what was the question?

I like to respond by writing the nastiest meanest response I can imagine and think "Take THAT!". Then, of course, delete it and respond appropriately to my buyer, who just might end up being a repeat customer.

List more, sell more. Goodwill that other, uh, stuff.

Feeling sleepy? There's an app for that.

jeannicho22 · ‎05-12-2019

Just make certain there is no way you could accidently hit send before deleting.

div_style · ‎05-12-2019

@jeannicho22 wrote:
Just make certain there is no way you could accidently hit send before deleting.

Oh, yeah, I would write it in notepad or something, not in the actual message area.

List more, sell more. Goodwill that other, uh, stuff.

Feeling sleepy? There's an app for that.

a_c_green · ‎05-12-2019

@jeannicho22 wrote:
Just make certain there is no way you could accidentally hit send before deleting.

That's a variation of the old blunder of hitting Reply All instead of Reply when sending email...

jeannicho22 · ‎05-13-2019

@a_c_green wrote:
@jeannicho22 wrote:
Just make certain there is no way you could accidentally hit send before deleting.
That's a variation of the old blunder of hitting Reply All instead of Reply when sending email...

Done both.

Then of course there was the time I sent the vendor the message meant for a colleague stating that the product reeked and I thought it had been swept up from the production floor. Yeah, that was real nice.