Buyers with short term memory problems...my weekend gripe

[city*satins]

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

[ifyouloveit]

Just woke up to the same message. Buyer bought something yesterday (Sunday, Mother's Day), message said, "When you gonna ship my _____"

Other sale canceled. Yeah eBay, loving you right now.

[mg152]

In my humble opinion, you’re opening a can of worms by sending messages like that. No disrespect, you know you’re one of my favorite people on eBay. I used to chat with buyers but these days I say nothing unless I absolutely have to, ie: they ask a question or some other unforeseen issue like Friday when I messed up a label, had to void it and buy another. I messed up the weight. I let my buyer know why they see 2 tracking numbers.

[femmefan1946]

@soh.maryl 

I agree on reading comprehension.

Many years ago when I was delivering Census forms, as part of our training, we were told to offer to help people fill in the forms if they had "lost their glasses".

Inevitably, those people would give their educational levels as Grade Four or Five.
I ran into several of these because my poll was in a working class neighbourhood, where most of the people had jobs in factories and had been working since they were sixteen or even younger.

[jeannicho22]

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@ifyouloveit wrote:
Just woke up to the same message. Buyer bought something yesterday (Sunday, Mother's Day), message said, "When you gonna ship my _____"

Other sale canceled. Yeah eBay, loving you right now.

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Feel free to use my message.  Works for me.

[soh.maryl]

A long time ago, when I was a teenager, I had a good friend, Ruthie, whose grandpa lived with her very large family, mom, dad, two boys and three girls plus a nephew who drifted in and out periodically.  I got to know grandpa pretty well, respected him very deeply.  He was wise and funny and would talk to a quartet of giggly girls about almost anything.  One evening, we had stopped at a pharmacy and picked up a prescription for him.  As we sat around the fireplace, he asked Ruthie to read the bottle to him because he wanted to make sure it was the right stuff.  At the time, I thought maybe he could not see that fine print, but later I learned that this 60ish man had never learned to read.  He had arrived in this country as a big strong 13 year old and had begun work in a factory almost immediately.

He really wanted to go to school but never went in the USA.  So I know it's not always "book learnin'" because that was the smartest man I ever met anywhere any time.  And the kindest.

I know this has nothing to do with the original post, but just felt like this was the time to share that story.

[city*satins]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@jeannicho22 wrote:

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

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

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Fun fact from one of my previous lives when I worked in the computer center of a large corporation.  Senior operators and shift supervisors knew how to send messages to a single target computer terminal anywhere in the network.  You had to use some arcane instructions to do it on these old MVS mainframe systems (not all that old back then) which was knowledge way above my pay grade.

Anyway, we had a shift supervisor who was drunk a lot of the time, wore anti-gay t-shirts to work with obscene stickman images, bragged about taking his son to a brother for his 16 birthday, and was just obnoxious as all get-out, at least as far as the women who worked on the floor were concerned  (we women all had sexualize nicknames - I won't share mine today)  - the men mostly thought he was funny. (great times, the 1980s)

Anyway, he decided at about 3 a.m. on a Monday morning that he'd send a message to the desk of some fellow on the 4th floor whom he had a party-hearty mutual insults relationship with.   Unfortunately, his blood alcohol level was rather high, as was typical on weekends and he forgot that the system had a default.  If you made an error in typing the terminal address you were directing your message to, the message was still sent, but it defaulted to ALL.  So 6500 employees came in that morning to find his message on their terminals.

The first person to arrive that morning was our company President, who always showed up bright and early on Mondays.  He turned on his screen and this message awaited him, comparing his private parts unfavorably to those of a bonobo and suggesting a regimen of creams and appliances to remedy this.  Understandably, the Prez thought this message was directed at him personally.  Finding out it wasn't didn't lessen his fury.  Especially when he found out that the message also defaulted to our 600 3rd party agents across the province.

We spent the next 7 glorious days without the delightful company of our beloved supervisor.

Yes, just 7.

[this*old*attic]

You live on an ISLAND? That is so darn COOL!!!

[this*old*attic]

I teach special education, myself. In a word - yes, often.

Then there are the parents who don’t even know how to be the boss of their own family.....

[city*satins]

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@mg152 wrote:
In my humble opinion, you’re opening a can of worms by sending messages like that. No disrespect, you know you’re one of my favorite people on eBay. I used to chat with buyers but these days I say nothing unless I absolutely have to, ie: they ask a question or some other unforeseen issue like Friday when I messed up a label, had to void it and buy another. I messed up the weight. I let my buyer know why they see 2 tracking numbers.

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You may be right.  I started doing it because of the "when will you ship?" messages I had been getting from weekend buyers, and until now, those messages had stopped so I thought my strategy was working.  Perhaps I had better rethink it.

[city*satins]

darn....

he took his son to a brothel. Not a brother!

LOL!!!

[femmefan1946]

Well, Vancouver Island is larger than Manhattan Island.

https://vancouverisland.travel/

Even though I live in the provincial capital, Victoria, our mail is still shipped across the Salish Sea to Vancouver where the Postal Terminal is .

Even a letter destined for my BIL upisland or my gardener in the city.

This is spoke and hub delivery and is used by airlines , couriers, and postal systems.

Another BIL lives on Hornby Island which is serviced by a ferry from Denham Island which is served by a ferry from Vancouver Island which is served by a ferry from the Mainland.

Now, that's island living. 

[this*old*attic]

Just 7.

Gee, I miss the 80’s.... not.

[city*satins]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Well, Vancouver Island is larger than Manhattan Island.

https://vancouverisland.travel/

Even though I live in the provincial capital, Victoria, our mail is still shipped across the Salish Sea to Vancouver where the Postal Terminal is .

Even a letter destined for my BIL upisland or my gardener in the city.

This is spoke and hub delivery and is used by airlines , couriers, and postal systems.

Another BIL lives on Hornby Island which is serviced by a ferry from Denham Island which is served by a ferry from Vancouver Island which is served by a ferry from the Mainland.

Now, that's island living. 

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I was born in Victoria and most of my dad's side of the family still live there.  Lived on the island most of my childhood - in Victoria, Youbou, Campbell River etc...anywhere BC Forest Products was, we went.

When my feedback board friend yellowdognoel (today is our 16th wedding anniversary) came to visit me, I chose Victoria as the place to show him and the first place I took him was my personal childhood favorite - Ross Bay, where I used to clamber over the rocks and explore the life in the rock pools.   

Happy memories.

[femmefan1946]

Our favourite spot is Abkhazi Gardens. We had our 50th anniversary there last year.  Much smaller and more manageable than Butchart, and equally lovely.

We're in Oak Bay near Willows Beach, which is why I sometimes say I can see the USA from my back porch.

[this*old*attic]

I met up with a board friend about 6 or 7 years ago - no sparks flew, but it was still fun.