eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎05-25-2017

So something happened to me this week that inspired me to start this thread.

How many of you have a contingency plan for dealing with an unexpected illness? (Something that will prevent you from meeting commitments to customers).

We all know eBay does not support us if we are hospitalized and forced to cancel sales. I presume most sellers would have thought of what they'd do if something happens, who would back them up in their store, or who would tell customers they need to be patient and wait.

So my story...

I had some minor symptoms and got antibiotics from my family doctor. Things got worse the following day and I was taken to hospital and admitted immediately. (I will note, in Canada when you go to hospital in most cases, you sit in a chair and wait hours, or if you're lucky, they give you a bed where you wait hours to see a doctor). I was admitted immediately on arrival, with no opportunity to let anyone know I was there. Where they took me there was no cell service for me to contact anyone.

In Canada they don't keep you longer than necessary, and if they can give you home treatment, they will, and make a bed available for someone who really needs it. Four hours after being admitted, I was sent home with an IV where I would be hooked up for the next week.

What did I do? Well being home... I packed items and made sure they were shipped. I didn't tell customers what was happening, just told them when their items would be shipped. (When sellers tell me they are ill, this smacks as a sympathy grab to me to buy them time, just tell me when you're going to ship it).

Has this ever happened to you and how did you manage to run your store? (I get people put their store on vacation, but there were 4 purchases in the queue from overnight that weren't dealt with because I had to get up and go to work. I also don't ship every day.) Since I got to go home same day, I didn't see any reason why I couldn't continue to ship items.

Cheers, C.

thenobletuckylife · ‎05-25-2017

Evening,

First I send my sincere good wishes to you...being sick or hurt is not fun.

Second, Mrs C is my back plan...she knows pretty much everything and then my daughter is an ace at it.

Problem is I am a pain in the hiney cause I have this perfect system in play and it is SOOOO hard for me to just not be involved...ebay is like a mothers first child to me.

Long story short...Mrs C did fine and it helped me recover faster I think because I just needed to be back at it doin it the perfect Mr C way...not the perfect Mrs C way.

Trust me...lots of folks know what I mean...we are both first borns as well.

Mr C

sockmonkeydave · ‎05-25-2017

My business partner and I share, an ebay account, my wife would call him.

And he would end the listings.

luckythewinner · ‎05-25-2017

@sin-n-dex wrote:
Has this ever happened to you and how did you manage to run your store?

I have a relative who is an eBay seller who I call and ask him to end all my listings. That has happened once or twice over the years.

But I definitely do not have a contingency plan that will cover cases where I (a) I have no internet access, (b) I have no cell phone coverage, (c) no one knows I am there, and (d) I have no way to contact someone.

And even if I did ... it would not help, because there would be no way to put that plan into action anyway.

sin-n-dex · ‎05-25-2017

@luckythewinner wrote:
@sin-n-dex wrote:
Has this ever happened to you and how did you manage to run your store?

I have a relative who is an eBay seller who I call and ask him to end all my listings. That has happened once or twice over the years.

But I definitely do not have a contingency plan that will help if I am in a place with (a) no internet access, (b) no cell phone coverage, (c) no one knows I am there, and (d) I have no way to contact someone.

And even if I did - I don't see that it would do me much good because I don't see how I would be able to put that plan into action!

I have a smart phone with me always (even beside me when I sleep so I can grab it if I need to leave urgently). I was ushered into minor treatment to be hooked up to an IV, and found out as I was attached to it for a couple of hours that due to the CT scans and all that, they are enclosed to prevent cell service interfering with machines.

The good news is I was told I could go home that day, so I didn't stress it. I'm sure they would have let me go somewhere I could make a call. The hospital has phones, but not long distance, I needed to use my own phone.

When I got home I lay down with my phone and messaged everyone who bought (that wasn't shipped) and cheerfully told them when they could expect their items. My spouse took the Canadian stuff to the post office, and Fed Ex will pick up the USA bound stuff for the courier on Monday.

I was housebound last year and blocked Canada (since I couldn't go to the post office and ship, and I couldn't drive, and no one was here to help). I called Fed Ex to take care of my pick ups and they fetched my packages from my front door every few days.

Cheers, C.

mistwomandancing · ‎05-25-2017

Good topic that needs to be discussed occasionally.

For my own business, my daughters have my info so would put stores on invisible vacation mode and immediately cancel all listings on my small basic selling accounts.

Sales that had just happened and were awaiting shipment would be dealt with by my sister or a couple of good friends who know how to do this reliably.

I did just go through some of this because of surgery (and really missed you guys here on the discussion boards) but that wasn't a shocking unplanned emergency situation, so was pretty easy to address.

Sounds like you got your health care needs addressed AND your business taken care of both in good order. Hope you're feeling well again!

copper.boom · ‎05-25-2017

Hi C- hope you are feeling better! My cousin and I are each others' backups. It's not 100%, but most of the time it works out. She's been dealing with a lot medically this year so I've spent a lot of time helping to manage her accounts.

sin-n-dex · ‎05-25-2017

@mistwomandancing wrote:

Sounds like you got your health care needs addressed AND your business taken care of both in good order. Hope you're feeling well again!

Thanks. 😃

My ER doctor called it a "very aggressive infection" (in my foot, so I can't really walk right now either). The purpose of the IV drugs is because it's spreading faster than pills can treat it, and there's no time to wait a few days to see if the pills work. You get your first IV dose in hospital in case of allergic reaction, then a home care nurse hooks you up to a timed pump.

The IV has been in for two days and the swelling is less, the redness is mostly gone, and I can put a bit of weight on it for short times. I'd say I'm getting better.

You would think with recovery time, one would feel up to doing listings... but I sleep 21 hours a day due to the meds.

Cheers, C.

mistwomandancing · ‎05-25-2017

sin-n-dex wrote:

You would think with recovery time, one would feel up to doing listings... but I sleep 21 hours a day due to the meds.

Cheers, C.

Sounds like you ran into a real stinker of an infective agent!!! Glad to hear you're getting the upper hand though with the help of great IV medication.

As to sleeping so much... OMG! Enjoy it! I know we're usually pushing ourselves to work on that inventory, work on those listings, try to keep the grass cut and the refrigerator stocked as well, etc. But sleep... ah, blissful and restful sleep... that's sometimes in short supply and even desperately needed. And it helps your body heal!!! So enjoy.

iart · ‎05-25-2017

Our contingency is that we have three people able to jump in and do the basic work. Vacation setting, invoicing, finding, most packing and shipping.

We have as many computers as well. And as long as we have a working cell phone we can call another family member (computer scientist) who can shut it all down (in case we lose local electricity).

At worst, we should only have a day's worth of sales. Average would be from maybe 4 to 8 sales. Even if we miss half of them we should still be able to keep our top rating.

Hope you continue to improve!

vintagenorth · ‎05-25-2017

I've often wondered (and worried) about what would happen if I wasn't able to look after my listings. My hubby can use a computer but I don't think he could handle eBay. For one thing, he would be in total panic if anything happened to me. I don't know any other eBay sellers near me either. I guess I should show my daughter how to at least put my stores on vacation in an emergency. Trouble is, she lives 2,500 miles from me, other side of the country. At least she is computer literate and has occasionally bought on eBay herself.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎05-25-2017

My contingency plan is I'd better not get sick. I suppose I could email one of my kids my info in case something happened to me, never really thought about it. Hubby is one step above computer illiteracy and has no desire to learn more. (he still hasn't figured email out after 20 years) I have just always assumed that if for some reason I can't access my account for more than a couple or three days I'm going to be toast. ::shrugs::

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

copper.boom · ‎05-25-2017

@vintagenorth wrote:
I've often wondered (and worried) about what would happen if I wasn't able to look after my listings. My hubby can use a computer but I don't think he could handle eBay. For one thing, he would be in total panic if anything happened to me. I don't know any other eBay sellers near me either. I guess I should show my daughter how to at least put my stores on vacation in an emergency. Trouble is, she lives 2,500 miles from me, other side of the country. At least she is computer literate and has occasionally bought on eBay herself.

@vintagenorth Perhaps you could show your daughter using the video chat on your phone (if available) so you can show her the computer screen.

Worst case scenario you could always send her screenshots, then call her and walk her through the process as she logs in to your account.

Always good to have a backup in case of emergency!

sockmonkeydave · ‎05-25-2017

@vintagenorth

@vintagenorth wrote:
I've often wondered (and worried) about what would happen if I wasn't able to look after my listings. My hubby can use a computer but I don't think he could handle eBay. For one thing, he would be in total panic if anything happened to me. I don't know any other eBay sellers near me either. I guess I should show my daughter how to at least put my stores on vacation in an emergency. Trouble is, she lives 2,500 miles from me, other side of the country. At least she is computer literate and has occasionally bought on eBay herself.

I would give the daughter your user name and password, and walk her through the steps.

buyselljack2016 · ‎05-25-2017

Last week our internet, and phone service went down during the night.

Contacted provider via cell phone they said widespread outage with no estimate for when it would be back up.

My action was to go to a relatives house with service to check to see if anything sold. Fortunatly there were no sales, so no late shipping. Got there too late to print any labels , go home to pack, and get to a post office.

I raised to prices on some listings to a price no one would pay so I would not lose the listings, and just went ahead and ended the rest.

Hindsight showed that I should have just breathed a sigh of relief, and made a plan to just check again the next day if the server was not back up.

Could have made the trip, checked, pack as needed, and ship, but I panicked and canceled. Server came back up that night.

Other back up plan, in the event that I am not available/capable (hospitalized/other) to pack/ship, is for my wife to end all listings with the step by step written instructions that I have provided for her. She is very good at the buying end of eBay, but selling/shipping is not her forte.

No store, so can not do vacation settings.