Down to my last selling account

[espresso_warehouse]

So let me get this straight.

Someone buys a 'pickup only' item, messages 'why don't u ship item, ship item now', I explain that this item is for pickup only, and get a response of 'u ship item'.

And I get charged $0.30 cents for the pleasure of waiting 3 weeks before having to cancel that transaction? After quite a few of those, I can see why eBay has no interest in fixing that part of their platform or penalizing these abusive buyers. Abusive buyers are productive agents of eBay's nickel and dime program.

Apart from a business plan based on bogus transaction fees, I don't understand where this is going. There don't seem to be any principles guiding this company.

I am down to my last selling account here and am now small time status. Haven't done much on eBay in the last year, is this just how the cookie crumbles? Am I missing something?

[wastingtime101]

People either neglect to read or they buy intentionally and try to get the seller to ship free. It happens a lot. Add to your title to try and minimize damage from people that don't read the description:

Dyson DC41 - Purple - Upright Cleaner - LOCAL PICKUP ONLY

[katzrul15]

@espresso_warehouse 

We had 2 local pickups that went exceptionally well.....and ever since, it was a dud process so we gave up on it.  Kept getting people in Oregon (bless their hearts) who wanted us to ship a 80 year old antique Singer Sewing machine............bought it 3 different times!  (like maybe we would change our mind?  Yes, BBL is your friend....)

Hang in there.  One of these days this place surely will get it together for Sellers!

[espresso_warehouse]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

People either neglect to read or they buy intentionally and try to get the seller to ship free. It happens a lot. Add to your title to try and minimize damage from people that don't read the description:

Dyson DC41 - Purple - Upright Cleaner - LOCAL PICKUP ONLY

---

Good suggestion. Certainly working on my listings more is always a good idea. Without having spent a lot of time here during the past year, my passing observation is the value proposition has waned. Are you thinking that my lack of attention is part of the problem? My intuition is telling me otherwise, but I am open to being wrong.

[coolections]

Why did you have to wait 3 weeks to cancel the transaction ?

[chapeau-noir]

I'm not @wastingtime101  and wait for their opinion, but I will say that not having much activity on this platform (listing, relisting, etc.) will pretty much doom your sales, particularly when you only have a few running.  I sink out of sight a few days after I stop listing, and almost immediately start selling again when I do - I am much more active on another platform and there have steady sales, despite my rarely having more than 200 items running and selling clothing and electronics.

[wastingtime101]

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@espresso_warehouse wrote:

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Are you thinking that my lack of attention is part of the problem?

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Not on this issue. This is a very common problem resulting from:

• Buyers that don't read the listing
• Buyers that try to scam or guilt you into free shipping
• eBay's ongoing app glitch, erroneously showing free shipping on free local pickup items

You can't change buyer behavior. You can't fix eBay. What can you do? Reinforce the local pickup aspect to lessen the changes of 1 or 3 causing issues (hence my title revision suggestion). Nothing you can do about problem 2 except BBL and move on.

[wastingtime101]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

One of these days this place surely will get it together for Sellers!

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😂

[espresso_warehouse]

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@coolections wrote:

Why did you have to wait 3 weeks to cancel the transaction ?

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I was told a few different things by eBay CS. Everything from I didn't have to wait at all to the buyer having 'unlimited' amount of time.

Having cancelled and gotten a neg in the past for this same thing I was waiting for the buyer to ask me to cancel, which they never did. What are the rules for this to avoid a potential neg?

Anyway, bit of a rabbit hole as negs are the least of my worries at this point.

[espresso_warehouse]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I'm not @wastingtime101  and wait for their opinion, but I will say that not having much activity on this platform (listing, relisting, etc.) will pretty much doom your sales, particularly when you only have a few running.  I sink out of sight a few days after I stop listing, and almost immediately start selling again when I do - I am much more active on another platform and there have steady sales, despite my rarely having more than 200 items running and selling clothing and electronics.

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You are addressing my real question. So it's not 'more listings more problems'?

I can reapply myself, and give it a try again. It's a trust thing though. They keep finding ways to attempt, and on a few occasions, rip me off. I will try an attitude adjustment.

[chapeau-noir]

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@espresso_warehouse wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I'm not @wastingtime101  and wait for their opinion, but I will say that not having much activity on this platform (listing, relisting, etc.) will pretty much doom your sales, particularly when you only have a few running.  I sink out of sight a few days after I stop listing, and almost immediately start selling again when I do - I am much more active on another platform and there have steady sales, despite my rarely having more than 200 items running and selling clothing and electronics.

---

You are addressing my real question. So it's not 'more listings more problems'?

I can reapply myself, and give it a try again. It's a trust thing though. They keep finding ways to attempt, and on a few occasions, rip me off. I will try an attitude adjustment.

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@espresso_warehouse   I sell in the most supersaturated category imaginable, and the more listings I have, the better things are.  I sold here full time up until about nine months ago and made my living at it, and had about 500-600 listings (which isn't a lot, all things considered, but I worked a niche).  The only thing is that instead of your own village idiot, online you get everybody's village idiots, like this cell phone chucklefark 'u ship' character, but they're by no means the majority.

ETA: I've run into these people on all four platforms where I sell.

[downunder-61]

As soon as you receive a request like this on a PUO item, cancel the sale and refund using Problem with Buyer Address.

If you get a negative (I don't think you can if you choose that reason to cancel) but if you do, you simply contact eBay to get it removed as the buyer was asking for something not in the listing ie: shipping.

[soh.maryl]

Well, now you know -- this is a case where cancelling, citing "problem with buyer's address", is a perfectly acceptable solution and you will not be given a defect for it.  Buyer cannot give you a neg because, effectively, there was no transaction. 

Perhaps, as others have suggested, stating LOCAL PICKUP ONLY in several places in the listing will help cut down on these cases. And I would message the buyer and explain.  

Actually, the minute you discover that the buyer has paid, it would be a good idea to immediately jump in and deal with this.  Local pickup items are supposed to be paid in person, so you know this buyer is already counting the minutes. 

[kds99]

One of my recent fiascos had the buyer claiming he didn't understand that NO SHIPPING didn't mean free shipping! The next one didn't read NO SHIPPING LOCAL PICKUP ONLY in both the title and description. It's a losing proposition.

[divwido · Accepted solution]

Why list here what would be better listed locally?  The odds that someone who wants what you have and lives anywhere near you seeing the listing on eBay is pretty slim.  Wouldn't you be better off on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist?