How do you respond to sob stories?

[bigdeals.etc]

Given the holidays, I'm sure there are more of these now than the rest of the year asking for cheaper price. Some don't even give a price offer but ask you to give THEM an offer.

How do you respond to them? What do you end up saying?

[vintagecraze50]

There are times when we have given a customer an item at a greatly reduced price and you know what? Many of them go on to file a return or do some other thing that has hurt us so, in general, not always, these types of buyers are a problem.

[mountainmommie]

Depends. It's short-sighted to rule out an offer because of the "story" that comes with it. I don't judge other people's needs.

Some people just look for reasons to be offended. Consider changing your username ... maybe kindadeals ....

[dblkj-0]

I feel that as a seller I would gain little by coming off hardass.

The same applies to replying with wise guy cracks, buyers are not stupid and being turned off...

If you want less sales, by all means.

Just ignore, mark question answered and get on with my day.

If the offer is reasonable I might entertain it but I define reasonable as being within single digit percentages of my present selling price (so no, half off doesn't work).

But again most of the time I just ignore.

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@ads*and*ends wrote:
There are many people down on their luck, and legitimately need a helping hand. Online commerce is not that area. Many people need food, clothing, protection from the cold, an opportunity. I see you do sell clothing, but I highly doubt many homeless people are shopping on eBay.

I do encourage helping those where it's appropriate. I can't think of any situation where someone would "need" my baseball cards or Star Wars figures.

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Actually you'd be surprised how many homeless people have a cell phone, it's not that hard in this day and age, to secure oneself just enough cash to get a prepaid... Those who are smart (and most of them have a brain) realize just like we do that having a cell phone greatly increases your chances in this world.

Getting an address to ship to, I'm pretty sure the homeless have this one figured out as well.

I'm telling you I've been around a couple of folks who were homeless at the time or in the past and I was truly surprised from the stories they told how crafty, entrepreneuring and resourceful these folks can be.

Granted, they were still homeless.

[mcdougle4248]

I think that I have had only two sob stories over the years. 

First one was I am disabled and on a fixed income.   Would you sell me this set for 25% off so that I can give to my best friend for Christmas.  She helps me do just about everything and never asks for anything in return.  OK, I fell for it.  Two weeks later the the set was up for sale on eBay at twice my original asking price.  Never sold because I just kept remaking and listing the same set over and over until she gave up.

Second one was an I am broke and have no money to buy Christmas gifts for my family story.  Then the buyer proceeded to ask for me to take down certain items that they wanted, relist them on certain dates and discount them to a price that would actually mean 0 profit for me.  I responded that I was sorry for their situation, but could not do what they requested.  They bought one item, gave me a negative with "Not so friendly seller".

[iaintdoingit]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

Given the holidays, I'm sure there are more of these now than the rest of the year asking for cheaper price. Some don't even give a price offer but ask you to give THEM an offer.

How do you respond to them? What do you end up saying?

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Had my fair share of the sobs!!!!!  The worst request I had was that the buyer wanted the item free with free shipping 'because I had more money then he did'!!!!  Didn't even respond and he/she was placed on my special list!

[oleander1993]

The buyer with a brand new ID didn’t get into a sob story but asked for 20% off a free shipping multiple item I had up less than a week. It was IPR BIN. I decided to ignore and block. In less than 24 hours the buyer tries to buy at full price, can’t, contacts eBay for “help”, eBay sends me a note to “work with the buyer”. I decide to send the buyer a reply that “I’m unable to offer discounts at this time” but before I can post it, the buyer creates new ID and buys at full price. Oh, great. The BBL is no good anymore! I think eBay told the buyer they were blocked! I don’t think eBay has any business saying anything in this case. My fingers are crossed that the buyer isn’t a problem.

[sodelight]

They'll all be happy to know they can get 15% off anything today! So no need to even contact a seller.

[turquoisetulips]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

Given the holidays, I'm sure there are more of these now than the rest of the year asking for cheaper price. Some don't even give a price offer but ask you to give THEM an offer.

How do you respond to them? What do you end up saying?

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I've never really received a sob story  that I can recall . Probably  because I mainly sell  jewelry items , not exactly things people can't live without.  I do get hagglers though . Just last night in fact  someone was really concerned about getting a good deal on  combined shipping fees for two items . I had to make them aware that I pay 2.66 USPS  for every package I send  but I only charge my buyers 1.50  which means I pay a bit over a dollar of the  shipping fee for them.  The sale went through  just fine . Tulips 

[a_c_green]

The last sob story I can recall was a zillion years ago now, when I was selling all kinds of stuff, and a guy wrote to me from his hospital bed, supposedly at some hospital in Milwaukee, which I thought was a nice touch. He explained that he was in the Intensive Care Unit and really needed my item badly, but didn't have his wallet handy because he was, you know, in Intensive Care, so could I please send my item to him and he'd pay me later...?

There were so many bizarre inconsistencies to his story that I didn't know where to begin, other than to wonder how or why I was supposed to ship a Bourbon bottle that had been turned into a table lamp to an Intensive Care Unit, or how they would plug it in ("Hey, Bob, which of these Intensive Care Unit machines can I unplug? I need an outlet..."). Needless to say, this was a canned sob story that was copied-and-pasted to sellers of anything that the scammer was interested in, but sadly, eBay nuked the account before I could respond. 

[keziak]

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

I think that I have had only two sob stories over the years. 

First one was I am disabled and on a fixed income.   

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I sometimes get the fixed-income story, too. Makes me feel bad except for the fact that *I* do not have a fixed income and some weeks that might be nice.

[lex-talon]

Sometimes, a buyer will say there are other items cheaper than yours. Then I just respond by countering their offer or declining it. Often times, they are never heard from again. 

[billythekid16]

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@lex-talon wrote:

Sometimes, a buyer will say there are other items cheaper than yours. Then I just respond by countering their offer or declining it. Often times, they are never heard from again. 

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You should have responded by saying "Then go ahead and buy from them." (Or something along those lines.)  That always leave them speechless.

[radtech1971]

I had a lady ask me to sell her a $150 NWT MK leather bag for $40 because she really really wanted It for her “sister’s” birthday but couldn’t afford it. I knocked $20 off and never heard from her again lol.

[keziak]

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@billythekid16 wrote:

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@lex-talon wrote:

Sometimes, a buyer will say there are other items cheaper than yours. Then I just respond by countering their offer or declining it. Often times, they are never heard from again. 

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You should have responded by saying "Then go ahead and buy from them." (Or something along those lines.)  That always leave them speechless.

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I had a Canadian wanting a heavy book and arguing with me about the shipping cost.  He then claimed he contacted the publisher who was selling the book for less than my asking price, what gives? I said I was glad he found another copy and welcome to my BBL.  I got a couple of more messages from him which I did not read.  Probably the publisher wouldn't ship to him.  I ultimately sold the book to a US buyer.

[dblkj-0]

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@keziak wrote:

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

I think that I have had only two sob stories over the years. 

First one was I am disabled and on a fixed income.   

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I sometimes get the fixed-income story, too. Makes me feel bad except for the fact that *I* do not have a fixed income and some weeks that might be nice.

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Actually...

Fixed income, looking at my income totals over the past 20 years, per year...

Sure looks like my income's fixed too!