Inundated with offer questions

[1funkydude]

We have two selling accounts. The other one is larger, and we move over 5,000 items a year. We’ve anywhere from 500-1000 listings at a time. We’re seeing an avalanche of messages about offers. We have no offer option on the listings. I understand the “send seller a message” has a subject line about offers, and they’re free to message sellers about a possible offer. The issue we’re having is we’re now receiving 100 messages or more a day about offers, and it’s growing. Yes, 100+. I understand we have “hot” items, so there’s a lot of traffic. We’ve a stock answer of “thanks but we’re not taking offers”. This has, however, reached a point where an inordinate amount of time is being spent answering all the messages individually. We simply can’t get to all of them, let alone as quickly as people want an answer. Last week we had a day of almost 150. These potential buyers are also becoming increasingly angry and impatient. Many are following up with another message after we decline with a question  about “why”. They too are expecting an answer. Many are upset they don’t get an answer in 30 minutes. We’ve missed some of them, and failed to answer. There’s just too many. The argument it “only” takes a minute to answer isn’t valid once the volume of questions reaches a certain point. Now we have some of those buyers going on to buy the item anyway only to leave neutral/negative feedback about “communication”, or lack thereof. They’re dinging us for not answering their question about something we didn’t offer in the first place; dinging us for communication prior to the sale. We got some of them removed by eBay, which again, takes time. We’re seeing more returns, often with made-up reasons, from these same buyers who go on to purchase, some out of spite with the sole intention of returning. Understand, I’m not whining or bashing eBay. I get there’s a delicate balance with buyer/seller relations and rules. Has anyone a solution when the problem is the volume of inquiries? Or have a better message than our short and to the point message? 

[thebookhill]

Perhaps the op should bring this problem to the attention to someone on eBay's Facebook page.

The op is not getting good buyers.

The op says they are getting negative feedback

And, they are getting returns from these same "buyers" who go on to purchase, some out of spite with the sole intention of returning.

That is financial harm. That is not haggling.

[thebookhill]

That is a good email to have on hand to copy and paste.

Are there any eBay employees who answer on the boards anymore who might chime in?

[bayp26]

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@2013grotz wrote:

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@toysaver wrote:

How about doing a bulk edit and adding OFFERS NOT ACCEPTED? 

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Leave it to ebay to disrespect sellers and undermine their listings causing untold problems for the sellers and creating angry vindictive buyers who think the offers are ebay sanctioned.

[1funkydude]

Thanks for all the replies. That the community would take a few moments to try to help means something to us. There are some good suggestions, and we’ll consider implementation. Blocking anyone who inquires about an offer isn’t really an option. I’ve wished it was, but we would run up against the 5,000 limit in a matter of weeks, and blocking each one of them puts us in yet another time consuming situation. It’s the volume that’s causing the problem. I hate to go back to ignoring folks, but that’s on the table. Then we’d just deal with the fallout. I’m hesitant to move the prices even higher to allow for offer room-we’re already at the high end of what we sell. I could see potential buyers put off by the even higher initial price, but who knows. I don’t like the idea of buyers having to  “fish”, trying to figure out where the threshold is for acceptance of the offer.

I suppose we could get over the fear of negative feedback. My daughters take it to heart though, haha. It really upsets them. I’ve had to take over all the messages as I don’t want them reading them. Last night we got a profanity-laden “get raped” message for simply stating “thanks, but we don’t accept offers”. Craziness abounds. 

[trbl13]

Within Your Descriptions.. More Than Once...Say These Words...*** We Do NOT Accept Offers.

Please Do Not Send Any Offers... We May Not Have Time to Respond.. Since We Do NOT Accept Offers. Thank You**** Worth a Try.

[forward-motion]

Never in business do you want to say, we don't want you. This to me would not be a seller I would buy from even if I wasn't trying to get a better deal. When you say that, it sounds like an angry person who is hard to deal with. 

[femmefan1946]

Did you know you can set your Best Offer parameters to automatically (and politely ) refuse any offers under $X.xx and to accept any offers over $Y.yy.

And the differences can be a penny.

Asking price $25. Accept Offers over $24.50. Refuse Offers under $24.01.

Even if the odd Offer is accepted, you are saving on your labour costs by NOT answering 100+ enquiries daily.

Keep in mind your local minimum wage. Here in BC it's 25c a minute.

Use the Best Offer. Use the parameters. Make the sales.

Or as another poster suggested, raise you price then automatically accept offers at your current price and refuse any lower.

It's all head games. Play to win.

[jonathankirkland]

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@1funkydude wrote:

Thanks for all the replies. That the community would take a few moments to try to help means something to us. There are some good suggestions, and we’ll consider implementation. Blocking anyone who inquires about an offer isn’t really an option. I’ve wished it was, but we would run up against the 5,000 limit in a matter of weeks, and blocking each one of them puts us in yet another time consuming situation. It’s the volume that’s causing the problem. I hate to go back to ignoring folks, but that’s on the table. Then we’d just deal with the fallout. I’m hesitant to move the prices even higher to allow for offer room-we’re already at the high end of what we sell. I could see potential buyers put off by the even higher initial price, but who knows. I don’t like the idea of buyers having to  “fish”, trying to figure out where the threshold is for acceptance of the offer.

I suppose we could get over the fear of negative feedback. My daughters take it to heart though, haha. It really upsets them. I’ve had to take over all the messages as I don’t want them reading them. Last night we got a profanity-laden “get raped” message for simply stating “thanks, but we don’t accept offers”. Craziness abounds. 

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@1funkydude 

I didn't see this mention anywhere but maybe it would be an option for you.

You can, if you want, block ALL messages from everyone. Perhaps you wouldn't want to go that route but each person who would message you would get a message from ebay that would basically say something like "due to the volume of mail this ebay sellers gets they are unable to respond to messages", or something like that.

I have not run into it very often, and honestly I am not quite sure how I do feel about it once I do see that.

But it is another option so I just thought I would throw that out there. Also I am not sure if it blocks messages from people who actually buy from you also or just people who have not bought from you.

[jonathankirkland]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Did you know you can set your Best Offer parameters to automatically (and politely ) refuse any offers under $X.xx and to accept any offers over $Y.yy.

And the differences can be a penny.

Asking price $25. Accept Offers over $24.50. Refuse Offers under $24.01.

Even if the odd Offer is accepted, you are saving on your labour costs by NOT answering 100+ enquiries daily.

Keep in mind your local minimum wage. Here in BC it's 25c a minute.

Use the Best Offer. Use the parameters. Make the sales.

Or as another poster suggested, raise you price then automatically accept offers at your current price and refuse any lower.

It's all head games. Play to win.

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Great suggestions, it's just too bad that sellers have to be bullied into considering offers now because of ebay pushing that relentlessly.

I joked on another thread that soon ebay will just price the items themselves once you list them and you won't be able to change it. 🙄

[pjcdn2005]

We used to be able to edit and add questions/answers in that contact seller area and I would guess/hope that option is still available.  I can't find it right now but perhaps someone else knows if it is still available and where it is.

[pikabo-icu]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

We used to be able to edit and add questions/answers in that contact seller area and I would guess/hope that option is still available.  I can't find it right now but perhaps someone else knows if it is still available and where it is.

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@pjcdn2005 

Yeah big long thread with several of us testing this out.

When a buyer sends a question, you can opt to post it to your FAQ's.

Those used to be under the description box but now they post in the list of "contact seller".

So a buyer needs to enter the contact seller area and the answered questions will be there.

I imagine those disappear upon relist but I haven't tested that part yet. 

ETA found the thread:

 https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/When-buyers-message-sellers-asking-a-question-about-a-item/m-p... 

[pjcdn2005]

Thanks!  Before I saw your reply I had asked Tyler on the weekly chat so he gave me the info as well. 🙂

@1funkydude 

You should be able to turn off that question about offers by unchecking the box (it might take a couple of tries)  You can also add a new question and answer saying that you don't accept offers.

This page can be accessed by going to manage communications with buyers in accounts. 

https://www.ebay.com/cnt/ManageSellerFAQ

[wendylouwho10]

I BLOCK THEM. 

[centralperk781]

The creative solution of offering a best offer that’s 50 cents lower than the listed price is a good one, but it still won’t stop people directly contacting the seller, which seems to be the biggest problem. 

If someone tries to offer $10 on a $25 item it will automatically be rejected. They return offering $15 and it’s rejected again. The low-baller then e-mails the seller and asks what’s the lowest they’ll accept and we’re back to where we started. 

Blocking will never be an option for someone receiving 100-150 requests each. After the 5000 entries on the BBL fill up, what then? 

My advice is simply to ignore these questions and let the chips fall where they may. 

[2013grotz]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Or as another poster suggested, raise you price then automatically accept offers at your current price and refuse any lower.

It's all head games. Play to win.

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Indeed.  It's terrible that ebay makes sellers take offers to begin with, but it does provide that psychological edge.  A lot of buyers like to think they're getting some kind of deal out of you, so it satisfies that, eliminates the work of getting offers messaged to you (for most part), and you still get the price you want in the end.  Only problem is you do get some buyers (like myself) that just wants a good price and doesn't want to mess around with stuff like this that'll just move on.  (And coincidentally, I set my prices this way, which is why seeing that e-mail I posted in thread earlier really bothered me.) Honestly, I can't say I've figured out how to properly play this, yet.