@pall_ma wrote:
I got an item from a garage sale that I thought was brand new in box sealed etc. Someone buys it and I go to print the shipping label and right as I’m packaging I notice that the tape that was used to seal the box has been severed but very thinly and is just barely noticeable. Sure enough the package opens up and I’m sure the contents were taken out at some point although everything is still new/not used. Open box was the listing I should have used. I have contacted the buyer apologizing and asking whether they are ok with this or if they would rather be refunded. The buyer has not responded. What do I do if the buyer does not respond? I am supposed to ship it out in 2 days. I am going to keep reminding them each day but what do I do if they don’t get back to me?
thanks.
First, garage sale items are not brand new, never under any circumstances whether the box appears sealed or not, just good to remember that for the future. If you cannot verify 100% the chain of custody for the item, and whatever may have happened to it between when it was actually new, and when you get it, you simply cannot honestly sell it as brand new, sealed, whatever. I know some people will argue with this but so far most of the advice you have received is aimed at simply avoiding the responsibility for your mistake and putting the customer in a position of not receiving what they paid for.
If you went online and bought something that was advertised as brand new in a box, never opened or used and you received something that obviously did not match that description would you be ok with that? I know I wouldn't and I doubt most would be. At the absolute very least I would insist on having been offered the choice of whether or not I still wanted it before having it just show up.
You made a mistake, it happens, even to the best of us. Take it as a learning experience, do better in the future, work really hard to do better in the future. The one thing you can't do is expect a buyer to simply be ok with it because you or anyone else thinks it's no big deal. That's not your call to make under any circumstances.
If the end result of your mistake is that you take a ding well you're going to take a ding, that's the price for the mistake, that's what happens when you screw up. Rarely is making a mistake or screwing up a situation without blowback or consequences.
My advice to you, and this is coming from someone who has been in business 30 years and is quite secure in the knowledge that I know I am right in what I am telling you, is to not ship it until you have contacted the buyer. You offer them the opportunity to decide what will happen. You don't take that choice away by any methodology or pre empt it no matter how good your intentions.
Best of luck.
Cheers.
