Sellers should learn not to say NO.

[inhawaii]

I need six  1" glass marbles for a project.

I came across a listing for 2 pounds of 1" glass marbles for $23.99 with free shipping.

I'm not sure how many marbles are in 2 pounds but i'm sure t's way more than i need. 

I messaged the seller and explained how i only need 6 marbles. If he would be willing to sell me 6,  let me know how much.

The seller replied with "sorry such a small amount is not cost worthy for me to sell".  Why would he say that without knowing how much i'm willing to pay for 6 of them?  Why not make me an offer?  6 marbles for $5 or 6 marbles for $10 or 6 marbles for $20 ... whatever he thinks is worth his time and effort?   But to just say "NO" is very poor business sense in my opinion. 

[hillbillymedia]

**general comment**

I deem what my time is worth on any given day and most the time it`s worth way more to me than what someone else is willing to pay. I`m fine with that. I would like my decision to be respected and if it`s not, I really don`t care.

[luckythewinner]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Why would he say that without knowing how much i'm willing to pay for 6 of them?  Why not make me an offer?  But to just say "NO" is very poor business sense in my opinion. 

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It's not a poor business decision if the seller has experienced the same thing I have on eBay - being asked to split up lots,  create new listings, weigh packages, calculate prices and shipping, etc. only to have the "buyer" disappear and never follow through.

You were the one asking the seller to to extra work as a favor to you. So why not take the extra step yourself and tell the seller how much you were willing to pay? That way, the seller would have had a much better idea whether it was worth his while or not.

Sorry, I'm with the seller here. Not every business opportunity is worth an investment in time and effort - especially for an uncertain return. My time has value.  

[a_c_green]

Okay, true story:

Down at the bottom of my little list of auctions, you will find one (1) oddball little BuyItNow/GTC/whatever listing for a couple sets of four used bicycle speedometer cable collars. Now, why would anyone want those things? Did any of you wake up this morning thinking, "I must obtain a set of four used bicycle speedometer cable collars!" Right; didn't think so.

So a few weeks back, I'm sitting at the computer, minding my own business , when a message comes in from someone who had recently bid on a speedometer cable of mine, one of the less-popular lengths that occasionally end with no bids at all. "Do you have any spare connector collars? I really only need the collars off this cable, although if you do have spares, I would be happy to buy some, and then I can use this cable for a different project."

I rummaged around my parts bins and found a good number of spares. (I hadn't even been sorting them out before then, since I rarely needed more than one or two myself.) After thinking about how to package them up, I settled on a set of four, which would be enough to do both ends of two bicycle speedometer cables, took one clear photo, wrote up a short description, and picked a price that would cover time and expenses.

Here's the interesting part: I decided to make up two lots of four collars each, in case the first buyer wanted more or someone else came along, and it really didn't take any more time to pick out eight good spares from the parts pile instead of just four, so I did.

I got the listing uploaded, sent the buyer a note to let him know, and *bam* he bought it immediately. I had just finished his package when *bam* the second lot sold as well. That one ended up going all the way to England.

So okay, I should clearly be expanding my area of sales a bit more. Last week I had some free time and picked out a dozen more good spare collars. I put the listing up again, this time for 3 lots instead of 2 and a slightly higher price, and *bam* another new buyer took a set right away. The listing now has 3 watchers as well.

So the moral is, yes, you should listen to what your buyers are asking you for, because for every one who bothers to write to you about it, there may be two more buyers out there who would buy from you if they only knew you had what they needed. One of mine lives in England. 

[ed8108]

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@*madison wrote:

Buyers should learn to accept the word NO from a seller.

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That does make good sense.

[ekmadonna]

It's their prerogative, I was just asked yesterday for a single Playbill out of a lot of 4 I had for sale. I obliged the buyer and he paid either a buck or 2 less than than the price I had for all 4. I have done this many times over the years for customers. It is good customer service, I still have 3 of the 4 playbills and will make slightly more now overall if I would not have broken up the lot for him. win win all the way around. But again it's the sellers prerogative!

[ekmadonna]

the flip side of my post is there are times when I have turned down offers to break lots up. I would never break up a pair of MCM Murano art glass lamps to sell  single one the money is in the pair not the single lamp.

[inhawaii]

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@gestaltism wrote:
Apparently, the seller in question, didn't just say NO, according to what you quoated as his reply. He responded that it wouldn't be cost effective to him and offered an apology. You selfishly interperated it as "NO" because how dare he deny your demand. Suffice it to say, buyers treat sellers like dirt in this "'Do as I say, or else I'll destroy you in Feedback, Facebook, Twitter or any other kind of electronic weaponry a faceless distant coward has at their disposal to eviscerate those who don't comply. Even if he agreed to break up his carefully weighed collection after your unreasonable bullying you would most likely (due to your obvious pettiness) give him negative feedback. Why? For that little addictive, retaliatory, self-satisfying jolt of endorphins from making someone feel bad for having the audacity to defy your command. The "poor business sense" you accused him of, is entirely on YOU.

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Yes, i (selfishly?) interpreted "sorry such a small amount is not cost worthy for me to sell" as NO. How would you interpret that?  ---  yes, i'm interested, how much are you willing to pay?

"unreasonable bullying"?  You interpret my simple message to the seller as unreasonable bullying?  I think it's YOU who has the interpreting problem, not me. 

I know people like you - my bosses wife.  You both act like you're the one doing the customer a favor, not the other way around.  If a customer does or says  something you don't like, BLOCK THEM/BAN THEM FROM THE STORE. 

Arguing with someone over the internet is not very productive.  We'll just agree to disagree. 

My feeling is and always will be, If you're in business and a customer wants to buy something from you, saying NO without knowing the terms of the sale or how much the customer is willing to pay is just crazy to me.  

Have a great day!

[upgradedendmills]

I think you are dealing with a sorry excuse for a seller!!!!! They should have immediately stopped whatever they were doing, ended their listing, and sent you at least 8 marbles Express Mail at no charge. At he very least, they could have gotten your address, Googled the closest Dollar Tree to you, and forwarded that information to you along with a PayPal friends and family payment for a few bucks.  Another solution would be to do some research, find a smaller lot of marbles from a competitor, and have it drop shipped to you. What a goofy world we live in!!!!!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

inhawaii, One simple question for you: why didn't you simply tell the seller the amount you were prepared to pay for the six marbles?

[jason_incognito]

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@dhbookds wrote:

We all have the right to run our business the way we want........at least in some ways.

The seller sounded polite, he answered your question......and no, he obviously didn't want to "make" a sale of lesser quantity.......

So why the resentment?

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Yes, you absolutely have the right to run your business however you want. You however do not have the right to succeed in business...... That takes work and accommodating the customer.

I have the right to only be open between 2am and 215 am. If that causes me to fail, that was my fault for setting up the requirements the way I did.

One of the biggest indicators that a business will be successful is am owner that is willing to go the extra mile to make the sale.

This is what I offer, this is my price, take it or leave it and leave me alone......Is not a sound business model.

[reddrobins]

Will you be my new best friend?  lol

[inhawaii]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

I think you are dealing with a sorry excuse for a seller!!!!! They should have immediately stopped whatever they were doing, ended their listing, and sent you at least 8 marbles Express Mail at no charge. At he very least, they could have gotten your address, Googled the closest Dollar Tree to you, and forwarded that information to you along with a PayPal friends and family payment for a few bucks.  Another solution would be to do some research, find a smaller lot of marbles from a competitor, and have it drop shipped to you. What a goofy world we live in!!!!!

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Great story!    Here's my version of the same story....

The guy has 152,982 marbles.  Grab 6 of them. Take 7 seconds to tell me he'll charge me $9.95 (or whatever) + $4.95 S&H. I will either say YES or NO. If i say NO he's lost 7 seconds of his time. But instead he say's NO he's not interested.  Yes, it is a goofy world we live in!!!!!

[jason_incognito]

Just a general comment, but it takes actual work to run a business. 

People who have successful businesses often put in years unpaid to get it up and profitable.

The chef that refuses to add something to a meal. Maybe they could learn something new.

Coke makes freestyle machines. Add any flavor you want, customize it your way.... Now they offer Orange Vanilla everywhere because they saw how popular it was on their machines....

People walk into a restaurant and ask for vegan options. You can whine that 20 people a day ask you for vegan and you don't make vegan food. People need to stop!.....

Or you can see a niche and add vegan to your menu and hang a banner out front telling the world that you have added vegan options to your menu.

In the end, how many successful businesses tell their customers no all the time?

[springs_2013]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

Why would he say that without knowing how much i'm willing to pay for 6 of them?  Why not make me an offer?  But to just say "NO" is very poor business sense in my opinion. 

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It's not a poor business decision if the seller has experienced the same thing I have on eBay - being asked to split up lots,  create new listings, weigh packages, calculate prices and shipping, etc. only to have the "buyer" disappear and never follow through.

You were the one asking the seller to to extra work as a favor to you. So why not take the extra step yourself and tell the seller how much you were willing to pay? That way, the seller would have had a much better idea whether it was worth his while or not.

Sorry, I'm with the seller here. Not every business opportunity is worth an investment in time and effort - especially for an uncertain return. My time has value.  

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Just to piggy back on the reply here.  I once had a buyer who asked me to combine two listings and gave her a big discount, made a special trip where I was speeding to the post office to drop the package off.  When she received the merchandise, she broke both items on purpose and told me it broke during  transit which I knew was not true as I used lots of bubble wrap and double boxed it.  I ended up loosing big on that transaction.  Now I am a little gun shy for the most part on bending forward and backward to accommodate a potential buyer.

As another poster had stated earlier, I had also experienced where I made custom listings only to have the potential buyer disappear on me, not only was my time wasted, but I wasted money on the insertion fees as well.

A couple of times, after the pricing had been negotiated, custom listings created, the potential buyer came back to renegotiate for a lower price!

[sunsync]

I always try to accommodate a buyer's request, most often making a LARGER profit for myself while meeting their requirement. As trite as it sounds, win-win when possible.