Thinking of not bothering with these INRs anymore

[bigdeals.etc]

Up until now (I'm on the fence still), I've always sent canned message replies to buyers who file INR and tracking shows delivered. The message politely apologizes and explains that tracking shows delivered and gives suggestions on how to locate the package... neighbors, package interceptors, etc etc etc. I describe what the package looks like and tell them if they nicely ask their mail carrier/local PO they can pull GPS locations of the scan to help figure out the breakdown.

Previously this usually worked well with the buyer eventually finding the item or realizing an issue (bad address). Rarely does the item get truly lost. Even the worst case scenarios would eventually come to an agreement because something is worked out with the buyer and I would have created a repeat buyer.

But I've noticed in the last few months, a majority of the buyers don't care about my responses and continue to bark demands like "give me my money/item or else." Others lie about checking with interceptors or PO (I find out by asking follow up questions). They clearly don't want to lift any finger outside from complaining to the seller. I don't think these buyers understand the loss of leverage they have when tracking scans as delivered. Sometimes having an excess of communication with these issues can open up a can of worms. I never have, or never will, send an item or money at a total loss for something that I'm covered with Seller Protection. So most of the time these issues get escalated by the buyer and they lose out anyway.

Thinking of not even bothering anymore with these buyers and just take the Seller Protection at face value. Saves me some headaches since my attempts at helping the buyer has become less helpful (often loathed) thru time.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Its painful but being a good seller means being professional and doing more than the other guy. Ebay promotes lazy entitled buyers. So that is what we get. Dont let them drag you down to that level.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@cashvaluerecovery2011 wrote:
Ebay promotes lazy entitled buyers. So that is what we get. Dont let them drag you down to that level.

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Not to mention I'm sure a significant amount of these issues nowadays are buyers trying to bamboozle me with a scare tactic. A lot of them just drop off after I don't give in to their hostility.

[lex-talon]

Thinking of not even bothering anymore with these buyers and just take the Seller Protection at face value. Saves me some headaches since my attempts at helping the buyer has become less helpful (often loathed) thru time. 

You can't just ignore your buyers. Just be professional about it and try to help them. Have you thought of blocking a few of them?

[dhbookds]

How long does it take to send the "canned" reply?  You ARE helping some buyers I'm sure....and helping to retain them on Ebay for the future......

[Anonymous]

As a seller on ebay I would look into if the package was delivered to the right person( call their post office.. Something) , As a Buyer I bought an item a few months back and it said delivered, Called my post office and they said it was not delivered to me was never even at their post office, The Seller never even took the time to look into it, ( I even gave her the number to call and check)Just used the tracker to close the case.( did not care if I received it )... Some times the packages are not delivered to the right place....  I was out my money, and my item..IT Happens!

[bigdeals.etc]

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@dhbookds wrote:

How long does it take to send the "canned" reply?  You ARE helping some buyers I'm sure....and helping to retain them on Ebay for the future......

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A couple of minutes. Recently, it's mainly the can of worms (drama) this tends to open up. I get quite a few of these and statistically very few have actually panned out. I believe the few that have worked out would've still done so regardless of my intervention.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@Anonymous wrote:

As a seller on ebay I would look into if the package was delivered to the right person( call their post office.. Something) , As a Buyer I bought an item a few months back and it said delivered, Called my post office and they said it was not delivered to me was never even at their post office, The Seller never even took the time to look into it, ( I even gave her the number to call and check)Just used the tracker to close the case.( did not care if I received it )... Some times the packages are not delivered to the right place....  I was out my money, and my item..IT Happens!

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Unfortunately it is close to impossible for me to offer that much monitoring on my shipped items. It's really unfortunate about what happened to you as a buyer. Tbh though, what we are talking about is service beyond seller obligation. Ebay has even told me in some issues to just stop talking to the buyer and they'll protect me... maybe they had inside info that the buyer was a known scammer (who knows). But ebay doesn't require any further action in regards to INR after an item is tracked as delivered. Anything done after that is considered a courtesy to the buyer. It's unfortunate that this is starting to create more busy work than benefit for some sellers.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Hey im with ya. I totally get it trust me lol. Scammers run amok and ebay helps in every way.

You know the rules. You know how to protect yourself with the butter knife ebay arms you with. Dont let them get ya down.

[bigdeals.etc]

At the very least this will prep me for holiday sales season.

[myboardid]

I totally get it, but I think, even though you get the scammers from time to time, I'm sure you get a lot of repeat buyers also when you help them out with the situation. 

I'd have that message already prepared and ready to send out with just a copy, paste, and send click, so it's fast and easy.  If the buyer just messaged a complaint, I'd stop at that.  If they opened an INR case, I'd send that message, then follow up with entering the tracking and making a call to ebay to get the case closed immediately.  After that, no reply at all to any more messages from them.  Stay away from the drama. 

Unfortunately this business comes with issues, and you are a large scale seller so you get proportionately more of them.  It takes time and energy to be a service oriented seller, but it is worth it in the end both business-wise and how you feel about yourself as a person. 

[mam98031]

For me, when I get an INR and my tracking shows it to be delivered, I do it a bit differently than you have.

After checking the tracking, I call Ebay and I get the INR closed because it is delivered.  

I then wait for the notification to come through that the INR has been closed because tracking shows delivered.

Once that happens, the buyer gets a similar email from Ebay saying that the records show the item was delivered.

I do this so the buyer has no reason to get upset with me for any reason.  What they see is Ebay stepping in and closing the INR for delivery because of the tracking.

I then will send them an email expressing my desire to help if I can and then doing some of the suggestions as you laid out in your post.  I don't do a long email as that can be annoying in and of itself.  So I keep it short and I offer to assist if I can.

Most times I never hear from the buyer again and my FB is not dinged.  A few times the buyer's have written and I've tried to help them the best I could.  And sometimes that helps, I've had them find the package at a neighbors, in another room in the house as someone else picked up the package, etc.  So extending that helping hand can really help from time to time.

This process has served me well for years.

[Anonymous]

Yes I understand, But I had already did all the work for the seller, All they had to do was call... I hope this never happens to you,  Because had You been the buyer, Not receiving the item, I don't think you would have just wrote it off as oh well it says delivered.......

[csbbct]

I think you should continue sending the initial informative message you’ve always sent.  I know it’s frustrating to be blamed for something that you have no control over when you did everything right on your end, but it’s nice to reach out to the buyer so they don’t feel like eBay sellers turn their back on them and leave them twisting in the wind.  Maybe your note has helped some of them find their packages.  For me, involvement beyond that would depend on the response I get from the buyer.  The nicer they are, the more I want to try to help them.  If they're rude and disrespectful about something that was out of my control, that would make me want to back away and let eBay handle it going forward.  

[bigdeals.etc]

Yea I see the difference. One main thing is that I'm too lazy to actually call ebay to close it out. I just end up waiting until the time to ask ebay to step in. I forget, but I wanna say that I used to call a looooong time ago and got an agent who refused to close it out "prematurely" since the case was not allowed to have ebay step in. And I never bothered to try that method again. Maybe I'll try again since that was most likely years ago. Hopefully the fact that ebay closed in my favor might deter these buyers from "acting out" while I'm trying to help them.

@Anonymous  Yes I hope that never happens to me too... again. It's happened to me before as a buyer, but I never acted with entitlement when communicating with the seller. It shouldn't happen to me again since I did make a big stink out of it with my local Postmaster... so now they should know better 🙂