What would you do or not done?

[dandfmarinesalvage]

So here’s the details of a transaction today. What would you have done or what should I have done differently in your opinion?

We receive a message yesterday about a listing that contains several questions. All of which were clearly answered in the description. The message was very oddly written and seemed peculiar. Not the typical “hey I just wanted to ask if…….” That we generally get.  I look at the buyer and discover that over 75 percent of the feedback they leave (which is a couple hundred feedbacks) are negative. Deciding that this buyer should just be blocked rather than answer obvious questions was at the top of the list or so I thought.

We run a very busy brick and mortar shop as well and in the midst of this I get sidetracked and don’t block the buyer. Today said buyer buys the item and immediately begins to bombard us with messages and then requests that we ship the item with the flammable fluid left inside. Obviously we aren’t going to do that and made that clear both in the listing and in the message. Buyer doesn’t seem to understand that as he says it’s fine to do because he’s done it in the past and is unhappy that we won’t do it. We decide that rather than argue or escalate we are going to immediately cancel, refund, block the buyer and relist.

All is well for about 10 minutes. Then I start to receive phone calls, text messages, emails and a google review from this buyer who at this point is absolutely unhinged and irate. Calling us all sorts of obscenities, saying we’ve committed fraud, he’s calling the law, he’s going to sue us, we stole his money, etc.

Keep in mind this is all in the course of about an hour or so from beginning until it escalated to this point. So with that being said. If you were in my position. Would you have simply sent the item anyway without fluid inside knowing that the buyer was already unhappy and wanted the fluid in it? Would you have cancelled or cancelled and blocked? How would you have handled it differently? 

I feel like these strange situations are starting to come up more frequently. It used to be maybe once every year or two we just had a completely unsatisfiable buyer regardless of what we tried to do. Now it seems like there’s a least a couple a year out of a few thousand. Anyone else feel like it’s picking up as well? Or have I hit a run of bad luck or had a really long streak of good luck and now I’m paying my dues?

[gloryglorygifts]

There needs to be more options for cancellations, as customers do make unreasonable demands.

[gurlcat]

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@gloryglorygifts wrote:

There needs to be more options for cancellations, as customers do make unreasonable demands.

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I remember not too long ago someone posted that an eBay employee literally told them to cancel, choosing 'problem with address' even though the actual reason was the buyer demanding something not offered in the listing.   And I believe they also told that seller to officially report the buyer, to support their cancellation and pave to way to getting a negative feedback removed, if the buyer left one.  

But yeah -there SHOULD be a menu choice to cancel because the buyer is violating policy.  Ideally it would be linked to a (required) buyer reporting form.  That way you'd have to state what they actually did, so that (if it comes down to an employee needing to read it, to make some decision) then they could see if it was a legitimate policy violation, and not just something like cancelling because the shipping address is a freight forwarder.  -In those cases the cancellation should be changed to a defect for the seller. 

[luckythewinner]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@luckythewinner 

you got a message from a buyer with questions, and chose to ignore it for a full day

Oddly some people are human and make mistakes. 

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The OP replied that ignoring the message was intentional and not a mistake. 

[luckythewinner]

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@dandfmarinesalvage wrote:

I’m not sure how else I could’ve or should’ve handled it other than the way I did. 

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I try to respond to all questions politely. And if I don't want them as a buyer, my response to their message is crafted in a way that discourages them from buying. 

[rugerskick]

Per seeing their feedbacks, I would block immediately.  I avoid impossible buyers.

[gurlcat]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@luckythewinner 

you got a message from a buyer with questions, and chose to ignore it for a full day

Oddly some people are human and make mistakes. 

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The OP replied that ignoring the message was intentional and not a mistake. 

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Actually they said their intention was to block the buyer, but they got sidelined before they could get from their phone (where they saw the crazy amount of dumb questions) to their computer.  IDK if there's a way to add a name to the BBL using the app, but if not, then I could picture the exact same scenario happening to me.  

[gator08041971]

@dandfmarinesalvage 

Yep, this was absolutely over the top.  Definitely report the messages to eBay and block.

I had a slightly less unhinged one the other day that was asking for information that was in the listing.  I responded at first politely and explained, they then claimed I didn't answer the question and tried to insinuate that I have no idea what I was talking about.

After that, I informed them they are to be blocked and to seek another seller.  But oddly they had a decent feedback history left for others.  Not sure why they were being a fussy buyer over essentially nothing.  I have a lot of used HDDs that have been erased and thoroughly tested.  I list them including info about time used, which is in days according to the program I use.  But some apps report it in hours, not days.  But its not a hard thing to figure out.  But this buyer was insisting that they needed to know its time in hours.  And ignored the fact they could have easily figured it out on their own and got snippy over it.  They never asked about a specific drive, and I'm not about to go around converting them all for one buyer when no one else has asked about it.

*shrug

You just can't please everyone unfortunately.   I have sold more than 100 drives, and never had that kind of questioning.  Only ever had one complaint, but that buyer never bothered to request a return, just left a neg and never replied to my messages till 2 months later, but then it was an angry rant.  Not my fault they dragged their feet for over a month, but were able to leave a negative a couple days after they got it... lol

[inhawaii]

I would have done what you did.

What reason did you give for the cancellation?

[albertabrightalberta]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@luckythewinner 

you got a message from a buyer with questions, and chose to ignore it for a full day

Oddly some people are human and make mistakes. 

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The OP replied that ignoring the message was intentional and not a mistake. 

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There's nothing wrong with ignoring a message from a buyer with whom one doesn't want to do business. 

[dandfmarinesalvage]

UPDATE: unbelievable! Same item just resold again…….to another buyer 17 miles away from the original deranged buyer. I don’t believe in coincidences such as this being unrelated so I REALLY hope I don’t get bit twice on this deal!

Thanks to all who have responded and Happy Holidays!

[gurlcat]

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@dandfmarinesalvage wrote:

UPDATE: unbelievable! Same item just resold again…….to another buyer 17 miles away from the original deranged buyer. I don’t believe in coincidences such as this being unrelated so I REALLY hope I don’t get bit twice on this deal!

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Ooof, no that doesn't sound good at all.  Very likely the same guy, and either he just wants the item SO bad, or is such a deranged Type A personality he feels a need to keep messing with you.  But with this being a completely different username and address, you wouldn't have grounds for canceling, as there is a teeeeny-tiny chance it is actually someone else wanting this same item, a stone's throw from the ogre.  

Has this "other" person written anything to you?  

[dandfmarinesalvage]

Nope, no messages of any sort yet. I’m sure there will be a social media connection etc between the two buyers that could be found but it won’t do any good if an issue arises. Hate to send a $500 part knowing what’s likely to happen but I suppose that’s the risk we take and sometimes we just have to “take our lumps” no matter how ridiculous it is! I’ll just hope for the best and expect the worst! Have a great weekend!

[gloryglorygifts]

I remember that thread. That wasn't good advice, but there weren't many options. I think the last time I went to cancel an order, which was a month ago, I only had two options ~ Out of stock, or customer requested it. It was an international sale and many of our products do not ship international. I couldn't do it with problem with the address, I wasn't going to blame the customer because ebay is glitchy and allowed the sale (even though it is an excluded country on the listing) so I had to choose out of stock and take it on the chin.

I think the problem with the address should be reinstated and also think there should be more options, including buyer requesting additional things not listed.

[gurlcat]

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@gloryglorygifts wrote:

 It was an international sale and many of our products do not ship international. I couldn't do it with problem with the address

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I don't understand.  How was that not exactly the right choice?  International address ... to which you don't ship = problem with address.  

Also, don't you use this setting (second one down) to make sure your US-only items can't be purchased by international buyers?  Then you wouldn't have to deal with how to cancel those because they'd be blocked from buying in the first place.

[chapeau-noir]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@luckythewinner 

you got a message from a buyer with questions, and chose to ignore it for a full day

Oddly some people are human and make mistakes. 

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The OP replied that ignoring the message was intentional and not a mistake. 

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A mistake - they got distracted. 

Not everyone is perfect.