"I'm a seller too you know, stop trying to lie to me."

[iamalwaysright]

Why is it that a high majority of the buyers I get drama from always claim to be "expert sellers" and sell/ship all the time (to everywhere) claiming to know ebay/usps policies and workings more than I do? They often say that to me before they accuse me of lying to them.

[robbie31415]

I hate when a buyer is a frequent seller.

Some reason they are the worst buyers.

[johnrj1226]

Dats wierd.  Hmmmm

[gurlcat]

It can go either way though.  I've had scenarios that would get clueless buyers blowing steam but 'this' one is totally chill and it's because they're also a seller, so they get it. 

And sometimes it takes all my nerve to refrain from BEING that "expert seller" you're talking about, like when I see something with inflated shipping cost, and I don't know which is more irritating -when they know it's inflated and they're just doing the shell game, then ship very cheaply, or when they don't know, and actually ship the item much more expensively than was needed. 

Why don't you share the current story that sparked this post @iamalwaysright ?  You know we love stories. 

[reallynicestamps]

I occasionally get questions about shipping costs.

My usual response includes a link to Canada Post's rates pages, including my own postal code so the customer can see where the Calculated Shipping rate comes from.

Hmmm. Actually that may be the answer.

Are you using Flat Rate shipping?
Calculated Shipping tends to look more official - if only because the rates seem to end in odd numbers (500 gram shipped internationally for $23.97 , for example).

And of course where possible, Free Shipping generally means no questions at all. Even buyers who understand that Free Shipping really means the costs of shipping are included in the asking price.

The customer who really is a seller may also be sophisticated enough to realize that we can buy discounted labels through eBay, and sometimes elsewhere.

But not sophisticated enough to understand that many sellers use the difference between counter rate and eBay discounted rate to pay for packaging and insurance, including Cookie Jar Insurance.

[chevymontecarlo88]

Sounds like they are just trying to grind you on price/shipping? I get this all of the time with vintage guitars and the "so called" vintage experts. Don't let them bother you and stick to your guns. Eventually if they are serious, they will bend. (unless you are wrong 😀)

[sin-n-dex]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

I hate when a buyer is a frequent seller.

Some reason they are the worst buyers.

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I try to be a good buyer. I donate my clothing that doesn't fit instead of trying to return it (or filing a false SNAD). I do though, as a frequent seller, pay a lot of attention to a listing to make sure I actually want what I'm buying... I think making sure the listing is understood (as a buyer) is half the battle in a successful transaction.

C.

[gurlcat]

Same here.  And if I win an auction or (in a rare case) make an offer and it gets accepted, I would be mortified if I hadn't paid within a few hours, in fact I usually pay immediately. 

We probably all get a lot more seller-buyers than we even realize, especially considering many of them use separate accounts.  The cheeky ones just give the rest of us a bad name, ha. 

[iamalwaysright]

It’s not that interesting. A buyer complaining about their item not arriving as quick as they’d like despite it still being scheduled to deliver within the stated ETA. They mentioned it shouldn’t be taking this long because “I ship a lot of things too and they never more than 5 days to arrive”. Basically claiming this “slow delivery” is my doing and not USPS as I stated to them in regards to peak holiday rush season.

I find it interesting how so many of these upset buyers end up claiming being “selling experts” despite them not understanding the actual protocol or how these things actually work. 

Funny you should mention about shipping price. Actually one of the most ridiculous instances I tend to get are from buyers complaining about my “ridiculously high shipping prices” when the shipping price they are charged is around $5 and change. Okay “avid shipper”, $5 for shipping is price gouging. Excuse my eye rolls.

[jerseyboymusic]

As a seller on Ebay, I tend to hold other sellers to a higher standard when I am a buyer. BUT if an item is shipped within their handling time, and the USPS is slower than usual (especially during the holiday season), I just chill out

[tarotfindsandmore]

My only real pet peeve with selling to other sellers is when they lowball me while knowing full well that we (sellers) have fees that eBay will take.  A lot of my decks go to other sellers who buy/sell/trade on boards or in brick-and-mortar shops. I'm fine with that but when another seller sends me a "the creator is still selling the deck blah blah blah..." message it really chaps my hide.  As sellers they already know what the price was, what the shipping is/was, and the fact that I had to pay taxes on the deck in question. 

I actually had a seller in Australia tell me I should lower my price to the creator's price because they didn't want to pay the shipping from the creator's country. Seriously?!?  I don't mind these kind of messages from private buyers and collectors because, generally, they don't have a clue what we pay in fees, but when another seller does this I always encourage them to "support the creator" (code for "ef off and go buy it from them then").

[brightlightbookseller]

I actually haven't run into this one, though I've seen other people talk about it.  I don't even know if we've sold to other sellers, though we probably have, because none have sent messages like that (not in the several years I've been managing the account).  We occasionally get buyers complaining about our shipping costs or asking for us to package it well (usually on dirt cheap stuff we're just trying to get rid of because it didn't sell for a long time, but that's another story), but I haven't had someone say they were a seller.

[gurlcat]

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@iamalwaysright wrote:

Funny you should mention about shipping price. Actually one of the most ridiculous instances I tend to get are from buyers complaining about my “ridiculously high shipping prices” when the shipping price they are charged is around $5 and change. Okay “avid shipper”, $5 for shipping is price gouging. Excuse my eye rolls.

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Ha in cases like that it has to be NON-selling ignorant buyers, ignorant as in they must not have shipped anything in at least a few years, because virtually no label costs less than $5 at this point, and it's only reasonable to grant the seller at least some pocket change for packing materials. 

But what I was talking about was listings like this (see below), where as a seller I know dang well the labels will not be anywhere near the amount of shipping cost assigned by the seller.





And both of them definitely experienced enough to know better (both have feedback numbers over 4000!). 

But if you notice there is also a difference that (to me) would make the difference between whether or not I might contact them if I was interested in the item.  -The top one has a round number shipping cost of $15, so it's almost certainly not calculated shipping, just a (INFLATED) number they pulled out of their butt, to pad the total minimum bid, rather than just set the minimum higher.  -There would be no point in trying to reason with them, and if anyone left them a neg or neutral talking about the shipping price, I could picture them responding with something like "Nobody made you bid if you thought the shipping was too high" or whatever.

But the bottom one ..... I feel like that might be an accident.  It's a very specific dollar/change amount, so I would assume it IS a calculated shipping item ... and they piggybacked the listing creation as a 'sell similar' from a much, MUCH heavier item, and forgot to change the weight.  You know what?  -I think I will write them, not because I want those pieces, but just because they are never, ever, going to get a bid on them with that shipping price. 

[gurlcat]

WOW!  Talk about a responsive seller -they fixed the listing and replied to tell me, all within 4 minutes!  Now I feel proud, I've done my good deed for the day.  I believe I will have some chocolate.