Ep 229 || Dealing with Angry Customers

[podcast_team]

eBay Growth Manager Susan Brague shares how to handle angry customers. Griff and Brian answer questions about 90 day Sales Totals, and buyers who ask to use their own shipping labels, as well as take a live call from a seller concerned about a rumor regarding USPS scan sheets.

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Brian: I'm Brian.

Griff: I'm Griff, and this is the eBay For Business Podcast. Your source for the information and inspiration to help you start, manage and grow your business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this is episode 229, and we're back in the studio. Hi Brian.

Brian: Hello, Griff. How are you?

Griff: Do I have your full attention?

Brian: You do.

Griff: Okay. Because you were working on stuff when I was trying to get your attention earlier.

Brian: We're recording on a very busy day.

Griff: Oh, what day is it?

Brian: It is Seller Update day.

Griff: Oh, the first day of Seller Update.

Brian: Yes.

Griff: Were you getting pulled aside by someone to higher up the ladder here?

Brian: Just ensuring that the right folks are looped in when we do end of day reporting and things like that. And the right information's included.

Griff: Dear listener, I need to talk to you directly. I know Brian's listening in, but you have no idea how life is so hard for me because when you have employees on as co-hosts, they get distracted and start typing in the middle of an interview. I can't get them to shut off.

Brian: I do have to say for our sellers benefit, the reason for this is actually they're out talking about the Seller Update on our forums in the eBay community. They're also talking about 'em on social platforms and who else wants to see that? We wanna make sure their voice gets to our executives' ears, and that's what we're doing.

Griff: Your media training is showing Brian just on that really Well, .

Brian: No, I'm serious. It is all about our seller and being focused on what their opinion is about what we've just rolled out.

Griff: You sold, uh, eBay, right?

Brian: I have. Yeah.

Griff: Have you ever had angry customers?

Brian: I have, yeah. He was pretty reasonable, but he started off angry.

Griff: Oh, and you calmed the situation down.

Brian: Well, I paid him off . Sorry.

Griff: . Yeah. Money always works. I haven't had an angry, angry customer in a long time. I did have one that accused me of being, um, dishonest, a fraud and a criminal last year, and I just couldn't respond. I said, well send the item back. What can I tell you?

Brian: And did they?

Griff: They did.

Brian: Oh, That's good.

Griff: I was so tempted to explode. Oh, was I tempted? But I ha I tamped down my temper and I put on a good face. Not always an easy thing to do. And that's what our discussion is this week.

Brian: I had an angry customer because it was my fault, so I really couldn't be angry.

Griff: Well, I don't care if it's my fault. I still get really defensive. Anyway, that's our topic for this week, is how to deal with angry customers. And rather than just listening to Brian and I go on and on about this, we thought we'd bring in someone with a little experience dealing with angry customers. Her name is Susan Brig and she's worked in customer support at eBay for a while. I don't think she's doing that now. I think she does something else. But she told me before we started recording that she was a phone agent for eBay for 10 years. So talk about some experience dealing with angry customers. Welcome, Susan.

Susan: Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

Griff: So what do you do right now at eBay?

Susan: I am a Growth Advisor in our Global Customer Service Organization, which means I still have the lovely job of helping sellers on a daily basis.

Griff: Right, but you're helping them with a very specific thing, right? Growing their business.

Susan: Absolutely. I'm here to optimize their business, help them gain more traffic, and learn some of the marketing and advertising opportunities that are available on the site. I also help them optimize their listings and basically all things eBay.

Griff: Before you started doing this, you were doing something else. You were a phone agent. Has the tenor of your job changed? Do you still have angry customers that you have to deal with?

Susan: Um, not to the same extent. I think more so possibly secondhand. I help sellers still deal with their angry buyers.

Griff: I see. All right. So you know what the topic is.

Susan: . I do. And I'm here for it.

Brian: If you think back to the time when you were a phone agent, you know, what was the skill that you needed most to help make a situation that started off tense become a good experience for that customer? Because I think our listeners would like to understand how someone who professionally did this can use that skill or, or think about those skills so that they can help with their customer interactions.

Susan: Yes, absolutely. So I think tone is everything. How you deliver something matters and tone still comes through in our electronic responses between buyer and seller. And so along with tone, we have to think about being genuine, empathetic, apologetic, keeping in mind that being apologetic doesn't mean that you're admitting fault. Doesn't mean that you are the one to blame, but people wanna feel heard and they want to feel that you're there to help them and you have genuine concern for them. So that has to come through, whether you're speaking to them on the phone or via email.

Griff: And tone is so important. I've learned this the hard way. Even the hint of snark is very easy to detect

Susan: For sure. I've been caught with that on the phone when you take call after call, which we do. It's real easy to become kind of robotic and you can't. You kind of have to shake off the last call and take the next call as if it's your first. And it's kind of the same way with interacting with buyers as well. You have to kind of shake off whatever you dealt with during that day or the day before, and treat this as a brand new fresh person and situation.

Brian: Susan, another thing that I know that I've done this personally is sometimes like I'll anticipate, let's say I'm talking to a seller where they're gonna go with the conversation and so I already formulate or begin to formulate an attitude about where it's going. And that sometimes does not serve me well. Are there things that sellers can do to kind of almost be in that moment as opposed to anticipating where they think the buyer is gonna take a conversation?

Susan: That's a really good question because I think that happens a lot. So I think if you come with this preconceived idea or notion of what they're asking for or what they're going to say or how they're going to say it, that does a real disservice to both you and the buyer. And actually, I did talk to a seller the other day that I'm helping with optimizing her business and growing it on eBay. And she's relatively small seller. And interesting enough, she had a buyer who had asked a bunch of questions before purchasing an item, and this seller said to me, I know I'm gonna have problems with this buyer. I know this item's gonna come back. It's not gonna fit her child. And I just know this is gonna turn into a return. And I just told her, I said, I understand why you might feel that way, but truth is we don't know. And sure enough, this was just a great transaction. The buyer gave her great feedback. And so coming into something like that, like I said, just as a disservice to both parties, every situation is gonna be slightly different. And if we come to the table with these kind of jaded ideas of how this might go, we're sort of pushing it in that direction.

Griff: That's a really good point because you'll see in forums across the interwebs where eBay sellers are talking about, you know, I had this experience with this buyer. Give me their username, I am gonna block 'em. I don't wanna deal with them. I always thought, that's just doesn't make any sense to me because you have no idea what that buyer actually went through. You only heard one side of the story. The buyer could actually be a really good person. Anyway, they're, I've always been disheartened when I see this kind of discussion amongst sellers, I try never to presume a buyer's intentions. I've had unhappy buyers. There's been a few I haven't been able to make it right for them. There's not much you can do in cases like that.

Susan: Other than show empathy, just saying, gosh, we've all been there. I'm so sorry this has happened to you. I would feel the same way. I like to say that people get angry or frustrated when they lose time, money, and trust in something. Usually we can't get their time back. Right. Actually never can never get their time back. We may be able to get their money back, but we can definitely try and win their trust back.

Griff: That's a very good point.

Brian: Time, money, trust, all very important.

Griff: Time, money, trust, TMT It works. Yeah, we have another acronym to put in the eBay encyclopedia of acronyms.

Susan: Opposed to TNT, It's the opposite of TMT, We don't want it to explode.

Griff: Can you recall the worst interaction you had with a customer?

Susan: Ooh, I had a few over 10 years. Some people come in hot. And like I said in the beginning, if they detect any level of being dis-ingenuous, you're sunk. And if you don't pay attention from the beginning and they catch that, it's really difficult to get them back. And within eBay's customer service organization, these customers can ask for a supervisor. And I don't know what the situations are now that, you know, if they ask twice or three times or whatever, that eventually they can speak to a supervisor. I mean, you do everything you can to calm them down. But I can think of a few times when I just couldn't. And if you, if you lose 'em in the beginning, it's really hard to get them back on the phone anyway. What's nice about, once again, eBay messaging is you have time to pause. So hopefully you don't catch yourself in that situation here. But I can think of a few times when I just, you know, I lost them and then you're done for, and that stays with you over the years. You learn to shake that off. But it's interesting how easy it is to let somebody else control how you feel for the rest of the day, for the rest of the week.

Griff: That's so true.

Susan: Yeah. It's a good skill to learn to kind of let that wash off you. And sometimes you just have to get up and take a walk around the office and nowadays it's from home. But same concept. I do remember one instance though that I'd love to share, which is someone came in hot boy, they were angry. And quite honestly, I don't remember what about, but when I gave my little, you know, thank you for calling eBay spiel, they said, my goodness, I was about to yell at you and be angry, but listening to your tone, I can tell you're a friendly, kind person who's going to help me. And that's where I, I had that aha moment, but boy, tone is everything. And they said they couldn't yell at me.

Griff: You won. You won, you did it.

Susan: I won from the beginning. And uh, it was a great conversation. And oh, I love those times when you can turn an angry customer into a delighted one. Those are the best.

Griff: When I first started at eBay, I was, it was something I had to learn a skill. And I think I picked it up over time. I stayed calm. But there were occasions when the snark would come out and I couldn't do anything about it. We used to do, in the very early days, we were on the chat board on eBay and there was a very new eBay and rules didn't exist, you know, we were trying to put together a structure of rules. And I remember someone asking Griff, can I do this? And I said, no. And in fact, and I wrote it out, I said, this is not allowed, blah, blah, blah. And they said, well, where is that rule? I can't find it in any of the help pages. I says, it's right there. I just wrote it. And they said, well, no, where is it on eBay? I said, it's right there. I just wrote the rule. It's right there. This guy was not having it. He was not having it. And it was a good lesson and not being funny. Right?

Brian: It actually goes to Susan's earlier point about tone. It's not just when you're speaking, it's when you're typing or interacting in other moments. And I got called out once for being too snarky in a response. This was a long time ago. And I went back and I thought, you know, it was one of those tense conversations that we were having and, and I was snarky when I went and reread it.

Griff: Was it something, it was an email or something that you read?

Brian: No, it was a post on the discussion forums. Oh, brother. I was interacting with the sellers. And somebody else posted and said, well thanks for that response. And then somebody else came back with another follow up and then the third person came back and said, maybe we wouldn't get so upset if the eBay employee wasn't so snarky. And I thought me snarky. What? And then I went back and I, oh, I went back and reread it and went, okay, it's time to step away and take a walk and come back to engage with these guys at another time.

Griff: I've known you for over 20 years and I've never heard you be snarky ever.

Brian: Oh, are you kidding me?

Griff: Well not to a customer. Maybe to me you've been snarky.

Brian: But I try not to be to a customer because I always think about it. If I was in their shoes, how would I want to be treated? And what would the outcome be? And I think that's, to Susan's point.

Susan: It's the empathy.

Griff: It is. And, and I find as a seller that it helps that I buy a lot. Having both sides of the experience, I think has made me more mellow over the years and understanding how things can go wrong that are out of a seller or a buyer's control sometime.

Susan: I think that's crucial. Just the other day I had to reach out to a colleague, and have him read a response. I was writing to a seller. I mean, I'm very customer-centric and I was feeling snarky and I, I wrote a response to something and I had a feeling it was snarky even though I was trying my hardest not to be. And my colleague read it and kinda laughed a little and he said, well, you know, here's a slight change free of charge. And sometimes we have to do that. I couldn't help but feel that way and it was coming through no matter how hard I tried, his response was perfect and I used that. So I think sometimes to phone a friend is a good idea.

Brian: That's a really good point. And oftentimes we've got sellers who are sole proprietors or they work by themselves or maybe there's just only one or two people within the business that are working and have somebody else that you can send something to, to get their feedback or get a second opinion. I think that's great advice, Susan.

Griff: Yeah, it is really good advice.

Susan: Yeah. We get to write out responses so we can reread and, and rewrite and take pause and make sure it's coming out right.

Griff: Susan, have you ever thought about writing a book?

Susan: I have not. Should I?

Griff: I just put the Bee in her bonnet, so we'll see what happens with that. My experience is dealing with angry customers.

Susan: You know, after a while they, they blend together because there's a pretty common theme. People, like I said, are usually angry because of those three things we talked about before. And after a while it's, you start to formulate a very good calculated response of how to deal with these things.

Brian: I do like that whole TMT, the time, money trust that you brought up, because all three of those are things that could upset any one of us. So if you go into it with that perspective or that they're upset about, hey, they were overcharged or they no longer are trusting you as a seller because they didn't get the item that they thought they were gonna get, or it's costing them money. And normally if the money, trust is involved, it means they're costing them the time. Yes. And so, yes. So it's one of those things I, I like that framework and I'm gonna use that going forward whenever I get into those conversations.

Griff: I'm so glad you could be in this interview so you could learn something Brian. Thank you.

Brian: Yes. Well I tell you, every time I ever go to Salt Lake City, I love it and it's, I ha I've kind of been a little miffed that we haven't been able to go out there as much the last few years because of Covid. Because every time I've ever gone to our Salt Lake City office, I learn from not just the management team but the agents and doing side-by-side. They, they have a wealth of knowledge because of the direct interaction with our customers.

Griff: Yeah. They know more than any, they know more than you and I, that's for sure. We don't let it on.

Susan: It's a difficult job. I used to go to, we had something called the Listening Lounge in San Jose. Either one of you remember that.

Griff: Yes, I, I do. Yeah.

Susan: I did that as an agent a couple times and it was wonderful for us to be able to share with people behind the scenes what we do and how we interact with our buyers and sellers alike.

Griff: Given your experience all these years dealing with customers, what would be your one word of advice to a seller who comes to you? Maybe a little red-eyed, maybe a little weepy saying, I just can't deal with this customer. How am I gonna do it? What can you tell me to make this better?

Susan: Well, um, if I had to boil it down to one thing, I'd say remember the three Ps to a response.

Griff: Oh, three Ps now. Okay?

Susan: Three Ps. Be professional, don't take it personally and take time to pause.

Griff: I like that even better.

Brian: I do too.

Susan: Better than TMT?

Griff: Yeah, it's alliterative and I love alliteration, so.

Susan: But if you let me have two, I'm gonna give you another one, which is, I believe, was it Benjamin Franklin that coined the phrase, ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Same goes for eBay. If we do a lot of the best practice things up front, we can prevent a lot of the headache on the backend, not everything. And making sure that we're using our titles appropriately. Item specifics, um, photos, description videos. Now eBay gives you a lot of opportunity to really tell a buyer what they're buying and use those.

Griff: Yeah, that's a very good point. Susan, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day as a Growth Advisor there in Salt Lake City for our eBay sellers to come and talk to us.

Susan: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Griff: Susan Brague works in the eBay Customer Support Team as a Growth Advisor for sellers. She joins us from Salt Lake City to talk about how to deal with angry customers.

Brian: You got questions?

Griff: We've got answers . And our first question this week, Brian is from our good friend who's emailed us in the past. I'm sure you'll remember the name eBay seller Tiskett.

Brian: I do remember Tiskett.

Griff: Rhymes with biscuit.

Brian: Yes. I wonder what question they have.

Griff: Well I'm gonna let you read it and then we'll talk about it.

Brian: Sounds good. Greetings again. You've been so helpful in the past with answering these questions. And I have another question for you that I cannot seem to figure out a while back. I noticed the 90 day total on the mobile app was no longer the same as last 90 days on my desktop. In the Performance tab summary, there is a discrepancy of over 10%. How does eBay calculate these numbers and why is there such a difference? Naturally the 90 day total is an important metric for resellers and I'd simply like to know which one makes the most sense for me to use with my own business tracking. Thanks so much in advance for your help. Tiskett.

Griff: We researched this and what did you find Brian?

Brian: We asked the team responsible and they confirmed that yes there is a difference between the 90 day total value shown on mobile and on desktop. They're working to consolidate the data sources for the value so that they accurately reflect the same value on both devices. There's no time yet or estimated time for when this'll be changed. Stay tuned.

Griff: They did say it's a top priority because they're aware of the discrepancy and it is cringe making. From what I can surmise, they use different data servers and the ones serving the mobile app has a time delay. So it's something about timing, at least that's what I deduced from the email back and forth through the different Product Team members. I could be wrong cuz I'm not all that fluent in product ease. That's what I took from that.

Brian: And he means product ease, not product ease.

Griff: You know, like Portuguese, product ease.

Brian: Either way Tiskett, that team will resolve the issue with the different 90-day totals. Eventually until then we suggest relying on the 90 day total shown on your desktop view of eBay.

Griff: The other thing I surmised is that's the more accurate of the two. Well Tiskett, great question. This next question, Brian was sent to podcast@ebay.com by seller. Angie, I'm gonna let you read it again too cuz you know Angie.

Brian: I do know Angie now that I'm seeing Angie's question. Hello Griffin and Brian, thank you for all you do to keep us up to date with the changes and provide us with fun information. I love listening to the podcast on my way to work. In the last six months I've had two buyers that purchased an item and after payment is received, they asked if they can provide an overnight label or if they can send their preferred carrier label. I have a same day or one day handling for most of my products and buyers took longer than expected to send me the label. What could be my best move in the future if this were to happen again to avoid late shipment? Thank you very much. Angie Cardona Nelson, Angie's Green Go Surplus.

Griff: Angie is a former Shine Award winner.

Brian: She is and a local, relatively local seller. So she's been to the San Jose Meetup multiple times and great seller.

Griff: Inspirational seller.

Brian: She is actually, she's in an inspiration to most immigrant Americans.

Griff: Yes.

Brian: Incredible story.

Griff: We should have her back on the show. Or on the seller spotlight, either one.

Brian: Yeah, she was down last summer. Remember she did some stuff with eBay open. She was on one of the panels and so we got to see her again then and her husband Joe and her kids. That was fun.

Griff: Yeah, we'll have them back on. But Angie, in the meantime, let's get to your question. And I have to say right off that this one really floored me cuz I would definitely, definitely never oblige a request like this from a buyer. It's definitely an unreasonable request, especially if it's made post-purchase. I mean the buyer can see pre-purchase whether or not you offer an overnight service. And if you don't they can always message you and say, might you add it as a shipping option to your seller. Which you can do if you, you know, so inclined. And you can do all this before the buyer actually buys it. But for a buyer to make this request about sending their own label after they've paid for the item, I think it's absolutely unreasonable and I would never agree to it. Where else do you go to on the internet where you can tell like a retailer, Hey I'm gonna send you my own shipping label. So I say No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's what I would do

Brian: Before I answer my peace, there's one, and I don't know if you've covered it, there's one possibility that might be happening with her business because she sells consumer electronics. She might have a business who has a contract with like U P S or USPS ,buy like 10 or 15 items and then say Hey I want to use my shipping cuz it's cheaper.

Griff: They should do that before they make the purchase. I'm talking post-purchase. This is an unreasonable request. So I say never, ever, ever, but that's me.

Brian: That's just our recommendation. You of course are free to oblige this type of request, but if the buyer doesn't provide you a label within your state at handling time, your on time shipping metric will take the hit.

Griff: Yeah. And it's probably not gonna get removed if you contact customer support. So if this is happening more than just a few times, it's something you're gonna want to take into consideration. So Angie, if you're willing to ship any item overnight for a fee, of course you might want to add that option to all your listings. Like Brian's example where maybe it's a company that has a really cheap shipping method, okay and they want to utilize this, but again they need to contact you before they buy.

Brian: Then I'm wondering is there anything that she could put in the listing that says, you know, if you're a large business and you're buying from me or something like that and you and you have your own shipping, you can contact me ahead of time. But to your point post-purchase not so much.

Griff: Maybe I'm, I'm being more of a hardhead than I need to. But you know, it is a consideration if you agree to this and the buyer doesn't send you the label in time, you are gonna take the hit. So you gotta, you know, you gotta think about that. If you use shipping policies, Angie, and I'm sure you do, you can edit the relevant policies to add a second or third service for something like express or overnight. But we can't recommend or encourage any post-payment shipping negotiations. It's just not a good business practice.

Brian: And it's a time sink.

Griff: Yeah it is. Yeah.

Brian: And if a buyer bocks at your terms, you can always just offer to cancel the sale and even offer to add the extra request service to the listing when you re-list it.

Griff: Or agree to the label if you're so inclined before you list and sell it so that they understand that they have to get the label to you within a certain amount of time. Angie, I hope that answered your question. If not, let us know. Brian, our last question this week is a live call with an eBay seller. Greg. Hey Greg.

Greg: Hello there. Brian and Griffin. Griffin. Brian, good to talk to you.

Griff: Can you tell us what your question is?

Greg: Okay, well I live in a constant state of confusion.

Griff: You are with the right group!

Greg: Great minds think alike. I tell you, you guys, when I listen to you, I'm happier than a camel on Wednesdays. I just, I just really enjoy your podcast.

Brian: Well thank you.

Greg: My question concerns the, the scan sheet that we all enjoy and really appreciate those of us who use it, it makes it so much easier for us for postal employees. It's just better and, and after Griff's big tip several months ago on how we can print labels throughout the day but still use one end of day scan sheet that's a game changer for us sellers. And I'm sure everyone knows what a scan sheet is, but this is a way you can take all of your packages to the post office and they only have to scan one barcode and all of your packages are then handed over to the postal authorities and they don't have to scan one by one and you don't have to take all the time. We have a situation in Tulsa that I doubt is uncommon actually elsewhere. I have a feeling this happens and that is if our post office does not scan everything, let's say I'm just going to say individual packages, then everything is caught at the regional office. Everyone hopes including our post employees and sometimes for short-staffed and we remember Christmas especially two years ago and what it can be like and not every package accidentally, you know, probably gets scanned. So hopefully at the regional facility the next place it goes, it will be scanned. The problem is I learned from our post office, they're not that good about scanning all that well at our regional facility. They've got some problems and I have a feeling again that's probably common things happen. This is a busy place, you know these postal places so it may not be scanned till the next city that brings your package in. And the only problem with that is same day handling time one day, even if you have three day handling time, if you take it on the third day, it could in theory be two days before it's actually scanned for acceptance. We want to get our packages scanned as good sellers when we drop it off and that way, you know, heaven forbid if a postal truck catches on fire and all of their packages leading your city get burned up, there's proof that you dropped off that package. But here's what I heard from a postal authority and that is a scan sheet does not appear to be an acceptance sheet because if we have 15 packages on our scan sheet and we've got 15 boxes and we hand them over and they scan the scan sheet, then we still don't have real evidence that we actually shipped 15 boxes to exactly who we were supposed to ship them to. The postal clerk rightfully so, just assumes they're all included in the scan sheet. And since it's not an acceptance scan, my big concern is our package might be late just because lateness happens in the post office, UPS, everywhere. It can happen, especially with the icy storms we're having here in Oklahoma right now. My packages could arrive late or heaven forbid porch pirates steal the package from the buyer. It shows delivered but the buyer never got it. If this is true, the scan sheet doesn't show an actual acceptance. We can't really prove to eBay we shipped on time and that's fairly critical to us. And once in a while we can miss one. I realize, although I've got a hundred percent because I'm really retentive about things like this. But I know that we can't all, you know, once in a while things are gonna happen, we're gonna be late, but this has a potential of causing a lot of packages to be late and with no real evidence and I would just love to hear all of this is not true.

Griff: Well guess what Greg, it's not true. I don't know what that postal person told you. So I went to our go-to guy on the Shipping Team just to be sure and I had a conversation with him and he assured me that if you bring in a scan sheet and it covers all the packages that you have in that load and you give it to a clerk and they scan it, eBay uses that data as acceptance data. I would ask you, have you ever not had that happen?

Greg: I have not and I want to guard against it.

Griff: You don't have to.

Greg: We're so busy, you know, we don't wanna do things that don't really do us any good. I mean we're busier than a mosquito in a nudist colony. You know how it is.

Griff: Well no actually I don't but I'm now curious!

Greg: Well if you're an any eBay seller, you probably know Go ahead.

Griff: No, I was just gonna make a a a comment about a mosquito in a nudist colony. So it's probably better left unsaid.

Greg: Maybe maybe we'll edit it out.

Griff: Well maybe we won't. We'll see.

Brian: No, I don't think we will.

Griff: But I can tell you that your fear is unfounded and you should immediately put it aside because if the clerk scans that scan sheet, the information does go to eBay and it is considered an acceptance scan for all those packages. There is a difference between individually scanned packages and a scan sheet when it comes to an insurance claim. So that initial scan with a scan sheet USPS does not use that initial scan from a scan sheet as a proof of acceptance for a liability claim that you may file for, hey, the item got lost if there is no other scan. So if the parcel is then scanned at a later time at a different location than it is eligible for insurance. But that's the only difference then, and I didn't know this, this is what Nate told me, cuz Nate knows everything about USPS as the liaison between eBay and all the carriers. So yeah, my good news for you is you don't have to worry. You're covered.

Greg: Thank You. Thank you. Thank you. And, you know, this is more evidence that Griff, you've been doing, you've been telling us correctly, you don't buy insurance, you just, you fill factor insurance, your loss I would say, into each package that you ship. And if you have a claim, you've self-insured yourself and in this way it's, it's not an issue for you.

Griff: And I've had no claims, I've had no damage. I package really well. People love how I pack. It's been great. Yeah.

Brian: So Greg, I have to ask you while we have you on, on the air, how long have you been selling on eBay and then also like how long have you been using the scan sheets?

Greg: I've been selling on eBay only for 23 years, so I haven't quite reached two and a half decades.

Griff: For someone who looks 18. I don't know how you pull that off?

Brian: Well, thank you for 23 years of business.

Greg: No, thank you. Listen, I've done other things. I've gone other places for reselling as well and I always returned to my first love. I went to that one huge corporate place that shall remain unnamed here on this show.

Brian: Uh, it's some kind of river I think.

Greg: It it is. Oh it's, it's a, it's a dangerous river to resell on, let me tell you. But eBay loves its resellers and your CEO about four years ago on camera said, we work for our sellers. Now those other places would never say that. They'd say for their buyers and he implied our sellers work for our buyers, we work for our sellers and everything that you do. I received a I told you about the Ice here in in Oklahoma. I received an email 15 minutes ago from eBay that said, you're covered. Don't worry about it. If you get a late shipment or something because of the ice, we'll take care of you. No other reselling platform takes care of its sellers. And I love eBay. That's why I'm 23 years on eBay and now I'm full-time eBay, nowhere else.

Griff: There you go. And it shows he's so happy. Yes. And that's what comes from selling for 23 years on eBay.

Greg: A hundred percent positive feedback.

Griff: What do you sell?

Greg: I'm an everything seller because I want anybody looking for anything on eBay at any price range. I want to have something for them. And I understand different selling strategies, reasons to have very finite inventory, very categorical inventory. I just do better. I enjoy it more. It's more challenging and I think I enjoy that and being an everything seller. And plus I do a lot of consignment selling for elderly neighbors around our neighborhood.

Griff: Oh good.

Greg: I have to be an everything seller. Yeah. I actually grew up on the street I live on, but we moved back to take care of my mom, who it's a long story. She lives four houses down, they're all old, they're all like 90 years old on my block. And so they're all wanting to pair down and they're gonna be moving soon. And they learned we sell on, on eBay and if only I could get out from under my death pile because it's an unlimited inventory. I strongly, I strongly advise your listeners to tell, just tell everyone you sell items on eBay, you help people clear out room and make money for them in order to, because you sell on eBay, you'll get an unlimited amount of inventory. So it's wonderful.

Brian: Good advice.

Griff: Well, Greg, I want to thank you so much for calling and I hope that you're, uh, happy to hear the news about scan sheets. You don't have to worry about something else. You don't have to worry about scan sheets.

Greg: Yeah, thank you so much.

Griff: Before I let you go, just tell everyone your user ID so you can go check out your merchandise.

Greg: My personal one that I I really like most is OKIEGP. O K I E G P. For Oklahoma Greg Perry. OKIEGP.

Brian: I love it.

Griff: OKIEGP, thank you so much for sending the question in and continued success.

Brian: Thank you Greg.

Greg: You're welcome. Have a great day.

Griff: Well that was a fun call, don't you think?

Brian: It was?

Griff: Yeah, we gotta have more of those. Of course. If we're gonna have more of them, that means people have to call us.

Brian: Well hopefully Greg will inspire others to call in because I hope that you know, he didn't sound frightened by us.

Griff: Frightened?

Brian: Maybe you.

Griff: Anyway, that's it for this episode, Brian, and what a fun episode it was.

Brian: And if you wanna join the fun here on eBay for Business, why not call us on (888) 723-4630.

Griff: That's (888) 723-4630. Call that hotline anytime of the day, any day of the week, leave us a question or a comment and who knows, we just might put it or you on the air if you're so inclined.

Brian: Like Greg. Yeah, but if you're not a call on the phone person, you're a shy person, you can always email us@podcastebay.com. That's podcast ebay.com.

Griff: And now it's time for your three point podcast list O reminders.

Brian: Number one, check the announcement board ebay.com/announcements for UpToDate Seller News every day.

Griff: Number two, and I'm just gonna say this upfront, I get a lot of these recommendations from experience in my own life. If you aren't doing so already, maybe you should start using and recording in a business journal. I suggest one that has a page for every day. You can jot down your business activities that you did every day. Stuff like trips to a sourcing destination, gas fills, ordering supplies, writing down purchase totals. It's a good practice to record your actions every day. And if your memory is failing you like mine, you might wanna start using a daily journal. What are we talking about? ? Let me write down that suggestion. Oh, I forgot my journal at home, sorry.

Brian: Number three, send your recommended daily journals to Griff. I'm kidding folks. Number three, need to review anything in this episode? Check the transcript for this and all episodes for follow up on what you've heard and define the links we referenced during the episode.

Griff: And on our next episode, we'll meet with our very own Valerie Yee here at eBay and she's gonna bring along a seller named Ashley Molder. And the topic will be debunking listing myths.

Brian: Love it. We'd like to again, thank our guests this week. Susan Break.

Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.