Buyers strange cancer excuses.

Well it never fails to happen I get a complaint this week.  It say the item they have is cracked and not usable. It was Bamboo incense burner.  Very lightweight and intricate in design a beautiful piece.

The buyer first tells me its cracked so Im thinking manufacture defect right.  I ask for photos to verify, have them return it and Ill contact the vendor. Days go by and no photo in my inbox.  So I email again.  He claims to have been busy but adds if I dont refund him by Monday he will open a case. He also says again how beautiful the piece is and he put the incense stick in it when it cracked. Now it sounds like he broke it. No? Then he says I have to put $11 into his paypal account to return it!

Now I was livid because yea its just business, but now you state you broke it and you want money to return it? What the heck!

I told the buyer since it looks like he broke it you cant expect a refund and ebay states it is the responsibility of the buyer to return the item.

Surprised by the reply he says I do not go to the USPS as I have cancer! Argh now I am disgusted.  He would only ship if back UPS cause he cant stand in the post office. Then he gives me a story that has nothing to do with this issue.  Then the kicker - I dont want to be the 7th person to leave you feedback! Really?  Oh and I didnt inform him it was a fragile item!   Which I believe falls under Feedback extortion so I reported it.

When are people going to take responsibility for their actions?

Is this buyer lying? I dunno, Im not going to assume anything but am I supposed to feel sorry because you may or may no have this disease? Now I have to reply delicately but get my point across.

Do you go into a store, buy something and break it then tell the store they cant have it back and if they do they have to pay for it then demand they have to refund your money?  No? Im sure there are many dishonest people that break things and return them for the money.  But how often with online sales do people expect to keep the product and get a refund! All of them! It annoys me to no end. We will see if I will blog about this guy in the next few days with the correspondence.

If I mess up I will try and fix it.  I have paid for return shipping. I have gone above and beyond for my buyers but when you do something like that I am not helping you!

I feel victorious! Even with a new negative mark! Part Two

Well its been a few days and my 'Victorious' feeling is fading away.

I see the DSR ratings finally.  It takes time to post because its supposed to be 'anonymous' but when you consistently receive positive feedback its easy to spot who is leaving you low ratings.

Yes I knew it was going to happen but it still bothers me to actually see it. This buyer gave me a score of 1 for three out of four categories.  One is automatically entered by eBay since the item arrive in ONE day!  So in item description, shipping charges and communication I received a score of 1 from the buyer.

Ebay needs to modify this way of scoring since most people that dont get their way will automatically give you low scores even if you did everything correctly.

I wrote to eBay and reported this buyer. Im praying the will remove it especially since everything is documented within eBay they can see this buyer was never over charged shipping fees, the difference is well under 50 cents! They can see I 'communicated' with a reply to every email the buyer sent and quickly too! They can also see the letter from the manufacture backing me up about the item image, which I added to ebays messaging system, they can see I am 100% in the right.  

I know they are making 'changes' but its not fast enough. This DSR rating is hurting sellers and giving buyers all the power.

Once a reply is sent to the buyer the communication category should be automatic 5 stars even if the buyer does not like the replies. They see how much we pay for shipping and if the margin is with in a certain amount (say $2)  it should automatically give 5 stars as well!  Sometimes it will charge the buyer less then what I pay and the buyer can give me a lower score? What the hell!

Shipping time is still something that a seller nor buyer can control. Last time I check the postal service was owned by the government and all other shipping companies have their own rules. How is it our responsibility to control a third party?

Yet another negative feedback on eBay

Im at the end of my rope, Im so temped to just close my eBay store.  But then I remember I do have so much positive feedback and I shouldn't let one or two rotten apples spoil the bunch right?

So here I am blogging about my experiences, why do I do that?  Well I hope to educate others and share what happened to me and what I did. Sometimes I do not handle situations properly but majority of the time I do and I still get bit in the butt for it.

I am an individual running a business. I sell on multiple platforms online and I have a store, a brick and mortar.  Ive noticed since I have moved in a number of things going missing.  Guess it goes with the territory of operating a store.  On occasion something would just disappear and I would not notice until someone online buys it and I cant find it! So now I look like an idiot trying to sell something I do not have in inventory. It does not happen often but once in a while.

A few weeks ago I got an order for a beanie. I was a little surprised as we just cleaned up our 'hat' section and I dont remember seeing one of those.  Well I looked and looked every where I could think of and I could not find it.  I emailed the buyer with an apology and refunded the money they paid.  This was in a few hours of the purchase.  A few days later I noticed the transaction was still 'waiting to be shipped'... so I called eBay.  They tell me there is a glitch where pay pal is not telling eBay I refunded money to the buyer and that I should just archive the transaction so I 'dont see it'.  So I do and think nothing of it.  Mistakes happen and most people are understanding in this situation, others are not.

Imagine my surprise when last friday I notice a negative remark! The buyer claims I never refunded the money & I wasted their time! Im floored!  So I think back and research, I refunded almost 3 weeks ago! Not only that I did email they buyer. So I call eBay about their glitch causing a buyer to think I did not refund them.  Well too bad it does not qualify for feedback removal so I am stuck with it, I tried to email the buyer and guess what? The email bounced back! Imagine that, how pissed was I. I submitted a feedback adjustment but thats all up to the buyer.   Now I wait and since the buyers email does not work my message will just go unanswered.

Monday morning I wake up to yet another negative remark!  I dont think I have ever gotten two in a matter of 3 days in my whole eBay life!  I check my account on the mobile app for questions and check feedback at the same time.  So no idea whats going on or who the buyer was. I needed to check into it when I get into my store.

Turns out this person purchase a dozen crystal suncatchers from me, this person just put feedback that said: 1/2 the products sent were chipped and damaged.  So on my drive in Im thinking maybe it was damaged in transit cause I know I packed it tight with tissue paper and well it was going to Canada.   So I get into the office and get this email:


**** I copy and print exactly as written, we simply remove contact info: 


Hi There,

I'd like you to know that I've left negative feedback w/out contacting you for the following reasons. I received my box in perfect condition, no damage. When I opened the box and un-wrapped each of the individual crystals I found no crystal pieces to indicated it was damaged in shipping but yet at least 1/2 of them were damaged, ie: many of the crystal pieces at the bottom were chipped & damaged. Leading me to believe that these were wrapped and shipped to me knowing the condition of the product - damaged, as mentioned box was in perfect condition & there was no crystal debris, so it didn't happen in shipping. I purchased these as an added bonus to my brides maid & family gifts for our wedding and cannot not use half of them as they are so damaged I wouldn't even hang them in my own window.

Thank you so very much for wasting my time....



What a slap in the face!  I have never had a fight in my life so all I could do was shake, a few hours later as I write this now Im thinking Bridezilla? I also reviewed feedback they have left for others and this person is a negative nelly. This is what I call buyers that a chronic when it comes to leaving negative feedback.  We also pulled out the rest of our crystals for examination and did not find anything wrong with them. So I have no idea what this buyer is talking about.

Well I reply, it was short and simple.

We are not in the business of sending damaged merchandise. We would be happy to refund you upon return of said items. When we packed these we did not see any visible damage, nor were we looking as they are still in their original packaging received from the manufacture. Perhaps its a manufacture defect.

All you needed to do was send us an image of the 'defect' and we would have sent replacements. 



The crystals are still in the baggies I got them in from the manufacture, all I did was pull them out and place them into tissue paper and into a box for shipment. If there were chips I didnt notice them as I was not looking for them.  I didnt think I was rude in my email at all. I tell everyone if they just send me an image of the defect or damage I would help them out.  At this point I really didnt want to help them since they seemed to be set in their decision.

Then I get this reply:

Looks like you are in the business of sending damaged products, I see several other complaints, some even stating their product was damaged in the same way. I've already given them to my niece to hang in her outside tree house, only good place for them. I have a right to cop an attitude as I was sold crap, you on the other hand, another story. They were not in manufacturer pkging... they were wrapped in used, ripped, tissue paper... I'll just take my business elsewhere in the future. You're clearly blind if you couldn't see the chips & shards missing from the large hanging crystals.

I'd appreciate if you stop continuing to waste my time... here's a thought, maybe sell un-damaged products! :)


So now Im heated cause they didnt read my email I wrote before, they accuse me of selling 'crap' and that I am 'blind'!  Who says that kind of stuff?  I wrapped them in NEW tissue paper not used and they were never shipped in manufacture packaging besides how would they know if thats how I got them or not?  And even admits to having an attitude. Again I didnt think my reply was rude.  So the buyer decided to give them away. Seriously if you got something that was not in good condition wouldnt you contact the buyer? Ask for a refund? Replacement?

My reply:


Im trying to be nice here, and your being rude and obnoxious. I said I still have the crystals in the original packing, which I took out and wrapped in tissue paper when it was shipped. Thanks for reading my email and seeing only what you want. Ive blocked you already just stay away from us and we will no longer see you in the future. 


Figured Im done right? Well no - they had to put another knife in my chest with this reply:

Rude and obnoxious? Grow up! You are a real beaut! Have a great day!


At which point I asked them to stop harassing me or I will report them.

Unfortunately the only thing I can do about it reply to the feedback left for me.  Which may or may not tell my story since the buyers can reply to my reply and make the situation look even worse than it was!  Which this buyer did.

I was so hurt, people forget that I have feelings and I have to stop taking the feedback personally. It almost feels like they are saying Im a horrible person.  I try my best to do everything right and all it takes is one person to bring me down. This business is cut throat already buyers dont need to aggravate the issue.

So I have to remember negative feedback is like having scars. Thankfully some scars eventually go away.  Im going to attempt to report this buyer in any case. Lets see what happens.

www.stores.ebay.com/luzsbrain

Buyers not following the rules

So I like to write about my adventures on eBay and Amazon to give others the feel on how it is to sell in these platforms.

Just the other day I got a complaint from a buyer on Amazon - the complaint was the item they purchased exploded in transit and spilled all over them. They wanted a refund and they wanted me to pay for their dry cleaning! I was so mortified I was not sure what to do. Amazon is so strict and if this person filed a compliant I was sure to lose the money anyway. So I refunded the amount they paid, sent a replacement AND give them money towards dry cleaning! Yes I believe I was taken advantage of but I believe it will be a done deal and this person would 'go away'. Its been a week and I have not heard anything new and Im hoping it stays that way.

Now I get another complaint from someone on eBay this time. The complaint was the item they received was damaged. They complained about how I sent the item in a polybag and not a box and I am not a good seller, you get the idea. Well I ask for am image of the damaged item. The book had some bends in it but was not totally damaged. I asked that they send it back and they refused. They said its unusable and they demanded a refund without a return. They also said that they would give me such negative feedback if I didnt 'do the right thing' . I couldnt believe the nerve of this person.

Now eBay policy says I do not have to issue a refund until the item is returned. It also says if someone threaten to leave negative feedback & demands a refund without returning an item I can report them for feedback extortion! So what did I do? I reported them. They have not left feedback as of yet, but they gave me 7 days to refund the money before they do. And when they do I will report it again!

Now I wondered if this really does work and it does. I had someone a few months ago do the same thing and another seller told me about feedback extortion and well this persons feedback was removed. Had I knew about that sooner I would have used it and had another removed.

Too many times buyers say that they will refuse to send something back and demand a refund. Its against the rules! Dont let anyone do that to you!