A GOOD BUYER TALE

[chief-50]

As sellers big or small (me),  we all from time to time,  cop the petty, petulant , precious ,pathetic or  painful, last of the big

spenders..

However, every now and then  ones faith  in basic humanity  is partly restored...

 I recently listed a box of MINI MOKE ( got a proper car & Harley as well ) car parts, for somthing to do ,  which were excess to

requirements...$25 SP & BIN $55 .

Bundle included a couple of NEW parts which alone had a  worth in excess of $100. Clearly stated "Pick Up Only...No Exceptions"

Within a couple of hours the BIN price was accepted .

Sent the Invoice which specified "local Pick  up" and I asked for a guide to when pick up could be arranged etc

'

A couple of potential  problems then manifested themselves.... I noticed the buyer's address( S/W QLD) was a 2000klm

round trip from my residence  ...the pro-forma  Invoice apparrently says in Big BLACK letters " PAY NOW" and he did...

via Paypal!

So the "cash on pick  up  " scenario went through to the keeper , and he lives out in the never, never  ....I'm thinking 

this is not going to end well...should have just gone to the tip !

I sent a couple of Emails to clarify  with address and PH no....he apologised for paying by PP...said a "mistake

and would  pick up in a few days ( Sunday /Yesterday) . I replied confirming address etc and as an aside ,suggested he'd done

well, as there was over $100 worth of new parts there.

He  turns up late Sunday evening and the first thing he does , before even looking in the box,  is whip out his wallet

and say  "DO YOU WANT SOME MORE MONEY FOR THEM" . I was of course,  only too pleased to decline his offer 

and send him,  parts in  hand ,  on his way  ,back to the outback .

So, boring story  ,but worth the telling....trust I haven't  put the mocker on myself and get unanticipated feedback  !

[mbselections00]

Not boring at all and yes stories like this certainly do restore your faith 🙂

Hubby had a similar one recently, PICK UP ONLY and Buyer in Melbourne purchased and paid instantly also.

When messaged 're Pick UP' buyer said, oh, my mistake, let me know how much it will be to post.  (Glass jars !) Gave them the actual price, which was two & a half times more than what they paid for the item & they paid happily - even after hubby offered to cancel the order if they'd prefer, $10 item & $25 odd postage

Yep, there are certainly some great Buyers out there 🙂  I'd go so far as to say, probably the majority

[i-love-my-sheep]

It is lovely to hear positive buyer stories because most of the time we only hear about bad buyers. I have had a few awesome buyers and I definitely make it known in feedback and also through messaging. Most of my buyers have been great, but a few really stood out from the crowd. My bad experiences have been very minimal.

From a buyers perspective, I saw something on eBay a couple of years ago, that was pick up only from Melbourne (I'm in Central West NSW). I knew this item would weigh a ton, but I still asked if the seller would be willing to post and if so, how much would it cost. To my surprise, it was about $45 (I thought it would be double that), which I was more than happy to pay, because these things don't come up very often. Right or wrong, I wanted it!! So, I bid and ended up winning the auction (where there was a LOT of interest). Seller packed it well and posted it off and I was one happy buyer when it arrived. She gave me some of the best feedback I've got off anyone, so I think she really appreciated having an obliging buyer too. She even sent me a message saying she was glad I won it because she knew how much I wanted it. Of course if she said she wouldn't post, I wouldn't have bid (and probably would have sat in the corner for a week and cried!).

Maybe we could keep this thread going with great buyer stories, to keep them separate from bad buyer stories? I'm sure most here would have a positive story to tell.

[cmcoins2000]

I had a very nice experience with a US seller.

Purchased a Native American silver bracelet & barette for my daughter.

All arrived in time but the bracelet was not the same as listed.

Emailed the seller telling her so - she emailed back asking for photos of the bracelet sent.

Had just finished emailing the photos when my daughter handed me the phone saying it was a call from Kansas.

We spoke for about a half hour - mainly about the trials of eBay etc but she offered to send any bracelet to replace the wrong without the need to send the other back.

Well, fairer than that I could not get so purchased another - my daughter chose another.

Both arrived in due time - gorgeous.

The seller during her lengthy conversation directed me to an interesting site - some others may be interested.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com

Lots of info - much the same going on in the US as here.

[daniellebradydesigns]

As someone who has posted a thread about bad buyers (well not bad buyers, but buyers with weird excuses), I'd love to see this one grow!

Had a buyer a few weeks ago, their purchase hadn't arrived, they waited two weeks, gave it plenty of time to arrive, but still no luck, so I gave them a refund promptly.
They thanked me numerous times for the refund. I didn't expect to hear back from them.
Then a week later their order arrived.
I received a PayPal payment with a lovely note, thanking me for refunding them, and letting me know it had arrived and that they had paid me once again.

The majority of buyers are wonderful. And there are a few extraordinary ones that stand out.

[digital*ghost]

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@i-love-my-sheep wrote:

Maybe we could keep this thread going with great buyer stories, to keep them separate from bad buyer stories? I'm sure most here would have a positive story to tell.

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For my contribution...

I do quite a bit of custom work, I am also thankfully in a position to be able to do generally acquire the materials and do the work before any money changes hands between myself and the buyer, which is actually what I prefer... I don't like the idea of buyers feeling obliged to go ahead with a purchase if they don't like the result, almost nothing I make is so personalised I can't sell it in general, and I don't really like being paid for work I haven't done, as it has the potential to cause way more issues if I can't follow through for some reason than if the buyer doesn't follow through.  

Ok, so with all that in mind, I had one buyer who point blank refused to go along with this and insisted on paying for stuff up front. They endeared themselves to me forever with their reason why (something along the lines of "in case I explode in during an experiment" - in other words, there I was with the notion 'I'd feel bad if something went wrong and I couldn't supply the item', while they were all like 'but I'd feel bad if I died and I couldn't pay you for the work you did ). 

I've had more than one buyer send me additional funds because they thought the items were worth more than I charged - that's always lovely. ^_^

A few times I've received photos from customers showing me what they did with the stuff they bought, which I always love seeing - it is awesome to see my jewellery n' stuff on a smiling person, I must say. I also get a few messages with personal thanks and so forth, which is just as lovely and appreciated (I suck at responding to them, though, I tend to be a bit formal and - worse - bland when replying to something / anything that vaguely resembles a compliment 😞 ). 

I also need to make a special mention of anyone and everyone who has purchased from me more than once, especially if I've ever messed up their order, which happens on the...err, odd occasion.  But seriously, anyone who is not only understanding and gracious when I've messed up, but still has full confidence in me as a seller,  gets a special 

I have one buyer in particular that without their continued patronage, so to speak, I am quite sure I wouldn't be where I am today, so that's one of the reasons I named a design after them. 🙂

[i-love-my-sheep]

I recently had a repeat buyer buy quite a few rough gemstones off me. Not knowing anything about them, I didn't know if they were good or bad. I had a lovely surprise on Saturday when he sent me a stack of photos of what he'd done with them. He'd made cabochons and inserted them into rings and pendants. A couple of small stones he left as they were and made earrings.

It really was a joy seeing what he'd done with them. To go from a rough bit of rock, to something so spectacular, gave me that warm fuzzy feeling. There was one piece he bought that turned out to be a complete disaster and basically crumbled. I offered him a refund and he said absolutely not! He said he was stoked that he got them at such a low price that he wasn't worried about one being no good. He also said that's the risk buyers take when they buy rough gemstones. Some can look really good but be a disaster, others can look not much good and turn out great.

I'm still finding more and more things in boxes and drawers, so I can guess he hasn't bought his last thing off me yet. He also gave me great feedback and a 5 star DSR for every transaction!

Go the good buyer!!!

[mbselections00]

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@i-love-my-sheep wrote:

It is lovely to hear positive buyer stories because most of the time we only hear about bad buyers.  . . . . . . . . Maybe we could keep this thread going with great buyer stories, to keep them separate from bad buyer stories? I'm sure most here would have a positive story to tell.

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Definitely, great idea 🙂

[extra-keen]

Our very first experience was quite an adventure.

Sold a 30+ year old Mercedes motorhome. It'd been sitting in our shed for 10 years, just got it out each year, got it registered and then put it back. You know, the kind of vehicle that if the rego lapsed, you would never be able to register it again with all the new regulations for roadworthiness etc.

Anyway we decided to sell so listed on ebay - we got a very fair price for it, but the buyer was in the very VERY outback of the NT - we were near Sydney.

We decided on an adventure, we'd drive it half way and meet them in SA (actually I think they had a lot further to drive than we did). It was quite an adventure - Left home 2 days before Christmas - the temps were 40+, we got there with only a few minor (well fairly minor issues), they arrived at the meeting place, paid their money, we spent an interesting hour with them. The wife of the fella was so pleased, she knew it would be OK if we were prepared to drive it half way across Au. Anyway it was a good way to start our trading on ebay.

[mbselections00]

What an amazing story and an amazing way to start your eBay journey too !!