topic Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed? in Selling

Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

colourmyevent2012 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:06:53 GMT

Hi, everyone. I need some advises on this situation.

One of my item (hairband) was recently sold on eBay auction. I originally bought this hairband for $14.95. I put it as auction starting price as $15.90. It had one bid, sold as $15.90. I sent it in an prepaid Australia Post Parcel and Tracking.

Yesterday, I received a negative feedback from this buyer who said 'Says on the tag that the item was reduced to $14.95. Outright ripping people off'

I immediately contacted her and explained to her I didn't rip her off. I hardly broke even on this sale after taking off the eBay fee and postage. I also said I do want her to have a positive shopping experience at my store and offered her to do partial refund if she could remove the negative feedback as it is important to have 100% positive rating for seller.

She responded back as 'Maybe you should say on your listing that it was on sale along with the RRP.'

She didn't mention anything about accepting the offer and removing the negative feedback.

I'm not sure what to do from now on.

I'd like to have some advises and opinions on this situation. As a seller, should I declare how much I paid for an item on the listing when I sell the item? How can I improve the listing content and service to avoid the similar situation in the future?

Also, what I should do with this buyer? Should I just move on or persuading her to considering removing the feedback?

Thank you in advance for all your help:)

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

leader-of-the-band — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:31:36 GMT

Yesterday, I received a negative feedback from this buyer who said 'Says on the tag that the item was reduced to $14.95. Outright ripping people off'

. . . . . I'd like to have some advises and opinions on this situation.

hopefully you have learnt the lesson to remove price stickers/tags when an item sells for more than the sticker/tag price. When it sells for less than the sticker/tag then leave it on.

As a seller, should I declare how much I paid for an item on the listing when I sell the item? How can I improve the listing content and service to avoid the similar situation in the future?

You are under no obligation to declare how much you have paid for an item. I would state this information if the item was likely to sell for less than what I had paid, but not if it was to sell for more than I had paid.

I once bought some items from the Officeworks clearance table for less than 10% of the original retail price. I removed all the reduced price stickers and sold the items for about quarter retail price. I sold for more than I paid and my buyers bought for a quarter of retail price. If I had left the sale price stckers on the items I would be in your shoes I am sure.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

bsal6160 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:38:55 GMT

Yep, outright ripping people off, no two ways about it. AND she should also report you for feedback solicitation.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

***super_nova*** — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:46:01 GMT

Not very wise to leave the price tag on, but of-course people should realise that sellers sell to make money, not to give away items for less than they paid for it.

As it is, there is nothing much you can do about the NEG; the buyer is not happy, and it is their right to express it in FB. If you persist they may very well report you for harassment.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

davewil1964 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 02:04:16 GMT

Yep, outright ripping people off, no two ways about it. AND she should also report you for feedback solicitation.

You forgot the tongue-in-cheek emoticon. Assuming you're not serious. If you are, you're incorrect. A markup on cost price is acceptable and asking for a mutually acceptable solution which involves feedback review is not an offense. In fact, there is no point selling at cost or a loss. As you well know.

Not much you can do about it OP. The buyer is obviously one with a sense of entitlement. They were happy with the price originally, but when they found out you paid marginally less for the item, suddenly it became too expensive, so I doubt they will agree to a feedback revision.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

leader-of-the-band — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 02:14:54 GMT

when I put the details of the transaction into my eBay/PP fee spreadsheet it shows that you lost $1.18 on the transaction. This is based on you charging $8 for postage and it actually costing $8 for postage. If it cost more to post then your loss would be greater, less to post then your loss would be less (or no loss).

$15.90 - $1.26 (fvf) - $0.87 (PP fee) - $14.95 (price you paid for item) = -$1.18 (a loss).

To break even, your item would need to have sold for $17.22.

Perhaps you could leave follow up feedback along the lines of " U paid about 1/2 retail, $15.90 - eBay fvfee - PPfee - $14.95 = Me losing $1.18 "

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

putney32 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:39:38 GMT

the solution to this prob in the future would possibly be to NOT quote a rrp if you are selling items with marked down tags. or remove the marked down price from the tag before selling !!

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

*sparklz* — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:41:38 GMT

I would be telling the buyer that you did NOT rip anybody off as it was her choice to purchase at the price she did.

Also as for the feedback a buyer can NOT just change the feedback. The seller needs to to send a request to revise feedback for a buyer to be able to this.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

***super_nova*** — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:30:44 GMT

There is not much point sending a request in this case; the buyer is very unlikely to agree to it, and each seller has limited number they can do ( depending on number of sales each year)

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

a_beautiful_room — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 06:45:01 GMT

Unquestionably that is ridiculous feedback. I would be ringing ebay and explaining the situation. As hard as it is, be cool and professional even though that can be hard sometimes! The feedback she has left has NOTHING to do with your transaction and her voluntary purchase at the said price. I wouldn't reply to the feedback, I would call ebay.

The buyer is new (of course) and clueless. For goodness sake, they didn't have to even leave their lounge room, surely that's worth an additional buck or two to any reasonable person.

And please take note of other posters telling you to remove price tags in future.

FWIW I can often sell things at 300% and have even sold things for 600% on what I bought them for. A rip off, no. It's taken me many years to find what people will pay money for, and my time and talent in finding them is well worth any profit IMO. Luckily I tend to buy things with no discernible RRP so comparing is more awkward.

You've done nothing wrong OP. Call ebay.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

colourmyevent2012 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:27:00 GMT

Hi, Thank you so much for all your helpful advice. I really appreciate it.

The buyer sent me another email later today asked me to send her the feedback revision request form.

I hope everything will turn out fine 🙂

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

thesoulyearns — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:22:54 GMT

This might be a tough one. I was ready to say "no, it's not ripping them off" until I went and saw the listing.

In the title, you stated that the RRP was $49.95, so by buying it at $15.90 they're saving quite a lot. In some cases, though (and business-techies correct me if I'm wrong), the RRP may also mean the discounted price. For example, if an item in March 2012 cost $40 to buy but wasn't doing so well, it may get reduced down to $19.95 in September 2012. So, if that reduction is across the board and not just a special promotion, $19.95 becomes the current RRP. The question is whether the $14.95 that you bought it for was a special promotion (e.g. not the RRP) or was actually the revised and current RRP.

Maybe you could Google the specific item and see whether the $14.95 was just a special promotion or is actually the current RRP. An idea for the future may be to give an exact date of when it cost "$x.x" as the RRP, with a link or something. Or, as has been said, don't keep the original price tags on.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

i-once-was-bump — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:32:04 GMT

Did you buy all that Mimco at a Mimco sale?

You must have over 100 pieces of Mimco.

The last time I was at one of their sales I couldn't get hold of 5 pieces let alone 100.

You must have razor sharp elbows!:^O

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

digital*ghost — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:43:02 GMT

In the title, you stated that the RRP was $49.95, so by buying it at $15.90 they're saving quite a lot. In some cases, though (and business-techies correct me if I'm wrong), the RRP may also mean the discounted price. For example, if an item in March 2012 cost $40 to buy but wasn't doing so well, it may get reduced down to $19.95 in September 2012. So, if that reduction is across the board and not just a special promotion, $19.95 becomes the current RRP. The question is whether the $14.95 that you bought it for was a special promotion (e.g. not the RRP) or was actually the revised and current RRP.

I solve all that with one word: Original. 😉

i.e. Original RRP $49.95

I've had people pay over the original RRP both for new items and even secondhand (at auction, where the prices were started lower), but as has been suggested, I remove markdowns if I can (they're generally not what I've paid for an item, anyway).

Sounds like the buyer's going to revise the feedback, though, so hopefully it'll be resolved soon.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

patchoo78 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:46:03 GMT

I wonder if the buyer would accuse Target of ripping them off if they saw the ridiculous mark ups that they put on their stock

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

janeababe — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 19:09:01 GMT

Yeah look, im really sorry, but i agree with your buyer on this one. Not really *ripping* people off, but not being an honest seller either.
You sold it for a minor mark up, yes, but if i had got an item with a lesser priced tag on it then what i had paid, I wouldnt be happy either.

I thought the feedback left, was in relation to the purchase, so you are very lucky if she revises it. I probably wouldnt have revised it though.
Them's the breaks! ;\

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

***super_nova*** — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:55:22 GMT

There is a wholesale price, then there is the R.R.P. (recomended retail price = the full price that is recommended to the stockists to sell this item for) and then there are various discounted prices, when the shops want to attract shoppers or need to get rid off the item/last year stock. This discounted price may be far bellow the wholesale price, or even the cost of manufacture.

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

peternt2001 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 21:25:52 GMT

I agree that a buyer , buys something on here for what they are prepared to pay. The problem i see here is not that the seller left the reduction tag on the product ( however if they had removed that i dont think there would be this problem at the moment )

The problem i see in this case is that the seller advertised a RRP and then the buyer found out that the seller actually got the item from a shop at an even lower price.

To me this is the same that the B&M jeweller shops have been guilty of and prosecuted for. Places like Shiels have sales where they advertise a ring RRP $2000 on sale for $199. People do tend to buy an item if they think they are getting a bargain. If Shiels put down RRP $210 sale price $199 their sales would be no where near what they are because people think they are getting a huge bargain.

The very mention that the items RRP was $49.95 would have been enough to make someone interested in the item paying $15 or $20 or $30 because of the perceived savings. But finding out the retail price the OP paid was nowhere near the RRP is enough to make people upset.

Either show a RRP and dont let the buyer find out the retail price you paid ( remove all tags before sending )

Or dont show a RRP

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

patchoo78 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 22:38:19 GMT

So in conclusion, I guess the one thing we can all agree on is that the OP should have removed all price stickers..

No one got ripped off, the buyer only paid about $1.00 more than what the seller paid. If the buyer had paid $34.95 then found out that the seller had only paid $15.90 that would have been ripping the buyer off.

The mistake that the seller made was quoting the original RRP and leaving the sticker on with the discounted price..

As someone else pointed out, after the PayPal fees etc the seller actually lost money

Re: Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

***super_nova*** — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 23:52:17 GMT

The point is what is the item worth to the buyer, NOT what the seller paid for the item.

Most of the time it is not necessary to remove all the tags, just the one with price, or cut/scratch the price off.