Unnecessarily rude sellers ..

[penskefile5]

Seriously, what is with rude sellers? I just asked a seller what their best price was and when I got the amount I politely said ‘thanks but no thanks’ (hey some might not even respond ) and next thing I know I have the CHIP of his/her shoulder hurled at me. Some rubbish about how I should go to Kmart... (um relevance?)

This is not the first time when sellers have become stroppy - I’ve dealt with some who have reneged, lied about postage or sent faulty items. I’m sick of buyers bring the baddies. I always try to be polite until I’m pushed.. Sellers love to complain about buyers (btw I sell too) but some sellers need to go to customer relationship training and stop taking out (I assume) bad experiences with other buyers on me! (Instead learn to look at feedback first..Mine is excellent and it is insulting when that is not even acknowledged ).
Guess I’m getting grumpy in my old age...

[brerrabbit585]

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@shoppingbag* wrote:

Did the Seller invite offers? If not, then it is pretty rude to make an offer at all.  I also believe it is against the rules. Quite often the BIN is the lowest price the Seller will take and to offer anything less is insulting, especically if it is much less than the asking price. I just had an offer of 55% of my asking price, which is already much less than I paid for the item and it is already a bargain at the asking price. I really had to control myself to repy politely, and seriously considered blocking the potential buyer. There are both good and bad buyers and sellers, if you consider yourself one of the good ones, then make sure not to make offending remarks like "thanks but no thanks" 

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It's no longer against the rules to make unsolicited offers.  In fact, ebay encourage it.  If you read any seller's Q&A section (those who have it enabled) ebay has a little bit down the bottom where they say something along the lines of, "Seller hasn't enabled make an offer?  Try making one anyway."  I can remember started a thread about this probably two years ago, maybe a bit less, but after that I added 'no offers' to all my descriptions.

I think the crux of the subject here is that the OP is accusing a seller of being rude but they can't see that saying "thanks but no thanks" themselves is incredibly rude.  They think it's polite but they obviously can't put themselves in the other person's shoes.

[tazzieterror]

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@penskefile5 wrote:
Seriously, what is with rude sellers? I just asked a seller what their best price was and when I got the amount I politely said ‘thanks but no thanks’ (hey some might not even respond ) and next thing I know I have the CHIP of his/her shoulder hurled at me. Some rubbish about how I should go to Kmart... (um relevance?)

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You reply to the seller with a passive-aggressive message and wonder why they get stroppy?

My BBL says, 'thanks, but no thanks'.

[zanadoo_56]

I'm a buyer and I think 'thanks but no thanks' is a bit rude. It's very abrupt.

If I need to ask a question of an item, after a response from the seller I might reply with a simple thanks for replying (even if the info tells me the item is not suitable) or in a few rare cases I might not reply at all (but as I say I'd prefer to thank the seller for their trouble).

[countessalmirena]

@penskefile5,

Unless an item has "Best offer" enabled, why do you anticipate that the listed price is not a seller's best price? (That is, the lowest price at which they can actually make just a reasonable profit.)

I realise that you perceived your reply as being polite.  You compare your reply to a situation where a buyer doesn't respond to the seller's response, and it's in that context that you believe that "thanks but no thanks" is a laudable response.

As you've no doubt realised from most of the replies on this thread, "thanks but no thanks" is not necessarily perceived by others as being polite. If what you want to convey is that you appreciate the seller taking the time to respond to you and giving you an amount (which I think you imply was lower than the seller's listed price?), but that as much as you do appreciate it, it's just not an amount that you can or want to spend, then "thanks but no thanks" doesn't convey that. It conveys more something like "That offer wasn't even worth my time". Bear in mind that the seller has spent time in working out whether he/she can afford to reduce the price, done some calculations, and then responded to you with that price. You, in response, have caused the seller to do that extra work (for a lower total amount than the listed price, had you actually purchased), for nothing. No sale. Seller has exerted himself to no purpose.

It only takes a few such instances for sellers to work out that it's just not worth responding to buyers wanting a cheaper deal.

What you could have done is tell the seller what YOUR offer was (assuming that the seller was open to offers). Why did you make the seller do all of the work? Unless you were prepared to buy at close to the listed price, my view (as a buyer only - I'm not an eBay seller) is that it's unfair to put the seller to the effort of working out just what sort of deal they can offer you while leaving at least some sort of profit margin. if you weren't prepared to pay close to the seller's listing price, in my view it is unfair to ask for the seller's "best price" which in reality means that the seller would reduce their incomings for the sake of your outgoings.

A better reply from a buyer in such a circumstance might have been, "Thanks - I appreciate your taking the time to respond. I would love to accept your offer, but unfortunately my circumstances are more straitened than I'd realised, and even with your kind discount, I have worked out that I just cannot afford to buy this at this present time. If my circumstances change, I'd like to get in touch again with a view to buying this item if it's still available, although I realise that I can't expect you to hold open this offer. I'm so sorry about putting you to this trouble. Thank you and best regards, [name]".

[the_dutchess_of_dork]

I agree with the others ... "thanks but no thanks" is not a polite response.  In fact, it appears "thanks but no thanks" and not the initial question about best price was what elicited the "CHIP" hurled at you.

Um, speaking of relevance, I fail to see the relevance of your feedback.  Why should it be acknowledged?  You also assume they were taking out their bad experiences with other buyers on you rather than consider you may have repesented a bad experience for them.

As a seller I get tired of the unsolicited [usually insulting] offers, the opinions about what represents a fair price, the requests to alter postage method or price, the questions which are clearly answered in the listing, etc etc etc.  These days 90% of my messages relate to something along those lines.

In my experience the "best price" is generally the BIN price or the opening auction price.  Why would you assume otherwise unless the seller invited offers?  However, presumably the seller did offer a discounted price.  You then send an abrupt, if not downright rude, response and accuse them of rudeness?

You also state you are polite until pushed which sounds like faint praise to me.  Just saying ...

[springyzone]

I think the moral of the story is that sellers are human and that both buyers and sellers can get stroppy.

Your reply probably came across to the seller as a rude rejection, after they had gone to the trouble of trying to meet you with a better price.

And yes, they would have been better to just let it slide instead of telling you to get lost (which is what they were saying, if you were wondering about the relevance). But it made them feel better to let you know they don't want you as a customer.

You're less likely to strike this if you just pay the buy it now price or if you don't respond at all to counter offers that you don't wish to accept. And make sure you offer about 80% upwards for the best chance of having an offer accepted. offers of around 50% can upset sellers.

[tazzieterror]

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@springyzone wrote:

...

You're less likely to strike this if you just pay the buy it now price or if you don't respond at all to counter offers that you don't wish to accept. And make sure you offer about 80% upwards for the best chance of having an offer accepted. offers of around 50% can upset sellers.

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There's no hard and fast rule for this.  Seller's (particularly private ones) can have pricing that's all over the place. I frequently come across used electronic items with an asking price well in excess of double what I'd call "market value", and sometimes higher than what the item can be bought for brand new.  Seller simply hasn't done any research prior to setting a price.

If you're a buyer, offer what you're prepared to pay. But if you make a ridiculous offer, don't be suprised if you're ignored, or even blocked.

If you're a seller, ignore ridiculous offers, and consider blocking the member if you'd rather not deal with nonsense.  But if you're receiving multiple "ridiculous" offers, perhaps check it's not your asking price that's ridiculous.

[performance_parts_clearance_centre]

"Buyer entitlement" (aka: "I'm on the computer 24/7, why aren't YOU??") is far worse than lack-lustre seller behaviour - the genuine expectation that a seller is sitting in front of the computer just waiting for that 3am message rather than, y'know, having a life...

I had a guy buy three items on Saturday night. He messaged asking for combined postage. Messaged again yesterday (which was a public holiday here in Victoria). And a third message sent at 3am this morning - this one's borderline abusive, enraged at the perceived lack of response, and promising negative feedback if I didn't respond.

We don't work weekends. We don't work public holidays. We don't respond at 3am. All of which I informed him when I responded a few minutes ago, detailing our working hours, juxtaposed with the dates / times of his purchases and messages, and left it to him to decide whether we proceed with the orders. And added him to the BBL.

Life's too short...

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Don't agree - try breaking the response into two parts as was possibly intended.

"Thanks" - acknowledging the sellers response     and

"No Thanks" - I will pass on the price

Perfectly reasonable response.  Maybe some people try reading too much into things?

[repentatleisure1952]

According to the OP they did not reply in two parts.

They replied " thanks but no thanks"

Maybe you are reading too much into things.