@michael_cullis wrote:
If you look at listings on eBay you will see that just about everybody ships CDs as large letters rather than parcels. Shipping a CD as a parcel costs three times as much as shipping it as a parcel and potential buyers might be reluctant to pay $11.50 shipping for a $16 CD.
In response to your comment about the returned CD, I don't believe I took a risk. The post office ruled that the CD was a letter, not a parcel, crossed out the Return to Sender stamp and posted it for me. It was not my fault, it was the fault of the postal officials.
As for the second case, the buyer agreed to wait a week in the hope that the CD would turn up. Whilst it might not be obvious to you, common sense would suggest that the buyer would contact me if the CD had not arrived.
To suggest that I am delivering below standard service is patently absurd when you consider that the vast majority of my sales proceed smoothly. Cases where I have not been able to locate an item are extremely rare considering the volume of my sales. My feedback is overwhelmingly positive, with only one neutral rating.
I know you feel hurt because you feel that overall, you have been a good seller with only a few problem cases.
But it is how you address the problems that counts. And that is where you have fallen below standard. But they are minor glitches. You need to own it, learn from it though.
In the second case, where a buyer contacted you to say an item had not turned up, sorry, that was on you to follow up if you asked a buyer to keep waiting. You just don't fob a person off with oh please wait for a week and then never contact them again. At the very least, you could have added in your message that could they please contact you in eg 5 days if it had not turned up by then and you will give a full refund.
Your problem is you didn't spell out any reassuring aspect to this buyer. When stuff goes wrong, that is what you need to do if you are asking for a concession. Or else make a full refund on the spot.
There's no harm in sending CD's via untracked letter but if you do that, you have to be prepared to pay up quickly when there is the occasional problem.
And I disagree that you did not take a risk with the first case.
You had already had that letter returned as insufficient postage. You're the one who took it back to the local PO and argued your case that it qualified as a letter. There was always the possibility that once it got to some sorting centre that it would be sent back again. You needed to look at the expected date of delivery and factor that in. Did you warn that buyer (when you eventually sent it via parcel) that it may be a bit late & explain what happened?
Comminication is everything for buyers on ebay, it really is. They need reassurance and information when there is some problem or delay.
