How not to write an ad

[springyzone]

Just musing here, I have no complaint or anything.

I recently (well, yesterday) bought an item off a big volume seller with quite a classy, professional looking ad.

Excellent, clear photos Tick

Dimensions clearly listed Tick

Quick communication Tick

But I noticed a couple of things about the ad & wondered what your thoughts are on these?

Firstly, the ads were quite long. They were divided into sections eg product details/payment/shipping etc (big tick) but each section was quite wordy.

I would have said that usually I read ads carefully but I overlooked one bit in the shipping info where it said to provide a contact phone number or else shipping would be delayed. It is all good as I have done it now but I would have thought if a buyer paid and didn't provide some necessary detail, a seller should probably message to ask.

And it's probably not a great idea to put a condition like that in the middle of shipping details with about 4 or 5 other paragraphs, it can get lost. Sometimes brief is better (says I-but then, this is a message board, not an ad)

Secondly, I seriously wonder about the wisdom of putting unenforceable terms & conditions into an ad. From my perspective as a buyer, it comes across as confrontational to some extent and puts my back up a bit. Plus I tend to think-rubbish, you would have no way to enforce that.

eg  Serious buyer only, DO NOT bid if you don't intend to buy, non purchases after a winning bid will require 20% for management and eBay re-listing fees.

There was a lot more, paragraphs more, but you get the picture.

To me, it would make more sense to shorten ads  & concentrate on more relevant details.

But,, the seller has thousands of sales behind him, so maybe I am wrong.

[springyzone]

At least my address is the same on both so I should be right, and touch wood, I haven't had things go astray in the post. A bit late at times yes, but never had anything go missing.

To my mind, if any seller can reach over 4500 without a single neg feedback, it's a minor miracle!!

I noticed they had one neutral that said "Thanks"-which to me, sounds as if it should have been a positive.

But their terms & conditions are a bit waffly & actually gave me a laugh.

Transit times may vary because of traffic conditions? Hardly worth putting in an ad.

And there's a long rigmarole about how if any part is faulty it is covered by a 60 day warranty but the customer is responsible for all return postage costs & they have to be in the original box etc

To be fair, the seller seems right on the ball-good communication, tracking details posted etc & I am confident all will be well.

They are probably really reliable sellers, I'm not trying to be critical of them, just some aspects of their ad.

 I am just not sure all their terms & conditions are enforceable, especially if anyone ever did have a legit problem & went to ebay about it.

[curraone]

I suppose it's worse when sellers give no description at all - it is like a lucky dip -  "old book" for example - you have the photo and nothing else.   Sometimes I must confess I have bought on just that -   tho then I am not sure what to do about feedback -   as described?  when there is no description!

And yes, I did find the seller using your quote.    Hope that's ok.

[springyzone]

Not a problem.

I only asked as I was curious but I worked it out later on.

You're right, no description is worse than too much and it is probably better than confusing descriptions.

I know I got caught out last week. It was totally my own fault, but I was reading a whole series of ads, looking for a carpet runner for my daughter, and saw one that looked perfect for the job but was in a suburb a bit of a drive away. Then had another look at ads, came back to the good one and thought-why on earth didn't I bid? It's got a postage option that is very reasonable.

So I bid.

Then later when i went back and re-read the ad, I realised the owner really wanted pick up only, so I cancelled my bid, apologised to the seller & explained that they might be better off editing their ad to show pick up only (which they then did).

As I say, my fault, but it's easy to make mistakes if there are conflicting things in an ad.

[imastawka]

To my mind, if any seller can reach over 4500 without a single neg feedback, it's a minor miracle!!

A sellers negs disappear in 12 months if they don't get any more, so it's not like

their whole time on ebay was without any - maybe it was.  You can't tell

[springyzone]

Must admit, I never thought of that!

I am not too worried though, they seem to be a pretty reliable seller from what I can make out.

A neg here or there doesn't usually turn me off a seller, depends what it's for though I guess.

[*tippy*toes*]

They've had 7 negs and 18 neutrals. Most sound like they are from buyers who didn't read the description, or failed to contact the seller if something went wrong, like being broken in transit. It wouldn't stop me buying from them.

[springyzone]

Wow, I am impressed with your detective skills, tippy.

I don't know how you discovered all that without going through all the pages!

As it is a pair of lamps I have bought and I think they sell a lot of lamps, I suppose there is always the possibility of damage in transit. These things sometimes happen despite the best of packing. If I had a problem though I would always just contact a seller first, they can't do anything to help if they don't know.

I did have a look at some past FB. Noticed one neutral I think it was about how the lamps were smaller than they expected. Really, the poor seller puts the exact measurements in all the ads as far as I can make out. I do think some customers would be better off if they whipped out a tape measure at times and held it up against something else to get a perspective, rather than relying on memory.

[ozstockman]

---

@springyzone wrote:

eg  Serious buyer only, DO NOT bid if you don't intend to buy, non purchases after a winning bid will require 20% for management and eBay re-listing fees.

---

If I could I would make it ebay policy. You would not be probably surprised but some buyers do quite  silly things. Most of them are done by new buyers with low feedback score

1)One buyer  a few days ago asked me to cancel her sale because she did not want  to buy it at all as she was just playing with how ebay works. I guess part of her play was to click buy it now and confirm.  I explained to her that it is not a playground and asked her not to do anything like this again to any seller.

I agreed to cancel and asked her to confirm to ebay to help me to get fees credited back. She did not even care to do it and I had to wait for a few days for fees refunded  without her confirmation 

2)Just today, an US buyer bought an item from me, actually two of the same costing $18 plus shipping. I post worldwide but for the item she bought there was no postage cost set. I sent her invoice with $25 for shipping(registered letter with my handling fee included). She emailed me back asking to cancel because I " not inside of United States". Seriously, that the only way to check where the item is.  I have cancelled it  and expected for her to confirm it to ebay. She has not  done it  and I do not think it is time difference issue.

3)A few month ago a buyer from Puerto Ricko purchased from me an item where postage to her country was no set too. I updated their invoice and set the default postage to registered post with tracking. It was done  because I do not want to post overseas without any confirmation for delivery. I also gave them  a second shipping option which was just $12.50 for regular post and explained that this one is on their  risk if they decide to go with it.  

That buyer went  nuts after it and gave me a neg feedback that I was changing item price(wth?) after they purchased the item. EBay refused to remove this feedback even that they clearly see that I was not rude and gave her two options for postage.

[davewil1964]

1) Open NPB

2) Open NPB

3) Open NPB

It's not hard.

If your items are made of wood, I would seriously reconsider offering international postage. Australia doesn't, generally, allow importation; I suspect other countries might have similar quarantine laws.

[*tippy*toes*]

I agree with Dave. No way would I have cancelled. Why let them get away with it? I only cancel in very special circumstances. Anything else, NPB. That way if they do try to trash my feedback, eBay removes it.