@sharonspdc wrote:
I have over the past year been getting more & more requests from buyers wanting to come to the house to pick up or look! I offer to meet them instead somewhere close but don't offer to let them come to the house and then I never hear from them again! Are they scammers or what? How do other sellers handle these requests?
I don't think they are scammers but I suspect they are people who are uncertain about committing in the first place. They are just not sure yet if they really want to buy but are thinking about it. Pick up is one way in their mind to bring the total cost down a bit.
I had a quick look at one or two of your ads and a scroll down the listings and while your items are a variety of prices and no doubt worth what you are asking as they look to be lovely stones, I imagine some customers are humming and haaaing about whether they should spend the $60 or $100 (or whatever it happens to be) on themselves. So they are keen on the jewellery and tempted but just unsure about spending, for one reason or another.
Your photos are perfectly clear and you have a range of different photos for each item, your descriptions are detailed and include measurements. Therefore I don't believe you need to meet anyone in order for them to see the pieces in real life. I am not sure you are allowed to do that anyway (give address details out) until someone has bought. You could get into trouble with ebay.
Those who buy and ask about pick up must be locals. I can see you don't offer pick up but my guess is if they are local, they are asking because they think it could be an easy way to save $10-$12.50 on postage. That's one of the reasons people pick up items. They figure that if they pick up at your house then they have saved you the trouble of posting etc so that charge won't be payable. If you met them somewhere, maybe they wonder if that still applies as you have travelling costs.
In your place, I would gently reply to those who want to examine before buying, with a note that it is not possible, you don't offer that service.
You could then do as you have been doing and offer pick up elsewhere but what may cause some buyers not to go ahead is it adds a couple of extra layers onto normal pick up. Going to a home is easier, it is a definite address, knock on the door, hand over money, minimal contact with seller needed. Maybe going to a shopping centre is more challenging in their mind, they have to identify the right person etc, plus of course, they have to commit to a pretty exact time range.
That won't worry everyone, it wouldn't worry me.
But my experience with pick up sales (on facebook etc) is some customers will ask if they can pick up on such and such a date but they expect to have an open time eg all morning, all afternoon and or all evening.
So I suspect that with pick ups, you are probably usually going to get a higher rate of people choosing that if the pick up is from a home or shop.
You don't have to worry about any of that really though. Pick what suits you. Just either reply that pick up can be arranged at eg such and such a shopping centre or else reply that pick up is not available. You don't have to give a reason.
