Is my message to buyers annoying ????

[bigoskar2]

Hi

Thanks for your payment.

I posted your order today so 'hopefully' you should receive by Wed. 16/9

If there is a problem, would you please message me.

Kind Regards

Susan

I have sent this message a zillion times (other id). Today I received a message (rant) from a buyer requesting that I stop sending annoying messages.

A.  She does not want to be thanked for her payment.

B.  She does not want an eta as Ebay gives an estimated delivery time

C.  If I want to let customers know that I should be contacted to resolve issues prior to leaving negative feedback I should write it on       listing.  

"If you are trying to ensure that customers give you higher ratings by bombarding them with unnecessary eBay messages you are wrong. I will leave negative feedback if you send me pointless messages" Her words. 

She has already left + feedback and won't have the opportunity to purchase again.

vent over

[cathyjoyjoy]

Some sellers who don't do a lot of buying may not be aware of the number of emails OR the content of emails that are generated by eBay and PayPal, to the buyer for every step of the transaction.  I still cannot identify the email to buyer trail myself.

[chameleon54]

I,m another one who would prefer not to recieve such messages. I dont get upset about it and just delete them, but they are a bit of a waste of everyones time. The only exception is new members and very low feedback buyers who often appreciate that extra bit of hand holding. For these buyers it probably doesnt hurt to send a brief message.

[heiner2929]

Would not annoy me in the least bigoskar2.....you will see from some responses that there are a few who treasure an 'empty' in-box.

Haha...as if they have soooooooo many 'annoying' in-box messages.

I would be very happy to receive a message advising me that you had posted an item ....on this day......with this tracking number...

Leave out the 'hopeful' Auspost /ebay delivery date estimate...but please re-assure me that I can contact you with any issues.

Power on....

[fixnwear]

Hi bigoscar2,

what a terrible, uncivillised buyer you had a misfortune to cross paths with!

I wander what she does with all Ebay's messages -  you should have suggested she copies and [pastes the reply she's sent to you and forward it to PP & Ebay!

I'm exactly the oposite - I would much sooner hear from the seller than from either of the other two.

So much more pleasant and more personal, especially here - where no one talks to each other - and seemingly no one is interested in communicating, as seen by the few replies to comfirm that fact that you have received.

I would (and do) remember a great service with a personal touch for much longer than the item I bought from that seller, any seller.

And I would come back.

Ebay's messages are meaningless, automated, without caring, but personal ones that someone put in their time to send me are much more appreciated.

[bigoskar2]

Thankyou Heiner & Fixnwear,

I have read all replies and have decided that I still need to send a message to buyers as a courtesy but  will delete the ETA.

I'm happy now  

[dylan11235813]

I don't even send a buyer an invoice.

I really hate unnecessary emails. When an item is marked as posted an email is automatically sent by ebay, not sure if that can be disabled as well (I think It can) as the others.

If you are sending personalized emails maybe disable the other auto ones.

[black*poppy]

I personally hate the personalized messages from sellers and have never written one myself.

So when I purchase an item this is what happens:

1. I get a Congrats you won email / Enjoy your.... email

2. If I don't pay immediately I get an Invoice

3. On payment I get a Thank you for your payment

4. Paypal receipt  stating you made a payment to..

5. A -Your seller has marked your item as Sent email (if they bother to mark it as sent obviously)

So that's 5 on average in just my personal email, 3 minimum.

The problem with the "personalised" emails from sellers (noting that they are all the same, and if everyone is doing it, that doesn't make your service special then, does it?) - is that they come up in my ebay inbox as well as my personal one.  So when I'm in ebay the icon is lit up, I have to check it out in case it is something important (which this isn't), and I have to spend the time to actually open it up and wait for it to load, or ebay will not mark it as Read, which I need to do in case an more important email comes in so I know there's a new one. I would really prefer is sellers didn't bother.  Really.  Thank you. 

[digital*ghost]

This kind of situation is where it would be really handy for eBay to introduce a site / account setting where you can tick a box to indicate you'd prefer not to receive private communications from sellers (it wouldn't prevent it, because sometimes it'd be necessary, but the seller would see the note of this preference when they go to send someone a direct PM, much like they get a warning that the buyer can't receive messages with HTML due to the buyer's account settings.

I did it (sent messages) for a variety of reasons, and got a lot of appreciative replies,many of which noted how nice it was to get something other than an automated email, so IMO (and based on my own experience) it's probably an even split 3 ways - those that like it, those that don't care, and those that don't like it at all, which means the seller has to decide whether it's worth catering to the third that will genuinely appreciate it.

The reasons I did it were:

Instant, real acknowledgement of order - with so many things on eBay being automated (purchase confirmation, feedback etc), there could often be just a few minutes in between purchase and my confirmed attention to an order. I felt (and still do) that this created a better impression, especially if the purchase was on a Friday night and I couldn't post 'til Monday, because then there would be 2-3 days before a buyer could know for certain I was paying attention to them. 

Foot in the door, for lack of a better way of putting it. For 99% of problems that did arise, buyers would respond to my message. With the introduction of the request system, I'm still quite sure that could help reduce the chance the buyer will go straight to open one rather than communicate directly.  (I phrased the invitation differently, though, and would simply say to please let me know if I can be of any further assistance, before or after the package arrives)

That phrase, BTW, very often resulted in an "Actually....", ultimately leading to further sales, custom orders, etc, which was nice. 🙂

Poppy, if you tick a message, you can select "mark as read" from the inbox. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for the message number display to update, but it's easier than opening several messages individually. (I tend to read the email copies of messages I get sent, so when I go to My eBay, I only open messages I want to respond to). 

[chameleon54]

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@heiner2929 wrote:

Would not annoy me in the least bigoskar2.....you will see from some responses that there are a few who treasure an 'empty' in-box.

Haha...as if they have soooooooo many 'annoying' in-box messages.

I would be very happy to receive a message advising me that you had posted an item ....on this day......with this tracking number...

Leave out the 'hopeful' Auspost /ebay delivery date estimate...but please re-assure me that I can contact you with any issues.

Power on....

---

heiner2929.....Maybe you have another ebay ID, but on this one you only have feedback from four or five sellers for the month, so the problem of  physically handling messages would not be an issue for you. For people who are not able to get out and about much for what ever reason,( health problems, age related issues etc. )  any contact with others is appreciated. .

As others have noted, ebay generate several messages for each transaction. Over three selling accounts I average around 2500 - 3000 sales per year. If ebay send three messages per transaction and customers send maybe 1 message per transaction, that means I can have perhaps 200 messages per week to attend to. Add monitering and responding to feedback , keeping track of payments etc and the task of actually handling all of this does become difficult and time consuming.

As a buyer I dont really need extra messages from sellers duplicating the information already covered by ebays messages. I just come to ebay to sell and occasionaly buy stuff. If I want a social life I will join a sports or bingo club or maybe Ashley Maddison ( hang on, maybe thats not such a good idea )   

 Everyones circumstances are different and as mentioned in last post, I can appreciate sellers messages about recieving payment and mailing of purchases are often appreciated by new ebay members.

[dylan11235813]

this is a test (literally)