Is this ripping customer off? Advice needed?

[colourmyevent2012]

Hi, everyone. I need some advises on this situation. 

One of my item (hairband) was recently sold on eBay auction. I originally bought this hairband for $14.95. I put it as auction starting price as $15.90. It had one bid, sold as $15.90. I sent it in an prepaid Australia Post Parcel and Tracking.

Yesterday, I received a negative feedback from this buyer who said 'Says on the tag that the item was reduced to $14.95. Outright ripping people off'

I immediately contacted her and explained to her I didn't rip her off. I hardly broke even on this sale after taking off the eBay fee and postage. I also said I do want her to have a positive shopping experience at my store and offered her to do partial refund if she could remove the negative feedback as it is important to have 100% positive rating for seller.

She responded back as 'Maybe you should say on your listing that it was on sale along with the RRP.'

She didn't mention anything about accepting the offer and removing the negative feedback.

I'm not sure what to do from now on.

I'd like to have some advises and opinions on this situation. As a seller, should I declare how much I paid for an item on the listing when I sell the item? How can I improve the listing content and service to avoid the similar situation in the future?

Also, what I should do with this buyer? Should I just move on or persuading her to considering removing the feedback?

Thank you in advance for all your help:)

[colourmyevent2012]

Hi, Thank you so much for all your helpful advice. I really appreciate it.

The buyer sent me another email later today asked me to send her the feedback revision request form.

I hope everything will turn out fine 🙂

[thesoulyearns]

This might be a tough one. I was ready to say "no, it's not ripping them off" until I went and saw the listing.

In the title, you stated that the RRP was $49.95, so by buying it at $15.90 they're saving quite a lot. In some cases, though (and business-techies correct me if I'm wrong), the RRP may also mean the discounted price. For example, if an item in March 2012 cost $40 to buy but wasn't doing so well, it may get reduced down to $19.95 in September 2012. So, if that reduction is across the board and not just a special promotion, $19.95 becomes the current RRP. The question is whether the $14.95 that you bought it for was a special promotion (e.g. not the RRP) or was actually the revised and current RRP.

Maybe you could Google the specific item and see whether the $14.95 was just a special promotion or is actually the current RRP. An idea for the future may be to give an exact date of when it cost "$x.x" as the RRP, with a link or something. Or, as has been said, don't keep the original price tags on.

[i-once-was-bump]

Did you buy all that Mimco at a Mimco sale?

You must have over 100 pieces of Mimco.

The last time I was at one of their sales I couldn't get hold of 5 pieces let alone 100.

You must have razor sharp elbows!:^O

[digital*ghost]

In the title, you stated that the RRP was $49.95, so by buying it at $15.90 they're saving quite a lot. In some cases, though (and business-techies correct me if I'm wrong), the RRP may also mean the discounted price. For example, if an item in March 2012 cost $40 to buy but wasn't doing so well, it may get reduced down to $19.95 in September 2012. So, if that reduction is across the board and not just a special promotion, $19.95 becomes the current RRP. The question is whether the $14.95 that you bought it for was a special promotion (e.g. not the RRP) or was actually the revised and current RRP.

I solve all that with one word: Original. 😉

i.e. Original RRP $49.95

I've had people pay over the original RRP both for new items and even secondhand (at auction, where the prices were started lower), but as has been suggested, I remove markdowns if I can (they're generally not what I've paid for an item, anyway). 

Sounds like the buyer's going to revise the feedback, though, so hopefully it'll be resolved soon. 

[patchoo78]

I wonder if the buyer would accuse Target of ripping them off if they saw the ridiculous mark ups that they put on their stock

[janeababe]

Yeah look, im really sorry, but i agree with your buyer on this one. Not really *ripping* people off, but not being an honest seller either.
You sold it for a minor mark up, yes, but if i had got an item with a lesser priced tag on it then what i had paid, I wouldnt be happy either.

I thought the feedback left, was in relation to the purchase, so you are very lucky if she revises it. I probably wouldnt have revised it though.
Them's the breaks!   ;\

[***super_nova***]

There is a wholesale price, then there is the R.R.P. (recomended retail price = the full price that is recommended to the stockists to sell this item for) and then there are various discounted prices, when the shops want to attract shoppers or need to get rid off the item/last year stock.  This discounted price may be far bellow the wholesale price, or even the cost of manufacture.

[peternt2001]

I agree that a buyer , buys something on here for what they are prepared to pay. The problem i see here is not that the seller left the reduction tag on the product ( however if they had removed that i dont think there would be this problem at the moment )

The problem i see in this case is that the seller advertised a RRP and then the buyer found out that the seller actually got the item from a shop at an even lower price. 

To me this is the same that the B&M jeweller shops have been guilty of and prosecuted for. Places like Shiels have sales where they advertise a ring RRP $2000 on sale for $199. People do tend to buy an item if they think they are getting a bargain. If Shiels put down RRP $210 sale price $199 their sales would be no where near what they are because people think they are getting a huge bargain.

The very mention that the items RRP was $49.95 would have been enough to make someone interested in the item paying $15 or $20 or $30 because of the perceived savings. But finding out the retail price the OP paid was nowhere near the RRP is enough to make people upset.

Either show a RRP and dont let the buyer find out the retail price you paid ( remove all tags before sending )

Or dont show a RRP 

[patchoo78]

So in conclusion, I guess the one thing we can all agree on is that the OP should have removed all price stickers..

No one got ripped off, the buyer only paid about $1.00 more than what the seller paid. If the buyer had paid $34.95 then found out that the seller had only paid $15.90 that would have been ripping the buyer off.

The mistake that the seller made was quoting the original RRP and leaving the sticker on with the discounted price..

As someone else pointed out, after the PayPal fees etc the seller actually lost money

[***super_nova***]

The point is what is the item worth to the buyer, NOT what the seller paid for the item.  

Most of the time it is not necessary to remove all the tags, just the one with price, or cut/scratch the price off.