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You are probably right but try this.
Think of the person as being a kind old genuine gentleman, very well dressed and has a beautiful smile on his face as he writes the message.
Now re-read the message.
I tried it .... ......didnt work...... All I see is a well dressed, smiling, old man who is lying through his teeth as he types......
If his wife really did work at the P.O. she would know how expensive postage is as she probably gets reminded 100 times per day as customers come in with parcels and say .... HOW MUCH ??????
Like I said, maybe I,ve got my grumpy pants on today. ( and everyday ).................. Its not my fault, I was a patient, kindly, trusting person until I started selling on ebay............
@kopenhagen5 wrote:You are probably right but try this.
Think of the person as being a kind old genuine gentleman, very well dressed and has a beautiful smile on his face as he writes the message.
Now re-read the message.
I re-read it.
He has soup on his tie & tells fibs.
chameleon54 wrote:I have a large 1.5 kg. antique book for sale. The book is reasonably worn with a few loose pages, but rare subject matter that is highly sought after by specialist collectors. The following is a message I recieved.
How many pages ?
Are they legible ?
My wife recently worked at our local Post Office for years and was wondering why the postage charge is so high ? If it was more reasonable I would seriously condsider buying this book. ( with taking into account your answers to my first two questions ).
regards .....
At 1.5 kg. the cheapest option for mailing this book is a 3 kg. satchel. I use express post and charge $14.60 at which cost I actually lose money when ebays commission on postage is taken into account. ...........If the potential buyers wife really did work in a post office she would know all of this, so I call bo!!ocks to that story.
Result, the buyer did not even get an answer to the question ( although I did feel like writing one, explaining that a bit of courtesy in questions gets a much better response ). Result .... the buyer went straight to my blocked buyer list on 3 accounts and will never purchase anything from me or even send me another message. Maybe I have just got my grumpy pants on, but I just dont want to deal with people like that. They are more trouble than they are worth.
I think you were quite restrained. Have to say, I hate the brief, abrupt way some people ask questions.
I've had people (on gumtree) send through messages that just say $20? when I have had an item on sale for $60.
I felt like writing back 'deposit?' but I just wrote no.
In your case, I don't think I could have resisted the temptation to write back and say thankyou for bringing it to your attention, his question had led you to further investigate the postage. Did he realise ebay charges commission not only on items but on postage costs & and that you had found that with the weight of the book and express postage, plus the commission costs, you were actually underquoting and would have been losing money on that quoted price so you had had to adjust it upwards.
I hate the way some customers have unrealistic expectations about postage. I can recall about 13 years back, my sister & I sold a snow suit. Now you know how bulky those things are? She was seriously annoyed with the postage costs and wrote to us to ask why we weren't sending it in a $4.30 satchel-which at that time was the price of a 500g satchel. Even if it had only weighed that little (which it didn't), how did she ever imagine it could fit in one of those bags? It was even too bulky for a 3kg satchel.
@chameleon54 wrote:I tried it .... ......didnt work...... All I see is a well dressed, smiling, old man who is lying through his teeth as he types......
If his wife really did work at the P.O. she would know how expensive postage is as she probably gets reminded 100 times per day as customers come in with parcels and say .... HOW MUCH ??????
Like I said, maybe I,ve got my grumpy pants on today. ( and everyday ).................. Its not my fault, I was a patient, kindly, trusting person until I started selling on ebay............
Kopenhagen might have a point and there could also sometimes be a legit reason to query postage.......as in seller has made a mistake.
I was rather grateful for the email below that I received last month along the same lines:
"Hi there. I just wondered why your postage is so high for this item? I understand you allow for wrapping and printing etc but I post things all the time and use the 3kg bag which is $13.80. So $15 is quite reasonable for a bit of wrap and paper with invoice. But $23 is a bit steep. If i was to win this auction would you consider dropping your postage fees to the fair price of $15? If not I understand. You never know unless you ask. Thanks for your time."
Luckily I had a second look at my listing and found I'd incorrectly entered the weight as over 1kg rather than 500-1000gm; I had wondered why there was no interest in it And it sold quick smart after I amended the listing.
