Scared of "MESSAGES"

[tstore]

Anyone else get scared or paranoid when they receive a new message from an existing buyer? I know for us it is scary and stressful for that few seconds before opening the message!!! I suffer from anxiety and open the message slowly and get stressed out easily when there is an issue with an item sold. We respond to messages within 30 minutes of receiving them. 

 We have had no claims so far but a few items not received (1 parcel reached it's location 25 days after being sent from Melbourne to NSW!). Never had an item go to PayPal dispute which is awesome as we fix issues quickly. 

[fixnwear]

I hate all those subtitles that Ebay has for reasons of contacting sellers!

On rare occasions that I had to contact seller I chose  contact seller, no reason - poor sellers get in the spin otherwise - before they've even read the message!

Remember once, ages ago I had to chase up the order and was horrified when I saw "where is my item" heading. How rude!

Can't imagine ever asking anyone for anything in that manner.

[tstore]

Fixnwear has nailed it on the head. It is the titles that stress me out the worst! 'item not received' 'item not as deacribed' - these stress me out to the MAX!

[digital*ghost]

Thankfully, they have now changed 'Where is my item', to 'I haven't received my item yet', but even still, quite often I choose 'Other' so that I can write my own message heading.

I certainly don't relish receiving messages about problems with delivery or an item, but in order to be able to respond as professionally (and as fast) as possible, I dismiss anything that isn't relevant to the situation - and by that I mean any references to feedback, or other things that, if I gave them my attention, I might be offended by but don't change the core issue, and respond basically the way I would like a seller to respond to me if I had contacted them with the same issue. 

Every situation is different, but if you can look past the little things and just concentrate on the reason they contacted you rather than how the message was conveyed, it gets easier to handle the situation gracefully. 😉

[buy-savvy]

Tstore I agree with all of the excellent advice you have received on this topic. ( I am a TRS on another id ) but I also completely understand your issue and find myself going into a mild panic whenever I hear the ebay message sound on my ebay app or worse still receive the ebay message by email.

I have to read the message immediately and always think the worst in the few (seemingly very long) seconds it takes for the message to open. I also hear myself muttering " oh what now" to no one in particular.

I wish I could learn to be more relaxed about it all - but I haven't found a way yet !

[austeam]

So if you were in a retail store would you stress every time the phone rings or an email is sent ?:|

Working in a service centre I get a lot of calls from from people suffering caffiene withdrawal because their coffee machine has broken down.  Even worse when it is a large office and all the staff are harrassing the receptionist to get the machine fixed immediately. 

No matter how cranky or disappointed the buyer sounds in their message all they want to know is that you will fix it, so no need to stress 🙂