THE FUNNIEST AND SILLYIST BUYERS YOU HAVE HAD ON EBAY

[joethenuts]

THIS IS JUST A FEW

I sell paint and for the odd colors i take off the lid to take a photo of the paint and had a message does this can of paint come with a lid.

or get a message saying what color should i paint my house.mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

or how much paint do i need to paint my fence  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

or a friend of mine sold a computer the buyer a couple of days later sent a message stating that the computer does not turn on ,so he rang the buyer and said maybe 1 of the plugs have come loose   ,could you check all the leeds in case you unpluged them with your foot ,so she said hang on i will check all the leeds,about 15 minutes went by and my friend said what took you so long and she said she had to find a torch ,my friend said why would you need a torch  and she said i needed a torch to see under my computer table if the plug was in the wall socket as we have a power failur for the last 2 hours at the moment   my friend just hung up

[amber-eyed-girl]

I am uncomfortable when I see threads like these, as nobody likes to be thought of as being ridiculed. If buyers think eBay sellers might mock them, in public, they might well think twice about buying here.

I understand sellers who contribute stories may well be courteous and patient to the buyer directly, but it undoes all of that when these stories are made available for a giggle. eBay needs more buyers, not less.

[ytwo000]

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@amber-eyed-girl wrote:
I am uncomfortable when I see threads like these, as nobody likes to be thought of as being ridiculed. If buyers think eBay sellers might mock them, in public, they might well think twice about buying here.

I understand sellers who contribute stories may well be courteous and patient to the buyer directly, but it undoes all of that when these stories are made available for a giggle. eBay needs more buyers, not less.

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So whats wrong with a giggle every now and then ? Toughen up !

[amber-eyed-girl]

I don't need to earn a living here. Some do. Think about it.

[joethenuts]

its not all doom and gloom   we are all sellers and buyers   i am a seller and buyer all in one like most of us 

i stick up for sellers  i stick up for buyers  and i also stick up for ebay,but its our opinion.

I think we all agree that we think te wobble man is 100% wrong     but i think the indian shoe man could be right as theres 2 sides of most stories     keep smiling

[chezzy]

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@joethenuts wrote:

or how much paint do i need to paint my fence  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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If I walked into a shop, asked the question and the staff fell over themselves laughing at me, you can bet I would walk out and I'd not be buying any paint from them. Because I have no clue how much is needed to paint a fence - 1 can, 2 cans, 5 cans??

Given all the things that can and do go wrong on ebay, I'd like to think there would be less chance of things going wrong if questions

are asked and things get clarifed (and sellers put more info in their listings if necessary)

[joethenuts]

excuse me mr cheese but for that message i answered back straight away as usual with what size is your fence and my reply was i am not quiet sure,  and if you mr cheese dont know how many cans you need to paqint your fence ,would you not ask i have a fence about 30 metres long by about 1.8 meters high aprox how many litres would i need ..mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[joethenuts]

also mr cheese there is only so much you can put in your listings   and saying that this can op paint comes with a lid is not one of them.

or if you have no power in your home dont expect your pc  to work, should all computer sales persons mention that.

then you got this bloke on another posts complaining he got his parcel hadnt come   ,  it came  5 days before the estimate date.

let me tell you something but for 6 days a week i answere messages within 5 minutes mostly in fact and everybody is happy ,now when i want to contact a seller and they dont get back to me in a day or 2 thats fine everybody is different , it would be up to me f i purchase from them or not  , and if you dont think i am an honest person just 5 minutes ago i just paypaled a custermer back $20 as when she picked up she paid twice the amount ...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[chezzy]

Hi. Firstly, it is chezzy not Mr Cheese (different spelling).

I guess sellers have different approaches. If I got asked a question I would immediately think that I

have forgotten to include something in the description - or it might prompt me to add more info.

In the case of the "lid", you might not think it a big deal, maybe you can't be bothered including

something.

But you could even include something simple like

"lid only removed to take picture"

only 6 extra words but says a lot

1) It lets people know it comes with a lid and

2) lets people know the paint is not exposed to air/bugs/impurities/what-not for long periods of time

[amber-eyed-girl]

With the how much paint do I need type questions...are you able to put a paint calculator in your listings? With a simple instruction as to how to use it. Or if a calculator or the link to one isn't allowed in a listing, a line like "you will need to measure xyz to determine how much paint you need per coat, paint calculators available on the net". Then have a link to one you have tried that works, handy for any questions. (You might already :), just thinkin' )

I used one off the net when I did some painting. That should cut down on the questions.

[digital*ghost]

Could be a good opportunity to write a helpful buying guide, too. I wouldn't be surprised if "how much paint do I need..." gets typed into a google search regularly. 😉

I suspect the "how much paint" type questions would sometimes be a buyer's way of approaching a seller for assistance rather than a full expectation that the seller will respond with a definitive answer.

Some simple rephrasing that asks the same question, and doesn't provide any 'fence size' info, might help highlight that, eg:

Can you help me work out how much paint I will need to buy to paint my fence?

Once the seller responds with the kind of information that they need to help them, the conversation is started, and the buyer gets tailored assistance.