why do people have to be so rude

[rachelle011273]

I just received my first neg in 12 months, buyer purchased an item of which for the life of me I could not find in my stock and so naturally I contacted the buyer on several occasions offered her another colour at a reduced price and stil no contact so promptly refunded

that was several weeks ago and now I get a neg

my reply

very nasty over honest mistake, offered other colour no contact promptly refunded

would it have hurt for the buyer to have the decency to at least have contacted me

all this over 24.95 ... sorry but I have a better grip on reality 

[rachelle011273]

no I did not attempt that because I am an honest seller and despite what you think do not paint all sellers with the one brush, this is the first transaction I have cancelled and if you happened to read my feedback you would see that I do offer an exceptional customer service of which many buyers have attested to ... I made an error, I do not dispute this, I attempted to offer the buyer alternatives, the operative word here is offered, no contact whatsoever from the buyer except for the neg I have now received several weeks after the fact, I don't dispute the error, I am quite happy to wear the neg and I am pretty sure the sun will rise tomorrow

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

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@thecatspjs wrote:

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Yup, I agree with your sentiments.

Nonetheless, when i stuff up I do not lament how rude people even if they are most hideous and horrible cause I stuffed up and they are bigtime  PO - I move into damage control - as I am fairly sure you do too.

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Indeed I do, and for all I said above, more often than not the buyer will get something more or for free for my errors.

I've never been completely out of stock of anything yet, but I have come up short of a quantity ordered, and in those cases I refund a portion, send what I do have, along with a sample of similar items, then send the remaining quantity when new stock has arrived. 

If I were to give the OP any advice to consider for the future, it would be to make your decisions and communications require as little input from the buyer as possible (i.e. provide options, then state the action you will take if you can't confirm a preference by X date). That's not to suggest the options you offer shouldn't be flexible or negotiable, just that you take a situation when you had less control and turn it into one where you still have some.

eg in the above scenarios, I messaged the buyer, informed them about the situation, explained what I have done to compensate and that they will shortly receive a refund, allow for any substitutes to be returned at my expense if it turns out they're not wanted for any reason - easy enough for me, my items all go as large letters - provide an ETA for the remaining quantity, then let them know I'm happy to discuss an alternative option if they would prefer. 

This sort of follow up is what I got once from a Chinese seller, and I was so darn impressed that I adopted it myself, and it's kind of expensive, so my stock control is getting better. 

[rachelle011273]

thanking you kindly

[springyzone]

 just received my first neg in 12 months, buyer purchased an item of which for the life of me I could not find in my stock and so naturally I contacted the buyer on several occasions offered her another colour at a reduced price and stil no contact so promptly refunded

that was several weeks ago and now I get a neg

my reply

very nasty over honest mistake, offered other colour no contact promptly refunded

would it have hurt for the buyer to have the decency to at least have contacted me

all this over 24.95 ... sorry but I have a better grip on reality 

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Every buyer is an individual, so their reactions won't all the the same.

Just speaking as a buyer, if you contacted me and told me you couldn't find my item, then just offered me another one at a lower cost but in another colour, I would be unhappy. That is because it would come across that you expected me to be stuck with the purchase when the item might not be what I wanted and certainly wasn't what I ordered. I would feel very resentful.

If, on the other hand, you said to me- Very sorry but I can't find the item, what would you like me to do? I can refund the money immediately OR I can offer to send you another one in a different colour and will discount the price for you so you get a partial refund.

Well, I would still feel a bit disappointed perhaps but I would feel the seller was trying her best. That would be a whole different scenario to me and I certainly would not give you negative feedback. That would be because I would know I had choices. I would probably give you very positive feedback.

I got the feeling from your post though that you only offered a different colour at a reduced price in your initial correspondence, and when you had no response at all from the buyer, you then refunded the money.

There was no need for the buyer to get nasty & really, she should have replied to your messages, but not everyone comes onto ebay every day if they are not bidding and so she may not have seen them. I know messages are sent to an email addy too but if it isn't your main email address, it may go unnoticed. I know that is the case for me, at any rate-I only ever see my messages by coming into the ebay site.

[rachelle011273]

sorry if you have mistaken my comment but when I made contact with the buyer on several occasions it was not just to suggest another colour at a reduced price ... I gave the option of another colour at a reduced price or the option of an immediate refund, I did explain that I could not find the item and believe me I was not hounding or pushing for the sale at any cost, to me it was simply to offer an appeasement or an immediate refund, I just know that myself as a buyer also that I would not neg someone over a simple mistake and that I would at least have responded to any contact made ...

[cq_tech]

Several years ago now I purchased a specific model hard drive which was listed by a Sydney seller and it eventuated that they were out of stock of that particular drive so without any consultation they sent me an equivalent. Because I wanted a pair of identical matched drives in my PC I returned the incorrectly supplied drive (at their expense) and requested a refund.

Two weeks went by and still no refund, so I emailed them and asked why there was a delay. Receiving no response, I lodged a dispute with Paypal which was ultimately decided in my favour, and I eventually received my refund some 3 weeks after the aborted sale.

Had the seller simply apologised and refunded my money immediately, I'd have left positive feedback because these things sometimes happen, but because he took it upon himself to send me the wrong drive then ignored my continued requests for a refund until I had to go through Paypal to get my money back, he copped a big fat red dot and a scathing comment instead.

Interestingly, it was the first time I ever had to leave negative feedback for a seller, and it still exists in my 'feedback for others' as a stark reminder to anybody else who decides to ignore my wishes and do whatever they feel like instead.

[i-love-my-sheep]

My husband bought something for his car a few months ago and paid straight away. The next morning the seller sent a very prolite message saying the item wasn't in stock, probably had been sold over the counter of the B&M store and he wasn't told, sent a full refund and asked if we would accept a cancellation.

Of course we accepted, because things happen. I replied to his message thanking him for being upfront and that I'd happily accept the cancellation and that I hoped the defect he would have got for cancelling for being out of stock wouldn't affect his seller ratings too much.

I didn't end up leaving any feedback, but if he'd been an arsh about it, then I would have hit him with both barrels with no hesitation. If he'd just sent a different part off his own back, then there would have been a dispute opened for sure.

I had to cancel a transaction a few months ago too. I was packing the item, which got bumped off the table onto the slate floor and broke into several pieces. After I'd recovered from the associated panic attack, I immediately sent the buyer a message explaining what had happened, sent an immediate refund and a cancellation request and said I would completely understand if he wanted to leave me bad feedback.

He thanked me for the message and the refund and accepted the cancellation. He asked about feedback and I said it was up to him, but he didn't need to leave any if he didn't want to. He said he wouldn't leave me bad feedback as I had been honest and upfront. I sighed a huge sigh of relief. A few weeks later, I got my one and only ever grey dot! He was a pretty low feedback buyer (about 25 from memory), so he probably didn't realise a neutral would have the same impact as a neg. He left my stars alone though, which I was pleased about!