Archive for March, 2012

Dear eBay Queen:

A YEAR ago ( I know, I know, ) I opened my first eBay account and straight away ordered about 6/7 products. Unfortunately I was in a new neighborhood and confused the house numbers; therefore I did not receive any of the items that I ordered.  About 6 months ago, I asked eBay support for help, and they told me they couldn’t do anything.

I started messaging the sellers. Some of them said they never received the package back and some said they will re-send it if I pay for the shipping again. I called the post office, and they didn’t have any of the return packages.  I was broke at the time so I left it again till now. So my question is – what am I supposed to do now? Is there even ANYTHING I could do to get these things back?

I would really appreciate your help. I’m so confused and keep getting angry and frustrated for leaving it like this.

Kind Regards,

Stef

Dear Stef:

I am really sorry this happened to you.  I know you are not the first person that moved and confused their address!  As sellers, we’ve had this happen a few times a year with our own buyers.  Your sellers should have contacted you via email or phone about the returned packages or refunded your money for the item since it was returned and they couldn’t contact you.

If your sellers are willing to send you the items if you pay for the shipping, I would take them up on that offer.  If the other sellers are not willing to do it, I would ask for a refund.  I don’t think you’ll get it, but it never hurts to ask.

People mess up their addresses more often than you think. If this should happen again, contact the seller immediately to let them know about the mistake, then contact your post office. Sometimes they can intercept the package and get it to you.

Dear eBay Queen:

I’ve been selling for about 6 months.  I had a bricks and mortar store, lost my lease and started selling everything I had on Amazon and eBay.   I’ve been very successful!  So successful that I’ve decided to open up a smaller bricks and mortar store and still sell my goods on those venues.

I sold a new High Sierra Backpack in a hard to find color to a guy over 28 days ago.  He sent me an email, and wanted to return the backpack about 10 days after he received it.  I offered a refund after he returned the item.  I did some checking on this guy, and he sells the same product I sell. He even has a HUGE e-commerce store.  He sent me the tracking for the return on March 5^th ,  but the post office has not received or scanned it in.

I sent the buyer an email last week, to let him know I have not received the item back.  He sent a return email and called me every name under the sun, and threatened me with feedback.  I called eBay immediately and the customer service rep told me to not accept his return.  The eBay guy told me that he was on my side on this and I should refuse the item when and if it is returned.  I emailed the buyer back, and told him of my conversation with eBay and that I was not willing to accept the return after what he had called my mother.

His response to that email was: “I sent it Thursday it was 28.42 to ship it back, I want that money or else.”, and just a few hours later his tracking number was scanned in at his local post office.  I only charged him 8.95 for shipping, were does he get off charging me so much? What advice do you have for me on this one?

Liza

Dear Liza:

Congratulations on creating a successful business on eBay, and in the bricks and mortar world!

If eBay says they will back you up on this guy, I would write “refused!” on the package, but not before I took a photo of the label for proof of date sent, and the cost.   This guy should know better if he’s a seller.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 140688944359  What’s your favorite pop? Check out this Mountain Dew Red in a Rare Glass Bottle You can see it here:  SOLD $235.00

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul, Kansas.

Dear eBay Queen:

I’m not a huge seller, but I do sell 30 to 40 things a month.  I’ll be going out of town for spring break, and tried to figure out how to put my items on a “vacation setting. Is there a vacation setting for an eBay account so sales cannot occur on your account while unavailable?  I asked eBay this, and they told me that since I didn’t have a store, I couldn’t do it.  This really made me angry, so angry I sent the following email to eBay:

“I  just got off the phone with eBay Customer Service.  I needed to know how to put my listings on vacation over spring break.   I was told that I needed a store, but since I do not have a store (because it would not make financial sense to do so) but I have a problem not being able to set a vacation setting. I have 50 or more listings, and customer support told me if I didn’t have a store the only way for me to handle it was to delete all of my listing and then put them in one by one when I get back.

On Amazon I only have to click on one link for vacation and another link to come off vacation. None of the links are seen when on vacation. On e-bay it would cost me $15.95 per month to get the same service I get on Amazon for FREE. Makes me consider putting my listings on Amazon instead.”

Do you have any ideas on what I can do to put my stuff on vacation?  Or am I destined to take them all down and put them all back up?

Abby

Dear Abby:

I didn’t realize there wasn’t a vacation setting for people that didn’t have stores. http://pages.ebay.com/help/stores/contextual/vacation-settings.html  Way back in the day, I would put a little blurb in my listings that stated:  “I will be on vacation from March 18^th through the 23^rd.  I will be available by email, but if you pay for your items during that time they won’t be shipped until the 24^th.”

I’m really sorry this is happening to you.  I wish there was a quick fix for this. I do have one more solution that might help you, have you thought about using an all in one listing/selling program?  There are quite a few out there (some even free) that could help you out.  This way, you could take your listings down and put them up without the time of listing each individual one.  Here  you can view the different one’s here: http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory&maingroup=0&page=results My favorite free listing program is Turbolister.

Dear eBay Queen:

After reading your column last week I thought I would call eBay and talked to one of their customer service agents about all of these restrictions.  That phone call was enlightening.

He told me the reason many/most sellers earn selling restrictions is because they don’t get enough feedback. Apparently, it’s the percentage feedback against the number of orders that triggers the eBay system to block sellers from listing further items or even attempting to change a listing.

This is the first time I’ve heard of this.  In the past it’s always been ‘wait and the system will tell you when you can list more items’, so, if I understand this correctly, eBay makes sellers responsible for the buyer leaving feedback. The assumption being, according to the agent, that if the buyer leaves no feedback, they must be unhappy. Laziness, apparently, doesn’t come into it. They obviously haven’t thought about restricting the buyer’s ability to purchase new items until they leave feedback for the ones they’ve already had.

I hope your reader,  “DS” reads this, and it helps him out.

J.E. Peters

Dear J.E.:

I will forward this information to him.  It makes perfect eBay sense that eBay would monitor how much feedback a seller is receiving in comparison to what they are selling. I don’t agree with this logic, but I get why they are doing it.

Thank you for sharing your conversation and insight on this program.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 280809308671 It’s that time of year when a young man (or woman’s) mind turns to track. Would you spend this kind of money on a tracksuit?  Check out this Adidas X Jeremy Scott and Keith Haring track jacket and pants.  Check it out HERE   SOLD $599.99

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul, Kansas.

Dear eBay Queen:

As a side job to my eBay selling, I do picture-framing.  I have hundreds of antique frames I’ve picked up over the years. It’s always been fun to find something interesting behind the print you see through the glass – something used for backing or some print or photo the former owner just decided to cover with a preferred picture. I’ve found parts of vintage posters, pieces of old boxes with advertising, family photos, rejected lithographs (misaligned colors), and so on. The other day, I disassembled a huge, c.1900 frame I’d gotten for just the frame and glass. The backing was wood and was covered with heavy white paper tacked around the edges. The print would have gone on top of that white paper. So I removed the paper to use for whatever and was delighted to find on the reverse a large, pencil-signed engraving! Fun!

I can’t read the signature. I tried a Google image search with keywords anyone would use to describe the scene, but no luck.

Do you know of a website, institution, or person who will attempt to identify works of art for free? The engraving is presumably a copy of a painting, so this would need to be an expert in Victorian-era painters.

David

Dear David:

I’ve never thought about looking behind photos or prints to see what I found.  Have you ever thought about writing a blog about your finds?  There is a really interesting blog I follow called:  http://www.missingbookmarks.com He is a book seller, and writes about the stuff he finds stuck in books.

Some good places I have found to research old prints and paintings are:

• www.artconversation.com
• ·         www.artcyclopedia.com/
• I’ve also contacted the Nelson Atkins (816) 751-1278, and they have helped me with research on old prints.

Dear eBay Queen:

I sell vintage albums, turntables etc, on eBay.  I’ve been doing this for around 5 years.  Recently, I had a buyer claim that the turntable I sent her is broken.  She threatened to leave negative feedback if I did not provide her with a full refund or a replacement but she has steadfastly refused to return the item.  I always double check my items are in good working order and condition prior to sending.  I do want to find out why there is a problem with this turntable. In my defense, I offered her a full refund once she sends the items back to me.

She opened a case with PayPal saying that the item was vitally important for her child and she needed one desperately, but went crazy once PayPal told her to return the item and then she will get her refund.  She now has admitted to me that she has 7 of these items, has received a few of them that did not work and the seller gave her a refund without returning the item. I checked out her feedback, and she has been buying these items for some time. She wants to send me a video of the console not working as proof of her claim – how am I to know if this is the console I had sent if she already has 7 others?

In her last email, she says that she wants to keep the player and still have her refund!!!  What would you do in this situation?

Colleen

Dear Colleen:

One of my crazy buyers from years ago taught me to always take a photo of the serial number of the electronics I am selling.  I don’t put this in the eBay description, but I do save the photo.  When I send electronics I put the serial number in the notes when I print the PayPal shipping. Then the buyer knows that you know which item you have sent. Then if a different one is returned it’s obvious.

I would call PayPal to talk to someone in resolutions. Ask if you can forward the emails where she says she has 7 of these and none of the other sellers made her return them.  I would also contact eBay about this.  PayPal is going to require her send the item back before receiving a refund.  You have a couple of options.

1. Let the PayPal claim expire on its own, and by doing this it will be found in your favor.
2. Escalate the claim, PayPal will investigate and find in your favor since the buyer refuses to send the item back.

The buyer could still give you negative feedback, but you can always respond: “buyer demanded to keep the item & get money back.”  This is a tough situation.  I wish eBay would put more safeguards in place for sellers when it comes to buyers.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item: 250992365252 How much would you pay to have Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley at your wedding? Check out this auction, Be 1st Couple Married at KISS “Hotter Than Hell” Vegas Wedding Chapel with KISS! Check it out HERE  SOLD $15,300.00

Suzie Eads is a nationally known eBay marketer and eBay trained Education Specialist. She lives in Rantoul, Kansas.