Avoiding Holiday Shipping Horror Stories

by: Ming the Merciless

The absurdity of the some of the punitive requirements ebay demands of its sellers couldn't be better illustrated than by this article.

What brick and mortar store would shut its doors a week before Christmas to avoid negative reviews?

Sellers shouldn't be punished either by ebay or the marketplace for buyer procrastination, bad weather, or shipping company logistical problems.

Ebay disingenuously pretends it doesn't understand the difference between brick and mortar sales and online sales in order to punish sellers/eliminate/reduce discounts for failing to meet the impossible requirements that exist only in the minds of some these immature buyers ebay recruits and enables to be absolute jerks.

True seller protection is non existent -- nothing more than ineffectual window dressing.

by: bitbybit

To top it off ebay has another free listing auction promotion starting today and ending Christmas Eve. I would be hesitant to add a buy it now to auctions since certain buyers will have unrealistic expectations on getting their items. Also don't forget uploading tracking since ebay will probably count the 24th and 25th, Tues & Wed as business days. Not only snow will be falling but so will seller performance ratings.    

by: tb

Count me as one of those that vacation'd eBay before Christmas. Definitely too much drama for me. I would much rather get through the holidays without hearing some screaming housewife in Connecticut that ordered something 3 days before Christmas via 1st Class Mail and it didn't show up. Because eBay TELLS the customer when it will arrive, it's our fault when it doesn't.

I'll go maybe 3 or 4 more days and then shut her down.

by: FREDDY

Selling on ebay is a NO win situation.
They are so desperate for buyers that they remove any common sense factor.
Instead of ebay pushing buy early, they just say FREE and 100% satisfaction or money back. Of course it is not their money. If it cost them anything, it would be a different story.
The best present you can give yourself is to make this the last year for selling and or buying on ebay.
How many sellers has ebay ticked off?? Now, is JD that dumb that he thinks those that he has ticked off  will continue to buy off ebay??
He doesn't care one way or the other. JD just looks at how he can make money off his stock options. He's sick and it has spread to the board members and others.

by: Gina

In years past, I closed my shop on the 20th.  No way was I knocking myself out finding, packaging some huge order, printing up Customs docments, driving to another country & shipping some idiot's package internationally, only to find out it never made it, for which I'd take anouther round of abuse and refund demands.  
I had one customer once that thought she had a "right" to place such demands on me because she was "such a good customer"!  I knew the package would never make it on time.  She used every nasty trick in the book even telling me that she needed my stock to produce products which she'd already sold!  And, of course, she wasn't going to pay the $35 overnight cost!!!  
In the end I told her that I couldn't help her & never heard from her again.  I don't miss customers like that, I don't want them!

by: Anonymous Annie

Obviously JD hasn't been listening to Uncle Griff's advice when it comes to matters such as this.

Actually, I've often commented that even though today's eBay disgusts me... during my time at eBay, I did learn a LOT that has contributed greatly to my off-eBay success.

One of the simplest concepts that I learned was something that Griff had once recommended: ''Under-promise and OVER-deliver!''

Easy!

When I ''under-promise'' (and avoid exaggerations, gilding, and hyperbole) that gives me some wiggle-room and leeway when it comes to fulfilling the customers order. --- I rarely need it, but it's good to know that I've allowed myself an extra 24-48 hours to complete processing.

Then, for the 99.9% of sales that I'm able to complete, ship, and have delivered in LESS TIME than was estimated... well, my customers are---in a word---DELIGHTED!

It works every time!

It's just common-sense wisdom of managing customers' expectations and then providing them with honest, prompt and competent service as well as quality merchandise.

This ain't rocket-science, folks. JD could do this if he wanted to.

The thing is, he doesn't want to.

by: ebayisajoke

Warning buyers won't matter, it doesn't do any good, the buyers looking to do seller harm take advantage of this. You'll hear a bunch of stories next week by sellers that either got shut down or were tormented over buyer demands. It doesn't matter if the sky was falling or if Yellow Stone goes up, buyers still expect sellers to make magic!

by: ebayisajoke

One way to stop buyers from fraudulently using ebay is too allow no more refunds through PayPal unless the packages is returned first. This is business 101 best practices not, refund buyer money before seller gets his photo of an XBOX One back.

by: JustTheFacts

These venues do not care that shipping delays are caused from the weather, ups, fedex, usps, EVERYTHING is ALWAYS the sellers fault even when the seller has ZERO control over it and did EVERYTHING humanly possible.

The same buyers who buy the day before xmas, refuse to pay for expedited shipping and demand it next day regardless, and DING your ratings and FB, are the same people who make thousands of EXCUSES for everything they do wrong and screw up in their own lives.  They are also the ones who BLAME everything wrong in their lives on someone else.

This is the type of people they are and no amount of reason, logic etc will change them, but this is also why things ALWAYS go WRONG for them and this too will never change for them as long as they are they way they are.

Remember, you can NEVER reason with an UNREASONABLE person.  But you can be reasonably sure of is that their life is a MISERABLE WRECK because they are a MISERABLE WRECK!

by: silent anarchy

just as a precaution i set all my lisings to end on dec 15, this is what ebay has become anymore, a mine field. Instead of me rushing to get a good mix of holiday items my first thoughts are not of profit but how will ebay screw me this time.