Is this really that rude?

General
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So here is a back and forth with a buyer recently. Background: They purchased a graded card on Saturday, 1-20-2018. That item had the following description:

"Up for auction is the pictured card. This is PSA graded as shown. Will ship first class mail to the United States for free. Ships worldwide via the GSP for the amount calculated by eBay.

I ship within 5 business days after payment is received. Shipping is typically done once a week on Friday morning for all orders paid before Thursday at 5PM EST. Please contact me BEFORE buying if you have any questions. Once received, please let me know if there are any issues with your order as I will work to provide 5 star service to every buyer. Please note that eBay estimated delivery dates are just that, estimates. Actual delivery times will vary. International orders ship via the GSP and have rates calculated by eBay for forwarding and any customs fees. I cannot and will not change the shipping method or fees.

NY Buyers pay 7% sales tax on all items."

I have not yet shipped it, but plan to do so on Thursday night as it says in my listing. Note all my listings are set with 5 business day handling as this is the worst case scenario when they buy late on a Thursday night and have to wait until the following for shipment.

Today the following conversation happens.

Buyer1 :“Hello,
I was wondering if my item was shipping today? Thanks very much!”
Me1: “Please read the listing description for that and other useful info regarding your purchase. Thanks,
Dan”
Buyer2:“Thank you very much. I assumed it was three days shipping but didn’t realize you ship every Friday morning.
"
Me2: "
No problem”
Buyer3: “But I do suggest being a little nicer to buyers. Just telling me to read the item description when you could also shoot me a quick message back with that info too. I just spent XXX USD (hid for their privacy). I would expect a little more customer service just like it says in your item description as well.”
Me3:“I said please and thank you. I simply pointed you there as only answering your single question may have left you with more questions that were easily answered in the listing… which you were supposed to read in the first place.
Again, thank you for your purchase. This will be shipped out as detailed in the listing.
Dan”

I am obviously annoyed with message “Buyer1” as it tells me clearly they didn’t read. “Me1” is a copy/paste that I send out on about 2-5% of my sales that get that same question. I don’t know where the hell they are coming from in “Buyer 3”. Is my copy/paste message really rude? Like wtf. More than half of my 10 negatives are from being “rude” and result from similar back and forths to the above. Sure, I guess “Me3” is where I probably locked in a negative pointing out their mistake, but do other sellers out there really tolerate this entitled bullshit messaging from buyers and just shoot back with something in “Me3” coddling and reinforcing their behavior? Not me, I’d rather have the negative and not have that buyers business any longer. I could also stray from using the “Me1” copy/paste message, but I have literally gotten back to people saying “it will ship Friday” to be met with backlash from them complaining that is too long. That is why I opt to have them read the listing as I have also gotten further follow ups asking why they have to pay sales tax or something stupid.

Just needed to rant a bit, but I honestly would love to hear with how others deal with shit like this? Perhaps it isn’t a common issue for many other people who likely ship quicker, but when I don’t have the time to ship daily what more can I do than put it in my listing AND description?

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If you’ve got 5 negative feedbacks for being rude, it wouldn’t hurt to change your template response. It’s like when college professors have to say “It’s in the syllabus” a million times a day to students asking basic questions. I get that it’s annoying when people ask this but from their perspective it can come across as terse if they paid a large sum.

“Hello, as listed in the item description I ship all orders on Friday mornings, thanks!”

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I used to individually respond to all requests and even something as tame as what you suggested would be met with something like:

“Well that is too slow, refund me then!”

“Why even sell on eBay if you don’t ship every day.”

“Ok. will there be tracking?” <=== another thing answered from reading the description.

I think 3-4 of the negatives came from when I would say:

"I am shipping on Friday. I have copied and pasted the description below as that information was contained in the listing and there is other relevant information to your purchase I would like you to be aware of.

Thanks!

Dan"

There is just no winning with some folks. I know the source of the issue is my slow shipping, but again I can’t really change that. I have put it on vacation mode before for a week and had people making purchases during that time and being pissed when handling time was ~5 days.

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Your reply is curt, dismissive, and doesn’t provide any additional information to the buyer. The buyer asked a very simple, straightforward question with a very pleasant demeanor - basically the best type of customer you could ever hope for. Yeah, they didn’t read the listing carefully and didn’t see the shipping estimate – they are simply eager to receive a card that they maybe saved up for or were finally able to get ahold of. It’s understandable for them to get a little worried 3-4 days after purchasing an item and still not see a ‘Shipped’ or tracking number pop up on their My eBay page.

My suggestion would be to drop the template response, especially for customers. These are the people that make your ebay store possible. A bubbly, enthusiastic, empathetic response that responds appropriately to the customer’s level of concern is suggested. A buyer is going to feel 100x more relief about long processing times from a response like:

‘Hi and thanks for your message! Your item will be shipped out on Friday morning and its tracking information will be uploaded shortly thereafter! Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns! Thanks, Dan.’

compared to:

“Please read the listing description for that and other useful info regarding your purchase. Thanks, Dan”

Your ‘customer voice’ doesn’t have to have the same tone you normally use in real-life, but it’ll definitely help your store and image as a seller if you appear enthusiastic and concerned towards your customers.

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No. The best type of customer I could hope for are the other 99.7% of customers who buy an item, receive exactly what they ordered in the time-frame promised, and then leave a positive feedback.

The best type of customer I could hope for either read the listing description as they are supposed to or they don’t but they are at least patient enough that 1-5 business days handling at the front end doesn’t ruffle their feathers.

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@gottaketchumall Just admit to that fact that you’re a rude person - that’s why I (among many others) hate doing business with you! Haha Just Kidding! No, for those that don’t know, Dan is an AWESOME SELLER! He’s super easy to work with and a real stand-up guy - I would highly recommend his eBay Store!

Now, to get back on topic… I really hate these types of eBay Messages! Personally, I ship EVERYTHING via USPS with Tracking - so I have to charge for shipping on everything priced below $X. But, I offer a flat-rate (one time) shipping fee of $2.75 - which is stated within all of my eBay Listings. The most common question (by far) that I receive is asking if I offer combined shipping on multiple purchases - it drives me INSANE because the information is literally RIGHT THERE!

However, it’s important to take into consideration how many people actually view / read the Item Description - I’m not sure how many actually do… And of those people that do view / read the Item Description; how many read through the whole thing? Especially that wall of “Store Policies” at the end of each listing (not saying you have that, just in general). I’ll be the first to admit that I never read any of this “general” information.

I actually agree with @qwachansey - and actually use this same method! Have a Word Document saved onto your Desktop with your most common Q&A’s. Instead of making making the buyer write you a message and have to then view the Item Description afterwards; just have that first sentence of your “Store Policies” be the message response - her is exactly what I would write:

Hello,

THANKS for your Purchase!

I ship within 5 business days after payment is received. Shipping is typically done once a week on Friday morning for all orders paid before Thursday at 5PM EST.

Please let me know if you have any further comments/questions.

(Name)

It’s a generic response that you just copy and paste; but it looks like you really look the time to answer his/her question. And trust me, I’m not trying to say that you’re wrong and/or defend these types of buyers! I know that this type of situation is super frustrating - you spend so much time working-on a good Item Description Template only to find-out that nobody bothers to even read this information. It’s just one of those things we’ll always have to deal with though.

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Do you actually want advice on this thread or just validation? Because this person offered a well-thought out way for you to up that 99.7% to 100%. Having worked in retail and food service, along with eBay sales, yes it is annoying to bend over backwards trying to please customers who annoy you, but that’s part of what being a seller entails *if* you want 100% feedback. If you’re satisfied with 99.7% there’s no need to change your template response, but you’ll probably continue running into this problem.

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This is perfect - polite, friendly, answers the question and will help to appease any issues the customer may have with a delayed dispatch time (and by that I mean longer then they may be used to on eBay).

I think with anything text, people will add their own tone to the message to perceive it how they want - if you imagine you asked someone in a shop what time they were open to and they told you to read the sign on the wall, you would probably walk out.

The real trick is being polite when people come in with offers that are 10% of the BIN.

:blush:

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I think you have a phenomenal work ethic Dan, even contending with @thecharizardauthorty. I can’t imagine handling that much volume, and in your situation also working another job. This inherently grinds down patience with customers.

Amazon and ebay really push the 1-2 day handling, therefore this is what the general public perceive as the standard. I think that is the root of this scenario. I read the customers inquiry with that in mind. Basically it is very difficult to operate an online business today with only one day of shipment. Therefore I think briefly stating why you only ship friday in the message would help. I find that if you explain the patterns or reasons, usually both parties come to an understanding.

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@gottaketchumall

I don’t think you were rude.

The fact that the buyer “assumed” it was 3 days means he didn’t read the description. Quite annoying imo, and important to point him to the description since he obviously didn’t read it and may have more questions.

I would say next time, answer the question and suggest to look at the description too. Regardless though, you weren’tt even slightly rude, I’m not sure what many others in this thread are reading.

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@qwachansey I actually plan to potentially implement advice in here if I find any that may be suitable. Unfortunately I used to directly reply to the messages as most here including @oldskoolpokemon are suggesting with mentioning that the item will ship later in the week and not just pointing them to the descr. The problems I have encountered with that are two fold. 1. It leaves out other relevant information the buyer also may need from the listing description. 2. About 10% of the time I would get replies for me to “cancel the transaction then if you are that slow!”

What do you suggest I do then? Just cancel it and eat the fees and the time waste and let the buyer off scot-free so they can do it again down the line?

I would certainly love to have 100% feedback but I will not in any way cater to or coddle buyers who refuse to follow through with their end of the bargain. When a buyer makes a purchase I refuse to cancel it for any reason that stems from them not reading the description. If they reach out to me before I ship with a genuine reason or admitting to a mistake as I have had buyers do in the past then I will and do certainly cancel. Even if it is them admitting to not reading it in the first place as I have some players do when they need cards quickly for tournaments. But when they don’t read, then demand a cancel for something that I told them twice up front I refuse. That is where most my negatives and my “rudeness” comes from. I would counter that most of my buyers who left negatives were rude and incompetent but obviously that wouldn’t go over well.

I am glad I am not in a face to face customer service type job. I just couldn’t do it. 99.7% of the time things would go swimmingly. Then when I get those 0.3% I wouldn’t coddle them the right way and they would take it to social media. I see things blow up locally here and there on Facebook and I always wonder what the true story is behind it. In the few times I have known the source it was someone I have personally known to be in that 0.3% of entitled morons. I am glad feedback ends at one line on eBay and nobody else can chime in on it.

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I completely disagree with this. He said please and thank you, did not express annoyance, and he DID provide additional information, i.e. the location of the answer to his question, which also happens to have many other important details the buyer likely missed.

Sure, it would have been easy to say that in the answer in the message, and I think Dan should have done that.

But he was not rude in the slightest.

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My main advice would be to avoid pointing them to the description. As someone who has been on both sides of customer support, the main way to irritate someone is to point them to a document somewhere, even if its simply the description in the listing. Keep a politely worded general template about your shipping times if you need to; I generally assume this to be the case for those with high volume stores.

I call it the redirect reflex. I’ve had Cisco TAC agents that default all their responses to “read the documentation for supported features” which may or may not answer the question, and if I wasn’t someone who’s done stints in service industry type jobs I would have metaphorically ripped their head off going to their manager.

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Copy and paste the section of the description that answers their question. Above that put “copied from the description:” Add your gratitudes.

Now you’ve accomplished your goals, given them direction for further questions, answered their question in the message, and removed some of your perceived ‘rudeness’.

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I appreciate all the advice pouring in. Nobody has replied yet to the semi frequent counter that prompted my change from what you are all suggesting to what I do now though. Guess some didn’t read my whole walls of text. :rofl: :open_mouth:

What do you all suggest I do when someone says this exact reply?

Them: “Hey when is this going to ship?”
Me: “( whatever polite gobblydeegook is your preference about it shipping Friday)”
Them: **“That is too slow. Cancel my order”

Me: ?**

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I think what you’re missing is that your dismissive responses are the catalyst to the buyer’s escalation to cancel their order (rather than dealing with you and/or waiting for you to ship) and they likely would not happen if you responded in a more concerned fashion.

Now, let’s assume you did respond appropriately and the customer still was not okay waiting the up-to 5 days of processing time. Your response, in my opinion, should simply be ‘I’m sorry you no longer wish to purchase this item. I will cancel the item as you’ve requested.’ At the very least you get to no longer deal with this unruly customer and better yet, you get to live a little bit easier than you would carrying around all that negativity.

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My listing clearly states my shipping policy. If you still wish to cancel I have no problem doing so.

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Could you possibly define “gobblydeegook”? LOL

You mentioned that you used to use that “nice-guy” type of reply and got that second message asking to just cancel the entire order a few time - forget the percentage you mentioned (doesn’t matter). Anyway, have you noticed any major decrease in those second messages asking to just cancel the entire order when you do direct them to the Item Description?

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Yes. They don’t request cancelling the order nearly as often anymore… they just deal with the “slow” shipping and then leave me a negative for it lol.

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I have 2 Word document pages full of preset answers that I send through ebay messages for responses. All of which are very polite at the beginning and at the end of the message, even if it is just “Thanks for reaching out”. I do this because if I have to type the same thing that I have already stated in my description, I tend to be abrupt or write my message in a way that the buyer takes it as rude. This also helps my own sanity for explaining shipping processes or anything that could be solved with a little effort from the buyer.

I do not think you were rude, but it was a written message. Your tone will be implied by the buyer. Since they cannot hear you, when you get a negative response they probably took it in a negative or sarcastic connotation.

One of my most used phrases for when an order has not arrived is “It should have arrived by now, but it is possible to still be hung in the mail. Could you resend me your address so I can double check?” This acknowledges something is wrong but you as the seller want to help. i do want to help but I want to check that they sent me the correct address. If they type it out to me, many times it is different from the address on file for shipping. Buyers respond to this much better than something like… “I shipped it to you already so it should get there. Maybe your address was not up to date so could you check that?” They take that as I the seller did it right so it has to be your fault as the buyer.

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