Online Selling Tip of the Week

Pressed for time to get it all done?

Try doing your tasks in small steps that take a few minutes at a time.

For instance, if you’re planning to work on some listings tomorrow, take your pictures tonight so they’re all ready to go  tomorrow.

Or try having all of your pictures ready and listing a few items each day.

A little here and a little there all adds up!

Online Selling Tip of the Week

Try something new.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll get the results that you’ve always got, right?

So, branch out……try something new.  Whether it’s learning about a new product to sell, going to a different thrift store, or selling on a different venue.  Give it a try……you never know what can happen!

This Week on eBay

Things have been hopping around here, sales have slowed down since Christmas, but it hasn’t been too bad…..I’ve sold a few  higher prices things that I was hoping would sell during Christmas, so that’s always a plus.  Sales on other venues have slowed down  too, but I still had a sale on addoway.com this week, so I was excited about that…..every little bit helps.

I’ve been doing a LOT of listing on eBay.  It took longer for me to get all settled in our house than I expected, (of course putting the holidays right in the middle of it all didn’t help any either) and I’m just now starting to feel like I’m back to normal life.  I actually had time a couple of days this week to work on some listings in the evening.  Usually I do the majority of my listings on Fridays since I don’t teach piano lessons on Fridays.  This week, I was able to get almost 70 items listed……made me feel great!  I haven’t listed that many items in a week for a LONG time.

I’m also in the process of cleaning out my store inventory and putting some of it in  the yard sale pile.  Cleaning things up a bit is always a great feeling to me too.

Hope your week is going great!

This Week on eBay

This week on eBay has been a little crazy! (YAY!!!)  Because of packing, moving and unpacking, I ended up not listing on eBay for nearly two weeks!

I was beginning to feel like I was on withdrawal, so I spent almost all of last Saturday listing, listing, listing and shipping, shipping, shipping!

The items I picked up this summer that I thought would be good sellers for Christmas are starting to move (Pixos and Zoobles.)  It’s always fun to see things you made an investment in start selling.

I pretty much have everything worked out with my new mail carrier as far as pick ups.  All of this week, I’ve had two totes full of packages for him each day, so that’s a lot of fun for me to see my effort from the entire year paying off.  I’ve also had a few things sell on addoway.com and bonanza.com.

The other thing that’s really starting to move in my store right now is my Starbucks bears.  Almost everyday I’m selling one or two of them.

I love having my garage all organized so that I can quickly locate my items to ship, and I’m in the process of organizing my office so that shipping is super efficient too.

Hope your sales are going crazy!!!

Keep Your Cool

You just have to love it when you’re cruising along, making sales, listing and shipping, when all of a sudden, you check your inbox to find an IRATE customer.

I had a whopper of an irate customer last week.

Whew…….this customer was a handful and a half!

The item she received wasn’t what she was expecting, and even though my listings state “No Returns”  I gladly accept returns if a customer isn’t happy. So I emailed her and let her know that if she wasn’t happy with the item, she could return it.

She emails back and says that she’ll return it, but I will have to reimburse her for the postage to return it.

Even though I kept my cool and maintained professionalism with her in my responses, she quickly became IRATE.  I mean sending me multiple emails before I could respond to her, emailing me in ALL CAPS accusing me of being a dishonest seller, ect.

At that point, I did respond to her and ask her to calm down and told her that sending emails in ALL CAPS and making accusatory statements in her emails to me is considered rude.

I reiterated that she could return the item if she wanted to, and I would fully refund her purchase and shipping, but that as the buyer she is responsible to pay for the return shipping.

When I got done emailing her, I got on the phone with eBay and and the representative read over our emails back and forth and told me that yes, what I had told her was correct and he noted my account about the phone call and what my resolution plan for the customer was.

After my call to eBay, I was headed home.  In the 15 minutes it took me to get home, I received two emails from the buyer, and a case was already opened.

The comments the buyer left in the case were: The seller totally flipped out on me and became hostile in her emails to me.  I think she has a history of this and has a history of negative feedback.

Wow……if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black……….

I responded saying that I had told the buyer to return the item and they became hostile with me.

Of course she had to respond back saying that I most certainly did flip out on her and that she had the emails to prove it. (at this point, I couldn’t help but laugh.)

She escalated the case to eBay,and eBay decided the case in her favor stating that she could return them as long as she pays for return shipping (duh, they decided in her favor, that’s exactly the answer I gave her too!)

Immediately, this buyer left negative feedback for me. (Which I knew was going to happen anyway)

A week later, she emails me and says that she just wants to let me know that she’s decided to keep the item.

WHAT?!?!?!  So you’re telling me you put me through an entire circus just to let me know that you’re keeping the item you bought?  WHEW……..you just can’t make everyone happy.

At some point, every one of us will deal with customers like this one.  Don’t let them rattle you……..take a deep breath and maintain your professionalism.

Keep in mind that eBay can and will review the emails sent back and forth between you and your buyer, so don’t do anything to shoot yourself in the foot.  Let them make a fool of themselves, you don’t have to play into their hand.

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