How about some appreciation?!

Nah, it'll never happen :-(

I swear some people seem to have no sense of appreciation and/or they are incapable of expressing that sense of appreciation in a way that makes any sense.

Recently I've sold several items (movies and such) on Amazon.com.  Doing a little house cleaning, and earning a few $$ to spend on other things that I might want instead of those older things.  Mostly movies and such, maybe some video games, etc.

Anyway, I've dealt with enough transactions on Amazon now to know the rules there, and know that their shipping policies for sellers are Lame, that is lame with a capital L.  They require sellers to do no better than ship items via media mail (for books, movies, video games, and the like). Something I wrote about last week.  Something I wish that Amazon would change in the name of good customer service.

Having been burned by one buyer that couldn't count the number of business days that had passed and was distraught over the shipping time for a video game I sold used there, I determined once and for all that whenever possible I would avoid using media mail and instead would ship by First Class mail or Priority Mail if necessary.  So, in the last few weeks while I've shipped off several items to individual buyers, I made sure to ship them First Class or Priority Mail.  I did note in the ads for these items that upgraded shipping was *free* for buyers.  I also took my time and sent each buyer a polite note to tell them when each item would be shipping (the very next business day in each case) and wishing the buyers well.  And oh, yeah, I added a polite line saying that if the transaction went as smoothly as I hoped that I would greatly appreciate any feedback that the buyers left.

Oh, wait, I am looking for feedback?!!? Why yes, yes I am.  Is it really too much to ask that buyers take a few minutes to leave feedback for their purchases?  Is it really too much to expect that buyers that get top flight service might actually acknowledge that?

Considering the number of transactions I've had myself and seen others complain about that have had sellers never tell the buyers anything, and have sellers ship the absolute slowest method possible, waiting 2 or 3 business days before they actually ship items, and even then sometimes conveniently forgetting to ship the item for a few more days.  Many sellers out there never bother to tell buyers anything and the buyer is left to wonder when or if they'll ever see the item they've paid for.  It apparently takes those sellers too long to actually acknowledge the transactions they've been involved in, or it must be just a bit too much work for them on top of the work involved in shipping the items.

Oh well, 12 transactions, 2 feedback from the lot.  I wonder how the buyers would appreciate it if I only delivered goods 1/6th of the time.

8,138 views 4 replies
Reply #1 Top
Eh, if it was eBay, I'd probably only get feedback from 1 out of the 12, so who am I kidding?!
Reply #2 Top
I use ebay quite often and must admit that I sometimes forget to leave feedback when making a purchase. Just recently I went on to my account and left feedback for everything I bought over the last couple of months. I really did feel bad but most of the time I would just flat out forget to do it. I would maybe send a message through amazon to the buyer after a week of not getting any feedback just as a reminder. I actually had a seller recently do so which is what made me go onto my account and leave feedback for everyone I had used. I know it is more work for you but if the feedback is neccessary it will be worth it.

www.poosnews.com

Reply #3 Top

The part that really gets on my nerves is that one buyer made out like a bandit thanks to my offer of upgraded shipping on an item that cost me $9 out of pocket to upgrade the shipping on.  If I had stuck with Amazon's recommendation of media mail for that item and basically told the buyer to lump it, they would have been waiting for the better part of a month for that item to arrive off of the slowboat that goes to China and back.  Instead I paid for Priority Mail for that package and watched 25% of the sale price go flying right out of my bank account.

My fault entirely for promising to upgrade the ship in the item listing, and really, if I had known it was going to be that expensive, I probably wouldn't have offered that service at all.  I did notify the buyer that I was honoring my promise of upgraded shipping on my own dime and also informed them of when they should expect to receive the item.  I guess it really is too much to expect that that one particular buyer would take a few minutes to put up some feedback.

Reply #4 Top
People are less inclined to comment when things are good, than when things go bad.  So 2 out of 12 does not seem bad - it means that no one is complaining.