So, I am trying to start a little mini business where I sell phone charms on ebay. Well, there was this one woman that bought something of mine, she was/is my first sale ever! Let me start off by saying that I am new to ebay, so I don't know everything, and shipping was a bit confusing for me. (Like Ebay just says to ship the item, but then doesn't specify on instructions) I listed an item for sale, and added a few pictures for the item. Each picture had phone charms, with different color strings. In the description for the item, I specifically stated that I am only selling the charm with the black string, and that I will sell the others of other colors for another time. Since I haven't sold on ebay before, I don't know exactly what I am doing yet, and don't want to get ahead of myself.
After the person purchased the item, I mailed the item two days later, and then after I had mailed it, she asked me if she could have one of the charms in a different color. I told her that I had already mailed it, so then she says she bought another one of my items. Mind you, this was a conversation that lasted a few days, she bought the second item three days later from the first purchase.
So, I mailed the one item on Saturday March 29. There was a problem with her purchase, it was still pending after a week, and since I am new to ebay, I didn't know I had to check my emails for a purchase confirmation.
As I stated already, I put in the description for the item, that I was only selling the charm with the black strap. It was obvious to me that she did NOT read the description where I said I was only selling the charm with the black strap, I ended up deleting the pictures for the other colored charms to make sure this would not happen again.
I ended up mailing the next item the following week, exactly a week apart because the purchase didn't go through yet, which was my fault because I didn't know of the email confirmation.
On ebay, when you ship the item, you have to click this little button on the item that says you shipped the item. I waited until I had shipped the second item to press the button that says the item was shipped, this would appear on the customer's purchase screen and would say the item was shipped. It doesn't pop up on the customer saying it was shipped though, if they happen to go on their purchase page and specifically look at that particular icon, they will know it was shipped. Which is something that I do when I make a purchase on ebay, this way I know when it is shipped.
Fast forward to two weeks later, I find out that I got good feedback on the first item. It wasn't until minutes later I noticed something funny. The customer opened a case on me for the other item!
On ebay, there is something called a case. A case is when the buyer doesn't get an item and they open a case so they can get their item or money back.
The customer says that she got the first item, but not the other, she also told me she had to go to the post office to retrieve her item. I do not know why it didn't go to her house! As I just mentioned, I sent both items a week apart. It was obvious to me that she did not read the little icon that says when the item was shipped.If she had noticed the shipped icon, she may not have opened a case in the first place.
Even though she bought the item days apart, for some reason she thought she was going to get both items at the same time, and therefore opened a case on me. I have heard that opening a case on a seller on ebay is very bad, and can hurt the seller. So of course my first customer had to go ahead and hurt my reputation when I have just started!
Not to mention she gave me positive feedback for the one item, and negative for the other, which looks very bizarre since both are from the same person.
I sent her a message explaining that I sent them a week a part and that the item may not have gotten to her house or post office yet, she did not respond to me. I asked her if she could change the negative feedback she gave me to neutral, she instead gave me positive feedback a few days later, which was nice enough.
For some reason, she never thought about the fact that she bought both items days apart. I don't understand why she would have thought she would get both items at the same time, when she purchased them at different times! Regardless whether or not she saw the little shipping icon, the fact of the matter is, she bought them at two separate times! How in the world would she think that she'd get them both at the same time?
I thought this buyer was cool because she was nice when she messaged me, and she said she would give me good feedback. All she did was backstab me by giving me a bad score, and then asked for her money back when she didn't even wait to contact me to see if I could fix the problem. Yes, she did not contact me at all about this. I would have helped her out, but instead she just decided to do things her way. So, I was screwed out of the money for the one item because I gave her a refund for the second item. I was just so freaked out when it happened that I didn't give it time for her to respond to my message to see if it was just time that she needed for the item to be delivered, but I had to answer in a week or ebay would have made it ugly.
Basically, she got two for the price of one and screwed me out of not only 7 dollars, but also the envelope and stamp that I paid for to deliver the item. I actually made my other items a little bit more money just so I could get back the money I lost from this whole ordeal.
If she thought my item took forever, then she would not want to order the things I buy on ebay to make my charms, sometimes they take up to a month to receive!
It would have been nice if Ebay had some section where it tells you exactly what to do step by step, if they do, I missed it, otherwise the item going to the customer's post office may not have happened. Without any direction, I get lost pretty easily and I could have avoided the entire situation.
I did learn a few things though.
• Be very specific when listing an item, if you show multiple items, but only sell one item in that listing. it may confuse the customer and they may think that you are selling more kinds of items in one listing, or that they get to pick, when they don't.
• People don't read! So, even if you make a specific statement in the bio of the listing, does not mean they will read it..which is also why you must be specific with pictures and the title name.
• Always send a message to the customer when you have shipped the item! This way they do not get confused on anything and specifically know when the item was shipped!
I'm very bummed about my first online sale being good and bad, but at least it is a learning experience and I can find out what to do so I can do it the right time for the next time.
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