eBay buyers... *sigh*

in the economy that we are in everyone is looking for the best deal. i dont know that i would be bent out of shape for somone asking politely, demanding now thats another thing. after having been in customer service for as long as i have i can tell you the person who asks politely always got the better deal from me. people who demanded anything got a polite professional Sorry we cant do that. I saw the comments about return customers and return customers are great but if you are taking a loss everytime on someone you many not want them to come back. We had a department that saved customers when they called to cancel and they had to figure out real fast who was trying to save a few bucks and who was trying to get a freebie. and they got freebie seekers cancelled and off the phone.

The only way I could do this would be to come up with some fixed number of days that I would price back to, and then alert every customer who'd been in since then.

(Then I'd have to risk the fall-out from anyone who might hear about this who missed that arbitrary cutoff by just one more day...)

Otherwise, I can not grant this to one customer and not every customer. Beyond cost or annoyance, that's just not ethical...

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

I agree you should stick to your guns. Prices go up and down all the time due to demand. Obviously you are lowering your price in order to get rid of inventory. Your decision, her bad luck.

I would not ask an ebay seller for a discount. It's their business and I must take the risk that I didn't get the best deal when I hit the purchase button.

"Give someone an inch and they will always want a mile"-dad

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Cedar Cove Farm

Cedar Cove Farm On Etsy

This is definately a tough one.

To me, and this is just me thinking, that selling on E-Bay is an individual sale.

Even if you have 500 items in your "Store" you are doing it as an individual.

Wal*Mart, on the other hand is not an individual but is a corporation and therefore has more wiggle room, just by sheer volume, to work with.

I think of E-Bay'rs as people trying to make a buck and not support an enterprise with employees, distribution and the like.

I do know some people that earn their living via E-bay. If they have something for sale I wouldn't ask then to discount what the price was "advertised". I would just figure that's the price and that's what they want.

Don't worry, I'm always getting the dicker thing with my services. Sorry dude, this is what I charge, if you can get it cheaper good enough, but this is what I charge.

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Not directly related but a bit against Wal-Mart bashers. One day I left a bag of items behind at the register. Realized it when I got home and call the customer service desk. They said it hadn't been recorded as having been turned in yet, but to just come in with the receipt. When I did so several days later the items still weren't recorded in their log, but CS still said to go get the identical items and I wouldn't be charged for them.

Now, I'm not a Wal-Mart fan, and think anti-monoply rules should be applied to then, just like Standard Oil in the 1800s and AT&T in the 1900s. However, occasionally they do get it right.

Have you SHIPPED the item yet? If you haven't shipped it yet, and I was the buyer, I'd be inclined to cancel my order.

Also, like someone else pointed out, she's obviously watching your store, and could have been a valuable repeat customer. Not any longer. It'd be worth it to me to have a satisfied customer. 99% of the customer base is not going to ask for a refund and they are perfectly happy. What does it hurt to make 100% happy? If you'd have been happy selling it today for X-15%, why wouldn't you have been happy 2 days ago selling it for X-15%?

Just doesn't seem to make good business sense to me to alienate someone. Especially when 100 people are happy -- but don't mention it.... and one person gets ticked and tells all their friends. I'd make sure not to have the one ticked.

FWIW

Good heavens, of course I've shipped the item! If I posted on the 20th that she'd purchased on the 18th...
That would cost me far more business than anything, waiting a week to ship!

Like I said, I can not keep it a secret from every other customer who did nothing more than not ask for a retroactive discount. That's just doesn't seem ethical.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Lisa, private sale to me is one individual to another. I guess my term is confusing, it's just something my grandma called it years ago. Private as compared to commercial sale maybe, commercial being any store.

ErinP, even if you stated on your site that sale prices do not apply to previously purchased items or layaways, someone would be there wanting you to bend the rules, just for them.

There is an answer. Figure the amount she would get back, and give her a coupon for her next purchase of over $X (The $X to be determined by you). Make sure the coupon only amounts to 1/2 your markup on that dollar amount. If she buys, you come out ahead and she comes out ahead.

Good idea. Just say that the sale is only for specific days and specific items so a refund is not possible, but you would be happy to give her a coupon for her next purchase... blah blah blah.
Makes her feel that you "care" but doesn't require a refund... refunds are difficult for sellers because that income may already be spent on bills by the time a refund is requested...

May I ask, how much IS the difference? Are we talking a couple bucks, or a LOT of money? That'd make the decision for me. Isn't it worth a couple bucks to save all this aggravation?

Give them a coupon towards a future purchase and then put them on your blocked buyers list.

I would guess that creating any second purchase on eBay is very difficult and that if you could measure lifetime value of a customer on the site that it would be very very close to single transaction purchase averages. It likely isn't going to hurt you not to give the discount. Chains that have customer lifetime values in the 3x, 5x, 10x single purchase range almost HAVE to give the discount to protect the future purchase potential.

R

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How much are we talking about? Is this customer a repeat customer? I think Harry has a good idea.

Definitely not a repeat customer. As mentioned, very little eBay traffic is comprised of repeat customers.
Due to the nature of my store, I probably have more repeats than most, but even still, less than 25% of my business is a repeat.

What's ironic is that I did end up refunding part of her order. For whatever reason, it (and one other order) missed my shipment pile until she sent an email, a week after it should have gone out, asking when I'd shipped.

So, in addition to shipping immediately, I refunded her shipping cost because that was my fault.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

You're lucky she didn't just cancel the order when she found out that, not only had it NOT shipped yet, you wouldn't honor the current price.

What?
She paid the current price. (Isn't that what this entire thread was about?)
She did not purchase during the sale.

Her eCheck didn't clear until the last day of the sale, so even if I'd shipped as promptly as I usually do, I would have mailed it after the sale was over anyway. The sale does not figure in to this transaction in any way, shape or form, nor should it.
As mentioned previously, I think it's completely unethical to grant a special price to one customer and not every other.

I did screw up on her shipping. It should have gone out several days before it did. If only I were perfect... Life would be so much easier.
But, consequently, the cost was on me and I refunded her shipping.

So far as "lucky" I guess I'm not seeing that either. She either thinks she got a fair deal or she doesn't. My business practices won't change one way or the other.
99.9% of my customers are happy and my feedback and DSRs reflect i and, as has been mentioned, difficult customers are not worth the time and effort it takes to please.
If she does become difficult, I'll put her on my blocked list. No big deal.
But so far this customer has not been particularly difficult and hopefully will remain so.

__________________
~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop