eBay DSR Protection or Things I Can't Help But Dwell On

If you have any ideas on how to fix any of these things, please do share below.  I do completely understand the customer’s perspective on eBay, and e-commerce in general — that is, “I paid, gimme my stuff, and quick” — so I’m not a big believer in excuses, but there are a few mistakes I make from time to time, little ones usually, which I don’t see any way I can correct.

1.  I claim not to charge handling fees on Priority Mail, and I really don’t intend too, but if I display the shipping charge on my shipping label printed through PayPal, which has correctly been recommended by Henrietta of RedInkDiary, my PayPal discount for Shipping shows up.  In other words, yes, it does cost $4.95 to ship a Priority Package to you, really, that’s on the USPS rate sheet, but it only costs me $4.80 when I print my label online.  That’s not so bad, but when I charge $8-plus for a 2 lb package and the label only shows $7 the change stands out to the buyer a little more.

Because of the varying weights and shipping locations of my packages I see no possible way to correct this inaccuracy.

It goes both ways too, the eBay Shipping Calculator is often a few cents off in the buyers’ favor on First Class International packages…of course, this excuse wouldn’t placate domestic customers.

2.  I really can’t control how fast my packages get to you.  I can minimize any potential USPS problems by packing my items uniformly with no strange corners or edges, clear shipping labels, a nice “Do Not Bend” stamped on each side.  But if the item falls off a stack in the mail truck and takes two weeks to reach you instead of two days, I really can’t do much to help you.

This is one sellers really need to see from the buyer’s perspective, which, need I remind you, is “I paid, gimme my stuff, and quick.“  That’s actually quite reasonable.  This is a case where the only solution I see is polite communication requesting patience, in other words, basically stalling them.  My own standard line is that “in 10 years of e-commerce I’ve never actually had a package go lost.”  And that’s true, just ask the fellow in Malaysia who paid me again 4 months after filing a PayPal claim.

A bad transaction like this is just freak chance.  You’re going to have to suck it up, eat the refund, eat the negative feedback, eat the “1″ DSR.  We all get these, but thankfully, as much as I complain about them, the USPS is on the whole pretty good.

3.  Buyer misplaces package, believes it didn’t arrive.  See number 2 above, which is why I should add during communication with buyer it may be wise to in some way politely ask if anyone else in the house takes in their mail.

4.  Buyer pays for the item, I go to ship it within 2 business days and it’s not in stock.  Let me say up front that if you sold the item through another site and forgot to remove your eBay listing, sorry, but you deserve to get hammered by your buyer.

But over the years I’ve found it a necessary evil of keeping electronic inventory (especially of unique items) that you’re going to come by this problem honestly.  It happens to me about once per year.  Your customer doesn’t want to hear it.  There’s no way to tell them about the rarity of this problem without having it come off as your suggesting they’ve won some sort of jackpot and them thinking you’re just a jackass for saying so. Perhaps if they’re reasonable they’ll understand it, but in the back of their minds they’re just thinking, “I paid, gimme my stuff, and quick.”

I actually had this one happen a couple of weeks ago (and perhaps in the back of my mind it spurred on this essay).  I sold a Johnny Weissmuller card and when I went to pack it it was nowhere to be found.  I searched my sold items and saw that I had sold a similar, though different, Weissmuller card to a buyer in Belgium a couple of months earlier.  I’d never heard from the Belgian buyer again, had received positive feedback from him, but I decided to check, and sure enough I’d sent him the wrong card.  Ouch.  There’s really no way I can write this buyer in Belgium, where beyond the ridiculousness of such an email there may also be a language barrier, and ask to correct the transaction 2 months later.

This is totally my bad, I probably packed this at 4 am one night and just screwed up.  But what’s done is done, I had to suck it up and beg buyer forgiveness from my new Weissmuller customer.

I apologized profusely and offered the buyer his choice of 1) store credit; 2) the other Weissmuller card (which was more valuable); or 3) a full refund.  His reply came in all caps: I DO NOT WISH TO COMPROMISE. REFUND ME.  That hurt a little, but he was entirely within his rights so I apologized again and issued the refund within minutes of receiving the request.

What to do?  Again, I see nothing.  This was my fault, and 2 weeks later I’m still bracing for a potential negative feedback response, but it’s yet to come.  Note: I ate the eBay fees in this case, not wishing to further antagonize the wronged buyer by requesting he complete a form to mutually dismiss the transaction.

Beware, you can be perfect packing and sometimes this one’s just going to happen: you can goof in relisting a sold item or eBay can goof for you with a double-listing glitch.  Rare, but it happens.

5.  If you don’t update your zip code on PayPal, sorry, but I’m going with what they recommend.  A few years ago when I first started using PayPal shipping I’d always contact the buyer to confirm their zip code when PayPal disagreed–their reply always indicated PayPal had it right.  I’m rolling with that.  Same case if the name of your city or town has changed.  I’m going with the PayPal suggestion without asking.

Why?  Because you can’t force the label through with the incorrect and outdated information and again, because PayPal has proven itself right in these cases 100% of the time for me — the risk of sending the item to an incorrect address seems minimal in comparison to the risk of losing a day or more in communication before shipping.

Solution.  I’m sorry, but to me this one is on PayPal.  I don’t understand why when a buyer makes payment PayPal doesn’t force them to correct incorrect information at that time.  It’d be a simple one-page screen, or pop-up even, saying here’s your revised address, please confirm,

And for god’s sake PayPal, correct everyone in Saint Louis already.  EVERYBODY from Saint Louis lists their address as St. Louis, just like the Cardinals do.  Can’t print a label with St. though, it has to be Saint.  And, of course, there are other similar cities throughout the U.S.

That’s about all I can think of on the spur of the moment.  Do you have any little problems that put your DSR’s at risk?  Let me know below, maybe we can work together on a solution.  Be honest, if it’s something you could correct, but it’s frankly not cost efficient to do so (like I believe my #5 is) say so. 

Keep our friend John “ColderICE” Lawson’s words in mind before posting:

I should probably warn you John’s video is rated PG-13 for language, but then again, so’s this site, so sorry for any potential issues.