ebay sellers: answering questions = increased profit

[Runscott]

Obviously no one violated any rules. Quite honestly, I have no business buying what I was prepared to buy , but you know that how goes.

Tony - Yes, I'm aware that stuff comes up and sellers can't respond. However, if you are consigning items, you owe it to your consignors to be prepared to respond to customer questions, (even on the last day of the auction) and if you can't, having someone else available to at least say "I can't respond at the moment, but will get back with you....". I think ebay even has an automated feature that will handle that for you. If you can't do these things, then you aren't giving your consignors the best bang for their buck.

And if it is planned, shutting things down 9+ hours prior to auction end is not a good thing for your consignors. I hope you are not telling us that you do that.

[Craig M]

Frustrating!

I ask at least a dozen questions per day to eBay sellers and may get one or two responses so this gives you an idea of guys responding to questions.

My question is always a simple one.

Do you have a pic or scan of the reverse?

Why in the heck would you go through the effort in selling a card on eBay and have just one pic and it is that of the front of the card?

Would a person not get more interest in their card if a possible buyer saw a pic or scan of the reverse to see what brand it is, what series it is, what factory number, any missing paper, etc?

Yet the seller will list a ten page description on how cards are graded.

Frustrating to say the least.

Craig

[smotan_02]

Another perspective is that sometimes sellers can not access eBay from their workplace. They may receive an email notification about your question, but will be unable to answer until they are home. I cant access eBay from work, so when these conversation pop up with just a link to eBay, I pretty much have to just skip over the thread.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by smotan_02

Another perspective is that sometimes sellers can not access eBay from their workplace. They may receive an email notification about your question, but will be unable to answer until they are home. I cant access eBay from work, so when these conversation pop up with just a link to eBay, I pretty much have to just skip over the thread.

+1 eBay is one of the few blocked sites at my office

[quinnsryche]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Obviously no one violated any rules. Quite honestly, I have no business buying what I was prepared to buy , but you know that how goes.

Tony - Yes, I'm aware that stuff comes up and sellers can't respond. However, if you are consigning items, you owe it to your consignors to be prepared to respond to customer questions, (even on the last day of the auction) and if you can't, having someone else available to at least say "I can't respond at the moment, but will get back with you....". I think ebay even has an automated feature that will handle that for you. If you can't do these things, then you aren't giving your consignors the best bang for their buck.

And if it is planned, shutting things down 9+ hours prior to auction end is not a good thing for your consignors. I hope you are not telling us that you do that.

Scott, absolutely not. I did not realize he was one who takes in consignments. Knowing this now, I would say he needs to be available for his consigners' sake.
With this info I would tend to lean your way now. I was taking it as he was just another guy selling his stuff.

[jhs5120]

9 hours isn't enough time to assume a response.

If this seller was a consignor and he is known for his consigning, I am assuming he had quite a bit of items for sale. Yes, the consignee owes certain things to the consignor (ie. properly listing the item, quality photos, effective titles, etc.) but answering questions within 9 hour might be a stretch. I would certainly expect them to answer questions in a timely manner, but sometimes it's hard to keep up with questions and running a business. The most I've ever done on eBay in terms of quantity was around 300 items in a week. It was impossible to keep up with shipping, listing, questions and my day job (forget personal life). I normally give sellers a day or two to get back to me and after that, I normally will send them a reminder. Whenever the listing is about to end and I have a question, I will ask, but normally I will not expect a response.

On a side note, was it Probstein? Not to fire up this debate again, but I had 50 items end last night on consignment and I would find it ironic. Overall, I was happy with the prices.

[Runscott]

Jason - yes, sometimes it is tough to answer questions. It's that way with any business. You either do it, or you get into another line of work.

I've been there, as have many others on this board. Good customer service is not something that every business owner excels at.

As a side note - the ebay messages were going to his spam folder. He had others besides mine.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Runscott

As a side note - the ebay messages were going to his spam folder. He had others besides mine.

Scott,

Wait...maybe I am reading this incorrectly.

Someone who makes or supplements an income through eBay has messages from eBay landing in his spam folder.

Unless I am mistaken, that is one extremely sloppy seller right there...provided that they are being truthful about the spam folder bit.

I agree with you being a bit frustrated here, and with those who think 9 hours is a reasonable time frame for asking questions. Any time I have auctioned something on eBay, I made it a point to check into the listing frequently on the day that it ends...not to mention the emails that go to my phone, email account, and messages folder on eBay.

Additionally...I schedule auctions to end when I am confident I will be able to actively manage them.

I have never consigned, so I really can't speak for those who do; however, hope that a person consigning my item would approach the auction with an eye towards maximizing the hammer price. In my opinion, this would include sending an answer to someone asking questions 9 hours before the close of auction.

Just my two cents.

Best Regards,

Eric