Re: Question for Steve Shulenski re: Ebay

Hey Lisa,

Pete hit the nail on the head. The Internet is all about "instant gratification" and there is nothing more frustrating than paying for something online and then having to wait a long time for it.

On a "Dutch", once they send payment ship the item.

Or, as Pete cited, you should openly tell your (potential) customers what your shipping policies might be. Let's face it - with fuel cost now it might not be a bad idea to only ship twice a week by policy. (or perhaps even once)

Any delay that leaves a customer feeling as though you might not ship what they paid for is asking for a negative feedback and/or a request for a refund.

I recently purchased a new camera for my wife and the seller contacted me almost immediately. "I am sorry but that camera is currently out of stock. Can you wait a week? Or I can ship a similar/better model and I can also issue an immediate full refund."

Now THAT is eBay customer service! Look at the message copied from the email. The seller went out of his way to remove me from the loop so to speak. His contact was fast, honest, and he offered just about every method of remediation that could be offered. In the end I waited for the camera and when he shipped it only 4 days later he included some free goodies for my trouble.

That, I believe, is the difference in my measure between the truly successful eBay sellers and those who try but never quite succeed. The truly successful understand the concept of filling the customer's desires and dreams from their purchase and they do everything they can to assure that this occurs after the purchase. And I haven't even mentioned the importance of post-sale customer support. That could be the subject of an entirely new post. : )