Question:
I always thought it was Ebay etiquette to give the SELLER at least 12-24 hours to get in touch with the buyer BEFORE the buyer emails the seller. I’ve never heard that. Is this an eBay writing somewhere? It would seem to contradict both reason and the instructions with which I’m familiar–that seller and buyer should contact one another within three business days, no specificity as to who goes first or how long anybody has to wait.
To be honest, I can’t remember where I got it from – maybe from my ‘EBay – the Smart Way’ tome that I bought way back when I decided to play the Ebay game in a semi-serious way! In any case, before Ebay introduced Checkout, it always seemed to be the way things went. I suppose the other reason why it makes sense for things to be that way, is that so often that first email from the buyer will say ‘What is the total? What is your address for mailed payments?’ If the seller has already got an email underway which has all that info then the buyer’s email is sort of redundant. Also (And this is how I feel quite often) if you receive such an email from a buyer after sending them an email with all this info in then I don’t know whether I should ignore it (Which always FEELS rude) or just repeat the info. I suppose what I am saying is it would be better if there WERE an expectation of who should make first contact, as it might reduce the redundancy. (And yes, I know I could disable checkout, but I don’t want to upset my customers if they like it! 
I can see that requests for information already available are annoying. I never remember with Checkout–can’t you preload the S&H so that it’s automatically included and they don’t even need to look at the listing?
You can, I believe, but not if you are using Mister Lister, which has proven a great easement to me as I can now list my auctions for the week at a touch of a button, and then get on with reading my kids’ bedtime stories! Anna
Response:
My followup to this message from Deborah Stevenson,,, bottom-posting: I myself think it’s eBay etiquette for the seller to be thrilled if they’ve got a buyer sufficiently eager to contact them quickly and that you’re going to look back on this gripe and laugh one day .
My favorite buyers: the ones on Sunday night who understand how eBay and PayPal works, and are able to read the payment instructions at the bottom of my auctions. I sit down to watch Malcom In The Middle, go check my e-mail after the show is over, and find out I’ve got four BINs in the past 30 minutes, all of them already paid for through PayPal Instant Purchase. Nothing is more enjoyable than watching a funny TV show, and then finding out you made $50 while it was on. I love my other buyers, too, even the ones who need a lot of hand-holding, but you gotta be crazy about those do-it-yourselfers.
Response:
I always thought it was Ebay etiquette to give the SELLER at least 12-24 hours to get in touch with the buyer BEFORE the buyer emails the seller.
The ‘rule’ is that the seller and buyer have to contact each other within 3 businessdays. So the buyer can contact the seller, but I always wait for the email from the seller. I have seen auction-descriptions, where the seller specifically says that the buyer has to contact the seller after the auction. Nell
Response:
I always send the seller an immediate email with my shipping address so that they can calculate the shipping charges. If it’s a fixed shipping cost, I simply pay with PayPal without waiting for any contact from the seller. I hate those damn forms with all the hoops you have to jump through. Some things need a little more thought and contact though; I once had a five hundred pound table saw show up at my house in a tractor trailer with no lift gate ( I built a ramp out of 2×10s and plywood to slide the saw down to the ground ).
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I always thought it was Ebay etiquette to give the SELLER at least 12-24 hours to get in touch with the buyer BEFORE the buyer emails the seller. I’ve never heard that. Is this an eBay writing somewhere? It would seem to contradict both reason and the instructions with which I’m familiar–that seller and buyer should contact one another within three business days, no specificity as to who goes first or how long anybody has to wait. To be honest, I can’t remember where I got it from – maybe from my ‘EBay – the Smart Way’ tome that I bought way back when I decided to play the Ebay game in a semi-serious way! In any case, before Ebay introduced Checkout, it always seemed to be the way things went. I suppose the other reason why it makes sense for things to be that way,
I agree that it makes perfect sense for the seller to make first contact. However, I’m splitting a hair because I feel like it . I don’t think that translates into its being the buyer’s obligation to *wait* for the seller, which is what your statement suggested to me. In general, when I’ve emailed first it’s been because the seller has been in no particular hurry, to put it politely; I find it easier for the seller to email first too. On the exceptions, when I’ve been going out of town immediately after auction close, I’ve arranged with the seller beforehand that we’d proceed that way should I win. If the seller has already got an email underway which has all that info then the buyer’s email is sort of redundant. Also (And this is how I feel quite often) if you receive such an email from a buyer after sending them an email with all this info in then I don’t know whether I should ignore it (Which always FEELS rude) or just repeat the info. I suppose what I am saying is it would be better if there WERE an expectation of who should make first contact, as it might reduce the redundancy.
Ah, you’re a woman after my own heart here. I hate the "Am I supposed to answer this or not?" emails, whether eBay related or not. I’m wondering if you can put some phrase in your EOA email to forestall the problem, but it’s too close to my bedtime for me to think of an example Basically, I’m just arguing that while it may be easier if you send out the first email, buyers who email you so quickly they beat you to the punch are fine, eager customers and not to be considered rude. Until their eagerness to pay proves to be considerably less . Deborah Stevenson
Response:
I always thought it was Ebay etiquette to give the SELLER at least 12-24 hours to get in touch with the buyer BEFORE the buyer emails the seller.
I’ve never heard that. Is this an eBay writing somewhere? It would seem to contradict both reason and the instructions with which I’m familiar–that seller and buyer should contact one another within three business days, no specificity as to who goes first or how long anybody has to wait. I myself think it’s eBay etiquette for the seller to be thrilled if they’ve got a buyer sufficiently eager to contact them quickly and that you’re going to look back on this gripe and laugh one day . More seriously, I don’t think that is actually an established notion anywhere, and I don’t actually think it’s the seller’s prerogative to make the initial post-auction contact if the buyer happens to send out the first email. I send my EOA email with ALL of the necessary info, usually within minutes of the auction end. It irritates me somewhat when I receive an email from the buyer, AFTER I have sent mine, either requesting info which was in that email,
Remember, these things can cross in the ether–when you sent it isn’t necessarily when your buyer *got* it. Though, of course, sometimes you’re just getting email from people who didn’t read yours. or more usually, one of those automated checkout generated emails, which say that the buyer wishes to know the total. I find this latter particularly annoying because I always state S&H cost in the item listing, and therefore the total should always available to the buyer.
I can see that requests for information already available are annoying. I never remember with Checkout–can’t you preload the S&H so that it’s automatically included and they don’t even need to look at the listing? Please note, I am ecstatic with buyers who simply pay me by Paypal, using the info in the listing, even if I am notified of that fact before I get the EOA email out. I’m not an unreasonable person!
I don’t think you are either . But I think it *is* unreasonable to assume a seller prerogative for first email if it isn’t stated anywhere on eBay, and that if it isn’t stated anywhere, you’ll be happier if you just revel in having punctual buyers rather than being annoyed they don’t keep to a rule they couldn’t know about. Your Big Seller does sound a tad inflexible, but maybe his system is automated?
In general, sellers like that don’t have websites I can work anyway. If dealing with the automated system is a requirement of the auction, I think it needs to say so in the auction; fortunately none of them have had it as a requirement. I confess that, as a customer, I don’t really warm to being asked to do more work to make life easier for the seller anyway, and that’s how those "Here are more hoops you must jump through" emails strike me. Maybe their systems *are* automated. Why need that be my problem? Deborah Stevenson
Response:
A prolific buyer, and a lazy one at that, I have devloped a short, simple, foolproof process to communicate with, and get payment to, sellers. For the most part all they have to do is say, "Yes, that’s the right amount. My mailing address is xxxx xxth Street, xxx xxxxx, XX, xxxxx-xxxx." I’m usually in a position to send the e-mail requesting that response within an hour or two of auction’s close, more often within minutes. The sellers I like are the ones who write back within a few hours, saying something like I quoted above. Once I have their response, I reply with, "The check should be in the mail tomorrow." With expected Sunday/holiday exceptions, I will have done my part within 24 hours of auction end. Now comes the vent: Mr BIG SELLER, system in place, manages to ignore my e-mail and have his machine crank out an HTML document with a plethora of INSTRUCTIONS. Between him and his BIG SELLER HELPER service they have managed to make their instructions sound like ORDERS and their requests like THREATS. Example from real life: "I look forward to promptly shipping your item. Please help me quickly process your order by clicking on the link at the bottom of this e-mail. The link will take you to a secure checkout form, which allows you to quickly enter your shipping and payment information. "Please do not attempt to complete your purchase using any other method, as it may delay shipment of your item. If you have any questions, please reply to this email." Now I have gone to Mr BIG SELLER’s secure checkout form, and it asks for nothing I have not already supplied in my (15-hours-earlier) e-mail to him, an e-mail that cost me fifteen seconds in cut-and-paste and Alt-I-S+ activity. His form is going to be a 35- or 45-second project, no big deal time-wise, but an affront to my proactive orientation. Not to mention a demonstration of BIG SELLER arrogance and a bald-faced threat to stall shipment of my item if I have the temerity to USE ANOTHER METHOD. Well, too late: I have already used another method, sent an independent, early, all-singing all-dancing, tailored-to-his-size e-mail, unwarned as I was by any text on the auction page that I would be stepping into the parlor of a CHECKOUT NAZI if I won his auction (terrific deal, by the way, and shipping was only about half a gouge). Of course, he’s going to fool with my foolproof overture by ignoring it and PENALIZE ME if I don’t comply. I comply. Then I do what I would have done if he had replied with my favorite, "Yes, yes, OH YES !" e-mail: send well-identified payment, completing my part of the arrangement. I will not hear from him when my payment arrives. I will not hear from him when my item ships. I will only hear from him if he is jealous of his feedback and notices I did not put any up for him. I have no interest in any petty contest with any petty BIG SELLERS. My item will arrive sooner than later. I will be pleased, and I will not give feedback until and unlesss feedback is given to me by this BIG SELLER CHECKOUT NAZI. If I am feeling generous at receipt of item, I will send the oberfuhrer a polite message suggesting a little softening of the language of his "Instructions" and a litlle diminution in the undercurrent of THREAT in his "Please . . ." request. In which case I will probably eat a Neg if he hasn’t already posted Pos, and giggle as I develop a new sig: — Frank S No Soup For Me ! PS: I may never know if my suggestions have any effect on the seller: I will not read his e-mail or look at his auctions again. I will have given him the big toodle-oo, once the item is safely in my hands. Life is too short to let a checkout NAZI mess with its sweetness. PPS: if you are a checkout NAZI, stick it in your ear. Now. Hard. PPPS: you don’t have to sell a lot of stuff to be a BIG SELLER.
Response:
"Frank S" wrote A prolific buyer, and a lazy one at that, I have devloped a short, simple, foolproof process to communicate with, and get payment to, sellers. For the most part all they have to do is say, "Yes, that’s the right amount. My mailing address is xxxx xxth Street, xxx xxxxx, XX, xxxxx-xxxx." I’m usually in a position to send the e-mail requesting that response within an hour or two of auction’s close, more often within minutes. The sellers I like are the ones who write back within a few hours, saying something like I quoted above. Once I have their response, I reply with, "The check should be in the mail tomorrow." With expected Sunday/holiday exceptions, I will have done my part within 24 hours of auction end.
<rant snipped Bid on my stuff, Frank. I can make you happy 
— YMH Laurie "The point at issue is not whether Maine and Texas may now talk to one another, but rather whether they have anything significant to say." Henry David Thoreau , reacting to the news that Maine and Texas had been connected by telegraph lines
Response:
A prolific buyer, and a lazy one at that, I have devloped a short, simple, <snip PPPS: you don’t have to sell a lot of stuff to be a BIG SELLER.
Decaf, Frank. Decaf.
Response:
A prolific buyer, and a lazy one at that, I have devloped a short, simple, foolproof process to communicate with, and get payment to, sellers. For the most part all they have to do is say, "Yes, that’s the right amount. My mailing address is xxxx xxth Street, xxx xxxxx, XX, xxxxx-xxxx." I’m usually in a position to send the e-mail requesting that response within an hour or two of auction’s close, more often within minutes.
I always thought it was Ebay etiquette to give the SELLER at least 12-24 hours to get in touch with the buyer BEFORE the buyer emails the seller. I send my EOA email with ALL of the necessary info, usually within minutes of the auction end. It irritates me somewhat when I receive an email from the buyer, AFTER I have sent mine, either requesting info which was in that email, or more usually, one of those automated checkout generated emails, which say that the buyer wishes to know the total. I find this latter particularly annoying because I always state S&H cost in the item listing, and therefore the total should always available to the buyer. Please note, I am ecstatic with buyers who simply pay me by Paypal, using the info in the listing, even if I am notified of that fact before I get the EOA email out. I’m not an unreasonable person! Your Big Seller does sound a tad inflexible, but maybe his system is automated? If I’ve already been paid I don’t bother with my normal EOA, simply write back and say thanks, with a planned shipping date; but I have that luxury because I hand generate all my emails. Although, as a side note, I much prefer it if I HAVE sent my usual EOA because I use that EOA to generate my Shipping Notice email (Forward; cut & paste). Anna
If you like this post and would like to receive updates from this blog, please subscribe our feed.