Please read before you bid!

I spent the last few days working on my ‘priorities’ in a new template design.

My priorities, of the information that I will display first for this new product range is safety, ease of use and quality.

But after receiving 3 negs on my account today I am starting to think I should make the first thing I mention “Please READ all shipping information BEFORE bidding.”

The negatives read as follows …

“can’t support a company that continually rips me off on postage !!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“cost of postage far outwieghs any positive feeling”

and my favourite

“can’t justify postage costs .what rate are you going by .it would less via USSR.”

*sigh*

As a eBay seller I often notice neutrals and negatives on my accounts and others that are a little wierd. Wierd, in that they are often about shipping, or warranty terms that are clearly stated in the listing.

For example, we make it quite clear that our shipping is overnight air courier. Thats what you pay for. You buy product, and it often arrives next day.

We mention in our template that shipping is $9.95 courier in 3 places, and we also have a very large ad that displays the cost as well.

So it annoys me when someone leaves a negative about shipping cost because:

• the information is presented clearly in the template
• “continually” implies they have bought from us before
• they bought more than one product (they had plenty of chances to check shipping cost) and we combine shipping.
• we ask customers to contact us before leaving feedback if they have any issue
• We are still cheaper than our main competition (we pretty much always have been)
• We don’t want someone who isn’t happy to pay for our courier service!

Id love to see a quote from the USSR. I still reckon we’d be cheaper than that…

Do you have these issues as a seller? Do you have a good way to avoid negatives like this?

If so, I would love to know how you do it!