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Be
Careful What You Say in eMails, They Can Earn You Negative Feedback
I’m going to
have a moan today, but it’s a moan with a purpose, and it concerns
the way you are perceived by others and how a momentary lapse in how
you present yourself in emails can have terrible consequences on
eBay.
Let me tell
you as it happened: this morning someone emailed, saying he hadn’t
received a reply to the email he sent me, he was really ‘P’d Off’,
contracted here to prevent upsetting more polite people than my
contact. ‘I will be leaving you negative feedback if you don’t
get off your **** and sort this out NOW!’
I looked for
his email, I couldn’t find one, I wrote back asking: ‘Where did you
send the email please?’ He returned with an email address that
was nothing to do with me or my business, still using four letter
words to express his dissatisfaction! I replied: ‘I’m sorry, I
don’t recognise that email address. It is not mine. Kindly
advise me.’ He wrote back saying he had confused me with
someone else, there was no apology, but thankfully no rude words
either! Inside my eBay account I noticed he had already left
positive feedback for something he’d bought from me several weeks
back. I was tempted, very tempted, to leave him negative
feedback, partly for being rude, mostly because I think someone like
him is best thrown off eBay and my negative might just tip the
scales in favour of that happening given he had a string of
negatives for being so rude.
As it
happened I didn’t leave a negative, I won’t be leaving him feedback
at all, and I’ve added him to the list of people I don’t want to bid
on my auctions.
The point of
this story? Purely to say that we all should check first
before upsetting other people, especially fellow eBayers with
potential to leave negative feedback or otherwise jeopardise our
business endeavours.
I’m going to
admit, I’m one of the worst offenders, I really do like getting my
own back on rude people, but not if that means getting negative
feedback in the process. And I don’t use naughty words to make
my point.
I do
sometimes feel like being incredibly rude to someone who has just
been rude to me, and in the heat of the moment I really have created
replies I later regretted. Those replies weren’t rude, but
they were very often childish, usually extremely unprofessional.
So, to prevent over-reacting, I created a string of answers to most
frequently asked questions and most commonly received insults,
they’re placed in my signature file box and I pick and choose the
most appropriate at any time.
They go like
this, and you can copy any of these:
* Thank
you for your email. I am afraid I don’t seem to have received
your earlier correspondence. Could you please send me
information about when you sent the email and which email address
you used? (You are accused of not answering your emails)
* Thank
you for your email. I am sorry you feel that way but I assure
you I work very hard to keep my buyers happy and always offer a
money back guarantee on all my eBay listings. I notice however
that you have not taken me up on my money back guarantee. If
you would like to do so, return the product as soon as possible and
your payment will be refunded by return mail.’ (Complaint that
product is not as described or over-priced, etc. This is
usually accompanied by insults and threats to report you to eBay,
PayPal, Trading Standards, etc.)
* Thank
you for your email requesting feedback for the product you bought
from me. Our system is programmed only to leave feedback
once it has already been left for us. This helps us check that
customers have received and are happy with their products and may
highlight new ways to maintain our high standards of customer care.’
(Of course you and I know this is all BS, I just don’t leave
feedback until it has been left for me. Otherwise I risk
giving positive feedback to someone whose cheque may later bounce or
who may leave a negative for me).
It’s really
hard sometimes to keep your calm when the other person is being rude
or threatening to report you for something you haven’t done.
But it’s always best to stay calm, reply as nicely as possible, even
if you’re almost at boiling point!
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