Trying to understand this buyer

[cosmicray]

Back in November a customer sent me an ASAQ about a LEGO part that was sold out (On Hold). I told theem I did not have it, and none were expected. They replied that I should notify them when I get it back in stock.

In January the same customer asked me about the same part. I sent them a reply suggesting they go get it from a seller over on BL who showed inventory, and sent them a link to BL. They did not respond.

In March the same customer asked me about the same part. This time I mentioned the two previous inquiries, and asked if they got the January reply. They have not responded.

After some snooping around the web, I think I have them identified. One of the pages they pinned on Pineterst suggests they may be involved with mystery shopper.

Not sure what to think about it now.

[school-yearbooks]

You are WAY more tolerant of iffy buyers than I. lol

I would have ignored them completely after the first contact.

As my father would say ... a fire can not burn without fuel.

.

[cosmicray]

[tigercreekgifts]

Odd. Why would a mystery shopper be casing you? Unless it's something they are doing for ecrater as a whole. We are not large national companies, just small businesses selling out of our homes or possibly with small warehouses so, is it possible that a mystery shopper or maybe more than one have been assigned to pick out random ecrater sellers to see how the site is as a whole?

I don't think that would be fair for all of us though. If they end up picking 3 bad seeds out of 5 sellers that were mystery shopped, it makes us all look bad so not sure what their goal is.

Not saying you are a bad seller, I meant that it would just be our luck to have them pick all bad seed sellers for the ones they actually checkout with.

[MoonwishesStore]

I can't even imagine that ecrater would fork out for a mystery shopper program as it would be much cheaper to kick out the bad sellers that we already know about. I think some buyers are just weird and highly illiterate apparently since they can't seem to read.

I just found an ask the seller a question a few minutes ago:

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

Moonwishes why is that item still visible? If it is sold but you think you will have more later, it should be hidden.

I recently sold an item on another site and since the order came a few minutes before I was headed to the PO and was easy to pack, I took it with me to mail It arrived safely a few days later. Last week I got a snail mail letter from the buyer confirming that the item had arrived and she was happy with it, however because she had had problems placing the order she had canceled the transaction and now wanted to pay me for the item. I checked my accounts and saw nothing amiss so I wrote the site admin to see if there had been a cancelation or attempted one. I wrote the woman an email explaining my situation and what I was doing about it. Heard nothing back from the woman. Got an answer from the admin that there had been on cancelation. So sent another detailed email to the woman with their response. I have never heard from the woman. I would have thought a woman conscientious enough to try to pay for an item she thought she had gotten for free (it was almost $100) would have acknowledged the emails. So I have a lot of questions about the whole matter.

Sometimes I think the mysterious questions and purchases we get come from consumer groups investigating various sites. On another forum someone posted a link to a major publication's review of alternative sites for online sales. eCRATER was not listed among them. Many that were listed are start ups. I'm not sure why eCRATER gets overlooked so often.[/code]

[MoonwishesStore]

Maggie, I found while checking out visibility of my items several years ago that Etsy and ebay were top dog for patterns and then I clicked on the links. Almost inevitably the item was sold, but the listing wasn't taken down. I figured they weren't the only ones that could play that game! I make sure anything that is sold is on hold and for over a year now put the blurb into the listing that the item is sold (and when I find one that doesn't have the blurb I add it in). Many times I have gotten that same pattern back into stock and so all I have to do is take it off hold, take out the sold blurb and my listing is ready to go with links & promotions of long standing. The has been couple of craft patterns that I keep finding, they sell out quickly and then I find another copy at the thrift store for a dime. One of the patterns every time I find a copy I raise the price another $5 as it is hard to find for the most part unless you are someone like me looking for uncut copies. Anyhow, by not deleting the listing like I used to, those links are there for when someone is wanting it. Due to google shinanigans, if I did a new listing for it, it might be buried on the 100th page of search, but the older links seem to keep their power to stay in front of the pack.

Obviously not something that you can do if all you ever sell is one of a kind items and never get a repeat. But even if you do, it is a great way to help bring people into your store and if they ask you a question you can draw their attention to something similar that you may have for sale. I just consider it part of promoting my store. Same as people that are looking for something like what you have for sale but they are misspelling the main search keyword and so can't find them. I've had customers do that, "do you have a balero, bowlero, etc. pattern"? Sure I tell them. I have bolero patterns and do a search for them for the size range if they mentioned that and then give them a link to see all the boleros that I have. Just another way to give good customer service.

[A-Better-Way]

In my opinion maybe possibly explaining that ecrater puts the word "hold" instead of sold might help.
Every time they see the hold thing, then they email.

Then again I could be 100% wrong.

[tigercreekgifts]

I stopped deleting sold items a while back. Before, I would keep the item hidden until I knew the threat of a paypal dispute had passed then delete them. Now, since paypal has greatly extended the disputes period I decided to just leave them up for safe keeping & because it's true about old links holding up in searches. I've had ASAQ emails come thru inquiring about items that I knew I sold months ago. But I took Moon's suggestions & edited all of my sold items to say the item was sold but please come visit my store to see the other great products I have for sale. According to GA, I'm getting visits to my store from those hidden items. So, people that do read the descriptions are seeing the sold out memo & coming to my store anyway.

So I see no need to delete if it could lead to another sale possibly. Also took Moon's advice to not delete pins for sold items! I started leaving the pins up & affixing a sold out note & sure enough, still getting views to my store from it however, people are still pinning those items but I guess if it leads other people to click on my store link no harm done. Not deleting is handy. I used to only deal in one of a kind handmade items or vintage thrift store finds that were not one of a kind but I knew I'd never find another one again. But lately, now that I am restocking my toys sections I have been lucky enough to get the same 3 hard to find toys back in stock 3 times in a row so relisting was as easy as simply un-hiding the items. Didn't think I'd get any back in stock because as I said, those toys are hard to find & valued among collectors but as luck would have it, found 2 more identicals of those 3 toys back to back.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

It is against the rules and regulations of eCRATER to have items showing that are not available for sale. Shame on you Moonwishes and Mysterious Rose particularly since both of you love to explain the rules to other sellers.

Other sites don't have the same rules about sold items. ArtFire keeps every item sold on their site in an archived file that is actively viewed by shoppers who drive me crazy asking the price of a sold item. Etsy allows sellers to list the same item as many times as they want as long as they pay 20 cents each time.

I move sold items to a sold file after I hide them. I have no intention of listing them again but now that the 6 month return is allowed by PP, I keep them that long. If I should find the same scarf in the same condition in the future I could use that listing again but chances of that are slim. But by hiding them and moving them I can find them easily if there is a problem or I do want to relist.

[tigercreekgifts]

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

Maggie, I'm surprised by your replies and it shows a lack of close reading which is unusual for you. Are you a little "under the weather" and not feeling well? I do a very similar procedure as Moonwishes, MysteriousRose and yourself. Once an item sells I add a note to the description stating the item is sold and inviting the customer to browse my store. I always confirm the item is hidden. Recently, I added one more step. I go to the item page, either in my store or the marketplace depending on where the sale happened, click on the show full description link and save the page to a pdf file in case there is ever a question about the item. Then I add my note regarding the item being sold and confirm the item is hidden. At one time I moved the items to a different "sold" category, but I no longer take that action.

Even though an item is hidden, it can be seen from a link. The link could be from a search engine, a blog post, facebook, pinterest, or simply a saved bookmark. As long as the customer clicks on a direct link, they will be taken to the hidden item. I just checked and my store counter is showing 13 hits this month for one item that I sold over 3 years ago. That item gets hits every month from links in lots of places on the web that bring the hits. I have hope of finding another copy and will use the links for a quick sale. Since it was a higher dollar item with a really good profit, I really look for that item when I'm picking. Hope springs eternal that I'll find another.

[MoonwishesStore]

As a reminder, as long as your sold out item is marked as on HOLD, there is NO limit as to how long you can leave it that way. Putting a blurb at the top of the description on items that are on hold, is just to help the person that bothers to read, understand that the item itself is not for sale, but this lady that I had mentioned had apparently not even bothered to read the description. Even before I pack up an item, I double check that the listing is on hold and has the sold blurb, just in case someone else comes along wanting the same thing.

Because of the very nature of what I sell, if a sewing magazine uses a particular pattern in a project, that particular pattern starts flying out the door, which is why I sold fives copies of a pattern in various sizes to Germany in one month once. Before I started with the sold blurb and because of links as sheila described, I had numerous requests for a pattern that I had sold out of and I suspect I could have sold at least 20 more copies. I actually wrote to the Vogue company to suggest they reprint the pattern as it was in great demand.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

Sorry but both Moonwishes and Mysterious Rose failed to mention in this topic that they hid their items after marking them on hold. If you mark it sold and put it in a sold file and mark it hide this item, it is not viewable on ecrater after the next feed and eventually fades from Google. I've had items vanish off eCRATER within an hour.

So, no I am not apologetic nor am I under the weather.

[SheilaDeesPostcards]