Asking Ebayers with 0 FB to message first... why?

[Zithy]

I see it but never really understood why people want those with low or no feedback to message them. To see if they speak English? Because there's less risk if the person talks to you?

And if/when they message, what do you tell them or ask them?

I was leery when you could no longer weed out the zero feedback buyers, but since then I've sold to quite a few without any problems. And not just $1 items, but a few in the $200-300 range. No bidding, they were all BINs. I would think that a person who wanted to flake would do so no matter if they contacted you beforehand or not, but I could easily be missing something. Is there a simple explanation that I'm unaware of?

 

[marterburn]

To put it simply, if they take the effort to message, they'll more than likely take the effort to pay.

There's also no harm in having them message first. If it decreases the shadiness by just a little bit, it's worth it to the seller.

But what does it guarantee you? Nothing.

 

[Mr.Whipple]

I laugh when people have things like that or, you are not allowed to bid unless you have so much feedback.. Everyone has to start with zero and I dont think most of these sellers would of appreciated that when they started. Personally think ebay should not allow sellers to cancel bids for low feedback with a new buyer. Unless they have burned you in the past. I have a selling account and decided to start a buying account. Someone I know actually cancelled my bid on cards, I messaged them and told them it was me. And said it was fine for me to bid now, I decided not to and moved on..

 

[tidefan12]

I see a lot of card sellers on eBay and wonder how they could possibly be doing any business b/c their listings contain so many rules and general negativity. I'm paraphrasing here, but I actually saw a listing for a game used baseball lot the other day where the seller PAID EXTRA for the sublisting and put in there something to the effect of "RELISTED B/C SOME LYING SCUMBAG DIDN'T PAY!!" And yes, the words "lying scumbag" were actually used. As a buyer, I don't care what the circumstances were behind the other guy not paying you. I only care whether I win or not, and frankly, I'd probably be a lot less likely to want to buy from you if you're bashing other customers publicly with your listings.

Having said that, I think having 0 or low feedback folks message you might actually be used in a positive way. If you're customer service savvy, why not use it as an opportunity not to imply that they're gonna stiff you, but to have them give you some idea of what or who they like to collect, what they think of your listings and/or Store, etc..........just getting to know them. Your competitor is going to be too busy with rules and regulations and driving away what might be a very loyal and perfectly good customer base! And they're certainly not going to take the time to engage those customers in a positive way because they don't have a sense of how to treat a customer.

I know there are thousands of eBay horror stories out there. I've been pretty lucky so far (sound effect: knocking on wood).....only had a few non-payers who bought and then deleted their eBay account the next day. I blame eBay for not policing that any better than they do as much as I do the deadbeat buyer. But every customer is different, and the sins of one shouldn't be to the detriment of another.