Refunds, Refunds, and More Refunds

I must be the only person in the world who hates making mistakes. For the second time in a month, I'm having to refund money. I realized there's no way I could re-ship items I mailed to the wrong person in time to reach the right person. So, another expensive mistake. Oh well, live and learn.

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The prospect of making a really good sale on e-bay has me excited. I bought a cool book, "Photographs of Mary Todd Lincoln" at a very good price, and now it looks like it may sell for a decent profit. There's some interest in it on e-bay, but no one has bid on it yet.

I'd guess someone bought the book 30 years ago at a museum; it sat on their shelf until they decided to clean out the house and get rid of stuff. It appears to have never been actually read. It's all the known photos of Mrs. Lincoln, known at the time of publication in 1969.

That's the kind of narrow, specialized interest e-bay is best equipped to handle.

Customer Finally Paid - Now What?

That lady who was so slow to pay finally got her act together. The payment showed in my account Thursday. Naturally she wants priority mail.

I got a e-mail from the woman I shipped the clothes to by mistake. She got the right shipment and the mailer and sent the stuff back.

I guess if the stuff shows up in today's mail I can ship it on to the right person. If not, I'll make yet another refund. Darn!
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Pretty tired today. Spent all night at the hospital Saturday; went back after church for an emergency baptism. The hospital fit about a dozen people into a big room that looked like and OR. The pastor performed a beautiful, simple ceremony that brought great comfort to the parents and everbody else. All the women and several of the men cried. My friend's baby has a very poor prognosis.

And, of course, back to my real job today. Life is sure fun.

A Tub of Comics

My husband is so funny.

He bought a tub of comic books. Pawing through them, he got pretty excited. There were some nice books there, some 20 years old, and some first issues.

I saw a pile of ex library copies of comic books. Very doubtful we could break even on the tub. This became even more depressing when I checked e-Bay and found that lots of 100 were not getting any bids, even when the minimum bid is $5.99.

Imagine my excitement, though, when I found a couple of the comics listed on Amazon for a much higher price than hubby paid.

Now I just have to pry them out of his clutches.

What's Slower than Dead?

Shipped zero books yesterday, had one order today. Looks like that negative feedback really hurt.

Listed a bunch of CDs. I bought a carton of about 50 or so for $15.00. The man selling them said his kids left them behind when they moved out. They were all artists I'd never heard of. Listing them all will keep me busy for a few days. Many of them will sell for $0.75, so I make the princely sum of $0.45 on any that sell. Mailers cost $0.18 each, but the shipping reimbursement usually covers that.

I'm beginning to think "learn by doing" might not have been the smartest business plan.

So Much for Perfect Feedback

Phew! What a day.

I spent the day and evening at the hospital, staying with a friend who's baby came very close to dying.

When I finally got home, had a bite to eat, cleaned my kitchen and visited with my kids; then I logged on, only to find a very angry e-mail.

Well, I deserved it. This guy bought a 2 CD set from me, and I only sent him one of the discs. I can understand his anger and frustration. So, ok, as soon as I read the e-mail, I issued a full refund and an apology.

Then when I logged on to Amazon, I noticed my previously perfect feedback score had been ruined. The guy left a very negative message.

I am disappointed that he didn't give me any opportunity to make my mistake up to him. He said the CD looked like a used hockey puck - well, I didn't see it that way, and I did play it once. Maybe it did look bad, but it played ok. But I very clearly remember only one CD in the jewel case. The description on Amazon says it's a 2 CD set. My mistake.

He gets to keep the CD and his money. Well, that's ok, too. It's just business. If I get upset over every $4.34 sale that goes bad, I'll never move ahead.

What I would like to do, though, is find a way to block him as a customer from dealing with me. I would like to deal with people who give sellers a chance to make good on mistakes before leaving bad feedback.

I know e-bay offers an option to block bidders. I just haven't been able to locate one on Amazon.

Oh, and today I found out my friend's baby is expected to survive. Poor thing was born without a heartbeat and still needs help with breathing. They think she might go home in a few weeks.

And now, it's back to work time!

Husband Messes Up

Well, I guess I get the quality of help that I pay for. Since Mike works for free......

He shipped girls clothes to the wrong address. When I got the e-mail from the buyer, I checked my stock, and there, neatly wrapped in tissue paper, were the clothes I'd sold.

Ouch!

I immediately issued a full refund. The buyer was actually pretty nice about it; her e-mail described a lot I'd sold to someone else. That someone didn't pay me, so I guess it's working out okay. I don't have a fixed policy on how long to wait before I invoice someone, and just hadn't got to it.

Anyhow, I shipped the correct clothes to the buyer as soon as I could, and enclosed a pre-paid mailer asking her to ship the other stuff back to me.

My husband tells me all girls clothes are pink and yellow; he honestly doesn't know the difference between Gymboree and Old Navy. I told him to check the labels. This conversation is not finished.

I hope the buyer ships those clothes back. Just in case the other lady decides to pay me.

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Shipped nine books in the last 2 days. I guess that makes me still very small time. And I broke even on most of them; earned less than $10.00 on the highest priced book. This business is harder than it looked a few months ago.