When you’ve sold on eBay long enough, you’ll encounter an angry customer from time to time, and it’s not always your fault. Let’s talk about how to handle an angry customer on eBay.
What do you do when you get somebody who bought something from you and reaches out and is already just livid? How do you handle the situation?
Take A Pause
First, don’t go with your gut reaction to things you want to say. Don’t retaliate and get angry back. It can feel like they’re attacking you, which is why it’s important to pause. You don’t have to give them a refund right off the bat if you didn’t do anything wrong.
Sympathize with them and be on their side until you figure out what is going on. You don’t want to get too emotional about the whole back and forth with the buyer, so be on their side and be okay with it taking some time, too, to go back and forth.
Sit, reflect, and then respond. Sympathize with them.
eBay gives you 48 or 72 hours to respond, so you have time to catch your composure and develop an appropriate response.
We recently heard podcaster Alex Hormozi talk about the angry boat on his podcast, where only one person can be angry in the boat at a time. They’re the only one allowed in that angry boat at a time when they’re reaching out. That’s where you have to jump in the angry boat, kick them out, and be angry for them as you try to problem-solve.
Be A Detective
Be a detective and figure out what is going on in this situation. Ask, “How did this happen?” Empathize with them. Say, “Oh my goodness, what is going on? Please tell me more about what happened. Was the box damaged? Did the shipping company break this?”
A lot of times, your first reaction is to lash out, and sometimes they don’t tell you anything outside of “This is broken; I want a refund.” It’s important to ask follow-up questions. Typically they want their issue solved, so they’ll work with you.
Once you get a good idea of what’s happening, you can figure out a solution. If your listing was accurate with photos and description, it probably had something to do with shipping, which is the only variable you don’t have control over.
You know you didn’t do anything wrong on your end, so it has to either be shipping or it has to be something they did.
In one of our returns, a guy got something, and it was damaged in shipping. As I asked him what was going on, he told me it wasn’t working, so he started taking the item apart. He even sent pictures of it apart. You can’t take items apart if you want a refund for the item.
So right away, once he told me that, I had to say, “Listen, I could have given you a refund if it was damaged in shipping. I could have gone after the shipping carrier. But since you’re sending me pictures showing that you ripped the item apart, I can’t do anything now. You’ve taken matters into your own hands.”
eBay’s policy is once you have an item, if you don’t like it and return it, it has to be in the exact condition that it was received.
Use eBay For Assistance
You can only do so much to make the buyer happy, and if they get to the point of extortion where they say if you don’t do this, I’ll leave you negative feedback, you can talk to eBay. eBay will take care of that for you. Threats and extortion are not allowed.
A person is not allowed to attack your character. You are covered, and you’re taken care of by eBay. You can just call eBay and talk to them, and they’ll remove the bad review.
Ultimately keep good customer service, good communication with the buyer, and ask questions. Take your time to respond, and be on their side. Know that eBay has your back if it gets to a certain point.
Show Notes
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