eBay Seller Concerned About Post-Purchase Messaging
An eBay community member is very concerned about the messages eBay may send to buyers post-purchase.
I'm just a small seller on eBay, and an occasional buyer. I received a message from eBay about a recent purchase that has me alarmed. The subject line was "Need a hand with [my item]?"
The first line in the body of the message was "We’re sorry that things may not have gone as planned and recognize how frustrating this can be." The message ended with two big colored boxes of text — one telling me about eBay's money back guarantee ("Get your item or your money back"), and the other asking me to start a return ("not happy with your purchase? Send it back. Start a return.") See the screenshot below, with my personal info blacked out.
The seller shipped my item promptly, via FedEx with tracking. I received my item in perfect condition, and I had already left positive feedback shortly after receiving it. I've done nothing to give eBay or the seller any reason to think I wasn't happy with my purchase.
Why on earth would eBay assume I had a problem with my purchase and practically beg me to return it? I hope my own customers aren't receiving messages like this.
"We're sorry that things may not have gone as planned and recognize how frustrating this can be..." - why in the world is eBay sending an email like this to a buyer who by all indications is ecstatic with their shopping experience?!
If this is CEO Jamie Iannone's idea of how to bolster confidence in the platform to retain "high value buyers", he needs to get his head checked. Obviously buyers need to know that they can trust the marketplace to "make things right" if a problem occurs, but this type of messaging goes overboard and almost seems to be setting the transaction up for failure from the beginning.
Other sellers echoed the concerns about the effect this messaging may have on the buyer experience and if it may give buyers a negative impression of both the seller and the eBay platform.
Whoa.....
I hope this is an isolated case. But, I've seen quite a few messages on these boards of sellers complaining about an uptick in returns being requested.
I hope this is not the reason.
You may want to go over to the "eBay technical issues" forum and ask about this.
I get a message very similar to this when I buy an item, and as a seller it does concern me.
For sure, have that info available for buyers who are looking for resolution, but to smash it in our faces not only causes seller issues, but makes eBay as a platform look unprofessional and suggests they think sellers are hawking rubbish.
It's one thing to send a post-sale message asking if I'm happy with the item, and even noting that there are paths to resolution if I have a problem. But this message assumed that I'm unhappy, and apologized that "things may not have gone as planned," and empathized with my frustration.
My only frustration is with eBay itself for attempting to plant the idea in buyers' minds that they have a problem and should return the item they purchased.
I did have a chat with first-line support, who agreed with me that the message was inappropriate and promised to send along my feedback. Yeah, and if you believe that I've got a bridge to sell you.
If the goal is to encourage more buying this is NOT the way to do it. How about an email that went that said we see you had great experience on eBay lately (the OP says they had already left positive FB). That's great 99.9% of transactions on eBay lead to high satisfaction like yours.
We hope you will come back to eBay time and time again to find bargains and treasures and remember we have you covered with our MBG just in case something goes wrong
That's really a disturbing email to send out to our buyers.
Wow, this is truly unethical at the best.
I do remember when eBay made the "Return this Item" giant font as the first item in the list placed above "leave feedback". That was really nasty, but if this is the new normal, then I would look for the monetary benefits for eBay.Simply crazy!
I wonder where the blue button "Talk to an Expert" leads?
One commenter suggested maybe it's a glitch and this email is only meant to be sent to buyers who leave negative or neutral feedback.
The wording of that message does sound very much like some kind of glitch, intended to be sent only to someone who left Neutral or Negative feedback. Maybe it's triggered by some choice of words in the feedback comment... although the OP says that the feedback had been left two weeks earlier.
I can say that in my case, I'm buying things all the time in my buying account and I have never received a message like that.
Have you seen similar post purchase emails when shopping on eBay? Let us know in the comments below!
