In the past week, I have experienced 2 incidents of extremely stupid and bad customer service from 2 eBay sellers.

The first seller to piss me off was bigrockmedia. You would expect an eBay seller with 98000 feedback points to behave smarter but they don’t because their checkout system does not work for people from Singapore.

I won a “Buy it now” auction for a music DVD and I wanted to pay immediately after the auction. However, the ChannelAdvisor.com checkout system does not have Singapore in its country list. I guess this is either the seller’s fault or ChannelAdvisor.com’s fault. I have tried to contact bigrockmedia 3 times but they have not replied to me at all.

The second seller to piss me off was trade4office. This seller is a Power Seller and they should know how to read their emails to check for their orders. In one of their listings for velcros, they said:

So I sent them an email saying:

Their reply was:

First of all, I have emailed them the number of yards of velcro I want. Secondly, they seem to have misread my email to them or something to give me an absurd reply like this with a typo. This proves that they just don’t give a damn about reading and replying to customer emails.

Lessons We Should All Learn From The 2 eBay Sellers Above

1. Don’t make it hard for your customers to pay you money.
2. Don’t turn away customers who want to pay you money by being rude.
3. Read the emails your customers send to you and reply to them promptly and properly.
4. When you make a mistake, admit it, fix it and apologise for it but do not try to ignore the mistake and hope the customer forgets about it.

Common sense stuff if you ask me but lots of people just don’t care enough to apply this stuff.

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I wrote a review on Bid Nip, my favourite eBay sniper tool. Find out how you will save time and money using Bid Nip and why you won’t want to bid on eBay the normal way again!

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My head has been buzzing with ideas lately! I suddenly came up with the idea of calling my eBay consignment business "Auction Converters". I did a check on the domain and I was happy to find that it was not registered! I snapped it up immediately!

I also ordered a copy of the book How to Sell Anything on eBay . . . and Make a Fortune! on the internet. Its an unbelievably cheap book (priced at SGD $26 plus shipping) packed with a lot of practical information on running an eBay consignment business.

I’m currently reading the book Selling the Dream by Guy Kawasaki. I wish I had read this book 2 years ago when I first started Oasis Fanatic. I would have been able to formulate a clear and consice mission statement for Oasis Fanatic. Anyway, I’m glad I’ve got that book right now! I’ve never read a book that teaches people how to sell their ideas, product or service as good as this one!

Here’s a quote I received in my email:

When you are focused and have a goal in mind, the Universe makes way for things to happen, in a certain way, which may seem miraculous at first.

You don’t have to be concerned with the details of how to get there, or how things will happen. You only have to have a goal. The way to achieve this goal, is not your concern, it will all fall into place.. This process is called synchronicity.

When you are in tune with the Universe, and in tune with your self, everything is taken care of for you. Everything will happen in a perfect way.

You were born to set goals bnt for the goal as an end in itself, but so you can marvel at how it all unfolds, and how the Universe wants you to know how powerful you are.

I’ve had numerous "synchronicities" and "serendipities" in my life ever since I’ve learnt to follow my "inner voice". Its amazing to look back in 6 months or a year in my diary and discover how every decision and action I made in the past manifested into my reality of today.

Categories: eBay | 2 Comments »

A buyer of mine told me he can’t pay me through PayPal. He recommended me to sign up for iKobo. I’ve been to their web site before but I didn’t see the need to do it because I already accept payments through PayPal and Western Union money orders. Now I have that need!

iKobo is available in over 100 countries. This is how it works….

The buyer sends payment to your through his debit or credit card. The money is transferred to your iKobo account. You will receive an iKobo card to withdraw cash from your local ATM machine. Sounds cool doesn’t it?

The only drawback I see with iKobo is that it will take some time for the card to arrive to you. Once you have the iKobo card, you can reuse it again and again. I hope its worth the initial wait!

The receiving fees are 2.99% + USD $0.30 per transaction. That’s almost the same for PayPal’s fees. An additional charge of USD USD $1.50 + hidden fees will be charged to you. The hidden fees depends on your local ATM provider. That’s a grey area that I unsure of.

Compared to PayPal, I only pay SGD $1.00 + the exchange rate to withdraw money to my local bank account. Ok, that takes about a week too.

I guess I’ll only know which one works best for me after I’ve used it! For more information, visit iKobo’s web site.

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I woke up this morning to an email from "eBay Support" with the following text:

Dear valued eBay member:

It has come to our attention that your eBay billing informations are out of order. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service. However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records by April 5th.

Once you have updated your account records your eBay session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Failure to update will result in cancellation of service, Terms of Service (TOS) violations or future
problems.

To update your eBay records click here:

http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?UPdate

eBay Update team
http://www.ebay.com

I didn’t think it was anything malicious therefore I followed the URL to the eBay login page. The URL is "http://www.beibay.com/Login.html". I didn’t notice that till I entered my username and password and submitted the form! You know what that means? My username and password is now in the hands of those crooks behind this spoof eBay web site!

Once I reached the eBay form, I knew it was scam right away. First of all, there navigation buttons on top look odd. Secondly, the URL is wrong… what a dead giveaway! Thirdly, the form is asking for way too much information on 1 page that I’ve ever seen on eBay. Lastly, there is no "lock" icon on the browser that indicates this is a secure page.

Ok… I’ve been conned now what do I do?

Thank goodness for eBay’s spoof alert email address at "spo...@ebay.com". You could read about the tutorial on eBay!

I went to change my eBay password and other auction related services that used that password to protect myself. What a way to start my day. Its sad that there are crooks like that trying to rip us off of our money. That’s just a fact of life. Some people would rather cheat you of your money rather than putting a day of honest work.

I’ve received similar spoof emails for my Pay Pal account. You have to be vigilant about these scam artists out there. This is my 2nd eBay scam attempt at me in 2 months! The other one was a phone call asking me to invest thousands of dollars in a coaching program.

Till then, happy and SAFE trading everyone!

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Hello!

Thanks to Square Trade’s dispute settlement service, the buyer that never paid up a few weeks ago has paid up! Cheers! Square Trade is turning out to be a great investment for my eBay business.

Out of my 34 bids at elance.com, I selected Audrie to work on my cartoons of myself. I like her style and she’s also creating an eBay template for me too!

I’m selling some of my vintage computer games. I feel like I am selling a part of myself because I love my Wing Commander games dearly but when I saw that they could sell for over USD $100 ++, what the heck? To hell with the game, I want that money to finance my elance project and my future web hosting fees.

Everything’s seems to moving along as planned at the moment. I’m loving every minute of it!

Categories: Web Design, eBay | No Comments »

This is the LEGO Toy that sold for USD $58.89!

Too bad I didn’t get paid for it! I have reported this particular buyer to eBay.com. According to eBay’s Non-Paying Bidder/Buyer Policy:

The key to successful sales on eBay is direct communication between sellers and buyers. However, from time to time, misunderstandings occur.

If you have a non-paying buyer and want to get a Final Value Fee credit, follow these four steps:

Contact your buyer. - Done!
Send a payment reminder (optional). - Done!
File a Non-Paying Bidder Alert (this is the same for auction-style listings and Buy It Now). - Done!
Request a Final Value Fee credit.

eBay’s policy for non-paying buyers is:

First offense: warning
Second offense: warning
Third offense: indefinite suspension

Well the eBay policy only lets me get back my Insertion fee and Final Value fee but not my wasted time and effort! Danm it! I hope this doesn’t happen too often!

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Its been a while since I have updated my BLOG….

I managed to sell 100% of the LEGO toys! Not too bad for my first few tries on eBay.com! All my buyers have paid up except for this 1 guy who hasn’t. I think its because he bid too high for a particular "Recycle Truck" toy and regretted his decision. He actually bid up to USD $58+ for a tiny LEGO toy. I wouldn’t bid that much for a toy but he actually did it…

If he doesn’t pay up within 7 days, I’m gonna have to report this to eBay.com. Hopefully he pays up within another 10 days or something bigger is gonna happen.

Another item I managed to sell off was this Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Premiere Goodie Bag I got last year. I sold it for USD $26! I got it for nothing. Fantastic!

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Last weekend, I went to my friend’s house to snap photographs of his LEGO collection. He wants me to help him auction them off at eBay.com. We’ll split the profits once the items are sold! What a great way to get some experience on eBay.com and earn a little profit at the same time. There’s very little risk involved…. not my toys, its his! I only pay for the eBay listing fees!

The process of selling these toys on eBay.com was a little daunting at first. I had to get the shipping rates of UPS Singapore and Singapore Post, jot down the various boxes and packages they have, delivery times etc. Lucky for me, Singapore Post has an autofax service for all their shipping rates etc, UPS Singapore were very helpful, they actually emailed me all the forms and rates I needed. I prefer UPS Singapore because they supply me with all the packaging and the UPS guy comes right to my door.

I’ve been reading a few ebooks on eBay.com selling. I must say they’re some great ebooks out there with very practical and usable tips you can apply straight away. The one I am read is by Terry Gibbs of www.iwantcollectibles.com. Check it out!

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I apologize for the lack of updates…. I’ve been busy with my army work and other stuff.

This morning I went to a local flea market to check out some bargains and to jot down the prices of some "Transformers" toys. Some of them are pretty hot on ebay.com and I might very well purchase them and sell them online for a nice profit in US dollars!

Let me share with you what my treasure is….

I remember my grandmother had an antique accordion at her place and she wants me to get rid of it. I have thought of the idea of selling it on ebay.com but when she first mentioned it to me last year, I wasn’t really into ebay.com yet! Well today, I actually made some good money from ebay.com selling off some Dolf de Roos CDs I bought last year when he stopped over at Singapore. I got them at a very good price at his seminar.

I actually sold them at a profit on eBay I guess I’m not ready for real estate at the moment but I will be in the near future.

Let’s get down to the details.

Its a HOHNER Arietta IM Accordion. The features: 72-bass, 34 treble, 2/4 reeds (MM) musette tuned, 3 treble switches, 15 ½" keyboard, red pearloid, w/ case & straps, only 13 ¾ lbs.

Don’t ask me what they mean cos I don’t really know! According to The Button Box, its worth a whopping USD $775!

Its still kept in its original box and amazingly its still in good condition after 45 years! That’s twice my age! It still has the original receipt in the box! There is a treasure in my house and I didn’t know about it! It was right under my nose!

I called my friend who is an expert Bassoon player and asked him to check how much an antique like that is worth. I’m really excited about the prospect of selling this beauty on ebay.com! The Killer Mini Sites ebook is going to come in handy when I’m writing my ad on ebay.com!

Till then, have a great week ahead of you!

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