Karma will knock on your door
Online selling provides a great opportunity to earn income on the side without exerting a lot of effort. But despite its benefits, it also carries risks.
I know this when I started selling crochet products. But so far, the only messages that irritated me before was the "istm this available?" message and then no other replies after I said that yes, the item is available.
But I learned to accept that it is a part of the life of an online seller. I did not prepare myself for worse types of customers.
My background
I have an experience of being a chat support so I know plenty about how to deescalate a situation, and I do have an idea how to chat properly with customers. I know how to make them feel important and special.
Even though that experience was short, I carried what I learned from that work experience and use it in my daily life. It also came in handy when I decided to start my online business which is selling crochet products.
I also have an experience in being an online buyer. So I know what I want to see in the product description. I ain't doing that PM is the key or PM for price stunt. No, I include the price and relevant information like sizes and materials.
The unpleasant situation
The story starts when I received another order of headset covers in Shopee.
It was nothing out of ordinary, I just prepared the item then I shipped it the next day. It was like my normal routine for orders like these.
I sent the buyer a picture of the item as usual before the shipment. After shippin the item, the buyer messaged me asking for the size of the item. I am already nervous since it means the buyer did not read the roduct description but I still answered that it was around 2 inches in diameter. The roduct description states that the headset covers have a diameter of 5.5 centimeters.
At this point the customer admited that they placed an order for the wrong size. I was basically having a hrd time breathing at this point because I know what will happen in the following days.
But I still tried to keep my calm and asked the customer not to return the item to seller since it will be deducted from my earnings. I told them that I use the income from crochet to buy medications.
Then yesterday they messaged me this:
The buyer was literally threatening me that they will return the item and that I should send another item in the right size.
At this point, I was beyond being patient and kind. I was pissed.
Why would I adjust to accomadate their mistake? It is not my fault that they did not read the product description. Moreover, the item that they want me to use to replace this one is more expensive.
I could not keep my cool. I tried but the only thing I managed was to restrain myself to not curse their stupidity.
I told them it's not my fault that they did not read the product description since the size is already mentioned there. Moreover they only messaged me after I shipped the item.
The buyer responded saying something about there is karma. Lol, like I was the one being unreasonable there?
Return/refund
As expected, today the buyer placed a request for return/refund. I accepted to wait for the return of the item.
This is done in the advice of the customer supports in Shopee after I told them my concern.
Their reason angered me becuse they are acting as if I was the one who made a mistake when their carelessness is the reason why they have ordered a headset covers that are not fit in their headset.
Unfortunately for them, I will not take this lying down. Had they been respectful, I would have refunded the item fully with no desire for dispute even though I am not the one at fault. But because they were rude and they triggered an anger-filled episode, I will be filing for a dispute.
My proofs
Of course, I will not try to dispute it if there is even a doubt in my mind that I will lose. But since I have their admittance of their mistake on chat, I am not afraid.
First proof I have is the product description which has a typo but it still clearly shows the diameter of the product.
Here you can clearly see that the item is as advertised. The measurement is on point and I also followed the color they wanted.
In this screenshot, the buyer cearly stated that they made a mistake. So I am not sure why they thought I would let this go.
Anyway, thanks to their honesty, I have a stron feeling that the dispute will be in my favor. Hopefully, that will happen. This will be a learning opportunity for the buyer to read product descriptions first before ordering, and not placing the blame to sellers when they made a mistake.
Closing words
Despite the title, I am not wishing the buyer any ill will or karma.
I just want the return/refund to be in my favor since I did not do anything wrong. I just sold the item advertised.
I will update you guys maybe in noise.cash what happens next. For now, I will try to stop myself from trying to irritate the buyer. I also am tryin to calm myself so that I do not do anything impulsive like posting what happened on my Facebook page.
Anyway, this situation taught me something and I shall learn from it moving forwards.
Thank you for reading this article!
If you want to read some more articles of mine, I have monthly summaries here:
December 2021 Articles Summary
November 2021 Articles Summary
Grabe naman nakaka-stress yung mga ganitong buyer. Yung sila na nga ang mali tas sila pa magagalit. Di mo naman kasalanan kung mali yung nabili niya, it's not your responsibility to refund them if it's not your fault why they bought the wrong size