Power Sellers Unite

GeorgiaRose · Joined: 05 May 2006 Posts: 112 Location: Ringgold, GA

I have my first order as a seller. I rec'd an email from Ecrater with a payment link at the bottom. Is this what the customer should receive? Do I need to send him an email requesting payment in case he didn't get the link like I didn't when I made my first purchase?
Thanks
Rosemary

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

Congrats on your sale at ecrater!!!

I personally don't use ecrater but would assume there is a way to contact the buyer of your product

Just in case they might have their spam blocker set too high--I'd contact them directly and let them know how I (the seller) was planning on invoicing them

Good luck and keep us posted

GeorgiaRose · Joined: 05 May 2006 Posts: 112 Location: Ringgold, GA

Hi Elgato,

Thanks for the congrats! I have a NPB. :cry:

I sent the customer an invoice through PayPal and rec'd this email from the him today - "As I stated within an e-mail communication submitted yesterday, please do not process this order at this time. I exited the web site before completing the form and filling out all the required info. If I wish to enter the order I will access the web site again and complete all the required information." He did not contact me by email yesterday and I don't wish to hear from him again. I have sent an email regarding feedback to Ecrater and inquiring if this person can be blocked in any way. I don't expect an answer as I didn't receive an answer to my email yesterday regarding customer payment. It's disappointing not to be paid but more so when there is no communication from Ecrater. I really like there site - ease of use, free, etc.

Thanks anyway. When I can afford it, I'll take a look at PSU's pages.

Thanks again and good luck. Life goes on.
Rosemary

PS There should be a list somewhere to catalog these people so everyone will know who they are.

Pipphoe

I probably should have written about this before, but it's been a little crazy. Unless a person pays right then and there or e-mails you it's probably a mistake. I had this happen at Christmas-time. Someone supposedly ordered to ponchos. I had the notice in my e-mail from eCrater but nothing from PayPal. Fortunately the notice from eCrater had the buyer's phone number on it so I called. They clicked on the buy and then changed their mind apparently. The problem was they clicked on it twice and that kind of alerted me.

It might not have been an intentional NFB, just a mistaken click.

*southie* · Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 1728 Location: Sunny Florida

NOW before y'all say "WAY TO GO GIRL!"
hold your horses ...

I've had 21 sales on ecrater - and every single one of them were Non
Paying Buyers! And I shut down ... while I was slowly cleaning out my
account there - I suddenly got 13 purchases from one person, who then
contacted me and wanted all 13 records shipped via Media Mail and to
send the invoice to this email addy, so I sent an invoice via PayPal -
and only get a notice from PayPal that the buyer filed a complaint stating
they did not purchase anything from me or didn't know who I was!

I provided PayPal the proof, and after an investigation, it turns out that
someone merely used someone else's email address, most likely seeking
revenge against the party. I emailed ecrater and never got a response!
(I must have emailed them 5-6 times!)

It was then when PayPal alerted me that "ecrater was 'funny'" and
"had no stability" and they wouldn't hold it (complaint) up against me
either. So I just shut everything down, and told PayPal, I wasn't going
to "hold it against the buyer, since apparently, you had investigated and
the buyer didn't even know what ecrater was..."

I just shut down completely, last year in the Summer.

Pipphoe

I have to also admit that every sale I've gotten from eCrater has gone through PayPal and the first notification I always get is the "You've got Cash" from PayPal, so they were all instant-pay items. I've never had to invoice anyone. This sale I got this week from eCrater for 8 Martha Stewart ponchos was paid through PayPal -- cash received from a customer I sold to in December.

The only item I ever had a question on what the one I mentioned in my last post. It was odd because there was no notification from PayPal, so obviously the items hadn't been paid for. I use a separate e-mail for sale notifications from eCrater. Softhome.net has been notorious for bouncing notification e-mail from auction and other e-commerce sites, so I frequently use my sales@ e-mail attached to my website. There was a phone number in the notification from eCrater and so I called the potential buyer -- emphasis on potential because in reality they hadn't bought anything. Then again, I never get excited about a sale or a bid until it's completed -- paid for -- through PayPal or through a MO.

However, I will say this: Because of the way these items were paid for -- all at once -- and not combined, I have to refund a decent amount of the shipping cost now, because they were charged full shipping for each separate item, and that is a pain, especially if they use PayPal for the CC but they're not a PayPal member.

eCrater needs some tightening up in a few areas. They do have a community board and I haven't been there or read anything there, so I'm not up with what's going on or the problems. I haven't really spent a lot of time on eCrater recently revamping listings. I do have it written in my Store Policies that buyers should e-mail me for combined shipping, but it seems people don't always read that area called Store Policies and such. But I think I'm going to have to put this in B&W in each listing in bold and see what happens.

Until I have problems on eCrater with NPBs I'll stay. I have to -- 90% of my sales so far this year have come from eCrater. If I have any major problems I'll work on getting my buyers come to one of the other sites I sell on.