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Sellers, How do you attend to issues or parts you are not able to provide as listed?
We've seen everything from both sides, buying more than we sell. Fully disclose that if all buyers left feedback for our store, we would be at 98% instead of 100% because of a few misidentified parts or colors, --always having made amends with refunds to allow buying from a different seller with the shipping cost accounted for, and also, buying to ship to them, or buying ourselves and shipping separately to the buyer...maybe some very deserved "Neutral"!
Love this marketplace! BUT, It is not like others (eg. Walmart, Kohls, GapStores) where you make an order and then receive a notice that some item is "Out of Stock". Here, it is listed in your store because you took the time to clean, inventory, grade and list. Very different. Everything listed for sale we have assumed has to be as stated or it is our responsibility as a store to "make it good".
Over the last year we have received:
Dirty Parts- left us a coupon for future purchase when brought to their attention- we will not return to that store.
Parts listed as Used-Good that were by our standards Used-Acceptable (highly scratched), from someone we respect.
A pivotal minifig not available, coupon issued for amount albeit above the refund, but we wanted That one listed in the store and added other building parts to the cart to make the "buy" worth their while.
Again, there are different standards here and we as a seller abide by them both learning from mistakes and taking the "hit" when we have erred. There are No Disclaimers here that something you order may be "Out of Stock" by the time shipping occurs.
If we are at all wrong about responsibilities of sellers here, please let us know!
Love this marketplace! BUT, It is not like others (eg. Walmart, Kohls, GapStores) where you make an order and then receive a notice that some item is "Out of Stock". Here, it is listed in your store because you took the time to clean, inventory, grade and list. Very different. Everything listed for sale we have assumed has to be as stated or it is our responsibility as a store to "make it good".
Over the last year we have received:
Dirty Parts- left us a coupon for future purchase when brought to their attention- we will not return to that store.
Parts listed as Used-Good that were by our standards Used-Acceptable (highly scratched), from someone we respect.
A pivotal minifig not available, coupon issued for amount albeit above the refund, but we wanted That one listed in the store and added other building parts to the cart to make the "buy" worth their while.
Again, there are different standards here and we as a seller abide by them both learning from mistakes and taking the "hit" when we have erred. There are No Disclaimers here that something you order may be "Out of Stock" by the time shipping occurs.
If we are at all wrong about responsibilities of sellers here, please let us know!
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As a seller, for my part, I never intentionally send an order short. I wish I could say all sellers were that honest but, alas, my experience suggests otherwise. It always seems to be the rare item that's missing, or the unusually cheap one, or the one that suddenly became popular because of a new MOC or something.
And getting a coupon for a store I'll likely never order from again is not only terrible customer service imo, it's also illegal in the EU unless I agree to it. A refund is the bare minimum remedy.
Regards remedies. I have an extensive personal collection of polybags and other sets, and I will always part-out one of these to get a part I'm short of. If that's not possible, I will nip to the local toy shop and buy a set (or sets) with the part I need in. And if that's not possible, I send a message to the buyer asking what they want me to do, refund everything, send without the missing items, or allow me more time to get what they ordered.
End of the day it's about meeting your customer's expectations. A buyer who places a dozen or more orders every month will probably be happy with a refund for a common item. They'll buy it elsewhere easily enough. Someone who places a handful of orders every year will likely be peeved if you don't have what they ordered, and are more likely to be incandescent with rage if you simply refund them 0.03 rather than offer a solution that gets them what they want.
Bottom line, always communicate with each other.
“Regards remedies. I have an extensive personal collection of polybags and other sets, and I will always part-out one of these to get a part I'm short of. If that's not possible, I will nip to the local toy shop and buy a set (or sets) with the part I need in. And if that's not possible, I send a message to the buyer asking what they want me to do, refund everything, send without the missing items, or allow me more time to get what they ordered.”
but just thought we may be “off” on the expectations here from what we have experienced as buyers...
Here are my point of views from two different sites:
As a Buyer: If a store is out of the item I wanted to buy (maybe my key item) and they contact me that they made a mistake and offer e.g. a refund of the part, etc. I fully agree. If they just offer a voucher for the next order, that's not OK. Because I have spent money and I have received not the part for the money but in most cases a useless voucher - money is lost. Than I contact the seller and try to find a common solution. For sure it's always pity if the key part is not available. But...
As a Seller: We sort a lot of items and from time to time we make mistakes - like all humans. Wrong counted, wrong color (difficulty ones like gray shades) or wrong variation (e.g. clip with o or u shape). In these cases we contact the buyer, tell him/her that we made a mistake, we excuse for that, refund the value of the item and we refund also a part of the shipping fee. If the buyer does not agree we will offer than a complete cancellation of the order. We inform them with a nice written email and up today we have never received any negative feedback, but the buyers have been still satisfied (although if key parts were missing).
I think it's always important to have a good communication prior sending any feedback. For sure in the online-shopping world everything is much more anonymous and it's much easier to leave negative feedback. If you buy something in a shop locally and somethings wrong - you go there and you find a solution with the stuff at site. This is a good communication.
The main issue why negative / neutral feedback happens - in my oppinion - is that buyer and seller does not have a proffessional background. They just want to buy / sell something without thinking about the satisfaction of the other party. And very often the negative / neutral feedback or a very rude communcation happens with newbies.
A long text for Sunday evening - but my main statement is: keep the communication of a high level with friendly words - this can open doors.
Have a great time,
Oliver.
1. Email the customer ASAP with a refund for the part AND their shipping costs in full, so they can buy it from another store without losing $$ in placing an unplanned order. If it's a regular customer I also provide them a discount on a future purchase for their inconvenience.
2. If it's a rarer part or was clearly the focus of their order, I'll email the customer to advise them of the situation and advise them I am ordering the item from another seller to drop-ship to them, apologizing for my error. I then advise the seller that it's fine to include biz card, invoice, etc., as I was up-front with the customer re the situation. You other sellers have been AWESOME in this situation by the way!
3. If I have a similar part I can include as a placeholder for a build (e.g., I have the same part in MSG color, and they ordered LG), I'll include it, yet still do #1, so at last maybe their build isn't held up.
On rare occasions I do make pulling errors, e.g., I miscounted on a pull, grabbed the wrong part, or at least twice over the last 2 1/2 years, missed damage I hadn't noted (I try REALLY hard for our "used (good)" to be VERY good - anything else is acceptable with a note or is recycled and never listed). When that happens, I get the correct part out that night into the mail with a coupon to apologize, or if damaged and I can't replace, roll with #1 or #2 depending on the scenario.
Whatever works is what works best for each store and I judge none - but all US sellers are fully aware we can and SHOULD write off our reshipments, refunds, etc., on our Schedule C with our Federal income taxes (that assumes a sole proprietorship), so doesn't truly cost any US seller to implement good customer service and treat our customers the way we'd like to be treated in return.
Then again, if you're running your store under the table in the US and not filing taxes (unless of course you are ONLY getting rid of your personal stuff, not restocking, and did not enter this to make profit as a business), so were unaware of this... my personal opinion aside, you now know one of the numerous benefits of running your business legally. :-)
I recall several times over the years people refund a missed $0.10 part, which ends up costing me an extra $5 to order it from another store (in shipping costs). I always appreciated their POV and never penalized them for it with neg feedback, etc., (they still had to pay USPS to get it to me), but from my POV I'd have set up my buys differently or even bought from a cheaper vendor if I'd have known the end result in advance so I could save $$.
---> Regardless, I have found customers are always understanding so long as you are always up-front, honest, proactive (reaching out when pulling, not waiting for THEM to find the problem!!!), respectful, and ensure THEY aren't penalized for any order problems in some way when it's said and done, no matter what approach you adopt! :-)
Be well all, and happy Sunday!
Sandy
I find that to be customer-oriented service, something CRITICAL in our business... regular LEGO part buyers would absolutely consider this a positive experience, and are understanding that we're all human and perfection is infeasible. :-)
The terms here state (related to the issues they've run across):
- When orders are placed in your store, you must either fulfil the order, or inform the customer you are unable to fulfil the order and provide a refund.
- Stores must not be unable to fulfil orders, or cancel orders on a regular basis.
- Store quality settings must always accurately reflect the current store status.
- All items listed in your store must be kept on hand, you may be required to provide evidence of items listed in your store. Customised items, for example engraved items, are not included in this rule.
Specific to quality - I too have received parts listed as Used (Good) from other vendors that honestly, I wouldn't have even listed under Acceptable with a note. Dirty with clear bitemarks, damaged, etc. I do hope the OP pointed out the issue to the seller!
Everyone has always made it right when I point it out, but I feel like when it's more than a part or two amid a larger order (that could have merely been an oversight - goodness knows, I've missed problems when scanning thousands of parts for damage) then its a seller that doesn't understand the quality definitions or doesn't care.
I've encountered both. The former I've stuck with and HAVE seen improvements (just as customers here over time have helped my store to improve!). The latter I block and never buy from again. I can't help but notice the latter also don't leave feedback upon shipment and only does AFTER the buyer does - while there are frequently good reasons for this, I've also seen buyers AND sellers abuse this system with feedback blackmail (which is kind of twisted IMHO).
A coupon to apologize for selling unnoted dirty bricks is unsat - I would have politely told the vendor that. While the terms here do not explicitly ban dirty parts, there is an expectation of cleanliness unless noted in the part's comments on BO (which maybe they're unaware of? You could try telling them).
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Just thinking out loud:
While this is the admin's world and he is gracious enough to let us live in it <s>, perhaps we could consider asking him to consider a few additional bullets to the sales terms of service for the platform, that benefit the community as a whole:
- Stores must clean used parts for sale unless otherwise noted in the store's terms or part comments; buyers must understand that some cleaned used parts may not appear "clean" (e.g., yellowed bricks, ground-in dirt from age)
- When sellers are unable to fulfill major portions of an order or an obviously key element of an order (e.g., an order including an unavailable set or minifigure clearly accompanied by a few tacked on parts), sellers should provide customers the opportunity to cancel that order before proceeding.
While that second bullet is open to interpretation, it may at least give some reasonable expectations for both parties without being overly prescriptive? While I'm sure BO wants to provide flexibility, some guidance in this may be appropriate.
I think the first bullet allows the best of both worlds - we should be selling clean parts, but for those who choose not to, there is an out with your store's terms or noting a particular part that cannot be cleaned. As well as protecting customers from unexpectedly receiving dirty parts, it protects the sellers also that choose to or cannot clean the parts they sell.
With so many newer buyers coming in these days (thank you, LEGO Masters!) as well as sellers, it might not be a bad idea to manage expectations a wee bit more?
Distilling down it looks like Best standard is to Personal Message at pulling if a problem is found and engage the buyer in the resolution (Should I cancel your order?) or inform to expect the missing element will arrive by you a tad late or from another trusted seller shipping on your behalf.
If you are not using the PM system, and think you are at liberty to just refund for what you weren’t able to provide, the buyer only sees that you have shipped, receives an email at point of refund that looks like the original order on a phone and needs to be magnified to read smaller notes of a refund line under a part but that process doesn’t take into account the wishes of the buyer.
Went through the Help topics yesterday and they were devoid of any reference to these issues- seem to remember something earlier about offering only clean parts...
Btw, through buying from @Calibrick before opening our store’s inventory for sale, we “learned” how to grade quality or just note the poor quality of a part too dear to dispose of- :'( So, thanks!
@Jay37 , just like @Calibrick , @OliS , @Hoddie , are you all lonely at the top of excellence? Looking to you all and some others to always guide and instruct- thanks for your responses and posts 😀
And, We serve at the pleasure of...
If all else fails, I let the buyer know the situation and ask how they want to proceed. Cancel, replace with some other part or refund that amount.
For Sellers
Used parts may need to be washed as all Lego parts for sale should be clean. No Lego part bought at Brick Owl should ever arrive sticky or dirty. All Lego items sold on Brick Owl should not be so damaged that they loose their function and can no longer fit together with other Lego parts. When storing any condition of Lego you are advised to keep items as dust free as possible and away from strong odours.
Home>Help>Item Conditions
...so, under “General” in the Help pages... not under “Selling”...
Knew we all read this somewhere 🙂