Hello!
To use the forum, login or register above.
(If you are already logged in above, please click here)
Behaviour of buyers
I recently opened my BL and BO stores, and while all of my BL transactions are flawless, again I have two non paying buyers on Brick Owl. I have previously closed my store because of disappointing selling experience, and now again I consider closing. It's simply too much work checking, messaging and begging for payment all the time, and synchronising inventory and then undo synchronising again, and it makes my administration messy as well because of the way I synchronise. I also spent money to buy a couple of items to be able to fill these orders, but these guys don't even respond to any of my messages, let alone a "sorry".
It's sad because in my opinion admin-wise, BO is so much better and nicer than BL. I really wish for BO to be successful. But the behaviour of some of the buyers ruins it a little for me. There's a big difference between BO and BL buyers when it comes to communication, reading instructions and feedback, and I wonder why.
One of my non paying buyers now has his third non payment on his record. But I don't see any changes. Will he get any kind of suspension, penalty, anything at all? I've always found it strange that I cannot leave negative feedback, but if these guys don't get any penalty at all, then there's really no motivation for some buyers to improve their behaviour.
Wish we could have the BO admin with the BL customers.. :)
It's sad because in my opinion admin-wise, BO is so much better and nicer than BL. I really wish for BO to be successful. But the behaviour of some of the buyers ruins it a little for me. There's a big difference between BO and BL buyers when it comes to communication, reading instructions and feedback, and I wonder why.
One of my non paying buyers now has his third non payment on his record. But I don't see any changes. Will he get any kind of suspension, penalty, anything at all? I've always found it strange that I cannot leave negative feedback, but if these guys don't get any penalty at all, then there's really no motivation for some buyers to improve their behaviour.
Wish we could have the BO admin with the BL customers.. :)
Powered by Vanilla
Comments
If I don't pack and process the unpaid orders, I'm running into synchronisation trouble, because my invoicing software is linked to my sync software. Also, if I am missing an item, I have some time to order it elsewhere without causing additional delay.
And anyway, orders should simply be paid for. On BL I've sorted thousands of unpaid orders for 14 years, and it was extremely rare for orders not to be paid for without a polite cancellation request and a sorry. Maybe once or twice a year. On BO it happens significantly more often. When you place an order, you initially should have a payment obligation. I think BO should inform the buyer clearly they have an obligation to pay. Then when a buyer changes their mind, I would like to receive a cancellation request and it would be nice to just hear a reason. On BL it has always been that way, so I'm really not complaining about something that can't be helped.
I accept every single cancellation request, I just really want to receive that request and not check over and over. Asking and reminding them is the best way, as otherwise I need to double check my bank account every day to make sure I really didn't overlook the payment. Two times I called the buyer on the phone and they just forgot.
I'm complaining, because I think it is very possible to improve this. As an example suggestion: I think it would really help if "pending" orders were simply purged after 2 or 3 days unless the seller has accepted them, with no option of negative feedback from the buyer. Once buyers do mark their order as "payment submitted", everything works out. I always spot the submitted payments and there are no problems. It's really just the "pending" ones that I just can't do anything with..
> As a customer having done over 500 orders here, I'm confused. How does one make an order without making a payment?
In the EU we use something called SEPA (IBAN/BIC transfers) which is a simple transfer between a buyers bankaccount and the sellers bankaccount. This type of payment is not 'instant', as the buyer will have to log in on his bank and make the transfer. Orders like that simply generate an order confirmation indicating the sellers bankdetails, so if a buyer doesn't do the transfer, the seller has an order with indeed no payment.
There are already systems in place that allow instant payment on such orders, unfortunatly there is no common standard for it in the EU (iDeal, sofort, Mollie, etc), but it shouldn't take too long to have a general standard for it
It seems to me sellers have to make an informed choice between the extra work of pursuing NPBs or to build in PayPal or similar service fees and evade the issue altogether.
For Teup, I do get the issue from their perspective between BL and BO. On BL, where I bought a LOT over the years, there was the incredibly tedious (buyer view) of placing your order, waiting for the invoice so the seller could calc shipping, paying for the invoice, etc. That was status quo there until they started tinkering with instant checkout last summer (which their catalog is not adequately setup for IMHO ... a lot of weights are in their system, but dimensions are lacking).
On BO, based on browsing the forums and having gotten to know the site better the past few months, it started early with instant checkout as the focus. At least that's what I've gleaned.
So different customer expectations between the two sites, basically.
I can't speak to customer niceness between the two sites as I only have the customer POV to-date. :-) I do know once I discovered BO I swore never to return to BL as a seller or a buyer - it's just a MUCH easier site to use from both perspectives. Plus lower fees yet still affiliations with major revenue streams, so ya can't go wrong. :-)
Add in the super-nice, communicative, and hardworking admin team on BO - not to mention the incredibly kind and helpful peer sellers (BL had very, very awesome sellers on the forum also, in fairness) - and I was sold.
Why put another PENNY into BL's owner's pocket after the wild ride that place has been the last few years? I'd rather the folks here benefit from my sales and purchases. :-)
>
> If I don't pack and process the unpaid orders, I'm running into synchronisation trouble, because my invoicing software is linked to my sync software. Also, if I am missing an item, I have some time to order it elsewhere without causing additional delay.
>
I fail to see why this would bother you since you have no influence whatsoever on the way BO sends the invoice. Or do you refer to a sort of internal invoice for administration purposes?
> For Teup, I do get the issue from their perspective between BL and BO. On BL, where I bought a LOT over the years, there was the incredibly tedious (buyer view) of placing your order, waiting for the invoice so the seller could calc shipping, paying for the invoice, etc.
Yeah it's an interesting topic why buyer culture is different between BL and BO, maybe a community aspect, or maybe the more "tedious" process as you describe has a positive side effect of filtering out the "lazies".. don't forget though, that instant checkout and automatic payment are different things, you can have instant checkout and still this issue, like I do. On BO and these days on BL buyers check out instantly in my store and usually pay immediately, just they perform it offsite. And if they wish, take some time before they do. That's all fine, but the trouble is the inability to distinguish a buyer taking time from a buyer that won't ever pay.
>
> Why put another PENNY into BL's owner's pocket after the wild ride that place has been the last few years? I'd rather the folks here benefit from my sales and purchases. :-)
Oh, I wish BrickOwl generated more revenue, I only get very tiny orders and the people I've talked to do too, though I've also heard about people getting alot of orders here, which really surprised me. It's another interesting topic. I can't really do anything about both the buyer culture issue and order amount issue. If I could, I would want to sell much more here.
> @Leftoverbricks said:
> > @Teup said:
> >
> > If I don't pack and process the unpaid orders, I'm running into synchronisation trouble, because my invoicing software is linked to my sync software. Also, if I am missing an item, I have some time to order it elsewhere without causing additional delay.
> >
>
> I fail to see why this would bother you since you have no influence whatsoever on the way BO sends the invoice. Or do you refer to a sort of internal invoice for administration purposes?
Yes, I meant my own invoices. I have to create them first, then I can upload it as an update to my BL inventory. Then when a buyer doesn't pay, I have to upload a negative version of the order contents, then delete the invoice again, leaving a gap in my invoice numbering. These "pending" debacles sometimes span different tax terms, which means I have to readjust things the next quarter. (I know that tax agency isn't really that strict, but still, for my own peace of mind I like to do things as precise as possible because i would already need a favour from them accepting me estimating my stock value and having no clear numbers on that.)
Alternatively, I can wait with synchronising, but that creates an increased risk of selling the same on both platforms.
I see absolutely nothing that I can do against this besides warning other sellers, leaving feedback, but even that is obstructed by the fact you can only leave positive.
> @Lawrence said:
> We do monitor the issue reporting system, and have contacted the customer in relation to their unpaid orders. Where customers have a large percentage of unpaid orders, we do take action against the customer's. On an order, you can see the current amount of unpaid order flags a customer has which can indicate if payment may be an issue.
Thanks for your reply Lawrence, good to hear at least something is being done. I wish the buyer would get their account suspected after 3 times, or a setting to disallow buyers with non-payments, and I also wish that there was an option to have "pending" orders automatically purged after a few days. That's enough complaining from me now, I hope that you will keep these suggestions in mind and maybe they will inspire a solution if these problems persist.