Ebay: Price Complaint from Customer

I had overstock phones that I wanted to get rid immediately and just last week I listed them at a price difference of $50 from my previous listings. I never thought a previous customer would get back at me for bringing down the price.

CAUTION: Always put "Prices are subject to change without prior notice" in your listings.

The customer I'm talking about sent me a message complaining and cursing for the price difference. I dealt with him in a manner that won't feed his burning anger. I wrote him back, and referred to him as "my friend", and explained to him that there's nothing wrong with me changing my prices, that I just happened to get rid of the overstock items and that I didn't intend to lower the price to disadvantage my other customers.

This happening is not new by the way, I get them from time to time. I just wanted to put it down here to serve as a guide to all other eBay sellers. Just treat your customers, be it your prospect customers or existing customers with utmost priority, attend to them right away and make them feel special.

90 stars and counting!

Update With The iPad Business

Its going down, down, down, its going down...

Seems like the iPad 2 craze has died, we are slowly losing our market for iPad 2. No demand from indirect sellers, proven by the zero inquiry we are getting lately.

Early on we have identified that the profit generated from buying and selling the iPad 2 is not worth it. It is highly in demand but we cannot supply that demand so that we definitely decided to keep it off our listing in eBay and just focus on selling phones and other electronic accessories. Listing it makes no sense as it would just put more pressure on us to source it out.

Since the tsunami in Japan last month, a lot of businesses have been affected in terms of supply, Apple included. I have the gut-feel that people's interest in the new iPad 2 is not there anymore, its probably because they are waiting for iPad 3. I mean, it has been always like that.

Used Shoes: Shoe Business Opportunity in the Philippines Part 1

Photo courtesy of Will Forster from Flickr

My export business in the REDS Global Marketing side in the Philippines is still young and honestly needs some assistance in terms of sound accounting practices. I have given my aunt the authority over the retail business in the Philippines but it seems that business is not taking off. I am taking care of system for sound accounting so I could take note of the overall business's worth, considering the rental, electricity expenses, and the overhead. Anyway...

Good thing about the Philippines is that you have a market for almost everything, and used goodies is nonexempt! In our retail business where we retail majority of used clothing, shoes, accessories, kitchen utensils, appliances and etcetera, we have discovered that among all of these merchandise, we have a good market for men's shoes. Our Filipino market in Davao City is actually on the lookout for branded shoes mostly athletic shoes preferably Nike, but whatever brand name that they recognize is fine too like Adidas or Reebok. Initially what we did in the beginning (just last year) was to buy the used shoes from the Salvation Army. There are also times where we pick free stuff listed in Craigslist, so there is actually a good margin for us, especially when its all free. An idea came to mind: since this commodity is a hit and we actually generate good profit from used shoes, why not look for bulk suppliers for discount shoes online. There are actually a lot of sellers that sell by the pallets or by vans, depending on your capacity to buy.

I first came to the site called Liquidation.Com, it is an online sellers' portal for everything where the buyer have to bid for the items. I later weighed the pros and cons of bidding, and I found that its not worth it. There are bidders line up for good quality items on auction of course, but as to my cost versus profit computation, what I could afford to place a bid on are items that I am not sure of the assortments. Liquidation.Com do not provide a Contact Seller option, and I find it kind of a hassle to contact the main office to request for a manifest from the seller. I want to save time as I am an exceptionally busy person even in my sleep (go ask my wife).

So I did more research for suppliers of used shoes online. I also considered buying brand new clearance shoes from big department stores, but later on I will write on that one and for now would like to keep my focus on the used ones for this post's sake. Buying the shoes in bulk entails additional cost for the shipment and the sales tax, so I focused on looking for a supplier with a fixed price per pallet with the possibility of no sales tax that also offers free shipping across US mainland for free. Guess what? I actually found a lot of these sellers in Closeout Central.

I am currently in the process of setting up an efficient accounting system for my retail business in the Philippines and when I'm ready, I will proceed on buying used shoes in bulk. For now, I bet there is a sufficient inventory of items to sell in there and I have 5 more boxes to send this month. By the way, I send the items via a Balikbayan Box service, $65 per 22x22x22 box, 1.5 month lead time, door to door delivery.

Dealing With a Negative Feedback on eBay

Selling on eBay is not just simply selling on eBay. You have to make sure you keep your reputation by maintaining 100% feedback. Consider it like you are actually working for a boss and you want to impress this boss with your every performance, you have to keep that mindset and put that very same effort on eBay.

There is actually an article on eBay about Dealing With Your First Negative Feedback and you might want to read on that. A negative feedback is a stain in your credibility as an online seller and thus there is a need for you to work hard to counter on that negative feedback and turn it to your advantage.

Based on my experience, the first and only time I got a negative feedback got me so upset and I couldn't think of anything else but to find a way to take off that negative feedback on my page. I have asked myself couple of times why this particular buyer gave me a negative feedback when I have been so careful with all of my transactions and I always see to it that I always provide good customer service? So what could have gone wrong?

So what did I do?

I gathered my thoughts and braved myself to write the buyer and convinced him to revise his feedback. I told him things like, I just been laid off from my job and that eBay is just my only source of income at the moment. I made my story sound so hopeless and I just kept on writing him to the point of actually begging for a positive feedback. I wasn't sure if he was a constant eBayer though and if he would read my letters but I just tried my luck and two days later the negative feedback was changed into a positive one. My drama has paid off. You could also try what I did, but take caution too that it may or may not work for you at the end of the day, but also keep it mind that there is no harm in trying.

To date, I have been keeping my seller credibility at 100%. 80 yellow stars and counting!

New Laptop for Business

Four months ago I went searching for the best mini laptops online. I had to turnover my old Sony VAIO to my wife because she needs it as well for her online business and for her blogging. Four months ago it was Christmas and I figured that was the best season to get me something as a gift to myself and that would be a new laptop. I was kind of attracted to getting a netbook that time, just for a change, amidst the wild objection from wife, she was insisting on getting me the regular laptop because she knew for a fact that I like big screens. I have already decided I wanted to have something light and handy but at the same time credible and elegant-looking netbook that I could take with me to my regular job everyday without the need of hiding, so I went on and definitely bought me a Toshiba Mini NB305 netbook - the blue one, which by the way is no longer available in any retail store or online.

Just as my wife predicted it, months later I got tired and bored of using the netbook. I wanted something with a wider screen and a wider keyboard so I looked to find something as an excuse so I could buy myself a new laptop. I contemplated and decided to send my netbook to the Philippines so my cousin could use it for my little business there, I figured she would be needing to send me Excel worksheets of the monthly sales and ending inventory of the items there anyway plus I also have plans for expansion and I wanted clear records for everything.

Just days ago, my friend who at the same time is also my business partner suggested we need to get ourselves new laptops for our electronics business. There it was, opportunity revealing itself just in time! Both of us were looking for a good laptop that has a numeric keyboard on the right side just like the typical desktop keyboard. We are kind of formalizing our electronics business lately that my friend actually bought Quickbook so we could have a formal log of all our transactions. Having the numeric keyboard easily accessible on the right will make our invoicing jobs easier. It was time to search online for the best rated laptops that meet our keyboard requirement. My electrician friend told me that the best laptop brands are Dell and Sony, and I had to rely on his good judgment because he's had years of experience fixing a variety of laptops from time to time. So I figured I'd go look for best deals on laptops for either a Dell or a Sony brand. There are actually a good few laptops with our keyboard specifications mostly with 15.5" screen. My friend got a Dell-branded laptop while I got a Sony VAIO VPCE Series.

I am feeling more comfortable using this new laptop as compared to my old VAIO. Though it is wider as compared to my old laptop, I like its sleek look and i like the keyboard. Now I am moving on to learning Quickbooks, I hope I could find my way around this accounting software.

I am REDS Global, LLC

REDS Global, LLC is the name under which I've chosen to register my business. It's inception was inspired by my family's first name initials, R for Rendel (yours truly), E for Efren (my late beloved dad), D for Delia (my mom), and S for Seigfred (my brother). My then girlfriend helped me figure out the business name that I wanted with the idea of something that has an impact, a name that sounds big time and at the same time credible. I actually had thought of combining our names but fortunately with the help of my ladylove we've both prevented the creation of a business name that's more like what one would normally name a sari-sari store. Then came REDS Global which I registered as a Limited Liability Company.

I have three ongoing businesses in the Philippines, all of which i started in 2008. I started with growing bananas in a small piece of land, a lending business, and an export business spearheaded by my mom wherein we send US items to the Philippines and are sold in our two retail outlets. I thought of putting everything in order and last year I felt the want for a formality for the business. I researched for a type of business setup that will in the future put me to a great advantage, especially in terms of filing taxes. Seemed to me that a Limited Liability Company was the best option.

The Department of Trade and Industry in the Philippines though only allowed me the business name REDS Global Marketing for the Philippines. I have great ideas and plans that I would like to initiate. Currently thinking of something for more money...

iPad Smart Cover

Whoever was the proponent who first invented an accessory for something? I wonder what was the first accessory ever invented for mankind because I really feel that we owe our precious possessions of almost all sorts the need to be accessorized. I feel for you iPad 2 owners.

As the demand for iPad 2 was on its peak, so is also the undeniable demand for these cool iPad smart covers. I have posted iPad smart covers on eBay the day after iPad 2 was released, and it was two days after posting when I received an order for a color red. It seemed to me that the red one was the most saleable as people are most easily attracted to that color, and I had a headache when I couldn't source it out anywhere after I sold 2 pieces on eBay and the customer already paid. Problem was, I posted an authentic Apple Smart Cover accessory with a full Apple product description on eBay and it was out of stock and I have a five-day only handling time. I was afraid to tell the customer that the product he just bought from me was sold out, because in the first place I should have only posted products that are on hand, or if not on hand, products that I could easily source out easily if somebody places and order. Just look at this precious in-demand smart cover:

Everybody wants a color red really. I called every Apple Store around to inquire about its availability but only to no avail. It was reported that the manufacturing for iPad 2 and all its accessories were affected largely by the uneventful tsunami that hit Japan early this month.

So you might be wondering how I handled my eBay customer?

I always remind myself to treat customers with utmost priority because they give life to my business. I decided to tell the customer with all honesty and sincerity that iPad Smart Cover color red is currently sold out, but I gave him an option for another color for a discounted price. I was like letting some couple of dollars out of my hands for the sake of compensating for my customer's expectation. It was good to note that the customer was good-natured and thus opted a refund but I promised him I would be of service and get back at him as soon as the color red is made available again.

Now, does anybody know when will it be available?