Article on Ebay

Article on Ebay

eBay and Customer Service

If you are running an eBay business, you may not 

realize that the need for great customer service still 

exists – even for online auctions. When a buyer 

receives quality customer service from you, they 

will potentially do one of two things – or both. They 

will give you great feedback, and they may look for 

more of your auctions in the future. If you hope to 

make a living from eBay, you have to stop thinking 

of it as an ‘auction’ and start running it like a 

‘business.’

If you owned a brick and mortar business, how 

would you treat your customer while they were 

standing at your counter, waiting for you to finish 

ringing up their order? You would be helpful and 

respectful of course! You would do everything that 

you could to guarantee that customers return to 

your establishment in the future. You would bend 

over backwards to make sure that their buying 

experience with you was both satisfactory and 

enjoyable. Why would you do any less at the 

close of one of your eBay auctions?

First, act quickly at the close of your auctions. 

Contact the winner, and congratulate them. Describe 

the item they have won and how the item will be 

shipped – even if this information is already part of 

the description for the auction. Remind them of their 

winning bid amount, and give them payment options 

and instructions. Let them know when the item will 

be shipped. 

Close your email by thanking them for participating 

in your auction. You might even take this opportunity 

to tell them about other open auctions that you have 

as well. Think of this contact with the winner as a 

conversation that you are having with a customer 

who is standing at your counter in that imaginary 

brick and mortar store.

Once the payment and shipping details have been 

taken care of, contact your buyer again. Let them 

know when the item was shipped – the exact date 

and time – and when it is expected to arrive on their 

end. During this contact, let them know that if they 

have any problems or questions, that they should 

contact you through the eBay site. If they do 

contact you in the future, make sure that you 

answer promptly, and that you do all that you can 

to make them happy with their purchase – even if 

it means issuing a refund.

Yes. You should be open to issuing refunds, 

depending on what the item is. Furthermore, you 

should issue refunds promptly. Of course, it is 

reasonable to expect the buyer to return the item to 

you, at your expense, before the refund is issued – 

but once you receive the item, issue the refund 

promptly. This is just good business!

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eBay and Drop shipping – Getting the Product to
Your Customer

If you hope to own an eBay business, and make a 

full time living at it, you can easily make that dream 

come true – even if you don’t have a product of your 

own to sell. eBay provides many people who want to 

quit their corporate nine-to-five jobs with a way to 

make a good living, without having to put up a lot of 

start up capital. This is made possible with the help 

of drop shippers. Drop shippers send merchandise to 

the customers of business owners. If you have an 

eBay business, you are a business owner. This will 

allow you to offer a wide variety of stock in your 

eBay store, without having the need to warehouse

all of those products! 

All you have to do is set up your auction, and sell 

the product. You then pass the customer’s 

information on to the drop shipping company. The 

drop shipper does the rest, and they will even use 

your company information, as well as your company 

logo if you have provided it to them. When the product 

arrives at your customer’s home, they will have no idea

 that your company didn’t send it. The drop shipper 

will package, label, and ship the products that you 

sell, allowing you more time to set up even more 

auctions, for greater profits.

You must establish a relationship with several drop 

shipping companies in order to become successful.

In the beginning, most companies will require you to 

pay for the items that your customers order before 

they are shipped. You need to fill orders in a 

timely manner, so you should pay for the items with 

a credit card for speedy service. Eventually, you will 

be able to have the drop shipper fill your orders, and 

then bill you for them later.

When you set up your eBay auctions, make sure 

that your reserve price is set higher than the price 

that the drop shipper will be charging you for the 

item. The idea, of course, is to earn a profit! 

Depending on the item you are selling, a markup 

of about 10% should be about right, but you should 

do some research to see if the item is selling for a 

lower price in another eBay auction, or through 

other online sources.

By starting an eBay business using the drop 

shipping method, there is essentially no financial risk

involved. The product will be sold before you pay the 

drop shipper for the item. This is one of the few 

businesses where you can actually turn a profit 

before you have expenditures!

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eBay Scams – Steps to Take if You Have Been
Defrauded

eBay is a relatively safe marketplace. Unfortunately, 

like most online marketplaces, it is vulnerable to 

scams. eBay tries to keep instances of scams 

occurring, but with more than 100 million members, 

and approximately $40 million moving through the 

site on a daily basis, this can be a little difficult. 

Sometimes, scams occur.

If you have been scammed, there are certain steps

you need to follow to report the incident, and to try 

to come to a resolution. If you paid for the item 

through Paypal, the first step is to login to your 

Paypal account and open up a dispute for the 

payment. If you did not pay through Paypal, contact

your credit card company. In most cases, if you have 

used one of these two cases, you will recover your 

money.

The next step is to use eBay’s dispute process to 

report the seller. This is specifically for items that 

were not received, or items that were significantly 

different than what was described in the auction. 

eBay also has a purchase protection program to 

further protect buyers. If a settlement cannot be 

reached with the buyer, the next step is to make 

an eBay buyer purchase protection claim.

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