Rude buyers

I hate when people email me telling me my price is too high, or make rude comments about pricing. I mean, it's a sellers market. If you don't like the pricer buy from someone else

I get people all the time window-shopping. They ask for more pics. And I know ill never hear from them again. So I send them pics with GIANT Watermarks.

But I'm not perfect. I've been in the market for ball morphs and sent emails to a couple big named breeders. The first one who responds gets my money.
I'm impatient sometimes.

I'm more surprised by people who say there interested...... and then send money!?!?

It's rare but it does happen.

Originally Posted by Darkice

But I'm not perfect. I've been in the market for ball morphs and sent emails to a couple big named breeders. The first one who responds gets my money.
I'm impatient sometimes.

By the time I get to the point of actually contacting someone for information about their snake, I've already made the purchase in my head. The only thing after that is looking for reasons I shouldn't get it.

Originally Posted by garweft

I'm more surprised by people who say there interested...... and then send money!?!?

It's rare but it does happen.

Twice this year I got paypal payment before I got an email even stating interest in the animal they paid for. Happened to me in '06 also.

Talk about strange, yer like, "payment for what?!!" Then 5 emails further down, you find the email explaining the payment, and a "when can you ship".

Too bad they ain't all that easy.

I think some buyers who show interest but never go through with a deal figure that all breeders are too busy selling animals to wonder why they broke off contact, and that it won't be noticed. Telling some one that you have changed your mind, or that you are shopping elsewhere is hard for some people, especially those with little experience dealing with merchants or sellers. They don't understand how rude their behavior is.

I still see no excuse for calling up a breeder and telling them that their prices are too high...that one makes no sence to me.

Like Rick said, It's part of every industry. If I had even 10% of the people who came in looking for an "entire aquarium setup" ever follow through with an actual purchase I'd be much better off. Some people are comparison shopping looking for the best deal and others are just window shopping with no intentions of buying. It's their form of entertainment. After they leave my store they go to the stereo store down the street and do the same thing with a home entertainment system. I learned very quickly not to expect anything from anyone promising to "come back when I get paid" After a while you kind of get the feel for which ones might be serious but you never really know so you treat them all the same hoping for the best. Its also much easier to expect nothing from any of them. That way when one of them does come back it is a pleasant surprise.

Originally Posted by mxracer4life

Hey guys. I just wanted to talk a little about something that has been driving me crazy. How many people here deal with rude buyers? I am talking about the person that email/call about a particular item, shows interest, talks about a time or place of meeting, or shipping, then you never hear back from them. I have spent more than a normal amount of time sending emails, pictures, making phone calls and I just thinks it's rude for them to never return a call &/or email. If I am dealing with someone and I decide to back out of, it have the kahuna's to atleast let them now and apologize for taking there time. I deal with this a lot with herps, but have also experienced it with selling cars etc. Are people just getting more and more rude? Am I whining about something that isn't a big deal? I was just interested in finding out everyone else's take on this.

Jeremy

Unfortunately, people now-a-days have no respect for others, it's due to the teachings that are laid for them. Because of this I usually take a deposit to ensure that they are serious and it forces them to have to respond or they lose their money. If you they respond within 30-60days they get it back, and I tell them as well as show them our disclaimer while doing this (This is a worse case scenario, as I am, unless at a show very careful who I deal with. Money can always be made at a show or through a forum where I know and talk to people often.) If it is a trade and I have to meet up with someone well I take the risk, but I usually make it a point to make it a week or so in advance so that I can assure myself that this is something I want to do and I can contact them. I DO NOT only contact by email, I get their number too, so that if they don't respond by the day before we meet. I don't budge from my house. We all, who have a business or otherwise, need to be careful of these people. Taking every precaution will help reduce stress on you and your animal who has to be lugged around as well. I deal with this frustration quite often.

I can say this one last thing. It is very frustrating to do all the work and someone doesn't have the respect to answer or call you back. But people will be people and we have to find ways around those who irritate us to the point of frustration. No easy way around this, but I am working on it. LOL

I breed and sell small mammals (chinchillas and hedgehogs) and while I haven't had much success at breeding my snakes, I have enough of an "active" collection that I usually have a snake or two up for sale as well.

I find that if someone contacts me about a chinchilla, a very good portion of the time (possibly somewhere around 70%) he or she (usually she) is serious about buying, and will follow through with a sale. I do require a deposit to hold chinchillas and this is clearly stated on my website, and I suspect that this helps quite a bit. I don't think that's all of it, though.

Oddly enough, with hedgehog inquiries I find that the "seriousness" of the buyers drops down quite a bit -- more like 40-50% "seriousness" rating. I also get a frustrating number of people inquiring if I ship the hedgehogs (despite having "NO SHIPPING" plastered all over my website), which has led to some other less than pleasant buyer-seller interactions in itself ...

With snakes, though, if I get an inquiry about a snake I'm usually about 90% sure that I'll never hear from the person again. I don't know why someone would inquire about something with a simple, "Do you still have this animal?" if they had no real intention of buying it, but that seems to be the norm in this industry ... So for snakes, I'd say maybe 10% or less (probably less) of all inquiries will lead to a sale in my experience. Just something I've gotten used to.

I've sold quite a few cars as well, and I'd put the "car seriousness" right around the "snake seriousness" -- usually about 90% of inquiries are bogus and go nowhere. The big difference, though, is in the volume -- with cars I typically get a heck of a lot more inquiries per ad, so even though most of those won't follow through, eventually, I can get the car sold. Snakes, it seems, just aren't moving as fast these days ...