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Rude buyers

mxracer4life

mxracer4life

"Daniel Boone"
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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
 
It is common in every industry and is part of doing business, yes it is unfortunate but it comes with the territory. I usually make a call and an email or 2, if no response is made then I assume they are no longer interested. To me it isn't a big deal as I always set aside time to contact customers anyway both current and former and just see it as something I will have to deal with. I have also been on the other end of it where sellers don't return emails or calls, it just makes me go elsewhere just as buyers not returning contact makes me not sell to them in the future. Not every potential customer is worth the effort.
 
Unfortunately Jeremy it is something we all deal with. In time you will learn to not let it bother you as much and you will also learn to recognize such people very early in the communication process. Just remember, it is never a done deal until money has exchanged hands.

Speaking of rude. I told a guy back on December 22nd that I was done doing business for the year and that I would resume sales after the Holidays..... I get a phone call at 8:20 AM the morning after Christmas and the first thing I hear is "Well its after the Holidays, I am ready to come to your house and look at your possible het pieds to see if I want one of them".

I didnt know what was more rude... calling that early the day after xmas when he knew I was not doing business until after New Years or inviting himself to my home the day after xmas or telling me if I dont let him come to my home to inspect the animals and see how I keep my snakes that he will take his $25 elsewhere. Needless to say he had no choice but to take his $25 elsewhere.
 
Technically that's a rude potential buyer, since you never exchanged goods/moneys.
People are just that way. Some probably mean well, but things come up, or go wrong. Some might even have sent a explanation email or call that went awry.
But yeah, most are just self-centered, and don't think about the annoyance that they are causing. Eventually you just get used to the no-shows, cancellers, and lookie-loos.
Keep yer chin up.
 
I had one a few months ago write and ask me a couple dozen questions about BPs, hets, and in particular the male het pied I had for sale at the time. After I answered all his question patiently he wrote and informed me he had purchased a male het pied from someone else and wanted to know if I would send my ADULT female het pieds to him to breed with his newly purchased het pied male and we could split the clutches...............


I think I just responded "No thank you".......but thats sure NOT what I was thinking!
 
darn kids these days! ;)

It can be annoying... I just recently spent time taking new pics and sending details to someone that suddenly 'didn't have any money left' and it's not the first time it's happened. Having sold other stuff on CL or Ebay there are lookie-loos everywhere, it just seems that the reptile potential buyers tend to be a little more demanding as far as requesting lots of info or pics before backing out. Part of the territory I suppose.
 
I get that even though I only sell goods. Usually if a customer isn't precise in their questions or what they are interested in...they aren't interested. i politely answer their Q's knowing I won't hear back from them. I am the same way when I am seriously buying/inquiring. I precisely say I am interested in blahblahblah and i have a few questions for you...
I don't really see the point in asking about a potential sale when you aren't sure you want to do that, have the money, or whatever... people are inconsiderate everywhere. Especially on the roads.
 
Wow, that is a little rude Shrap. I don't let it get to me too much, I was just a little curious of how everyone else felt about the matter. The part that really gets me is when someone DOES back out, they never let you know, they just never email/call back. I have had people call about a car I have forsale, get me out of bed, drive all the way to town (20 minutes) and they never show up, never answer a call back or anything. But I do get over it. I don't sell enough herps to really see how all the people are on here, but from what I can tell, I have had about 11 people contact me about a BCI and set something up then I never here from them.
 
It's also interesting that the more expensive the item is, the MORE non responsive potential buyers you get!! Not that the price matters, the commodity is what draws them in without thinking about the price tag.

I kinda feel like if a seller is actually communicating and trying to accomodate me I would rather buy from that person. Not saying you have to be pushy but when you reply to ads or leave messages, maybe you should throw the ball back in their court with something like "let me know what you think so we can accomodate you. or get back to me when you get a chance and let me know if we can work something out...
I always drop this at the end: Hope to hear from you soon, or
Talk to you soon,
 
I just keep track of those ones, and if they come around later, I tell them I ain't interested in selling to them. You can't stop them from coming, but you can stop them from wasting a lot of your future time and effort.
 
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.
 
Darkice said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

It's rare but it does happen. :rofl:
Click to expand...

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.
 
Reply

mxracer4life said:
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
Click to expand...

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 :thumbsup:
 
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 ... :(
 
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