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How to handle possible customers who

allreptiles1966

allreptiles1966

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Ok,I get some people who either do not read the full ad I've posted or just plain don't give a hoot.

I've posted ads for boas for great prices. Ad states cost plus shipping. Price is firm. Then I get will you take $150 for your albino shipped. To tx no less.

I put firm,but I guess some just don't understand English. I sometimes get very frustrated with that person. Which,than I won't even deal with the person because I feel they will be a problem buyer since they didn't respect my ad in the first place.

What would you do? I could use some advice. In the long run,being rude will get me into issues here. I just don't know how to handle these type of people.
 
It's a known fact that most people either don't read, or disregard, information posted in the ad. You can say: "LOCAL SALES ONLY - NO SHIPPING", and people will still ask you to ship. A "FIRM" price will get lower offers.
The best response, IMO, is to politely restate your information, and decline their offer.
As indicated in my ad, my price is firm. I feel that the _______ is well worth the posted price; so I am not considering lower offers at this time.
Thank you for your interest.

Personally, if I post the price as firm, I don't include a counter offer of any sort in my reply. If my ad says $200, shipped - FIRM; I will decline an offer of $190...unless, of course, it is somebody asking about the option of local pickup
 
hhmoore said:
It's a known fact that most people either don't read, or disregard, information posted in the ad. You can say: "LOCAL SALES ONLY - NO SHIPPING", and people will still ask you to ship. A "FIRM" price will get lower offers.
The best response, IMO, is to politely restate your information, and decline their offer.
As indicated in my ad, my price is firm. I feel that the _______ is well worth the posted price; so I am not considering lower offers at this time.
Thank you for your interest.
Click to expand...


Sometimes that's hard when you feel like they just disregard your ad that has all pertinent info in.

I'm sorry I had to ask this,but it's just really annoying that people do this ALL the time.

Are you suggesting if I take out the firm price I might not get those "pushers" ?
And Ty Harold. I know you have some serious patience as some others on here.
So I had to ask and I value your opinion. Not kissing but!!
 
Oh, without the firm price statement, you'll get some seriously insulting offers.
I hate the marketplace - too many people wanting something for nothing...or, worse, expecting you to pay out of pocket to get rid of your snake (ie $40, shipped, for a hypo female).

Luckily, I don't really care if I sell to anybody - so the people tossing out offers of half (or less) my posted price simply get a no thank you....and I probably won't open their subsequent messages/emails. An offer like that is NOT a "starting point for negotiation" with me - it's the end of discussion. If I'm going to offer wholesale pricing, it's going to be to somebody buying enough to make it worthwhile. No single animals at wholesale prices. Discounts for friends and repeat customers - sure...but not 35+% (I simply don't inflate my prices that much, which is why I don't have much interest in negotiation)

I have no interest in being the lowest priced. I price my animals fairly, and according to quality. I might post one snake at a lower price than a littermate of the same morph; simply because I don't think it looks as good. Some customers totally understand the concept of buying quality...others see only pricetags.
 
I have been being nice and just saying no thank you. Sometimes just a no.
I can't believe some people have the nerve to ask such low offers. I do discount for buying more than one. And honestly,I'd give a slight discount for just being polite when responding to my ads with a "hello' . I think maybe 1 out of ten people start the reply with hello or hi.

What happened to manners?

Thanks Harold and Lucille. I feel a bit better knowing this is common place.
 
I'll buy from you. I start all my inquiries with hello so I'll be expecting that discount:)

Seriously though a simple polite no thank you is all that is required but if you want to go the little extra what Herald said is nice too. The key IMO is to resist being rude back no matter how rude they may get. Its just not worth the potential backlash if they decide to spread it around.

An example of my response to an add that doesn't have firm in it may be as follows.

Hello,
I saw your ad on fauna for the XXX for sale for YYY dollars. I was wondering if you would consider ZZZ for it. If not I understand and good luck with your sale.

Steve Schindler


I always put my complete name in any response and the ZZZ will NEVER be less than 75% of the asking price. Sometimes what a seller thinks the animal is worth just isn't what I think it is worth so I don't feel bad offering less but anything more than 25% off is out of line IMO. If you want $200 and its only worth $125 to me I'll skip it.

Bottom line be nice about your refusal and realize that there are people out there who will lowball you and there is nothing you can do about it and let it go. If you let it bother you it will drive you more and more crazy with each reply.
 
I go one step further, Steve. I won't reply to an ad asking for a discount at all. I feel like the asking price is what the seller expects and anything less (particularly an insultingly low amount) is a slap in the face. If the seller is truly over priced he will be listing it again at a lower price. That's when I grab the sale.

Rich, my wife and I own three businesses. None of our products and services are bargain bin quality and therefore we command higher prices for higher quality and customer service. Harald gave an excellent example of a polite way to decline an offer. Don't sell yourself short or give a less than friendly response. You and your business are better than that.

Every business has tire kickers. Be nice and send them packing. ;)
 
If it's a gotta have snake - exactly the look I want - I usually won't waste time dickering, out of fear of losing it. The difficulty that arises is if the seller is somebody I don't know...I've gotten burned too many times; so I'm more likely to pass than take a chance. I might ask for references; but, realistically, they're only useful if I know/trust the person to whom I am referred.
There was one snake I really wanted a couple years ago, but it was some random new seller with no history. I offered to pay 50% up front, and upon inspection of the animal I would either send the balance or ship the animal back (at my expense) for a refund. I wouldn't have tried that with an ad found elsewhere; but I felt it was reasonable here.
1) I make a pretty good reference on this site; so me giving a new seller positive feedback could make things easier for them.
2) I stood to lose a lot more than the seller if I defaulted.

I never expect anybody to accept that offer - some do, some don't. I don't get upset if it is declined...but I don't purchase the snake, either.

Not sure why I went off on that tangent....
Back to the original topic:
If I do feel inclined to dicker, I usually just ask how firm the seller is on the price. Most will respond with a price, some will ask what I had in mind (I prefer the former, honestly)
 
Well,I'll be honest,it's hard to take a slap in the face as I think this person did ,by asking me to ship an albino to Tx for a total of $150 shipped. The albino is $150. It would have cost me $70 to ship there. So,you see why I just had to get some advice. I'm known to handle things poorly sometimes. But,I enjoy this site enough to come here to get answers so I don't become that marked bad guy.

I agree with you all. My response could get me into some issues by being rude,so I will use your replies to keep me on the right track.

It's just frustrating people would offer such a low ball offer. Thanks for your wisdom guys. I'll apply it.
 
A lot of people may also think that shipping is around $40-50, and may not have realized how much that cost has risen in the last year or so. I know the high cost has forced me to look closer to home for my snakes, and the only animals I'm having shipped are the ones that no one breeds locally.

Or they do know, but figure if they throw out a low price to start negotiating that you'll counter-offer somewhere in the middle.

I admit I'm bad at dickering, if I see something marked $X then I figure that's the price.
 
bcr229 said:
A lot of people may also think that shipping is around $40-50,
Click to expand...

Honestly that is what I thought when I first started buying snakes. All I ever saw was "plus 50 for shipping". Until I had to ship out my first snake.... I flipped lol. Now most of the time I always do plus shipping and put that cost out first.
 
Wait till you get the ones who ignore the price you posted and ask if they can have it for free because they don't have any money but really, really want it. Politeness has gone out the window with my replies to those requests.
It seems that there are a lot more people replying to ads with extremely lowball offers than there have been in years past.
 
SPJ said:
Wait till you get the ones who ignore the price you posted and ask if they can have it for free because they don't have any money but really, really want it. Politeness has gone out the window with my replies to those requests.
It seems that there are a lot more people replying to ads with extremely lowball offers than there have been in years past.
Click to expand...

I get those offers. My buddy on here has a sweet sunglow and was offered $175. For an adult. Lol

I ignore these type all together now. I guess it's better than being ruder by going off.
 
this isn't a snake but its a good example of a lowball insulting offer.

I was at a garage sale and the item was a band saw. The seller and customer were discussing it and finally the customer said "would you take 25 for it"

The seller looked at him as if he misheard him him and said "what"

the customer repeated "would you take 25"

The seller said "I'm asking $135.00"

the buyer said "Oh, I'm sorry I thought it was $35"

they said a few more things and the customer said "I was wondering because $35.00 was such an incredible deal"

I muttered under my breath and it took all my will power not to say out loud "$35 was such an incredible price but you still didn't feel bad about trying to screw him out of another 10"

I had to leave before I said something.

Another annecdote, I was at a flea market and the guy set up next to me was telling me a story about the time he made a killing on a bunch of old golf clubs. A different vendor had 6 of them and he was asking $5.00 each. This guy bought one just because he liked it. As he was walking out of the flea market some other guy asked him if it was for sale.

What will you give me for it?

I'll give you $30.00

"I paid more than that" Lie #1 which cost him most of the respect I had for him

"OK, how about $60.00."

Sold

Then he tells me how he went back to the original seller, offered him $15.00 for the remaining 5 then tracked down the third guy and sold them to him for $50.00 each.

This is a guy that will avoid at all costs in the future. He is a liar and a cheap SOB and cares for absolutely nothing besides making as much money as possible and he will do absolutely anything to accomplish that goal. I ignored him for the rest of the day and passed on a few things he was selling that I was interested in.

Now I understand buying cheap and selling for more as that is how a lot of us make a living but to lowball an already good deal is something I can't stand. He made an extra 10 bucks on the deal and it cost him a potential customer.

What is my point you may ask? Just that different people have different opinions on pricing and manners an what is offensive and what is acceptable etc. The best thing is to just exit the situation as politely as possible and move on to the next guy. Its not worth it to get worked up over it.
 
My favorite barter story happened a couple months ago when i decided to sell my 8 inch male jack dempsey. I put an ad on craigslist for 20$ firm and get a hit less than an hour later. The guy offers me 10$ delivered to syracuse which is 90 minutes away. When i tell him thanks but no thanks he says he will tell all of his cichlid buddies not to buy from me. Oh well i sold everything i had for sale to people that he knows locally. Tire kickers can ruin the desire to sell anything.
 
I reply to all offers politely no matter how lowball it is or what ever ridicules trade offer they have. there's never any harm in asking is how i see it.. but if they persist then i will ignore them..

when i sold my first snakes, i got a message, no HI or Hello, just i will give you 20$ for that normal ball python !!!
so i simply replied , no thanks !! the pet shop down the street gives me 50$ and sells them for 120$ so if 60$ (my price) is too much for a captive bread, healthy animal i'm sorry but i can't let it go lower than that..

and on asking, i wanted to buy from a guy selling a bunch of used pvc hides and a few exo ones.
add said no shipping and 150$

i offered him 100$ plus shipping, he replied NO SHIPPING it cost like 100$ to ship and my offer was too low..
i politely replied thanks , no harm in asking and by the way, shipping would be 15$ and the stuff you are selling has a value of 175$ new !!! so my offer is fair considering it's for used hides, i'm sure you are getting lower offers, if you change your mind, i will be happy to get these off your hands.
he replied back and we agreed to 120$ shipped, he said that because i was polite he re-considered the shipping part since he was certain it was $$$ he agreed to ship in the end.

so sometimes, just being nice and polite will get you a better deal.
and there's never any harm in asking "nicely"

i know many out there lack proper maners and right out leave the politeness out..
with these , i simply reply no thanks, but feel a reply is important..

i have another story just this week, someone selling dart frogs, i inquire about what she has left and if shipping is available.. she replies where do i live?? after giving her the info, i eagerly await the answer to see if i can add to my collection , only to be ignored and never earing back.. she's on the forum every day too !!!! i'm not one to keep asking.. so i will simply bring my business elswhere..

being polite and courtious goes both ways, sellers and buyers.. public relations is the most important aspect of being in business, many fail because they lack it..
 
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