What a great opportunity to share right in the midst of what we need to be doing as ebayers.  We should  always be quick to communicating whether we are buying or selling.  Two personal experiences this week.  One I won an auction, just a pair of levis' but they didn't arrive and after a week, I contacted the seller.   Well she didn't know, and had turned over shipping to her husband because she had gone to work to help make ends meet.  As a result with new help I slipped through the cracks.  She was so good about immediately responding to my email and told me in detail what happened and asking the pertinent information that she needed and kept me informed 5 or 6 times until the levi's arrived today, great buy, by the way.  By her communicating with me I was at ease and the transaction was smooth. 

Another immediate situation, I sold an item, and after 5 days sent another invoice, finally two days later the buyer emails she was out of town and didn't know she had won.  Said she was having problems with paypal and was not able to finish the transaction.  I heard nothing for several days, I emailed her again, she emailed back, still nothing and now we are up to almost two weeks and the transaction is still not finalized and I don't know where she stands with the purchase.  Finally I emailed her again today, stating she needed to send other payment if there was a problem with PayPal, but to please let me know what was happening. 

This lack of communication has left me wondering and questioning if she is on the up and up. I have to email her asking where we are before I get any communication back.  She may be totally right but she is not keeping up with communication with me and I believe it is one of the most basic keys to ebaying because we are not face to face with folks and we don't know who's who, especially with all the kooks trying to get into our ebay accounts.  It only takes literally 1 minute to send an email as to the status of a transaction and to keep everyone informed.  This will keep problems from getting out of hand and also build good customer service and bring buyers back again and again.  So a good motto is "Stay in Touch"

Go Ebayers,

Candi MacAlpine

Carlyn 2658