An Important Reminder
Posted by: JohnI do a fair amount of selling on eBay. As with any business there are customers involved. For the most part, people are reasonable and things go smoothly. On occasion, however, something happens and it becomes necessary to go into customer service mode.
I sold an item about a month ago. The customer paid promptly, I shipped the item within the 2 business days I promise in my selling policies, and all seemed happy.
Then, last week, I got a message through eBay from the customer saying that a piece had broken off the item and asking if it was too late to return it. My policy clearly states that returns must be within 7 days, but I will make exceptions when it’s appropriate to do so.
So, I responded and said that if the item was returned along with the broken piece, I’d be happy to issue a refund. The customer sent the item back along with the piece that had broken off. I issued a refund for the amount paid for the item less the original shipping, which is also stated in my return/refund policy.
This didn’t satisfy the customer who demanded the return of the original amount paid for shipping as well. My first reaction was annoyance. It’s easy under these conditions to point to policies and blame the customer for my negative reaction and that, of course, was what I was doing. After all, it could be argued that I’m “right” and they’re “wrong” and all that.
From a purely practical standpoint, the amount we’re talking about isn’t worth getting upset over. It would cost way more in my time and good will than the dollar amount if I were to choose to be “right”. Just as a business decision, it makes sense to issue the refund and be done with it.
There’s more to it than that, however. As I drove to work, I realized that this is a situation that calls for the application of love rather than resentment or anger.
I recently mentioned Larry Crane’s book “Love Yourself And Let The Other Person Have It Your Way”. This wonderful little book is still free in the Kindle edition as of this writing.
Anyway, this is exactly the kind of situation Larry is talking about in his book. I know that Abraham would agree, as well. I could maintain my “rightness” and feel all the negative emotion that would go along with defending that position, or I can simply send this person their refund along with love and feel good.
Someone once said “You can be right or you can be happy, it’s your choice”. They were referring to marital relationships, but when you get down to it, it applies to all relationships whether personal or business.
I appreciate this customer’s reminder of this truth.
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