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Hi! I wanted to take the time to let my customers know some things about me, my Ebay store, listings and the star system that you currently use to grade us sellers. I feel that those of you who only purchase from Ebay may not know everything that's going on from the sellers side, so that's what I want to do here.
First I'm married and a mother to four. 2 girls and 2 boys. The girls are college aged and living on their own. Two boys, that are still at home. One of which is in high school and the other in college. So I still have a lot going on in my life and not just Ebay. I also have 4 grandchildren so far. All under the age of 3. So when they come to visit I may have my hands full. : ) I have a lot of customers who are in the same boat as me with the little ones.
Now with the store. I would like to first say that I make the labels as a fun thing to do on Ebay while trying to get other merchandise listed. I do not make a lot of money on the labels. So that's where I would like to start.
I offer the sheets at a low price of $1.35, which seems fair. But from the customers end I don't think that you know that Ebay takes .16 for every sheet I sell. And then there's the Paypal fee that comes off also when you pay. ( for a $2.70 order, Paypal takes .38) I have a listing fee to pay when I put the items in the store as well and a monthly store subscription fee. None of that is charged to you in my starting price. Some of my customers say I should charge more to allow for that, but if I did my prices would be high and no one would want to buy the labels.
Now with the star system. Some of us do take this rating system personally as we are honest sellers and not trying to rip off the customers with outrageous prices and shipping fees.
I currently mail every day, which is not posted in my store. Mailing your package depends on a few things. When your payment comes through and whether or not you sent me instructions for the labels. I personalize each sheet so if I don't get the instructions, then I have to wait for an email from you telling me something. If you don't respond promptly to the emails, then we can loose a few days while waiting. But I try to keep in mind that not everybody checks their emails daily or that they are sitting there 24/7 behind that computer. We all have other things going on that needs to be taken care of as well.
I mail my packages using the Stamps.com. I pay a monthly fee to them for using their site, which allows me to print postage as needed and the convenience of mailing from home. So no running to the post office daily. I also pay for those little stamps that are on the front of your envelopes. And again no additional charge to you.
So with the stars.....
Communication. I try to answer everyone's questions within a 24 hour period as I check my emails several times a day during the week and maybe once a day on weekends. Weekends are a little harder when you are trying to catch up on yard work, gardening, getting ready for a change in the season, house work and running errands. Also if the weather is bad in my area I may not have internet service. I currently can only get satellite internet. Which means if it rains too hard, no service. Freezing rain, no service and of course when it snows really heavy, no service. So as soon as we have service I normally check my emails.
Item description. Mainly right now I'm selling labels. So there's not much you can say about them. How many per sheet, the size of the labels, font choices and a brief description of the label. You don't need a super long description for this particular type of auction. And most of us mainly want to know how many labels you get and look at the picture before moving on to the next listing to see what else is available. But you would be surprised at how many people ding your stars or give you a low rating on something as simple as a label description. I don't understand why. If I were selling an antique item, I could understand if some important details were left out. So try to keep in mind when you grade the item description how much of the description do you really read or do you just scan the description for the important details. : )
Shipping Time. I mail packages daily. I use stamps.com for the postage. If I get everything that I need from you then your package is put in the mail right away. Please keep in mind though that if I had to wait for instructions for the labels then we may loose a few days while waiting. Which isn't fair to grade me harshly if the delay was not my fault.
Also there are holidays and weather conditions that may hold up your package as well. With the holiday's if the post office is closed then I can't mail packages until the following day. With the weather we've had hurricanes, forest fires, a lot of flooding, tornado's ripping through area's that normally don't have them, snow storms and freezing rain. So please ask yourself did the weather possibly hold up your package.
I know that the little post office here that handles my mail has said they have days where so many packages came in that they didn't get them all sent out and it took two days to get them delivered. Some of my customers have complained about their post office as well as just being slow sometimes. So just a few things to keep in mind.
If you've been waiting for a package from me for two weeks or longer, then contact me. Something may be wrong. As most of my customers have their labels within a week which is pretty good time. If you live on the west coast of the U.S. and I'm on the East coast please allow a little extra time as it will take a little longer for them to get their. Someone living on the East coast stands a better chance of getting them quicker. : )
Shipping and Handling. I don't charge a handling charge on my packages. I only charge the shipping and an extra .25 or so for the envelope used to mail the package to you. The envelopes I have to special order and that's the only thing the customer is helping me cover. No charge for the tape, sharpie markers used, stamps.com monthly fees, stamps, Ebay fees, Paypal fees, end of auction fees, etc., So when you purchase one sheet, shipping is $1.40 for U.S. customers and if you subtract out the envelope charge, I'm not making any extra on the shipping. But I get my stars dinged for shipping and handling all of the time. Most of the sellers are charging a lot more for shipping than I do. And I don't want to change to priority envelopes as the customer shouldn't have to pay that much for one sheet of labels if that's all that they are wanting to buy at that time.
The shipping for each additional sheet is low and it's only enough to help cover the cost of shipping as each sheet added to the package makes it weigh more. It's very hard to be exact on sheets of paper. And then the postal service is always going up on their shipping rates too. So a flat rate helps cover those changes to where I don't have to update the auction's shipping every time they add a penny or two the rates.
And if you purchase 2 sets of labels and pay for them individually, please don't ding my stars, if I added a sheet to your order to cover the additional postage paid. I do this with my customers when they don't request an invoice for a consolidated shipping. And then they forget that they got an extra sheet for the extra postage paid and ding my stars again.
I do offer free sheets as an bonus to my customers along with free shipping when your purchase qualifies. I don't know that many of sellers offer a little something extra. So please keep in mind some of the things mentioned here when grading me a seller. I try very hard to make buying from me an easy pleasant experience. Low cost items, low shipping, bonus items when you qualify and very nice feedbacks.
Special "thanks" goes out to all of my repeat customers who have continued to purchase from me over the years. It's been great working with you all. : ) Shelia
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