Kingofpain89 wrote:The weather has been pretty strange here lately.  Last week we had thunderstorms and a tornado briefly touched down just north of where I live.  We experienced sub-freezing temperatures a few days ago and with the rain everything was coated with a sheet of ice.  We even had a bit of snow.  And now today the temperature is supposed to be in the low 70's.  Pretty frickin' strange.

Amen.  It's 72 degrees, Im in shorts and t-shirt sipping a rum and coke...nice!    Not to mention tomorrow it's going down to 30 degrees. Weird.

Mike B.

JohnGaunt wrote:[rant]

I hate stupid buyers (Amazon, this time) who do not understand that Parcel Post costs more than Media Mail and that Parcel Post can take weeks to arrive.  I was not being cheap like that bastard thinks.

I am, however, stupid.  I decided to be a nice guy and ship Parcel Post in hopes that it would be faster than Media Mail.  I'll take the blame for that big error that started the whole thing. Yeah, I should have stuck with Media Mail.

Goddamn, I should just not ship to the East Coast.  I remember sending cash to a seller who claimed  to have not received it; is the East Coast postal system more corrupt than the rest of the country?  I've gotten packages from other countries and US states without a problem.  Two problems, both on the East Coast.

[/rant]

OK, that should be irrational enough for a rant.  

The East coast buyers are O.K.  Maybe it's just me, but I have noticed some of my best buyers are international buyers.  They send their money quicker and they ask fewer questions.  The main problem I have had overseas is with the Italian Post Office.  A few troubles with Italian buyers, but mostly the Post Office.  However, once I required insurance and sent stuff by registered mail, no more problems with the Italian Post Office.  Of course, the cost is such that I hardly have any Italian buyers any more.

I think the one thing that has helped me more than anything else is that I now have quite a few regular buyers.  They outbid most all the riff raff and keep me happy as I keep them happy.   It pays to treat people right.

That shade of purple is very similar to the old NCR 250 cash register ink rollers.
I have seen it on my hands enough times to remember that shade.  

is the East Coast postal system more corrupt than the rest of the country?

My mother-in-law works for the USPS here in New York, and I could tell you a whole M-bag of horror stories. Some of the issues is that, as far as I can tell, anything international must go through NYC which is a huge pain in the mule -- slow, and unreliable, so those types of packages are often delayed unless they're sent with expedition, but you might not get the barcode scanned to know where the hell it went. And, then, to the interior (Upstate) if it travels out toward Buffalo (like where I am,) count on it getting banged around and slowed since the office there is chock full of ingrates and pretend workers -- sometimes packages get re-routed back to Rochester and then sent again, for example.

So, at least here in New York... yeah, there are mail problems. They're not insurmountable (I have had very few problems with delivery either to, or from) but they do crop up. Same type of thing happened when I was in CA, too.

But, it doesn't have to be the geography... asshats live everywhere.

bclarkie wrote:Looks like he was attacked by the purple Smurf. Gnap! Gnap!  

Only one way to tell for sure . . . trap it, kill it, dissect it, and post the photos here for examination.    Oh, wait, I'm thinking of that DMG or PHB or whatever it was.

The mouse in my house likes crackers, cooked noodles, and cooked rice.  He has sampled soap and tobacco.  He does not like cole slaw.  I wonder if I can introduce some food coloring into his diet . . .

With poison the little bastard might crawl into a space in the walls and stink up the joint.
Better to have that satisfying SNAP as you catch the intruder in a trap!

Use Coca-cola.  The acid in Coke eats right through the rat's stomach lining and kills them.

bbarsh wrote:
Time for my rant...

As a few of guys may know, I just started selling on ebay again after a significant leave. I recently closed about 25 auctions.  The auctions all ended Friday, Dec 12 at around 10 p.m. I contacted every buyer to send invoice and let them know, if they paid by Sunday night, I would mail out on Monday. I even provided tracking numbers for their package so they could check after I mailed on Monday. All but one was paid by Monday and they all shipped Monday afternoon. I then contacted all the buyers again to let them know their items were mailed and they could start tracking with the numbe I already furnished.

Well, I must have had enough feedback so far that my DSR is now showing up. And behold my shipping time is 4.8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shipping fees and communication is 4.9 even though I charge actual shipping and I think two emails in three days is way more than freaking sufficient.

This system is obviously totally f...cked up.

Welcome to the wonderful world of DSRs.  You'll learn to just do things the way you regularly do them and not try to push it, since it doesn't matter anyway.  Your DSR will be messed up by the one guy who thinks a "2.0" is fair on shipping time because it didnt' get to him the next day, or one who gives you a "4.0" instead of a "5.0" on communication because you didn't tell him to have a nice day.  My favorite stories are the ones for guys who don't charge any shipping cost but still get less than "5.0" on the Shipping...because, you know, it shouldn't just be free it should get there the next day AND you need to include a few dollars in the box just because you love them so much.

My philosophy is the hell with it, make sure you get them their items in a timely manner and answer all their questions, and it'll work itself out. There is just no pleasing some people, and they take a perverse glee in giving you lower DSRs just because they can. If you are taking extra measures to improve your DSRs, don't. You'll get good DSRs through consistent service.  

And if you see someone has lowered your DSR through less than 5 ratings (You can sometimes tell if you check your ratings often enough), block them, and let them know why they are blocked if they ever try to buy from you again.

Mike B.

Just to follow up on DSRs, I wonder if I could pose the question: what is reasonably included in 'shipping' costs...

I happily pay postage and envelope/packaging costs, but am considering a less-than-five-star mark for a seller who's including bus fare to the post.  Do we feel that's part of 'shipping', or is that just the cost of doing business?

Thanks,
David