What Makes Selling More Difficult

As I previously mentioned, I am attempting to avoid shutting down my eBay and Etsy stores completely this year as the school year begins.  My first work week was just two days, so I'm okay but rather tired.  It will be more difficult next week when I work five days.

Having a few packages to ship isn't what makes this hard.  It's the unexpected situations with buyers and prospective buyers that never seem to come at good times.  I had two such situations this week.  

One buyer asked if the international shipping for four books would really cost as much as Etsy quoted, which was about $86.00.  I took the time to figure the postage and found that it would be around $36.00.  I adjusted the shipping charge on the listings so that it would come out to that amount.  I was pleased that the shipping reduced by $50.00.  I let the buyer know, and I thought that they'd purchase the books.  They didn't.  Okay, alrighty then. 

That's usually what happens with international buyers who ask about shipping.  They almost never purchase.  Other international buyers just go ahead and pay whatever the shopping cart shows.  If the charge is too much, I refund the extra.  

That's what happened with another international buyer.  They purchased two books in separate transactions, which guaranteed that they were overcharged for shipping.  I combined the orders and refunded some of the shipping on the second book.  That was on August 2.  I shipped those books to Australia on August 3.  

The buyer reached out to me last night on August 8, just five days after the books were shipped.  The books haven't had time to arrive!  They asked for a refund because they didn't receive their books.  

The problem that worried the buyer was caused by Etsy's suboptimal handling of international orders that are shipped with their Global Shipping service.  Etsy has its own service like eBay does where international orders are shipped to a hub in the United States and then forwarded abroad.  eBay does better with this because the seller is given the tracking number that will be used for the entire journey.  Etsy only gives the seller a USPS tracking number to its hub, and then the tracking number changes to something else that the seller doesn't know.

Okay.  So, this is the explanation that I sent the buyer.

I figured out the situation. You made two separate orders, each book in a different order.  As a courtesy, I combined the orders so that you would save on shipping.  I partially refunded the [second book] order to give you the discount.

I generated the Etsy Global Shipping label from the [first book] order.  Global Shipping first goes to a United States address where it is then forwarded to the international destination.

I had to mark [second book] as shipped, and I had to use a tracking number.  Unfortunately, Etsy only gives me the United States tracking number for the global shipping center in Illinois and not what will be the final tracking number to you.  They only have that information internally.  That information is attached only to the [first book] order, since I used it for the shipping label.

The tracking number on [second book] shows as delivered, but that just means that it has arrived at the United States address where it will then be forwarded to Australia.  This means it isn't lost.  We know where it is.

Ignore the [second book] tracking from this point on. Use the tracking number on [first book] to track your package.  It is still on the way, and both books are in the package.  I have attached a screen capture of the most recent information on the [first book] tracking.  It says "Received by Global Postal Shipping partner" on August 6.  The package is on the way to you.

Please check the [first book] tracking only, and you should see its arrival in Australia within a few more days.  The package will likely arrive within one week, possibly slightly longer.

Rest assured that if the package should disappear and never arrive, then you will receive a full refund.  Since the tracking shows that the package is still on the way, we need to wait to give it time to arrive.  I appreciate your patience, and I hope that my explanation helps to put your mind at ease.

I understand why the buyer thought the package was lost.  The tracking on the second order shows first, and they probably only looked at it.  That tracking shows that the package was delivered in Illinois.  I'd be worried too if I were in Australia.

You see, this is why it's hard to sell books as school opens back up.  It's the unexpected extra customer service that does me in.  I probably spent over 20 minutes typing up the response about the package to Australia.  I had to make sure that I explained it as well as I could.

Next week will test me further on whether I can keep my stores open.  The good news is that I have sharply reduced my eBay listings, so I probably won't sell much of anything there.  Many of my Etsy listings will deactivate when they expire in five days, so that will help.  I'd like to keep the stores open in a minimal capacity just so that I don't completely lose my search position on both sites.