Selling books, like selling just about anything else, means dealing with customers. In part 1 we talked about difficult customers. In this post we’re going to look at customers who just out-and-out lie to you, the ones who try to scam you out of your hard earned money.
Beware of scammers. Especially if you’re selling used textbooks online. There are a lot of college students who will try to pull a fast one on you, but it can really be any kind of customer or any kind of book. They will especially target new sellers, so it’s important to be on your guard from the get-go.
A common scenario goes like this:
You’re selling a used chemistry text book, you list it, someone orders it and you ship it out. Everything seems like business as usual, until all of the sudden the customer claims he never received the book.
Now a certain percentage of customers who say they never received a book are totally legit. On the other hand, a certain percentage aren’t.
A lot of sellers, especially small, individual sellers will just believe the buyer and give out a refund.
This is why it is so important to use delivery confirmation or tracking, especially on more expensive books. A lot of the time if you get a customer who claims to never have received a book, you can just give them the tracking number and you’ll never hear from them again. But believe it or not, there are some who will stick to their guns, even in the face of evidence against them. They will try and beat you with persistence. They think they can bully you into giving them what they want, even when you know you’re right. Don’t let them.
What I do when I run into a situation like this is to provide them with the delivery or tracking information, and if they still demand a refund, I very politely invite them to file an A-to-z claim. They can’t file unlimited A-to-z claims, they only are allowed a certain number. Even the most persistant of scammers will usually leave you alone at this point.
Don’t be afraid to have an A-to-z claim filed against you, especially if you can prove you are in the right.
Using delivery confirmation is a hugely useful tool, and a great deterrent. A lot of potential scammers won’t even bother with you if you use it. It’s also just good customer service.
Be aware that the post office’s delivery confirmation isn’t the same as having a FedEx tracking number, for example. Often times the only status update you will see is when it’s delivered. If I get a customer asking where a package is I check, sometimes they’ll get lucky and there will be an updated status I can give them. Otherwise, it’s the usual spiel about media mail taking 1-3 weeks, please be patient, etc. The important thing is to respond.
The other consideration is where to draw the line, deciding what price justifies shelling out for delivery confirmation. I’m still experimenting with this, but I’d definitely recommend using confirmation for any book over $3-$5. Again, just taking this one step will dissuade a lot of scammers from going after you, especially because they tend to go after the more expensive books.
So I’ve told you not to let unreasonable customers take advantage of you. I’ve told you how to stand up to scammers. You may be thinking to yourself “That’s great, what about my rating and feedback? What about repeat business? Can’t these people sabotage my business?” I’ll address all that and more in part 3.
There’s been a lot of speculation lately about what the future of reading will look like. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard a lot about the Kindle and a lot of peoples various opinions on what impact, if any, it will have on the publishing industry.