XD30 – Day 17 – No Cash No Service

                I went to a place to get some chicken tenders. It had a cash register but when I pulled out my $10 bill, he said that he didn’t have change. Huh? What type of false advertisement was that?  Look I took my money to BGR, ordered my chicken tenders using my cash and saved $2.50 in the process. That was just messy. Every place else took money. Like I said ‘no cash, no service.’

eBay Adventure – Some People Are Not Your Customers

                No sooner do I accept the Kate Spade black patent leather tote bag then the buyer emails me through eBay saying ‘please disregard’. Now this is a new one: a customer saying that she wants to cancel an order after doing a bid. I am like ‘huh?’ because this has never happened to me. I agree to cancel because I refuse to fight over $26. Inside I feel like blocking this buyer for her messiness. However, I decide against it because she is probably petty and I need to conserve my energy for more sales.

                This incident magnifies that not everyone is my customer. eBay is a global auction place where anyone and everyone can come into your store; however, not everyone should be my client. You need to be discerning because some clients do not want to pay; and, you are in business to sale!

                Since I am now selling purses, I may get these customers because unlike my shoes and dresses, purses have a wider demographic. What I will do is ask more questions and screen them because cancelling orders hold up merchandise.

Shop my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

eBay Adventure – Firing Your Bad Customers

                I have received an email from a customer who wants a discount on an already worn, discounted item. I have told her that I could not honor her request for 3-4 reasons. Below is the synopsis of my response:

                Thanks for the correspondence and concern but I will not give you a discount and these are my 3 reasons.

·         First, the stilts price was originally $100. I agreed to your $65 best offer bid. That was already a 35% discount.

·         Second, I also extended my shipping deadline to accommodate you because you were on vacation. My normal shipment was 2 business days. I shipped on Saturday which was not a business day and outside the original scope of what I did for my other customers. You mentioned vacation after purchase.

·         Third, my description clearly stated worn and I priced my merchandise as such.

·         My store policy clearly stated no returns. I made no misconceptions about the material or my policies. I had accommodated your shipping request and accepted a deeply discounted item.

I had a situation like this before and eBay sided with me because I made no misrepresentation. Also you would have to explain to eBay how your telling me that you have been on vacation post-purchase would be in your favor. All of our correspondence was through eBay and that would be used in the decision-making process.

What I have learned throughout my 120 days on eBay, that sometimes you have to fire your customers because they are trying to take advantage of you. As a seller, never become a doormat!

Visit my eBay store at www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6.

eBay Adventure - Something Doesn't Seem Right

                Okay it was Sunday and 4 out of my 6 buyers have paid me. The two biggest buyers have not and this concerns me. I check them out and learn that they are NARU (no longer a registered user). What a bitch! These two users had me thinking that I made $1000 in sales. Moreover. I am pissed that this buyer makes me bypass the $300 cash in hand that I could have had on Friday. Hey, 60% was better than $0 and I still would had made my $1000 goal. Now I had to contact @askeBay on Twitter about NARU. I will either block them and/or file a fraud complaint because how did you hold up my money then quit eBay?! Just plain raggedy! Furthermore, I am a bind because I had plans for that money. Just remember, never plan until cash in hand! However, I did think that I will rebound from this debacle. Hey, this was a first time for everything but dang it why those fraudsters had to hit me? Below was one of the two NARU that bought my shoes. Well, I decided to look on the bright side: I had 4 sales which were income generating.

Visit my eBay store here: http://www.ebay.com/usr/carljenkin_6

My Worst Travel Weekend Ever!

I had the travel experience from hell this past weekend. I was supposed to board American Airlines at National airport to Norfolk to attend the TCE Summit. I was excited in the Uber en route to DC airport when I got this cancellation email. Immediately I called the customer service and that lady was a grade A witch. She told me that she cancelled my entire reservation because I did not want to fly out of Baltimore, layover in Charlotte then fly to Norfolk. That would had taken 5 hours. I hung up on her returning home to book a Sunday American Airline plane ticket then Amtrak business ticket to Newport News. I arrived at Union Station at 5:30pm but the train was late boarding everyone at 6:15pm instead of 5:50pm meaning that I didn’t get into Newport News until 10:50pm. The only thing keeping me calm was talking with my girlfriend. My train ride was the first stop because I had to board a transfer bus from Newport News to Norfolk. Finally, I had to call Uber to my hotel arriving after midnight. What angered me the most was that I was unable to eat dinner with my father. My saving grace was that he was still up when I arrived there (and offered me a piece of chicken because I refused to pay exorbitant food rates on Amtrak).

Newport News Amtrak Station

                I spent all Saturday morning recuperating and overcoming my travel headache which I attributed to downing caffeine. My father said that he would be on the road at 6am so I drug myself out of bed, put on my business slacks and took a photo with my Dad because that was what I initially wanted on Friday night. I posted it on Facebook and Instagram ASAP. My Dad stayed an extra day to see me and that photo represented redemption. American Airlines could not hold me down! After he left, I crashed missing half of the TCE Summit.

Dad and I at the Norfolk Springhill Suites

I made it to the other session.  Then we had lunch. Afterward I was stuck at the Me/Self table which I did not understand because I took time out for myself. What I hated was this woman who complained to us about her being invisible to her husband but when I called her on it she played victim. I did not need that. Furthermore, I noticed that some reason there was always 1 crazy at my conference table. I should attract better. I took my photo, did a Periscope and returned back to my room to await my Ohio State game.

Sunday morning I was ready to fly out to DC. My flight was 10:05am and I left at 8:30am to ensure that I was there on time. Nope! American delayed my first an hour. On top of that, my original return flight ticket was honored. I tweeted the airline immediately because that meant that I bought a duplicate ticket. Things got worse because I ended up waiting 3 hours and 45 minutes for my flight to leave. That was the worst flight experience I ever had. Although I applied for my refund Sunday night, I spent Monday and Tuesday recovering from the hellish travel weekend courtesy of American. I am sticking with United and Delta after this!

Norfolk Airport outside

Get Used to Seeing My Face Lady

Today I sit in 3C on my flight and the stewardess makes this big production over asking the man seated in 4C if I can put my purse underneath MY own seat. Of course, he has no problem. Upon hearing his response, the stewardess exclaims ‘It doesn’t really matters.’ Well, it if did matter why did you mention it? I feel that she did this because I isn’t one of her ‘regulars.’ A US Representative is seated in 4B and I am a row ahead of her. I will be flying back out of Cleveland Monday seated in 1A and don’t need a repeat of this mess. I file a complaint with the airline to have its customer service team discuss the incident with her. When I return back to Washington, DC this matter better be resolved.

WMATA has the worst customer service

Wmata has the worst customer service forcing me to file two complaints: one going to school and another coming from school. I arrive at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue NW promptly at 7:40pm knowing that the bus will arrive there at 7:45pm; but, it didn’t show forcing me to wait with two others until the 8:08pm bus. If this were Tuesday’s econometrics class, I would had been late for my finals. This tardiness compelled me to complain because this was the beginning of my university’s two-week finals exam. If that wasn’t bad enough, I arrived at the corner for the bus at 9:01pm but that bus didn’t show. Never in my life did I ever have to wait two hours to go down the same street. That’s crap! However, the one good thing about my bad fortune was that WMATA didn’t have to worry about me using its buses on Tuesday and Wednesday. Rush-hour surcharge or not, I am hailing a cab because acing my finals are too important to depend upon WMATA.