Overall online selling is the only industry I would ever want to be in. I will be at 17 years in February 2022. With that being said, I have seen pretty much everything and experienced pretty much every type of customer and one of the most annoying types of people are the ones that contact you to complain your price is “too high”. Ugh.

Previously I wrote about dealing with the Price Police; these are the types that contact you to inform you that the item you have listed is currently on sale at a specific store, therefore you should lower your price. But today we are going to discuss the people who just generically tell you that your prices suck, with no specific reference.

Obviously, this is frustrating because the person reaching out to you has absolutely no idea what you paid for that piece of inventory…. And to be quite frank, it’s none of their damn business; if the price is too high, don’t buy it! DUH! Regardless, chances are you have to reply because the majority of marketplaces factor “response time” into your overall seller profile, so if you ignore stupid people you can end up driving your profile out of search rankings, which is far worse that responding to a moron. So here’s ways to respond:

#1: Turn the negative into a positive: I’m sorry you are unhappy with the price of this Calvin Klein sweater. I do have cheaper sweaters listed, check out my profile. Have a great day!

#2: Upsell the benefits of buying through you: I’m sorry you are unhappy with the price of this sweater. The good news is I ship free of charge and within 24 hours your purchase will be in transit. Additionally you can see I reply fast to all inquiries because customer service is #1. Have a great day! - If your items are fragile you can also include that you package securely.

#2: Be blunt, but polite: Thank you for your feedback! Have a great day!

#4: Some fellow sellers will encourage you to simply block these people. Under most circumstances, I actually DISAGREE. The reason I disagree is that it is NOT UNCOMMON for these people to be trying to get a discount. Think about it, does it make any friggin’ sense for someone to invest time into complaining about the price if they seriously have 0 interest in the item. This means they DO have interest in making the purchase. Keep in mind that most people who buy things online are not avid online sellers, so they don’t understand how much you spend on inventory, how hard you work or how much you truly care about your inventory. For the potential buyer, it’s “just an online product” and they have 0 emotional investment in it. This means if you use use the reply listed above in #1 or #2, the person may actually buy your item at the full asking price! I always try to remind fellow online sellers that you really can’t choose your customers and also be successful. Could you imagine if Amazon blocked every rude person? Like I have said many times before, “Bitchy money spends the same as polite money”, the goal is to put that money into YOUR pocket.