I sat down with a cup of tea, fell asleep in a draught and woke up an hour later fee,ling distinctly lazy. So I shelved the plans for a healthy vegetarian meal and ordered pizza. That’s twice this year already. It will last for three meals but it’s not the sort of diet I would like to admit to.
Whilst eating pizza I watched The Apprentice, but they seem to be running out of idiots with character/ All they have now is commonplace idiots, and they aren’t very interesting. They have also got rid of all the decent assistants and gone the “no character” route again. Karren Brady actually seems to be getting more boring as time goes on and I don’t know who the other one is. So far I find him virtually indistinguishable from the apprentices.
We are trying a new method at work, loading more on eBay and using less description. It seems to work for some of the big sellers. Most of the stuff we sell doesn’t need much additional information and even people still ask us about things even though all the information is there. As each email represents time wasted, and therefore money wasted, We might get a few more queries if we cut down on the information we give, but we will be saving time on writing the sales. It will be an interesting exercise.
We’ve exchanged a string of emails with someone today already. It’s not about details, it’s about unrealistic offers. He’s made several offers on something, the changed to making unrealistic offers on something else. We don’t mind doing a deal but we need to cover the costs of running a shop. Some people can’t see this.
We have stopped replying to him.
Sometimes, despite the doctrine that “the customer is always right” you have to put an end to things.
The top picture is a group of pre-decimal halfpennies. There were 480 of them to a £1. They are about the same size as modern 2p – where there are only 50 to a £1. That is one way that decimalisation has been an improvement.
The bottom picture is a propaganda Iron Cross from 1914 – highlighting the destruction of Belgian cities, raising the martial ardour of the British and raising funds for charity. When the price rose above £5 I stopped buying them. We sold this one for £40. If only I’d kept buying them . . .
British made propaganda Iron Cross 1914
The customer is always right for plucking. Except by your firm of course.
It’s tricky. We need to make a profit and people want to get the best deal out of us. Ideally we should both end up happy. It is possible to do this, but eBay is full of people who make unrealistic offers. The theory of negotiation is that the offer should be low enough to bring down the expectations of the seller, but not so low that they dig their heels in. Offering us less for bullion coins than a bullion dealer will offer (remembering that eBay takes 15% of the deal) is a sure way to kill any chance of agreeing a price.
There are always people who think that they are a lot cleverer than they actually are which doesn’t help in negotiations.
🙂 Negotiations ran into another day . . . (sigh!)
The customer is NOT always right. That was a pacifist/greed-driven phrase that basically was the bosses saying that the staff needed to put up with often unreasonable treatment just to get money for the company, much as a person might be told to put up with somebody else’s bad behaviour to avoid fuss or loss of gifts etc. I say that limits need to be set on customers and staff and boss alike, and that bad treatment is not acceptable ever. Screed for the day–
hank you. I feel better now. At times it can be very lonely feeling you are bad for not liking customers. 🙂
I throw vegetables on the pizza and feel virtuous and in fact right now am eating, with my left hand as I type with the right, a piece of pizza with corn and a veggie burger on top of it. It is astoundingly messy but good-enough for me to think of as healthy eating.
If you can eat and type at the same time it has to be good food. 🙂 With vegetables and a veggie burger it can only be good for you.
I wonder who would want that iron cross
There is a lot of interest in the First World War – the centenary has just passed and anniversaries always create a spike in interest.
Good luck with the new method of marketing on eBay. Hope that works.
We will see. Our marketing strategy is trial and error. Mostly error. 🙂
It’s very interesting what kinds of this are collectable.
It’s an illness. Before the lockdown I had actually started collecting fruit labels because they come free stuck to the fruit. I had a special album. But when I couldn’t get out to elect my fruit it all ground to a halt. Some of us just have to collect.
Pizza in a pinch always does the trick.
I always have a couple of pizza bases standing by too. It lasted three meals so I( don’t feel too bad. 🙂