Out of the Box with Mr. Knits: What's up with eBay?
Mrs. Knits is so busy behind the scenes recently that I get to do a bonus blog entry for you!
One bit of news, we just opened up allowing orders to be shipped to P.O. boxes! I wanted to make sure any issues with doing so were fixable, and that we wouldn't get clobbered offering free shipping to a P.O. box. Let's just say that we still prefer that very large orders go to a physical address, but a P.O. box is okay if needed.
Along the same lines, we get questions (sometimes questioned) on the fact that most of our selling is done on eBay. There are a few reasons.
One thing to keep in mind is that eBay is much more than an online garage sale where you can buy someone’s used watch. Major corporations sell or have sold on eBay, including Target, Best Buy, and Walmart. eBay is just a tool to offer and fulfill your yarn orders. Mrs. Knits has been buying and selling on eBay for years – go ahead and look it up - “Member since 2005”. Many people know her there for good service and serious knitting chops!
You will probably notice some people selling yarn on eBay that give a very stripped-down description, and then ship it carelessly, or in fair to poor condition. This is not putting down the competition, this is sharing our first-hand experience with other yarn sellers. You can expect excellent service from us on eBay, including yarn in new condition (unless otherwise specified), shipped in at least a double plastic bag or bubble wrap envelope, and in a timely manner.
So there are some things that it’s helpful to be aware of when navigating our eBay store:
We have auctions and fixed price listings – almost always with free shipping built into the price.
Most of the fixed price listings have quantity discounts, including some listings where you can get multiple colors of the same yarn, because we want to share some of the shipping savings with you. Besides, it's smart knitting to buy a little more than you expect to need for your project.
If you have any questions or concerns, please message us before going through any formal complaint or return/refund process. We take good service very seriously! We want to fix anything we can, and we don’t need to be prodded by eBay to give good service.
We set eBay to give you a pretty long shipping estimate. That’s because they do have (unnecessarily) strict shipping rules that we must meet or be punished. Besides, we would rather exceed expectations than give you unpleasant surprises.
We do not accept returns at this time, partly because our profit margins are rather slim, and partly because customers and eBay have abused that ability.
These and other details are in our eBay FAQs, which are accessible by starting to send us an eBay message (eBay does not appear to provide any other means of finding them).
Any negative things you see above about eBay have already been communicated to eBay directly. I’m originally from New Jersey, where we don’t stab in the back, but if needed, can stab from the front.
Our ultimate plans include making this website our primary eStore, with eBay continuing to be a discount outlet. But we want to build it out right! Until that web store setup is complete, eBay gets the job done to deliver you Happy Knitting!
