Reader 166

hi there FT,

im actually one of ur avid readers. anyway, i shall say that i am both a buyer and a seller. i don't exactly own an online boutique but i sell off my brand new purchase from other online boutiques if they do not fit me well or if i do not have any chance of wearing them anywhere else. regardless, i have no qualms in doing either of these but lately, i have beginning to fully understand the dillemma that online boutique owners have to face especially when they have to deal with very fussy buyers.

with the gracious help of one of the online boutique reviewers, i managed to publish the clothes that i wish to sell off online. one of them is this boyfriend shirt-dress that i bought from an online boutique at the price of rm55 (plus rm6 of pos laju charge). i was willing to let it go at rm35, not inclusive of any postal charge, to which i thought was reasonable enough because i have reduced the price more than rm10 and that shirt dress was totally brand new and in impeccable condition.

so within few hours of having it put up online, there was one girl who was interested in it. she asked me if i do any cod and i told her i don't as i do not live in kl, i only am studying in kl and plus i do not drive around kl. all my clothes including the shirt dress are at home and i am only able to provide postal service. after getting that answer, she made a bargain to have the shirtdress at rm30 inclusive of postal charge. i had to say no as that will be too much for me and i will be losing alot. then she made another bargain which is rm35 inclusive of postage. again i had to decline and i explained to her why i couldn't do so. so she finally made her final offer at rm35 through cod (and plz note that i have already stated to her earlier that i do not do cod and that was her first enquiry when she emailed me). by that time, i was already in bed and didnt reply her email immediately. the next morning when i woke up she sent me another email saying she did not wish to buy it anymore.

i guess i was still lucky because this girl was very polite to me. and i am very aware of the rude ones out there. but what bothers me is the fact that sometimes, some of the girls tend to ask for ridiculous bargains, those that we couldn't simply comply because we would be the ones at the losing ends. plus im not exactly an online boutique owner, i am not gaining anything at all from this. besides i have already lost some considerable amount of money when i decided to sell this off online. but when buyers ask for further reduction of the price, i simply cannot take it. i just hope that all of us should have the courtesy and decency to realize that nothing comes easy and cheap in this world. please try to understand our difficult condition before making any ridiculous bargain. that being said, i am definitely not against any form of bargain, just the ridiculos ones. i understand that both parties want to gain something and through mutual understanding and respect, i believe that can be achieved. im sorry to sound quite long-winded here but i just wish to express my feeling about this. thanks for taking your time to read this. i totally appreciate this.

-the impulsive shopper-