I recently rebranded my shop and at the same time changed my paypal account so that I could keep my crafting transactions separate from my personal ones. Unfortunately on entering the details on Folksy I typed the address in wrong. I didn’t realise this until I got an order last week but no payment arrived.
I emailed the customer in question to explain that if payment had been made that it had gone to a non existent paypal address (I checked and the email I had entered is non existent) and that the payment would therefore show as unclaimed on their paypal account and they would be able to cancel it. If not cancelled, apparently it is returned after 30days anyway. I asked them to get in touch if they still wished to purchase the item.
I have not heard anything from the customer and now am not sure what to do.
should I assume payment has been cancelled (or maybe was never made) and the customer has changed their mind, in which case I can cancel the order my end and return the goods to my shop.
should I send the items anyway as a gesture of goodwill, it was not a particularly large order so I wouldn’t be making a huge loss.
should I email the customer again and if so how long should I wait before doing so
I feel so bad about causing this customer such inconvenience, I know the fault is mine but unfortunately I am unable to correct it from my end.
I would definitely do the first option, and email the customer again to apologise for the error that prevented payment, and explain that the item is back in your shop for them to buy if they wish. In some ways you are fortunate that this learning curve was with a relatively small order so the potential loss of the sale isn’t a big deal. I really wouldn’t send it out as a gesture of goodwill, you are trying to make a profit after all!
This scenario has happened a few times to me as a customer and I’ve always eventually bought the item once the sellers PayPal settings have been sorted.
Thank you Margaret @Louisa15, its nice to get an answer from a customers prospective You are right it was fortunate it was a small sale - I don’t know how many times I’ve now been back to check the address is correct now - in fact I think I’ll just go and check again!
From another sellers point of view I think I would send the item out as a gesture of goodwill, especially if it’s not a big value item, along with a note apologising for the inconvenience, and saying I hoped they had managed to cancel the payment ok. After all, I hope that all customers will be returning customers, so to me it would be worth it.
Must admit I am tempted to send out anyway but do you think as I have received no payment it would be OK to cancel the order on Folksy so I am not paying any fees?
Why not offer them a discount on the item (if they still want it) to compensate for the inconvenience that way you still have a sale and the customer gets a good deal and hopefully returns to order again.
I had a similar happening, and I created an email in the flawed name, and added it to my paypal account. I have now three email accounts added to my paypal Rachel
Oh I did something similar - I changed my email, so altered my Paypal account and my Folksy account but forgot to alter the email payments go to from Folksy.
Paypal were wonderful - I explained what had happened, they found the payment that was floating around in the ether and told me how to sort it out. I’d deleted the email address from my Paypal account, so reinstated it and the money moved into my account immediately. I then sorted out Folksy properly and deleted the email from my account.
Can you try that? Add the “wrong” email to Paypal…that way the payment has somewhere to go.
Thanks Rachel @Glehcar and Lois @Beesandblossoms - I have finally added the incorrect email address to my paypal account and payment has come through so I can send items out tomorrow. Took a few attempts though as I kept typing the incorrect address wrongly too! Think perhaps I have not chosen a wise email address if it is that easy to type it wrong!
You are right it was fortunate it was a small sale - I don’t know how many times I’ve now been back to check the address is correct now - in fact I think I’ll just go and check again!