Dealer War Stories - Mr. Impatient!

I wrote this story for the Fly-In Club's Longacre's Ledger newsletter which was just recently published, but I thought I'd share it here with you folks too. I plan to write a series of similar stories so stay tuned for more!

http://i441.photobucket.com/albums/qq139/thepennylady/CoinbertCartoon.jpg

The above cartoon humorously illustrates an exchange many dealers encounter at almost every coin show or coin shop. This customer/dealer interaction is only one type of scenario that I refer to as a dealer “war story.” In the legal field, we used the phrase “war story” to describe dramatic or contentious courtroom experiences or particularly frustrating or funny situations with clients or opposing counsel, etc. I also found this apt definition on the internet:

A recounting of a memorable personal experience, especially one involving challenge, hardship, danger, or other interesting features.

I know many of you collectors have had uncomfortable or unpleasant experiences when buying coins from a dealer at a show or at your local coin shop. Sometimes it makes you question whether you should continue in this hobby since these experiences can bring frustrations and even anger that you might feel are just not worth it. Well, of course, let me say that I personally love coins and wouldn’t want to have to give them up, even for the (thankfully) far-and-few-between unpleasant people I encounter as a dealer – both collectors and other dealers!

So I’d like to relate some stories about my experiences with a few disagreeable customers that will perhaps let you to see things from the other side of the table and at the same time allow me an opportunity to “vent” just a little and perhaps even elicit a little sympathy!

When dealing with all my customers, I always keep in mind that I am offering a service to collectors and my goal is to maintain good relations by making sure they are satisfied with the coins they buy from me. And when I encounter a difficult customer, no matter how strongly I may want to tell them how I feel about their bad behavior, I bite my tongue and try to behave professionally and courteously at all times. However, there have been times when I seriously wanted to let lose a few unlady-like explicatives, lock up my cases, take my coins, and just go home! Or when dealing with someone by email, I have had to step away from my computer, go make a rum and coke, turn on some good ol rock and roll, and deal with the situation tomorrow when hopefully it won’t irk me so much. By the way, don’t worry, I will not disclose names and certain details so as to maintain anonymity.

So here’s my first war story – I’ll call this one:

“Mr. Impatient”​

Let me begin with a little historical background. Mr. Impatient had bought some coins from me over the past couple years with no issues at all. Then one day I happened to win a coin he was selling on an Ebay auction. I promptly sent my PayPal payment, received the coin a short time later, no problem. A couple days after I received the coin, Mr. Impatient sent me a message through Ebay asking me to leave feedback. I responded that I would be happy to do so, however, I explained that it was my practice to leave feedback in bulk a couple times a month and that it might take a week or two, but I would get to it.

Two days later out of the blue, he sent me another message informing me that, since I wouldn’t leave him immediate feedback, he had “blocked” me as a bidder on his future auctions. “Wow,” I thought, “this guy was pretty impatient and in my opinion was ‘cutting off his nose to spite his face.’” I could understand blocking a bidder because they didn’t send payment, or took too long to send payment, but I’d never heard of someone blocking a bidder just because they wouldn’t leave prompt feedback. “Oh well,” I said to myself, “he’s not the kind of guy I’d want to continue doing business with any way if that’s all it took to get him peeved.”

Ok, fast forward a year later. Mr. Impatient saw a coin on my website he wanted to buy and emailed me asking for my best price. Well, I am taken aback to hear from this guy. If it was me, and I felt strongly enough to actually bar someone from bidding on my coins, you can bet I wouldn’t want to do any kind of business with that person. But I thought, hey, let bygones be bygones, and decided to forget about the past incident and I gave him a reduced price for the coin.

He agreed to buy it, but then began asking for “extras” like wanting a larger photo of the coin, could I send the coin to Rick Snow to Photo Seal, and a couple other “requests.” I emailed him that he could enlarge and copy the photo off my website, and I also offered as a friendly courtesy, that since I would be seeing Rick at an upcoming show, I could hand the coin to Rick at the show, thereby saving Mr. Impatient the to/from shipping costs, however, he’d still have to pay Rick’s $15 Photo Seal fee. He said ok and mailed a check.

In the meantime, since Mr. Impatient knew who had taken the picture of my coin (I’ll call him “Mr. Photo Guy”), Mr. Impatient contacted him directly and asked Mr. Photo Guy to send him a larger image (even though Mr. Photo Guy did accommodate Mr. Impatient, I personally thought this was out of line since Mr. Impatient was asking Mr. Photo Guy (behind my back) to spend his time editing the photo to suit Mr. Impatient without even offering to compensate Mr. Photo Guy). “Hmmm,” I thought, as a little warning bell began to ring and I started to feel I should have declined to deal with this guy from the beginning.

Shortly after that, Mr. Impatient decided he didn’t want to wait for me to take the coin to Rick but instead requested that I mail it directly to him. Well, Mr. Photo Guy still had the coin in his possession and was going to bring it to the same show Rick and I were attending, so now I had to ask Mr. Photo Guy if he would ship the coin to Mr. Impatient for me and I would reimburse him. “No problem,” Mr. Photo Guy said so I gave him the address and he shipped the coin by insured first class to Mr. Impatient for me. I then contacted Mr. Impatient to advise him that Mr. Photo Guy would be shipping the coin to him directly.

A week later (on a Friday), Mr. Impatient (who lived across the country) emailed me that he had not yet received the coin. I was in my car driving to a coin show at the time I received his message on my Blackberry (my son read it to me), so I had to contact Mr. Photo Guy and ask him if he would respond to Mr. Impatient’s email with the shipping date and tracking information, which he promptly did letting Mr. Impatient know that no tracking information was available at that time.

The next day (Saturday) while I’m at the show, I got a very rude and condescending email from Mr. Impatient questioning my professional reputation, asking why I did not respond to him personally about the coin’s whereabouts, that even though Mr. Photo Guy contacted him, why didn’t I care enough about his concerns to reply myself, etc.

“Wow,” I thought, “This guy really did have some issues.” Ok, I’ll admit that I probably could have replied directly to Mr. Impatient letting him know Mr. Photo Guy would follow up with shipping status, but since I was driving at the time I thought asking Mr. Photo Guy to respond was the most expeditious way of handling his request.

So I bit my tongue, swallowed the unlady-like words I wanted to type, and responded professionally explaining to him that I was driving at the time I received his message, Mr. Photo Guy had the information, that the post office was pretty slow lately, that I was sure the coin would arrive within a couple days, but that the coin was insured and he should try and be a little patient. He replied the next day, without any apology for his nasty email, stating that he would wait and be hopeful. I was later informed the coin finally arrived two days later on Monday.

The icing on the cake of this story is that I later learned (not from Mr. Impatient, but from a third party) that on the SAME day Mr. Impatient sent me his ranting email (Saturday), he had received a pink slip from the post office letting him know they tried to deliver the coin but that no one was home, and they would try again on Monday! “OMG!” is all I could say when I learned this. After all the hubbub trying to track the coin -- the emails, my phone calls with Mr. Photo Guy, all of the worrying about the coin, etc. -- why didn’t Mr. Impatient send me (and Mr. Photo Guy) a message letting us know that the coin was waiting for him at HIS post office – not to mention an kind apology would have been appreciated!

And the story doesn’t quite end here. After Mr. Impatient got the coin, he sent me an email letting me know he was quite pleased with it but also wanted his $15 Photo Seal fee returned. (I had planned to use it to reimburse Mr. Photo Guy for the shipping fee.) Again, I was shaking my head that, after all this guy put me and Mr. Photo Guy through, he wasn’t through “badgering” me.

Of course, I could have simply just refunded him the $15 and avoided all further conflict and put an end to the whole deal, but I was finished bending over backwards and couldn’t let this pass. So I sent him an email reminding him that I had to reimburse Mr. Photo Guy for shipping the coin to him. He responding saying that he didn’t feel he had to pay any shipping fee since he felt the original (reduced) price I quoted him for the coin should have included the shipping fee. I reminded him that my website clearly states the buyer pays for all shipping costs, and besides, we had never even gotten to the point of discussing the amount of the shipping since I had (graciously I thought) offered to hand carry the coin to Rick. He said that I should do whatever I felt was fair, so I did! After paying Mr. Photo Guy what I owed him, I refunded Mr. Impatient a few dollars and, for my own sanity, I promptly ceased all further communication with him. Geese, some people…..

Stay tuned for the next installment of Dealer War Stories: “Mr. Fickle”

 

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Good story! I enjoyed reading it.

 

Some people just demand too much, especially from coin dealers, who are small business owners. I like to haggle a little bit when I buy online or at shows, but it's usually not too much and I'm usually very gracious about the whole situation and any kind of discount off the listed price I get.

 

Ugh! A good bad story and a nice idea for a thread series. I very much appreciate hearing a dealers side of these experiences as forums are all too often merely the dumping grounds of buyer's gripes that they have with dealers and sellers-- yet many of those stories blaming dealers and sellers are all too often fraught with mistakes the customers made themselves.

If only the customer had prescience of mind to recall the sayings: 'All good things come to those who wait' and 'Patience is a virtue'.

Thanks for sharing. I'll be looking forward to the next installment.

 

Nice story. But as a former cartoonist I have to caution you about using copyrighted and trademarked materials and characters. Don't want to see anyone get in trouble over a little fun.
Guy

 

Great Story!

I've only been on the dealers's side of the table for a few months but my problems so far has been with other local dealers that try to convince the "new guy" that I'm not going to make it because I won't sell my inventory for 50% off or more so they can keep their customers happy!

I had one dealer tell me that 6 Mercury dimes I had for sale couldn't be considered uncirculated. When I asked why he told me they weren't "full bands" and therefor must be circulated. The gentleman patiently waiting behind him muttered under his breath "what an idiot!' and proceeded to buy all six for my asking price.

Richard

 

An interesting read. I know from being at shows and overhearing conversations between dealers and buyers at times that being a dealer wouldn't work for me, I just don't have the patience. I guess that you could equate it to being a preschool teacher perhaps?

 

Being a dealer myself i find most people just wanting to make a good deal but occasionally you get
That one person who want,s something for nothing or at such a low price you actually
Lose money! your goal here is to find that happy medium where both parties feel good about the deal
If you can get that you have a successful sale

 

Haha, I love the cartoon!!

 

Great story! And that cartoon is perfect!

I dealt with a Mr. Impatient about a year ago. He won an auction valued at about $15 and within 3 days was threatening me with action because he hadn't received the coins yet! He won it on a Saturday, Sunday our post offices are closed so I was going to ship it out on Monday. Monday was the day he actually thought he was going to receive it!!! Through Canada Post it took 13 days for him to finally get it and each and everyday, he sent me an email asking me what kind of rip-off artist I was and where the h*ll his coins were!

Shortly after, when I was considering blocking him, his ebay name disappeared. I guess I wasn't the only one he made problems for.

 

Very interesting story that doesn't surprise me. Coin collectors, in some cases, are very odd people with very odd expectations. They tend to be cheap too.

I eagerly await the next installment. While I've never been compared to "Mr. Impatient", I have been labeled "Mr. Picky" by at least one dealer and, sadly, no longer do business with them.

 

Seconded. Using existing artwork from someone else's cartoon (or even copying their characters) can be a real legal pain. Why not simply redo the cartoon with stick figures?

 

Thank you for that delightful slice of reality. Prior to retiring I spent 40+ years in management with a large retail fine jewelry chain. The parallels are so very similar; from the "4C's" and "grading" to the fact that neither are in any way essential. I was reminded of so many stories from my own life. Please continue with more of the same. I will save their reading for those moments I most need to chuckle and be thankful for that being left behind. A terrific glimpse into an everyday retail anecdote! I really did L O L!!

 

Or how about something more of the moment like xtranormal :thumb:

 

Sounds like a real jerk. There needs to be a blackball on this guy.

 

This is great stuff (as usual) Charmy.
I'm with leadfoot here.... having probably earned it,,,, when I saw the title of the upcoming post "Mr. Fickel" and my stomach tightened,,, like they were about to announce my name on Oscar night,,,, or maybe a better description here in the south is when you see blue lights way back there in your rear- view mirror coming your way..... and you got that unfinished beer in between your legs... haha.

 

Great story and a reminder that nutcase types are all over the world in every business and hobby we have. If you run into another, run for your life!! :loud:You can only bend over backwards for someone so many times, and then it just feels like you're bending over.

 

argghhh..

That is why guns are illegal to carry in most states.

 

for well over 10 years i sold coins and banknotes with very very few problems until i had all kinds of trouble with one guy, he said he was dissatisfied with the coin he had recieved saying that there were marks on the "heads side" when in the description and photos there was a clear explanation and image of the staining on the obverse, when it all came down to it this guy wanted a virtual uncirculated william and mary sixpence for £27. despite my evidence paypal decided he should recieve a refund without informing me of their decision first. i had a constant 100 feedback and a portfolio of positive comments from my time dealing, but this one guy ruined it all for me. and i gave up.