mation in his own first email, both allowing me to provide a longer more meaningful response and meaning I would not end up answering his question with a question of my own. But he didn’t, he just asked if he’d reached the correct email box and he obviously did not want to waste his own time writing a question that no one might see. He was the brusque one, not me, and many people are just as lazy and expect you to do all of the work. The bigger you grow, the more awkward and indecNasty problems often occur from misunderstandings, very often where an innocent comment, intended to help, is misconstrued by the recipient. Make sure it does not happen to you ….

Someone emailed me today: ‘Is that the email box where I’ll find Avril Harper? I have a query.’

I replied: ‘Yes. What is the Query?’

Seconds later this appeared in my mailbox: ‘Thanks for your brusque reply. In view of your attitude I no longer want to bid on your items.’

I tend to ignore most letters like that, they’re not worth wasting time over, but this one stumped me, just what had I done to offend him?

It transpired he was querying my book about getting started on eBay and he considered my reply: ‘Yes. What is the query?’ to be ‘Short, rude and inconsiderate’.

My answer to that was: ‘If you’re so easily hurt and take umbrage when someone is trying to be helpful, you will never succeed on eBay. You will upset buyers and sellers alike, and quite frankly I don’t want my book to help you on course to upsetting so many people. Go buy elsewhere’.

Then I quickly removed him from my bidding list in case he bought later and left nasty feedback.

My main point here isn’t to prove how difficult people can be, but to show how an innocent comment, intended to help, can be misconstrued by the recipient.

I’m told it’s something to do with body language, or lack of it, and the experts say because the other person has just words to guide him and no facial or body gestures to determine the other person’s mood, it’s very easy to assume insult where none was intended. So what happened to me by email is just as likely to happen by letter, or telephone.

The following tips should help you avoid problems like this and show how even words used in your eBay listings can cause confusion and reduce your selling chances:

* Let’s face it, my disgruntled associate could have provided more information in his own first email, both allowing me to provide a longer more meaningful response and meaning I would not end up answering his question with a question of my own. But he didn’t, he just asked if he’d reached the correct email box and he obviously did not want to waste his own time writing a question that no one might see. He was the brusque one, not me, and many people are just as lazy and expect you to do all of the work. The bigger you grow, the more awkward and indeci

to ignore most letters like that, they’re not worth wasting time over, but this one stumped me, just what had I done to offend him?

It transpired he was querying my book about getting started on eBay and he considered my reply: ‘Yes. What is the query?’ to be ‘Short, rude and inconsiderate’.

My answer to that was: ‘If you’re so easily hurt and take umbrage when someone is trying to be helpful, you will never succeed on eBay. You will upset buyers and sellers alike, and quite frankly I don’t want my book to help you on course to upsetting so many people. Go buy elsewhere’.

Then I quickly removed him from my bidding list in case he bought later and left nasty feedback.

My main point here isn’t to prove how difficult people can be, but to show how an innocent comment, intended to help, can be misconstrued by the recipient.

I’m told it’s something to do with body language, or lack of it, and the experts say because the other person has just words to guide him and no facial or body gestures to determine the other person’s mood, it’s very easy to assume insult where none was intended. So what happened to me by email is just as likely to happen by letter, or telephone.

The following tips should help you avoid problems like this and show how even words used in your eBay listings can cause confusion and reduce your selling chances:

* Let’s face it, my disgruntled associate could have provided more information in his own first email, both allowing me to provide a longer more meaningful response and meaning I would not end up answering his question with a question of my own. But he didn’t, he just asked if he’d reached the correct email box and he obviously did not want to waste his own time writing a question that no one might see. He was the brusque one, not me, and many people are just as lazy and expect you to do all of the work. The bigger you grow, the more awkward and indec

uite frankly I don’t want my book to help you on course to upsetting so many people. Go buy elsewhere’.

Then I quickly removed him from my bidding list in case he bought later and left nasty feedback.

My main point here isn’t to prove how difficult people can be, but to show how an innocent comment, intended to help, can be misconstrued by the recipient.

I’m told it’s something to do with body language, or lack of it, and the experts say because the other person has just words to guide him and no facial or body gestures to determine the other person’s mood, it’s very easy to assume insult where none was intended. So what happened to me by email is just as likely to happen by letter, or telephone.

The following tips should help you avoid problems like this and show how even words used in your eBay listings can cause confusion and reduce your selling chances:

* Let’s face it, my disgruntled associate could have provided more information in his own first email, both allowing me to provide a longer more meaningful response and meaning I would not end up answering his question with a question of my own. But he didn’t, he just asked if he’d reached the correct email box and he obviously did not want to waste his own time writing a question that no one might see. He was the brusque one, not me, and many people are just as lazy and expect you to do all of the work. The bigger you grow, the more awkward and indec

as just words to guide him and no facial or body gestures to determine the other person’s mood, it’s very easy to assume insult where none was intended. So what happened to me by email is just as likely to happen by letter, or telephone.

The following tips should help you avoid problems like this and show how even words used in your eBay listings can cause confusion and reduce your selling chances:

* Let’s face it, my disgruntled associate could have provided more information in his own first email, both allowing me to provide a longer more meaningful response and meaning I would not end up answering his question with a question of my own. But he didn’t, he just asked if he’d reached the correct email box and he obviously did not want to waste his own time writing a question that no one might see. He was the brusque one, not me, and many people are just as lazy and expect you to do all of the work. The bigger you grow, the more awkward and indec

mation in his own first email, both allowing me to provide a longer more meaningful response and meaning I would not end up answering his question with a question of my own. But he didn’t, he just asked if he’d reached the correct email box and he obviously did not want to waste his own time writing a question that no one might see. He was the brusque one, not me, and many people are just as lazy and expect you to do all of the work. The bigger you grow, the more awkward and indecipherable questions you’ll receive, and the more ill-considered negative feedback you’ll get. You’ll avoid most by sending an auto-responder reply to pacify all but the most difficult people. Most email accounts allow you to add a signature file to all your outgoing emails which is every bit as good as a costly professional auto-responder service.

Try something like:

‘Thank you for your email. I am not at my desk at the moment but I will answer your email immediately I return. In the meantime you might find answers to your queries at a site set up especially for my customers at: www.mysite.com If your question is not answered within 24 hours please email again at myemail@address.com.'

If you don’t have a web page for Frequently Asked Questions, include the information in your ‘About Me’ page and give the appropriate web address in the auto-responder/signature file message.

Information most often asked by potential bidders concerns delivery times, postage costs, return policy, so be sure to cover these on your FAQs page and continue adding information according to commonly asked questions.

* Colloquialisms and slang terms might be understood by people within ten miles radius of your computer but could be meaningless or even appear rude to others not quite so familiar with strictly local terminology. You've probably grown up with words you think everyone else uses and understands and it can be hard to know what is universally understood and what isn't. In the North East of England, for example, 'bairns' means 'children', and 'brown' is a kind of beer and pronounced 'Broon'. They're far-fetched examples, but unless you're careful you could pack your eBay listings with terms only local bidders will understand which will limit your market considerably. A good spellchecker will locate most of these words, since most do not appear in dictionaries, and you can subsequently alter them to