Are deadbeat knife buyers worth bad feedback?

mongomondo

mongomondo

SUPPRESSING FIRE
Feedback: +68 / =0 / -0
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
3,290
I was thinking about whether or not to leave negative feedback on someone. Here is what happened:

I put up a knife in the sales section and a guy says he's interested and that I should email him. (Why the hell do I have to email him, why don't you just email ME and say you're interested? Sorry to go off on a tangent). He says he will offer a lower price via paypal. I accept, and then he says he's going to do money order and asks for my address. I wait 3-4 days and email him for an update, i wait a week and send another email. I sent a total of 5 emails and he has not responded ONCE. It's been almost 3 weeks now and I do not have the money order and he's still ignoring me. He's still posting on these forums and he even replied to another of my sales threads allegedly interested in buying the knife.

I know there was no real harm done, he's just a deadbeat that ignores all communications from me and refuses to send me payment. Is this enough to leave negative feedback? I've already sold the knife to someone else that promptly sent payment, so overall I don't care anymore about this individual.
 
I would say that its worth the effort to leave the feedback, because this guy is probably doing this same thing to others. Post away......

Larry
 
Do not leave iTrader feedback on a deal that did not go through.

You might want to post in this forum that he wasted your time, but personally, I would just remember him and never accept another offer from him. It's not that big a deal as long as you had the good sense to take the next straightforward offer when he wandered off somewhere.
 
ive been trying to communicate with a buyer in korea.

he's told me twice he wants to buy a knife. i sent several emails and a paypal invoice.

that was 3 days ago, haven't heard back.

maybe the same guy?
 
I have a question....how long should you wait for a money order to arrive before re-listing? A guy emailed me and offered to buy my knives and pay by MO and ship it Xpresspost(Priority Equivalent), I reply with my address and info and I get no response. I've sent a couple emails since then, it's been about 6 days. I'm not really sure if he committed to the sale or not? I've got another buyer that wants to purchase the knives and don't want to lose him too. Any advice?
 
After a week with no replies, you may as well sell it to the next buyer. If the money order arrives after that, send it back and tell him he has to communicate better, not leave you wondering.

Good communications will solve almost every problem we see here. People who enter into a deal, even tentatively, and don't follow through, have no one to blame but themselves for losing out.
 
Thats what I was figuring but was unsure of "Money Order Etiquette". Thank you, Sir!
 
welton said:
I have a question....how long should you wait for a money order to arrive before re-listing? A guy emailed me and offered to buy my knives and pay by MO and ship it Xpresspost(Priority Equivalent), I reply with my address and info and I get no response. I've sent a couple emails since then, it's been about 6 days. I'm not really sure if he committed to the sale or not? I've got another buyer that wants to purchase the knives and don't want to lose him too. Any advice?
Click to expand...

A way to deal with this is to assume the party you are dealing with might not communicate well. Then one merely puts specific deadlines in any trade agreements: "by 7/6, otherwise I will assume you are no longer interested and will relist, or sell to another buyer". I wouldn't likely do this with a known individual who I've done satisfactory deals with before, but I would with anyone who has limited history in the forums, or is unknown to me. That doesn't keep someone from claiming some life emergency but I've gotten pretty immune to those. Some folks are going to be put off by that, but life's too short for me to waste on someone else's poor trade practices. While not everyone who claimed to have sent me something I didn't receive, or had poor communication in a knife-related deal I've done over the last six years, turned out to be a dead-beat, most were.
all da best,
rats...
 
You can't fault a buyer if his money order doesn't arrive quickly because of the Post Office, but that assumes you are sure he has sent it.

When I pay by money order, I usually scan the receipt and email the image to the buyer so he knows I really bought the money order. Dunno if they do this everywhere, but at my POs, if you send something with insurance or DC, or whatever, the receipt they print out includes the destination, so it will say, for example, that a parcel was sent on that date to the parricular city and zip.

If you got an email with a scan of the money order reciept and the receipt that shows I mailed something that day to your city and zip, you would probably be confident the MO was on its way and be willing to wait longer than if someone just promised to send a MO then stopped communicating.

Just a suggestion for buyers who want to make their lives easier. Another suggestion is to exchange phone numbers in the first communication.

But that is the issue with your original question--how can you be sure the money order was sent? In the case you present, I would have a pretty short leash for someone who never responded. I figure the MO should arrive within 2-3 days, and if I start emailing him and have not heard anything back within a few days, I'm done. I know emergencies come up, but no money order and no communication is not good, especially if you were to check and see that he had been online on the forums during that time--that pretty well eliminates the possibility that he was stricken by a rare tropical disease that prevents him from emailing or going to the post office.

I would post his name, and just state the facts, no ranting or anything. The good traders here deserve to know.
 
I've had folks say "I'll take it" in an email.
I reply to them and then never here from them again.
It's happened 4 or 5 times already.

I have someone now that contacted me on the 1st, I replied 1 hour later.
Have heard 0, zilch, nada.
If it's gonna take a few days to pay, let me know or something. geebus.

mike
 
I understand all too well your frustration, one (supposedly buyer) and I exchanged a total of 18 emails regarding the G-11 I sell. He said he would PP that night, now I had to measure some pieces and then get them weighed. Took me over 2 hours just to dig them out of the stack to measure and weigh. I told him how much for freight and my time to package, I would be making less than 3 dollars an hour. Then the buyer never paid nor answered any more emails. I guess he expected me to pay him to take it.

Did not leave feedback, but if he ever wants any, the price just doubled. :D
Jim
 
Oh yes, these sitiations occur all the time :grumpy:

Email after email, I'll even work with the buyer and give myself the shitty end of the stick and give the benefit of the doubt, all just to end up never hearing from them again or watching them buy from everywhere else after they said they would take it. Plus the time out of my life it took to message back and forth (I take pride in fast communication).

I once had a buyer (within the last month) from here on the exchange who said they would "take it" and then heard nothing for 3 days and when I email them asking if they were still going to take it they simply said they had bought something else and weren't interested anymore. OK, fine, panties aren't in a knot over that. Now what really burnt my ass was that I saw the exact same username on another knife related forum and he had indeed purchased a similar item from someone else - and the time and date were AFTER the time and date that he said he would "take" what I was offering :thumbdn:

I think we should have an "outing" thread for the guys who continue to back out of deals and don't communicate. At the very least have the descency to send an email stating "no longer interested" or "sorry, rough time" anything is better than waiting around having to pass up other offers.

Just my .02, I'm done ranting now :D
 
I had a member email me recently and say "I'm interested" if you still have X. I replied and said, "Yes, I still have X." Not a peep since. It just goes with the territory in the Exchange, I think.
 
Without integrity we are nothing. REMEMBER, A MANS WORD IS HIS BOND. When did we lose site of this? Is it really a rare quality? Our word is one of the few things that NOBODY can take from us, no matter what else is happening, our integrity is OURS! We are MEN here and we should be acting as such. There is an inherant responsibility that comes with being a man and that is PRIDE and INTEGRITY. YES, I feel that anything that is less than straight is worthy of flagging. After all, that is what the system is all about JMHO c4man
 
I just had to re-list something I had SPF.
Buyer contacted via email, said would take it, I replied.
No contact in 4 days, no payment, nothing.
It goes back up. Tough.

mike
 
I would agree with Esav that it would be a good idea to post something about the people that commit and then stop communication, in this thread...
Maybe if people know they are going to have their name put up for everyone to see, it will stop some of them from doing it...

It almost seems like some people enjoy the part of telling someone they will buy an item, even if they know they can't afford it. But then don't have the backbone to at least tell the seller they changed their mind.

Maybe a nice little tag that can go next to their user name. Something like a dollar sign with a circle around it and a slash through it, like some of the street signs. Kind of a badge of dishonor...
 
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