Don't leave the buyer hanging!

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l2lku2

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I am not sure if this belongs in GB&U as no deal was actually concluded and it is more about courtesy / etiquette than about one seller only, but here it is:

A for sale post was posted at 21:00. I posted the first "I'll take it" at 21:20 followed by a PM immediately after.

I saw the buyer online, and he immediately visited my profile page after my post & PM so I know he was aware of my post & PM. Then he was in and out of the thread after that so I know he was active on the forum.

Another member posted an "I'll take it" for a different knife shortly after mine followed by a PM and email - and the seller was still online and in and out of the thread.

We do not hear from the seller for hours and the other buyer and I exchange PMs where I hear that the seller had backed out of a trade offer with someone else previously so we speculate that we are being strung along.

We do not hear from the seller until 02:55 the next morning - a PM saying that the knives were sold to someone else who had PMd him first and the thread is closed.

Now to be fair, there was no condition in the thread that first poster gets the knives, so the seller can sell to whomever he wants to. And even then we all make mistakes and sell to one person in a PM when another email had arrived first etc etc. That is understandable.

What my gripe is, is the seller knowing that he is selling to someone else, yet leaving other buyers hanging with their money committed in his thread and potentially losing out on other deals in the meantime.

If the seller is offline and does not see the communications, that is also understandable, but that was not the case here.

Don't leave buyers hanging.
 
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I've seen this as well here and I am new. Seems bladeforums people mainly as Candle Power Forums and EDC Forums this is rare (except for a blade forums person at CPF which I have seen as well). I think the rules here are more lax and people don't have to leave what the item sold for either. Strange.
 
Great thread!!! You are definitely being very kind in your explanation! I believe there was really something sneakier going on.... I don't think any one bought those knives. I think we will see this seller put them up again at a later date... But like you said he has the right to sell to who he wants to. but it would have been nice to know that there was some one else he was selling to. To be totally honest, in my opinion, there wasn't any other buyer thats why we didn't know because he didn't know. Sales threads should be easy... Not all this Smoke and mirrors!
 
there was def a lack of communication it sounds like. but fwiw a lot of people will post on multiple forums. and people sometimes just email, don't post on the thread.

you say yoou believe the knives will be posted for sale at a later date. why start a thread to sell them in the first place then?
 
12345678910 said:
So from 21:00 to 03:00 the next day, he "left you hanging" for 6 hours ?

A non issue in my mind.
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The issue is that he was online, and at the time of my post and the other buyers post he already knew that someone else had sent him a PM to buy both knives and he had checked the buyers feedback. I know that because he told me so himself in a PM. So knowing that he was going to sell to that buyer, he still visited my profile page and went back to the thread afterwards and still did not communicate that the knives had been sold to me and those that posted after me. What was he waiting for? That is the issue for me.

But I recognize that not everyone has the same standards in how they treat potential buyers or sellers. I am just stating what I find courteous / good exchange etiquette based and how I would treat buyers & sellers.
 
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Don't see this as a big issue. Nor do I see the seller left anyone hanging. Sounds like they either just took a little of their time to decide who to sell to or may have sold it on another forum or venue. Regardless, they were considerate enought to advise you it was sold.
 
12345678910 said:
So from 21:00 to 03:00 the next day, he "left you hanging" for 6 hours ?

A non issue in my mind.
Click to expand...

It's this thinking that is the cause of these threads. He didn't leave you guys "hanging" he just ingored you and sold to someone else. He would earn a selling ban on most forums.
 
l2lku2 said:
I am just stating what I find courteous / good exchange etiquette based and how I would treat buyers & sellers.
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You are correct that it is bad manners and you were treated shoddily. When one posts in a sales thread as either buyer of seller one should be on top of it. And if the seller was online he should have made contact.

Fortunately for you no money changed hands.


Tixx said:
I've seen this as well here and I am new. Seems bladeforums people mainly as Candle Power Forums and EDC Forums this is rare (except for a blade forums person at CPF which I have seen as well). I think the rules here are more lax and people don't have to leave what the item sold for either. Strange.
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Sorry but you are wrong about Bladeforums members behaving badly in the sales forums.
Literally thousands of transactions are made each month without problems.

In the over 50 INTERNATIONAL transactions I have concluded on Bladeforums I have never had a problem like the OP describes. Indeed most BF sellers go out of their way to help you.

How many transactions have you made on BF?
 
Well, I drop the ball every once in a while when it comes to responding to buyer's. Have you ever posted a really popular item for sale/trade here? Like a large classic Sebenza, for example. The amount of low-ball offers, I'll-take-it's, seconds/thirds/tenth "backup buyer" offers, trade offers, etc. that you will get is shocking. For most of us, buying/selling/trading knives is just a hobby; we've got full-time jobs, families, other commitments that take up our time. Sometimes, you just can't respond to everyone in a timely manner. That's been my bladeforums experience, anyways.
 
I posted an I'll take it in a thread of an offline buyer at 3:29 yesterday afternoon and followed up with a PM. The buyer has not been online since before my post. I have no problem with him not having responded to me by now - because he has been offline since my post. If he responds when he comes online again, good enough for me, provided that he comes online in a reasonable amount of time. If he drags it out for days I will retract the offer.

That is totally different than this situation where the seller was online, saw my "I'll take it post", then visited my profile page to check my feedback, then went back in and out of the thread for a while after different posters posted (I saw him in and out of the thread, so I know he was actively online), but he ignores all the posts and PMs.

So what goes through your mind as a buyer in this scenario is that he may be "snap auctioning" the knife (S90V Para 2 is a hot item right now). If someone wanted to be assured of getting money quickly but wanted to just take a chance that perhaps a higher offer might come in, in the next, lets say 6 hours, they would list at a reasonable price, get an I'll take it plus backups, check the first posters' feedback to make sure that they are covered, then wait and see whether someone might just send an offer of a higher price by PM and email. If he gets a higher offer, he can negotiate it even higher or accept it. If not, revert to the first poster. The seller gets the highest possible price within his own defined time-frame. An auction, right here on BF.

Of course I cannot say this is what happened in this case, but if someone is actively ignoring an "I'll take it", you can only ask why?

Lets reverse the scenario - what would the seller do if the buyer posts an "I'll take it", and others take backup. He sends the buyer a PM asking for payment. He sees the buyer actively browsing but no information re. payment is forthcoming for six hours? Would it be acceptable for him to have to wait six hours not knowing whether he would get paid or not. Would it be acceptable for him to then sell to the first backup buyer because he was being actively ignored?

Out of curiosity, I just went and checked his feedback thread. He has subsequently given feedback to others and received feedback, but none of it for the thread in question. And he did say he sold it to a BF member as it was sold by PM, not email. So another scenario is that he just decided to back out of the sale. As unacceptable as backing out of a purchase IMO.
 
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