Problems With New Buyers

cziv

cziv

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Joined
Nov 24, 2005
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I have been selling some knives that I bought and have never used. I have had lots of newbies say they're going to "I'll take it" and of course they don't have a PM function. Some don't list their email address. How do you communicate?

I've had 2 guys in the past week send me Payments from unverified PP accts even though the thread clearly states USPS MO or PP gift option (verified account only).

Am I not wording my threads properly or is this something that others experience? I got payment from another new member today. PP said no address associated with the acct. He emailed me an address.

I operate websites and have a utility that scrubs the entire USA phone books by number or by address. Naturally the address didn't come up and the guy has about 10 or 11 posts.

Anyone care to share their experience selling? It would be appreciated as I'm getting tired of these boobs ( I mean potential buyers :D ) Am I being too paranoid? I don't accept the payments under these circumstances.
 
Sadly, based on what has happened here with new guys I won't ship until the other guys knife arrives if its a trade and won't ship after a sale until payment has cleared the bank, PO or PP.
If the new guy doesn't like it then he can pass on dealing with me. I simply cannot affford to be scammed or lose a knife at this point in my life.
 
I may be mistaken but regardless of a verified paypal account status or not, funds sent via the gift option will not have the address shown by paypal.
 
I may be mistaken but regardless of a verified paypal account status or not, funds sent via the gift option will not have the address shown by paypal.
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Thanks PorcupineMtns66. I'll have my brother send me $10 bucks and see if that's right. He's got a sellers acct. like I do.
 
earlier this year i had a few knives listed, and experienced something similar with potential buyers who did not have pm ability and had email disabled.

they would either post their email in the thread requesting a response or send an email to me via bfc, but i would not be able to respond directly to those.

in order to avoid exposing my email address to an unknown, i posted in my thread that any buyer must have their bfc email enabled or i would refuse communication. at least one buyer did so, and the transaction went through smoothly.

others never responded. they were all very new members with few posts and little to no feedback.

if they cannot abide by your "rules" and purchase within your desired comfort zone, dont sell to them. it isn't worth the potential headache.

i don't care for the "email sent" posts anyway. just post a question in the thread, i would rather communicate in the open. i dont mind pm's, but i dont want to have to open my email to know what the post is supposed to mean.
 
This isn't just for cziv, it's my thoughts on a lot of what's been going on lately.

Posting a legitimate question about the item up for sale or trade in the thread is a good idea, and it is not chatting.

Registered Users don't have access to PMs but they can and should have email enabled if they want to do business here. Why make it hard for someone to do business with you?

PayPal gift option does not provide the sender's address and it does not provide any recourse in case of seller's failure to send the item purchased.

I have gotten so frustrated this year with the deliberately fraudulent behavior, multiple user accounts, and failure to maintain correspondence, that I seriously suggest not doing business with anyone who isn't open and knowledgeable about BF customs and requirements.

If a buyer violates any of the terms you set in your sales post, send him back his money -- I believe PayPal has an option for this -- and tell him you won't deal with him.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Registered Users don't have access to PMs but they can and should have email enabled if they want to do business here. Why make it hard for someone to do business with you?
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That is a big problem here. Can the software be adjusted so that everyone's email is enabled automatically upon registration?
 
One of the problems I see from to time is a seller or trader who only has PM option. If PM were available for all members that would be less of a problem.

I agree with Esav, if you want to do business here, enable your email. If you don't want
your e-mail revealed, then use a webmail e-mail to do business here and keep your private e-mail for your other business.

I also think that some sellers limit themselves by only doing paypal, I don't do paypal, don't want to do paypal, but Postal Money order is great. Some sellers don't for various reasons, and that's their choice.

As has been said, seller's can set the rules for how they will do business, and that's fine,
but buyers will of course do the same thing.

It just depends on how badly you want to sell your knives, or how badly you want to buy
someone's knives.
 
Well I didn't intend to open a can of worms about how Spark runs the place. Just wanted some simple intel. :)

PorcupineMtns66, then Esav Benyamin nailed it. My brother has a confirmed sellers acct. and he sent me money using a gift (any of the personal options really should work) and there's no info shown to me but the name.

So, I jacked myself out of $100 today. :mad: Becuase I'm paranoid! Now I understand and can proceed. Here's the deal:

PayPal gift option does not provide the sender's address and it does not provide any recourse in case of seller's failure to send the item purchased.
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:thumbup:
 
PorcupineMtns66 said:
That is a big problem here. Can the software be adjusted so that everyone's email is enabled automatically upon registration?
Click to expand...

I don't know whether it can or not, but I think Spark has already said it's up to the member if he want to enable it and it's up to the buyer or seller to decide if he wants to do business with someone who is a blank slate -- no email, no profile information, hardly any posts. Your decision.
 
I'm pretty sure I'd be in the minority, as I only sell about a dozen knives a year on here, but as a seller it wouldn't bother me one bit if BUYING was also restricted to paying members.........
 
PorcupineMtns66 said:
Can the software be adjusted so that everyone's email is enabled automatically upon registration?
Click to expand...

That's the default, but people often change it when they first register because they're afraid of spammers getting their email address. Bladeforums doesn't spam anybody and the software does a good job of hiding your email address, but they don't know that -- and if you tell them they're not necessarily going to believe it. A lot of people are very paranoid about any possibility of exposing their email addresses to spammers, especially newbies to the net.

Thieves, on the other hand, are not afraid of spam and don't mind giving out a throwaway email address. It's easy enough to open new email accounts, as often as they need them....
 
wolfmann601 said:
Sadly, based on what has happened here with new guys I won't ship until the other guys knife arrives if its a trade and won't ship after a sale until payment has cleared the bank, PO or PP.
If the new guy doesn't like it then he can pass on dealing with me. I simply cannot affford to be scammed or lose a knife at this point in my life.
Click to expand...

same with me, unless ya are one of the old timers.
 
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