Market place ETHICS (not rules) and the lack of!!

Actually, it's always 'wrong' to ask someone to pay Paypal fees. That is in Paypal's user agreement, and it is the price that you pay, so to speak, for being able to use the convinience of Paypal. If you don't like it, the alternative is to only accept e-checks and instant transfers.

 

This isn't 100% true.

People who have premier accounts, the ones that accept credit cards, get penalized on EVERY transaction, regardless of whether a person pays with a credit card, an e-check, instant transfer etc...Each and every transaction is subject to paypal's 5% fee. There is a basic account that isn't penalized ever, but can't take credit cards. I've had both.

It is in Paypal's user agreement that you aren't allowed to charge the penalty fee for having a business/premier account. That hasn't stopped people ever. Like I said, I either make sure it's built into my prices or I just plain don't charge it at all.

 

Which is why I said always only accept those things-then you don't need the premier account. If you are going to go with the convenience of being able to accept credit cards, that is the drawback. You accept having to pay the fee to go with the ability to take credit card payments-don't want the fee? Don't accept credit cards. The point is, it's against the user agreement and asking other people to pay it is WRONG.

 

The way you worded your first post made it sound like even if you had a credit card account, just don't take credit cards and you're wrong. I was merely pointing out that that is not true.

A non-business account is a great thing. No fees, it's nice! I think it's a rip off that credit card companies charge you for using a credit card. It's that way for all businesses. I'm not sure why everyone has to be penalized for taking a credit card, it seems wrong. =/

Anyhow, I was just clarifying something in case others didn't know.

 

If someone wants to place a doll on "hold" then a non refundable deposit should be exchanged.

Holding a doll without a deposit should not be expected, unless the buyer wants to take a gamble that the doll won't sell to someone else..

 

I can fail at this. Seriously. Sometimes my work gets so hectic that It will take me a week to send something out. Never more than that though, and I always let the person know when it has gone out.

What I really fail at is getting prices for postage (especially for people who want the cheapest way or for out of the country). People will show interest but I take too long to schlep to the PO with the thing, wait in line, ask, get 5 different answers and then take the best guess. A heads up, at least for Manhattanites, the USPS site does not give accurate info. I've had many a postal drone surprise me with postage much higher than what's quoted on the site. So sadly I'm trying to avoid out of the country people or people who won't pay 5.00 for the flat rate envelope.

So put your time frame in your sales post. Read the sales post of the person that you are buying from. If in doubt, ask, do not assume.

 

Wow... I've never sold anything in the marketplace and I don't think I ever will after reading all this. People have the tendency to run rampant when there are no "punishments" for bad business, that's for sure. I find it to be really immature and it makes me thankful I've only dealt with good sellers on the MP.

Once you commit to buy... you buy. I suppose it's nice people have the option of backing out of sales here, but that should be in the case of an emergency, not a luxury everyone is entitled to. Then again, I take my money and my ethic very seriously. I just did my first layaway option and sent the rest of my payment a week early, it makes me uncomfortable not to have business taken care of and up in the air.

 

it is a little frustrating when someone says "yes yes, i will buy it!", only to ignore your PMs for a week and then finally get back to you stating that they can't buy it, but i don't let it irk me because people do have lives. i can't answer my mail every single day so i don't expect other people to.

 

This is very annoying... and it's been happening a lot more lately... disturbingly so.

I don't put anything on hold anymore unless I get a down-payment... after being jerked around by 5 different people in a row on a single doll... that was it for me.
They pay a non-refundable down payment, or they take their chances that it'll still be there when they do get around to paying me.

I don't charge paypal fees either... and it bugs me a lot when people do... but it doesn't stop me from buying the item, if I really want it. I also don't hold it against the seller... because I can't blame them for not wanting to penalize people who are paying by a means that won't incur a fee.
It just bugs me, though XD

 

Main thing that burns me is there is no extra help from DoA if you get scammed in the Marketplace. DoA must have access to IP addresses, user info, all that good stuff... I am aware of the 'buyer beware' policy in the rules and reg, but it sure would be nice if the Marketplace had its own little built-in protections. Maybe a small fee for using the Marketplace could allow this to happen... I dunno. I lost over $500 thanks to the freedom and lack of controls in this Marketplace. Researching positive feedback cannot guarantee that you will not be scammed out of house and home. And that is our ONLY indication of honesty on this board.

Not that I would stop using DoA to buy dolls.... I trust 99.9% of you guys, sometimes more than the doll companies *L*. Personally as a seller/customizer, I haven't had a single bad experience (knock wood). And the majority of my purchases have gone off without a hitch. But I do believe that for all this awesome and win to stay safe and responsible, maybe it needs to be a little more difficult for scammers and flakes to get their way.

 

Oh my goodness I KNOW! I held a doll for over a month for someone without a down payment, only to get more and more excuses. I now REQUIRE a non-refundable deposit on ANYTHING.

But NOW you can leave feedback for flakey buyers!
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3822966#post3822966
Tadaaaaaaa!

 

I am frustrated when people promise to sell you something but then a few hours later tell you that they got a very good offer that they couldnt refuse, after they gave me their paypal and all to send the money to, and then they go and sell the item right from under me....its annoying, I don't even know if its possible to leave bad feedback, because the feedback rules said I could if it was a doll, but this was a dress, so I am not sure. I really was looking forward to getting that dress too.. T_T

 

I've only had good experiences from the Marketplace. What I would say is...don't be transparent and break down the price you have chosen. I know people like to haggle, and you might feel that showing the individual break-downs will somehow justify how much you have priced your item at, but I think it is a waste of time. Someone will either agree with your price, or they will refuse to pay it, and you'll quickly find out which is which.

I don't want to know that you are charging "x amount' because the doll is rare + 'x amount' because the doll cost you astronomical customs fees + 'x amount' because you love the doll and don't really want to sell + 5% paypal fees + shipping = my final price." I would be less likely to buy a doll where the customs fees and original shipping fare were transparently included in the sale price. Why should I pay your original fees (general you)? All you're doing is selling me the doll/item...I have to pay my own shipping and customs fees, thanks, I don't need to pay yours as well!

I feel awful and flakey because I put up a feeler thread about some SD boots and I had someone very eager to buy them and I just cannot locate them anywhere I was really sad to have to explain this, but the buyer was alright, thankfully. I hate having to go back on my word. I know I will find those boots when I'm 90 and a great-grandmother and will have no need for them

 

I've yet to use the marketplace here, my so many days aren't up until the beginning of november i believe.
But I think it should be the way you use Ebay, you decide to buy something, you pay you get it, if you can't afford, or decide not to buy something you were interested in, you just tell the person right off. Circumstances come up, money gets tight, everyone understands that, but just holding on to multiple people to see who will go the lowest or give you the better deal to buy, or even just in case you want it but so no one else can have it, is just an elementary school mentality that everyone should be past.

 

I've mostly stopped shopping in the Marketplace in the past couple of years, because there's been so many flakes & flaky business-practices moving in. The last 2 times I bit the bullet & went to sniff out a purchase, it's been some kid who agreed to my price, then after 4 days, suddenly decided that the item wasn't for sale after all. Both times, I'm thankful they at least flaked out before I'd sent any money. Fageddaboudit. Too many people who couldn't handle making a straight sale at a flea-market stall, let alone handle international e-commerce.

And I'm certainly not going to stick around to hear "Oh, I just got a better offer, so you don't get the item". If people are actually doing that to each other now, and getting away with it, this just reinforces my Hell In A Handbasket theory.

That's definitely the way to go, just state your price & let people take-it-or-leave-it... But the reason so many people do that "itemization" thing so much is because others will actually come NAG them about why they're charging so much (it's usually a self-appointed Price Police person). The overexplanation is sort of a preemptive strike against the nagging.

Everyone feels they have to justify their price, because there's so much complaining about price these days. A couple years ago you didn't see quite this level of nickel-and-diming, because everyone knew it'd cost you an assload in shipping & Rinkya & tax & conversion fees & what have you. Today it seems like people feel entitled to pay less-than-original-retail-price for any used doll, regardless of its rarity or value. So, they do those Price Police Tricks, to make the seller feel greedy for asking a reasonable price. Sellers don't want to be made to feel greedy. The result = A lot of unsolicited math + explanations in the sales page, and a lot of stories about "my grandmother died" or "my cat needs surgery".

 

it's not on here but i'm going through something similar with a camera right now. i found an old canon ae-1 program (from the late 70s) and i posted a picture on flickr. someone offered to buy it, so i sent them a message asking if they were serious. the person said yes and asked for the info. i gave it to them and she's not responding......does that mean you don't want it??

A lot of problems could be fixed with a simple follow up of "yes" or "no." If you don't have the money, I don't want sob stories. Just tell me you don't have it ASAP so i can move on and find another buyer.

with more expensive items, i always ask for a non-refundable down payment within 24 hours of the person saying "yes, i want to buy it." that way, if they back out down the road, i'm covered for the time wasted. also, it keeps people who weren't serious about buying the item saying they will in fact buy it. if they don't do the down payment, the item goes right back up for sale and if someone else pays first, too bad for the slowpoke.

my big annoyance is slow shipping. i recently bought some stuff on a thread here and the person told me they'd ship on a certain day. after a week, i had got nothing so i PMd the person asking what the deal was. They said they were busy and would send it out ASAP. I didn't end up getting the item for almost another week, and this person does not live far enough for a package to that long. It should have taken 3 days tops.

If I know i can't get something out, i do my best to PM the person and keep them up to date with the info. Recently i had a big family emergency and i didn't have time to PM everyone, so i just put a note in my signature saying that the packages had not been shipped but i would be shipping them soon.

just keeping people informed goes a long way. i don't want to have to pester someone to find out if they shipped my stuff or not.

 

This reminded me... TWICE now, someone has agreed to sell me something, but not given me their paypal... and THEN... when it's in the middle of the friggin night here (and only about 2-4 hours after they agreed to sell it to me) they send me a PM saying "Oh, too bad, you were too slow"

W.T.F.

That bugs me more than anything.

I mean seriously... if you get a "better offer" from someone else, you SHOULD tell the first person and give them the chance to match it. I had this happen to me recently, I was more than happy to go up in price, and all worked out well... and I was very happy that the seller honored their promise to sell it to me, and gave me the chance to buy it!

Sometimes when it comes to shipping though, unless you're doing a trade (where shipping date should be coordinated) ... I find it's better not to tell people. There seem to be a lot of people around here who can't understand that life happens and sometimes you just can't drop everything and run straight to the post office. (on that note, there are also a lot of lovely people who DO understand that life happens)... but, the ones that don't seem to realize that some people work all day during postal hours... they can really make the whole selling experience annoying.

On that same note, I get irrationally annoyed if someone says they're going to ship on a certain day... and then I hear nothing from them for 2 or 3 days, and then they say "Oh, yeah, still gotta do that"... if they had just told me "Oh yes, sometime this week" ... I might still PM them regularly to ask, but I wouldn't be annoyed :P

 

But DoA must protect itself. In fact, I think they probably do enough as it is. Any more and they might be crossing the line and could get into legal trouble. It's frustrating for the mods to have such a hands off approach, they WANT to help people. But alas, it's necessary.