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

Considering that people expect people to pay paypal fees -- which is against Paypal's TOS -- I can't see people easily being willing to pay a fee to sell.

 

I agree 100%.

Not just with regards to fees- every buyer should read threads as if their lives depend on it, and ask questions before they commit to buy anything. Really, if you don't read a thread properly, there cannot be much comeback if the item is not as described, or has features/defects that you were not expecting.

 

This happens a lot to me and I don't want to be blunt or rude, but honestly, I don't really see the need for telling me information that I don't need to know. I don't say anything but it's always made me feel very awkward because it happens quite often. I'm very easy going and I understand that life happens, but I really don't need to know all the personal details.

If you need to back out or need extra time, fine, but I don't need to know your business. I don't want to know your business. It just makes me feel so AWKWARD. I never really know how to respond correctly to things like that, so I usually just stare at the screen for a while. My social skills = FAIL, so it's not that I'm rude and don't care... it's just that I don't know how to respond to certain things. ._.;;

In regard to flakey buyers, I've gotten to the point where I think I might have to stop accepting holds or ask for a deposit to be made on holds because it's just ridiculous. I don't see why someone would go through all the trouble of trying to secure an item, being communicative and friendly the entire time and then just ceasing communication once it nears to the decided pay date.

That is mind boggling to me.

Either you have it or you don't. That's all it comes down to. I'm more understanding when I'm kept in the loop, but I really don't have any consideration for someone that just blatantly ignores a situation that they willingly put themselves in by beginning a transaction.

Lack of communication really puts me off, because if someone is nice enough to hold something for you, you should at least be considerate to let them know if something else came up instead of just not saying anything. This year, I've been hit with so many flakey buyers and it's just so off-putting. I don't like when my time is wasted, because I don't have any time to spare in my life. A little bit of consideration definitely goes a long way in the Marketplace.

But, I want to say that I've dealt with a lot of people here and I know that along with the good, there will be bad. For as many transactions as I've been involved in, I gladly say that the good will always greatly outweigh the bad.

That's my two cents and I honestly hope that was somewhat coherent because heaven knows that I am exhausted right now and need to catch a nap. XD

 

Payment as 'personal', though, gives the buyer absolutely no protection or recourse with Paypal if the seller scams, fails to send, disappears into a black hole, etc. I will send personal payments to close friends or if we are doing a local group order, but I think it is far too risky as a buyer to do so in general DoA transactions, nor would I as a seller ask someone to do it.

 

Me either. I won't pay a personal payment and I won't buy from someone who insists upon it-it reads "scammer" to me. I'd just as soon pay the fee, though I find the whole PP fee thing on the Marketplace to be ludicrous. Just price the doll/item so that the fee is factored in, rather than making people figure a percentage.

 

I've run across a couple situations where a transaction has gone as well as expected (Canada Post hates me, so packages are usually a little later than estimated. I'm used to it, and know it's not the buyer's fault) and, for whatever reason, I've left feedback (all positive, so far) but not been left feedback in return.

Now, I don't really know how many people agree with this but I really don't consider feedback to be 'optional'. As someone who's comparatively new to buying and selling on the Marketplace, I feel that positive feedback is important to have since it means more people are likely to buy from or sell to me. I realize that someone with 5+ pages of 'good' feedback from their transactions might not really care whether or not someone with only a couple feedback posts on their thread is given a quick, one sentence note on how that person was to deal with, but even if the transaction was a good one, leave a note!

 

I completely agree with you Saryn, I have been buying and selling here for a couple of years now and I think my feedback thread is only on 2/3 pages - and at least 1.5 of those were in the last 6 months through running a bunch of group orders.

It's a real pain that it's impossible to make people leave feedback, since paging them for feedback is only going to annoy them so they'll leave bad feedback (and it's probably somehow not allowed either) and politely asking them once or twice via PM is going to irritate them too.

I've taken to putting a note of thanks and request for feedback in with my parcels when selling, and when they PM me to let me know the item arrived ok, ask again for feedback if they haven't left it or haven't said they're going to.

It really sucks that people don't have the common courtesy to write "Good Transaction " in someone's Feedback thread, it hardly takes an hour to write two words ><

 

Absolutely agreed with Saryn and Ehryn about feedback - I give it on every good transaction (one or two may slip my mind when life is particularly busy, but I always PM the seller when an item arrives and try and leave feedback ASAP) and I would expect the people I deal with to do the same for me.

I can say that I've only had two problems with sellers in my time on DoA, and both situations were solved peacefully with calm communication on both ends. Buyers, on the other hand... while I've had a couple of really good sales here on DoA, the number of potential buyers who've contacted me about an item I have for sale and asked me to put it on hold, then flaked with either no communication or have gotten back to me a couple of days later with stupid excuses like "My husband says I should wait to buy anything until X Event is over" or has told me they don't have the money to hand... argh, I've often thought about removing my items from the marketplace altogether and selling exclusively on eBay! (It doesn't help that people tend to flake on me within a couple of days, which is too short a time period to leave flake feedback for these people according to DoA's rules) However, it does mean that I appreciate the good buyers I do business with all the more.

Short and sweet: If you don't have the money for something, don't tell a seller you're going to buy it.

 

Well, what we're talking about here is not just marketplace ethics, but generally good education rules. One has a right to change their mind about something, as long as it doesn't put others in uncomfortable situations (IE deciding they don't want a doll anymore a while after they informed the seller about wanting to buy it)
Something that bugs me is the eccess of drama used in excuses. At one point, it's so common it's not even realistic anymore. I remember a person pulling out this excuse that was like... "I lost my mother, father, grandmother, twin and best friends so i'll have to scam you" it was ridiculous. So i totally agree with OP for the sob story part.

 

I agree with many on Paypal fees. It's against TOS to ask for them. Just fold them into the asking price!

And if you DO charge them, please send me a total price including everything when you send me your paypal address. I hate having to go back to the thread and figure out what my own total is including shipping, and guaranteed I'm going to forget to figure in the PP fees. I have problems processing numbers anyway, if someone else has the same item for a few dollars more but doesn't charge PP fees and makes it easy to figure out my total, I'll buy from them instead.

 

I am glad you honestly put your feelings out there about this, because I also think it is absolutely downright rude and inconsiderate to participate in a GO and rave about how great it was in the thread, then never leave feedback for the GO organizer. It was an interesting experiment in human behavior to see who would do the right thing and leave feedback for me after a very successful GO, and who would'nt. Only about half of the participants left me feedback which is probably about the average. I was a little surprizedt though when some of the folks that are sellers in their own shops even failed to do so because they should definitely "get it" about how important it is to leave feedback and practice some level of courtesy when doing business.

ITA about Paypal fees being inappropriate. Items should be priced to absorb them and should not be the burden of the buyer to pay them or calculate them. I wonder what started people doing this here and why it has become so accepted?

End of rant...

 

While I agree they should at least give you the chance, I think it is horrible to agree to a selling price and then just because someone offers more, go back on that deal. You've actually made a contract already, to go back just to make more money seems horribly tacky and unethical to me.

 

I'm of the opinion that you should never agree to buy something if you don't have cash in hand (or available credit, whatever works for you). While things do happen in life that are beyond your control, if you've agreed to buy something and suddenly find you can't afford it, the second you know, you should be emailing/PM-ing the seller with abject apologies and tell them you can't complete the transaction due to a sudden change in finances.

When I've purchased things off the MP, I've sent the seller an email to let them know payment has been made even though Paypal also sends them a notice. As soon as I get the item, I let the seller know it's arrived and the condition it was in. I also thank them for selling the item to me. I leave appropriate feedback for them and hope that they have the courtesy to do the same for me (although that doesn't always happen).

I'd recently commissioned a modder to do some work for me and when there was a slight delay on my end (maybe 2 weeks?) getting all the parts together, I let the modder know right away and told her to take people ahead of me as I didn't want to hold her up business-wise waiting extra long for my doll to get to her. I figured that was just common courtesy.

 

It bugs me sometimes I need to chase people to find out if the items I've sent them arrived. I worry from day 1 the package leaves my house @___@.

 

Yea I agree on the feedback thing, I always leave feedback and pm the person and tell them It's arrived safely and ask them nicely to leave me feedback as I was leaving them some. But sometimes people just dont leave it X>x

 

Same here. I only send and accept personal payments from close friends, because there is absolutely no buyer protection on personal payments. They aren't intended for use in buying and selling... their purpose is for parents to send money to kids in college, or to gift a friend with money.

I've seen a number of threads in the Problem Transactions forum recently that state the money was sent as a personal payment to avoid fees, then there was no recourse when things went badly.

I find this comment interesting... I try to leave feedback for my transactions... but I do quite a bit of buying and selling on DoA, and sometimes it really does just completely slip my mind to leave feedback. I've had people politely PM when a transaction is over and ask if I would leave feedback, and I'm happy to oblige.

I think a polite "Would you mind leaving me feedback?" with a link to the thread shouldn't annoy anyone, and if they leave bad feedback for doing so I would hope that such "revenge" bad feedback is reportable behavior.

 

I spend a lot of time with a person who does commissions in the market place. I love her to bits, but she drives me crazy- if she gets behind on a commission (which happens quite a bit, she's juggling work and school atm), she buttons up with shame. She's so embarrassed that she won't talk to anyone, she just powers through the commissions and posts them off without even saying anything.
I understand where she comes from, but...a little effort to say "I'm sorry, it'll just take me a couple of days more" wouldn't go amiss. Then again, it's scary- you don't know who's going to erupt and who wont.

 

Never really happened to me, but I must say, I believe a buyer should ALWAYS inform their seller once the items in question arrive. Yes, you may have shipped that doll out, yes technically it's no longer your responsibility, but wouldn't it be nice to know it reached the other person safely? By the buyer kindly letting you know that everything arrived nice and safe, it sort of officially "ends" the transaction and lays it to rest IMO.
It's a quick and simple PM really, that's all it takes. Sets you up to begin feedback too. Courtesy and common sense if you ask me. ^^

 

I generally don't leave feedback for various reasons, but if someone requested it to be left (with a link) I'd be happy to do so. The thing with this behavior is that... Does this someone participate in the marketplace to only build a reputation? And if that is the main goal is the person doing it so he/she can be trusted and then can get away with unethical behavior in the future?

With Paypal, people who know the system can do a lot of harm. But, they can also protect themselves. In addition, there is a number of completed transactions right on Paypal. Feedback is less of an issue for me because of this since sometimes people change. Past feedback isn't always an accurate representation of an individual now. I couldn't care less if someone sold a $20 pair of shoes two years ago and packed them well. It tells me very little if I'm looking to buy a head or a doll from that individual now.

But, only my perspective. I can understand that some people would value positive feedback for legitimate reasons and I'm happy to provide it when requested.