Marketplace Etiquette

You are all kidding, right? Uh, I know where the countries mentioned are and so does every single American I know! Those comments are, well, probably not necessary. And actually, the Netherlands are extremely well known in the US, and more attention is probably paid to the Netherlands during this month than any other in American pop culture.

EDIT: I do put stuff up there still and I have had great transactions with people from all over the world! ^_^

 

It is the seller's business if they want to offer it, but to me it's greedy-grabby to pounce on an item simply to lay a claim to it, while getting the money comes later. In most other markets, like a store, Ebay, garage sale, etc, one has claim to an item when one has the money to pay for it. DoA is the only place I buy where this is not the rule, and it just happens to deal in a lot of hard to find items. It's a punishing system to those who are not impulse buyers.

Which is why my example was quoted as "domestic" fees; i.e. the country I and paypal are from. But it doesn't matter where you are or how much your fees are. The buyer is not supposed to cover these charges. Aside from being against the rules, it's horribly cheap! If you sell a $500 item you're out $15-20. If you can't bear to lose that on a deal involving hundreds of dollars, switch to money orders.

And if you don't know where the Netherlands are, get off this forum now and open an atlas. Jesus.

 

krambear and Seiko, I didn't mean to offend or be rude. I guess I placed my words badly and I do apologize, but you have also misunderstood me, maybe because my English isn't so good and I can't really express myself as well as I'd wish. The reference to paypal fees and the assumption of everyones living place were different issues. Also I'm usually the buyer, not the seller, so my comment was only to correct the calculation that had been mentioned about the fees. It wasn't a comment about if they were justified or not. And the fact about knowing where some small country is wasn't to offend anyone (who really does know every single county in the world? And if someone would ask me to name all the states in US I wouldn't be able to - I meant with my comment, that it's bad to assume that someone lives somewhere without checkin or asking). But again, I do apologize and I try to use my words more carefully in the future.

 

Group Orders: Communication. As a participant it is courtesy to make your payment within a reasonable period of time after invoices are sent or let the organizer know that you have received your invoice and when you will be able to make the payment. (It is always nice to have the payment ready even before joining the order...) And in addition to that, it is also important that if it is necessary to be dropped from a group order, to do so before invoices including calculations of divided shipping and totals are made. This lack of common 'marketplace etiquette' slows down the rest of the group order participants who made the effort to pay as soon as they received their invoices, and also disappoints the organizer who must now try and contact you repeatedly

Selling: Let the buyer know when you have received payment, and maybe when you will be shipping the item(s) out.

 

In addition to what everyone said about communication, sticking to promises when you've agreed to buy or sell an item, smoking disclosure, ditto on all that...

I have a few things I'd like to share as a frequent buyer on DOA (much too frequent, feeble grin ).......

PACKING. This has been mentioned, but I've just gotta mention it again. The seller does not have to wrap it in fancy paper and cover it with hugs and kisses, but for chrissakes, PUT IT IN A ZIPLOCK BAG before you put it in the envelope to send. I've gotten items with jewelry LOOSE in the package - what if that brown envelope got ripped??? - and I've gotten items that were dropped in the rain by the mailman. Obviously that's not the seller's fault, but when they didn't even bother to put it in a ziplock first, then the item is damaged. And I REALLY don't think it's too much to ask. It's a ziplock.

SHIPPING. I have noticed a recent, and very disturbing trend here, and that is, people taking 3 weeks to ship some dumb wig or pair of shoes. OR a doll. And the seller will give that old "I'm very busy...." How insulting is that? I'm busy too. We're ALL busy.

I would like people to seriously think about things from the other person's point of view. The old golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I know this sounds all ranty and preachy, but seriously, peeps... if you had time to photograph it and list it, and to take my money, then you have time to get to the damned P.O. I work too, 50-60 hours a week, and I miss lunches in order to go to the PO, or I go on Saturday mornings before it closes. I am REALLY frustrated with the callous, uncaring attitude I've seen a lot here from sellers after the transaction is, in their mind I guess, completed. It's not completed until I have my item. And then I see them whine about how people don't buy their stuff, and their stuff isn't selling, perhaps THIS IS WHY. If I bought from them before and received this treatment, they can be damned sure I'm not buying from them again.

Okay rant over........ this has just been bothering me for a while, clearly. The marketplace is getting very competitive and good sellers will get my repeat business. You get what you give.

and a PS regarding those who express frustration at a buyer not letting them know an item arrived, or peeps not leaving them feedback - please PM the person!! I know I often forget, and I honestly just FORGET, it's not like I'm trying to be rude or uncommunicative. Just PM me and I'll fix it right away!!

 

This hasn't happened to me but...if the seller is selling something and then goes in, making a deal with the buyer, they need to stick to it. If the seller pulls the deal out because they suddenly realize that they've "always loved my such-and-such doll", well frankly that's probably why the buyer was looking into getting that doll. It's just hurtful and rude.

And I have to second Sher's thing about packaging. It filled my little heart with glee when I recieved a pair of eyes (just ONE pair, mind you!) not in a padded envelope...but in a box! The box had a small plastic container, which was stuffed full of bubble wrap, taped tightly. And inside of all of THAT was my eyes, in a ziplock, compeltely safe and sound. Man, I loved it, totally made my day. That's even better than getting a freebie, honestly. XD

 

Jinnayah's right--technically, as soon as you make an offer and another person accepts, you've got a contract. It doesn't matter that it was made verbally or via PMs or whatever.

</legal dorkdom :P>

I also wanted to second Sher's comments about making buyers wait forever and a day to ship items. Being on bedrest is one thing, but making me wait a month and a half because mommy won't drive you to the PO is ridiculous. If you don't have immediate access to a mailing center (or, I might add, proper shipping materials) then you have no business selling on this or any forum.

 

Potentially volatile topic here, I'm a bit nervous about posting this. But I feel so disenfranchised right now, I'd really like to know.

My circumstances are a bit delicate: My paypal account was hacked last November. I shared this account with others, and someone higher up the chain of command said "no more paypal." So I pay for everything doll-related with money orders, and I have to buy second hand. One day I'm browsing the marketplace, not particularly looking for anything, when I see that somebody is selling the boy that I've been painstakingly saving for! He's a rare find on the marketplace (not a limited, but not common because nobody buys him), so of course I was excited.

I contacted the seller, saying that I'd need a layaway and payment through mail, which she said was fine. But she'd had some "deadbeats" that didn't pay through mail, so I don't think she particularly trusted me. I assured her that I was sincere and eager to purchace him, even said I'd send payment by EMS. I requested her mailing info, which was the only thing stopping me from securing him. Once I mailed payment, she said she'd put him on hold for me. I requested her mailing info. At this point I was under the impression that she would hold off on other offers for a few days, waiting for my payment to come. Especially since I was the first and only solid offer at the time, and she wanted to sell him quickly.

She replies to my request for her mailing information by saying that someone else has just made a deposit for him! Apparently this person was "so eager" to buy him that they made a deposit and they agreed to work out layaway later. Now, to me it seems that this is a bit unfair, since I was waiting on her mailing information in the first place. If it hadn't been for that I would have already mailed the payment; I can't very well go to the post office not knowing where I'm sending it to.

I would leave negative feedback for this seller, names excluded, but I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do, since "technically" he wasn't on hold for me until after I would have mailed payment.


So my questions are:

Has something like this ever happened to you?

If so, what did you do?

How would you handle this situation with the seller?

Should I post negative feedback, or is my case not strong enough?

 

That really stinks that it happened to you but I can also understand the seller's point of view. I've had people pay by mail & use layaway & sometimes it works, sometimes not. I've had several people drag the whole process out for months. Eventually they all did finish paying but when you need the money quickly it's not fair to keep the seller waiting.

I'm not saying you would do such a thing but I think many people have had problems like this & are quite wary. Personally, anymore when I sell, I prefer Paypal as the deal is quickly over & done with & I can ship right away but, sucker that I am, I still do layaways & money orders if someone has references or I know them. Perhaps if you had provided references she would have been more willing to wait.

I think you could politely tell the seller how disappointed you are though. I wouldn't post negative feedback since you don't really know what she was thinking.

 

I think your case is not strong enough to leave bad feedback. She never said she would put a HOLD on the doll for you. I know this hurts she can't read your mind and you can't read hers thats the problem! so many people email and say I want x doll and then don't follow through. It happens all the time and as the market place gets larger it happens more often.

From her point of view she really needs to just sell the doll. In future I would say Please HOLD the doll for me and don't sell it to anyone else can you do that? then see what they say.

 

You were wronged, I'm sorry to say; the seller was incredibly rude to do that and it was in extremely bad taste. The priority of a seller should be good communication; if she can't make it clear to you whether or not it was on hold or not, she was most liekly not worth dealing with.

Unfortunately, she wasn't really breaking any rules. By miscommunicating and never saying it was on hold, even without having to be asked, she didn't really enter any solid transaction with you. It was stupidly unfair, and you have every right to feel cheated, but there's.. not really much you can do but keep your chin up.

I hope you get your dream doll soon, dear. Better luck

 

I agree that it's not really a case for leaving bad feedback, since it wasn't a completed transaction and she never expressly said she'd hold him, BUT... I would definitely contact the seller politely and express your disappointment. I think that if she was so unwilling to sell to a buyer who had to pay via mail, she should have said no immediately instead of telling you it was fine and then backing out when a better deal came along.

I'm sorry this happened to you. Although it's not much of a comfort, at least all of this took place before you had sent any payments.

 

oh That's awful! But there are other options. How about saving up for him and then having a friend pay for him through their paypal account? I've done that for one of my friends and it turned out for the best. ^__^

 

I think that would have been a very bad seller to deal with. I'd have imagined that if you were asking for her addess and offering to send the payment by mail that you were serious.

I had that happen to me once, I was asking the seller about the doll, indicating I was serious about it and left a PM asking for it to be put on hold for me, but she sold part of it to someone then went "Whoops, sorry, but you can have the rest."

Kinda pissed me off, since when I PM someone about something I'm serious about wanting it. Generally, if it's just a question, I'll post in the thread.

 

This is a very very good case and I hope many people will read this as it happens all the time.

from a seller's point of view in case you get multiple enquiries for the same item:
I have recently sold some items (accessories) here and it so happened one of the wigs I sold someone had enquired after it although they have not yet confirmed that they would definitely like to buy it. I've got a second PM following that person which said that they'll definitely like to take it. But I think the best and safest thing to do in this situation is to ask confirmation from the first person who enquired whether they still want it and to ask the second person to wait until the first person has given me their answer. I usually allow 24- 48 hours time to confirm back with me.

 

I think helene has brought up a good point. If you are a seller getting multiple pms and offers, let the first person know that you have someone interested and ask them if they definitely want it.

If you only want people to pay via paypal, then you should say so. You shouldn't tell someone its fine to send money via mail, and then sell it on them when they were clearly serious about the sale.

 

I've had someone I'd PM'ed about an item say it was available in one message and then in the next message (I was offline for the weekend) say it was sold... So stuff like that does happen. I wasn't happy, but people have different selling policies. Some just want to sell the item or doll as quickly as possible, so the quickest person who pays gets it. I don't think it's nice, but then, if they're wanting money in a hurry, I can understand why they do it--and they aren't selling stuff to be nice, after all--but for the money.

 

I've had this done to me before and yeah it sucks, but you probaly wouldn't have had the best experience with this seller anyway.
I'm a very firm beleiver in "Everthing happens for a reason"
Have you thought of maybe opening a paypal account using your bank account instead of credit card. If you don't have a bank account, you can always go get one when you're ready.
just a thought^^

 

-_- I've had a couple of dolls sold out from under me; one from lack of communication, another one from god-only-knows-what (personal choice). There isn't much you can do about that.

Sellers: If you're going to make your sale an auction, please don't change it to a set price if someone has already bid. That's sort of the same as backing out of a bid, in my opinion. Obviously if someone "buys it now" that's one thing, but to watch a doll you had a bid on sit in the Marketplace for three weeks because the seller realized they weren't going to get a high price for it in auction is just a little bit painful. If you want a certain price in auction, start the auction there.

Buyers: Be polite. Be courteous. Obviously we're dealing in very expensive goods, but people on the marketplace aren't big companies - they're just people too. Say "thank you" when someone helps you out, even if you're not going to buy their item. If you PM someone, make sure you let them know if you're not interested.

It all comes down to saying thank you, thank you, thank you, and being precise and polite in your communications, in my opinion.

Also I wish that people would post pictures all the time, because honestly for newbies it's sometimes hard to find pictures of the molds; plus faceups vary, so on, so forth. Really it's only to help your sales!