Small Scale Military Headquarters

What does everybody consider proper etiquette when making a deal with someone? I have always tried to keep in contact in what I consider to be a reasonable time frame.

How long should you wait before contacting a member? I would be interested in what other members think.

Honestly there are only a handful of individuals that I would do business with here. Lots of people think that they do not need to reply to pm’s or emails if they are not happy with or change their minds on a potential deal. Now I don’t give any consideration till I have money in my Paypal account. Until then all items are still up for grabs.

To answer your question on time frame I would say once 24 hrs has passed you can move on. You can also look at your outbox to see if someone has received your message. That will tell you that they have read it and just not responded to it.

ram04 wrote:What does everybody consider proper etiquette when making a deal with someone? I have always tried to keep in contact in what I consider to be a reasonable time frame.

How long should you wait before contacting a member? I would be interested in what other members think.

Can you give a little more info? Before the deal, during the deal or after?

First off, this is not meant to be razzing someone, I would like to know what everyone considers the proper time between contacting a member on a transaction.

I have always tried to keep in contact when a deal is going through and try to follow up afterwards.

me personally I have never traded on here because i am not eligible. However I think Communication is a good thing and that you will never hear me fuss that you checked with me daily to make sure everything was good. good communication is reassuring and shows responsibility as a buyer or seller.

ram04 wrote:I have always tried to keep in contact when a deal is going through and try to follow up afterwards.

>>> Then , that's it. As long as it's within a reasonable amount of time. Like Kevin said above , "24-hrs" is sufficient I think. Unless their is an emergency situation.

* I always include my phone # in any transaction.


- Mitch v MG

I agree 24hrs seems reasonable.
I'll 2nd the most annoying , as people who change their mind, then simply blow you off. How hard is it, to reply to an e-mail or PM & simply say, "thanks, but I'm sorry, something came up, I can't go through with the deal"
I don't get it. What happened to common courtesy?

I alway treat people like how I want to be treated.

Regarding communications, if a deal does not work out, I always send a message stating the reason for non-deal. And when I have an agreement for a deal, with the sellers consent (99% of the time, I am the buyer), I send the payment within 24 hours. Maybe I am naive, but sometimes I am shocked when people back out of an agreement. I do realize that we really do not know each other, but it’s sad when your “word” means nothing.

Just my 2¢.

Little Iodine wrote: How hard is it, to reply to an e-mail or PM & simply say, "thanks, but I'm sorry, something came up, I can't go through with the deal"

I had to to that the other day and it was embarrassing, but it was the right thing to do. You can never go wrong with the golden rule.

I haven't sold anything on here, but having sold stuff on other sites I can tell you there's an Idiot Factor that sellers have to take into account and that you might want to consider. What I mean by this is that there are a lot of people who try to do business over the net the same way they talk on a telephone. For example:

- I post ad stating price, details, etc., but I can't really do shipping until I know where the package is going, how it's going, how fast it needs to go, etc.

- A buyer contacts me and they'll just ask "Is it still available?" I reply it is. That's one day right there.

- The buyer writes me back and just says 'I want it." Duh!!! I write back and say "okay, where do you need it sent and how are you going to pay?" There goes another day.

- The buyer writes me back and just says "Cleveland, OH, and how can I pay?" There goes another day. I write back "I need your address, and I can do a check, MO, or Paypal. If you're doing paypal, use this account, if mailing send to this address." There goes another day.

- The buyer writes back and says "okay, I'll send a check", but never sends me the damn address! Now I have to write back and again ask for their address. There goes another day.

- The buyer finally sends me their address, i give them the final price, and now I await payment. Four days are gone, and that's assuming the pinhead checks his email once a day.

Multiply that scenario three or four times, and that's what a lot of folks selling stuff on forums have to deal with, so it could be a few days before you hear back.

When I send a PM, I write "Hey, I'm Bruzilla and I want to buy your thing. My address is 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Prescott, NY 12345. I'll be paying via paypal, so let me know what account to use, and the final cost, and I'll get the cash right out to you. If you don't do paypal, send me your address and I'll get a MO out to you." That gives the seller everything they need without having to play 20 questions with me and eating up a lot of time.

ive done about 2 dozen trades and sold about 100 items thru the forum.
ive never had a problem but i recently had a guy who wants to cancel the trade after all has shipped. im not sure what to do at this point.

Hey,
That guy Be Me,
Everett
TheHun
Thewoofer,
Gijoewoofer,
ThewooferCustoms.com

As Paul Harvey Would say......And the rest of the Story........

Kinda lost me there

ive never had a problem but i recently had a guy who wants to cancel the trade after all has shipped. im not sure what to do at this point.

Well, for starters... and assuming he wants to return the stuff...he shouldn't get his shipping cost refunded since you are already "out of pocket" for that, and return shipping will be at his expense. On top of that, I think I would charge him a 20% "re-stocking fee" just to emphasize your displeasure. If he paid with PP you may have to refund his full purchase price including outbound shipping if he decides to press the issue, if he does that though, I would very politely and very PUBLICLY call him out for this on the forum, just to warn other people of the kind of person they'd potentially be dealing with.

its all good now!

ostketten wrote:

ive never had a problem but i recently had a guy who wants to cancel the trade after all has shipped. im not sure what to do at this point.

Well, for starters... and assuming he wants to return the stuff...he shouldn't get his shipping cost refunded since you are already "out of pocket" for that, and return shipping will be at his expense. On top of that, I think I would charge him a 20% "re-stocking fee" just to emphasize your displeasure. If he paid with PP you may have to refund his full purchase price including outbound shipping if he decides to press the issue, if he does that though, I would very politely and very PUBLICLY call him out for this on the forum, just to warn other people of the kind of person they'd potentially be dealing with.

Ok, Lets make sure we are on the same page here, He charges me 20% for restocking 1 box, to emphasize his displeasure I get ...let me see here.....4 items at 20% a box, ok i got it now i get to charge him a 80% for restocking my boxes to emphasize my displeasure, I can live with that. But I don't think Bob would agree with 20% charge to emphasize his displeasure.
now for the shipping... I'm not sure what it cost him to ship his box, But i know what it cost me to ship mine, It's probably pretty close to the same, my question now is do i have to give him his shipping money back
and does he have to give mine back or do we just call it slick ??
On to using papal, I used my paypal account to pay for my shipping.....Do i get my money back from them also ??? and if Bob used paypal does he get his money back?? or maybe we should join together and sue paypal to emphasize our displeasure.
Now about going public on the form so others will know not to trade with me (TheHun) or Bob (American Grenadier) I really feel deep down inside neither Bob or I want to do this, BUT personally i could care less, It's not going to hurt me one way or the other, But i'm always willing to go to the Next level if need be, But I really don't see the need anymore, and i'm sure Bob feels the same way, Gentlemen I was doing business long before i joined this form and i'll be doing business long after i leave this form, but I can't speak for Bob on this one.
There is a point i making here and I know i kinda went around the world to do it just to keep ya'll entertained
My grandmother always told me .....Never speak unless spoken to.......And Papaw always said......Never open your mouth unless you know what your talking about, you will only make a fool of your self if you do.
"Get The Point"
I just love this form
TheHun
TheWoofer
GijoeWoofer
ThewooferCustoms.com [/img]

If I write someone about something, and they don't reply in a week, I assume they're not interested in doing a deal... I don't sweat it generally. There's a lot of people I've done trades/sales/purchases with on here and never had a problem. Sometimes communication is slow, but often on my own part as well. It's what happens when you have wives/girlfriends, kids, a job (or several), other hobbies and things to take up your time, chores, and so on.

I wish there were a more comprehensive feedback system here... A separate section with everyone's own individual thread of feedback. That'd be a big boon to deals on here. But otherwise I've only had good experiences. Even people who ceased communicating, it's been fine to me. I'm only ever irked if I've lost money or an item to someone who didn't send their end.

Greetings

I've generally stopped dealing here with the exception of a few people I really trust and know I will get stuff from. I've been ripped off too many times and have paid too many times getting nothing in return in order to keep trading here on a regular basis with people out of the blue. I've also had some of the problems others mention with people not contacting me, etc.

I know people will say that if I was ripped off, well I should come forward, etc. I know nothing can be done about it anyway, so why come forward. But generally speaking, after you've lost money and never saw what you paid for, it really turns you off from trading somewhere.

Corey

Sorry to hear that Corey, I had great luck trading with you, too bad others have to cause problems.

I've generally stopped dealing here with the exception of a few people I really trust and know I will get stuff from. I've been ripped off too many times and have paid too many times getting nothing in return in order to keep trading here on a regular basis with people out of the blue. I've also had some of the problems others mention with people not contacting me, etc.

Ditto here. Deals go "Fubar" around here all the time, we just never hear about most of them. Some of the comments in this thread are a prime example of why I rarely ever B/S/T here anymore, it just got to be too problematic for a variety of reasons, and I now do 98% of my buying/selling either on ebay, or with a select few online retailers.

I have been lucky, 99% of the members I have dealt with are prompt on repling back, Its just a few for various reasons that don't get back to you very quick.

After paying for a item I expect that person to at least let me know what is going on, I have had waited days to weeks to months in some cases, in the end the transaction was always finished, but the long gaps in communication make you feel that this my be the deal that went wrong.

I was just wondering if it has happened to others here very often.

I'm giving up on B/S/T. I have already had 3 buyers back out without responding back. Just gonna go local and ebay now.

I had no idea that there were quite a few bad experiences by members here.

There is a good traders sticky here, why not a questionable traders sticky? If deal is going sour, post it up, give a chance for things to smoothen out between the 2 parties and get the post edited if things work out.

Or is doing this a bad sport in general on a forum as things might get very ugly?

gouchy wrote:I had no idea that there were quite a few bad experiences by members here.

There is a good traders sticky here, why not a questionable traders sticky? If deal is going sour, post it up, give a chance for things to smoothen out between the 2 parties and get the post edited if things work out.

Or is doing this a bad sport in general on a forum as things might get very ugly?

I am also surprised with the negative comments about B/S/T by members here.

And agree with gouchy.Perhaps we should have an easy reference for less than ideal transactions.But it would have to be monitored closely.And only serious infractions should be posted.

I have had nothing but positive experiences dealing with members on this forum.

I have never had a deal go totally sour on the B/S/T. The problems I run into are always communication related. There is no such thing as too much communication IMO. I have had 20+ deals with members here and all were successful in the end. If I have a negative experience with someone I don't post any feedback and I won't deal with them again. I also ask around with some of the older members if I am unsure about dealing with someone.