4th. Wk. of Waiting for a Member to Ship a Camera I Paid For - Suggestions?

[lns]

First, sorry to hear this. Rainphot's post, too. That shouldn't happen.

However, if you make this public you need to identify the seller. To warn others. To give him or her a chance to respond or make things right. Most importantly, because if you don't name the problematic seller, every past and present APUG seller becomes a suspect. This makes some people scared to buy anything. It creates a sense of insecurity about the classifieds. It isn't fair to the vast majority of people who sell and buy here, honestly and happily.

-Laura

[vedmak]

one thing I would like to add, it seems to me that it would be a good idea for a seller to have his telephone available in some kind of fashion, that way communication issue should go away. I do not think feedback wars and he said/ she said approach is going to work out good.

[thebanana]

Many sellers will wait for a check to clear the bank before shipping an item. That's no excuse for not communicating with you though. Good Luck!

[amac212]

Many sellers will wait for a check to clear the bank before shipping an item.

True, but in this day and age a check clears in less than 7 days to clear at most.

I agree with the suggestion made earlier to enlist APUG's assistance in getting this resolved. The more time you wait the more difficult it could become.

Hopefully there is a legitimate reason why this person's unable to respond (although I fear the only legit reasons would be something along a tragic nature).

[SuzanneR]

There's not a lot we can do other than communicate on your behalf in the sale to see if we can find what's up. Send a private message with all the details to all the moderators and Sean.

[Rick A]

Any news of the overly long awaited for camera? How about posting the offenders real name and user name so we can avoid doing any business with him.

[holmburgers]

I don't think we need a feedback system per se, but we need a sticky at the top of the classifieds section with offenders. Inclusion to the list of offenders should not be taken lightly, but there should be some sort of published & acceptable norms that must be violated before flagging. It should be a moderator decision ultimately, but with feedback from members.

There should always be the option of being removed from the list, pending moderator decision and whether or not the person can justify the original offense, due to emergency or something like that.

Likeise, a list of successful transactions could be made. For instance, a member emailed me the other day w/o PMing, and since my email address is public on APUG, I was at first concerned. He's not a member I see post often (Jim McDonough), but a few google searches confirmed that he was probably a reliable member. Point being, this classifieds section is really rife with opportunities for theft, and we're only fortunate that most people here are trustworthy and honest.

[M.A.Longmore]

.
I have never had any problems with an APUG sale.
Maybe phone contact should be made if the sale exceeds a certain dollar value.
Most Rapscallions love the anonymity that the Internet offers.
Said Rapscallion might be less inclined to engage in misdeeds
if a phone call was made to exchange contact information.

Although, I once bid on a " photo lens " on eBay.
I was the lucky bidder, and got the lens for .99¢ w/ free shipping.
And promptly got ripped off, for some strange reason ...
.

[holmburgers]

Not a bad idea. The other night I had a phone-talk with a member who offered me a free lens. We had a nice chat, and this said member was in good spirits... (I think that's why he offered me a lens for free!)

[pentaxuser]

It is nearly impossible to imagine a legitimate reason why a seller if he has received the money hasn't either sent the goods or been at pains to advise the buyer why there is a delay. If said person is present on APUG it sort of rules out disasters like family bereavement, detention in police custody etc where communication is impossible or beyond the state of mind of the seller due to the circumstances he/she fins him/herself in.

On e-bay there would presumably already be a disputes procedure where e-bay whose business it is to facilitate selling and buying has a vested interest in protecting buyers.

APUG relies on a form of goodwill and has few real sanctions when deals go wrong unless someone can tell me different.

Once that goodwill goes then APUG classifieds will be classed as less safe than e-bay. Maybe the sheer number of subscribers now means that the risk factor is such that we can expect to see more problems in classifieds.

Not a good state of affairs

pentaxuser