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Late payments
SCOUT5
Member Posts: 16,181 ✭✭✭✭
I see a lot of talk about payment for items bought through auction. I am a simple buyer, I've never sold through auction. I am a buyer that has always paid promptly and have all A+ feedback from the sellers that leave feed back, not all do. With that in mind I find some of the things said that I just shake my head at.
As an A+ buyer I do not bid on auctions that display seller attitude and that includes payment information. A seller is not doing me a favor to sell me something it is a transaction, an exchange of money for goods, no one is doing anyone a favor. I often read auctions that want payment by USPS money order and have something like "payment must be received within five days of auction closed or item will be relisted negative feed back left". Uhhh okay, I pass. I've had the mail take longer than that when I mailed something that day. Usually I mail payment that day or the next but occasionally I am busy working 12 hours shifts and can't even get to the post office for a couple of days. I e-mail the seller and tell them that, I've never had a problem. But then, like I said, I do not bid on auctions that have attitude built in.
For the sellers who want to not abide by the auction service rules, the ones I agree to abide by as a buyer, they lose this A+ buyer's business. I'm fairly certain I am not the only one to practice this caution.
I bought a rifle from a seller in New England, I can't remember the exact state. I made contact with the seller to confirm the amount owed, mailed the money order and e-mailed the receiving FFL who e-mailed his FFL to the seller. I wrote the seller that those steps were taken and I would appreciate tracking information when it was available.
After a period of time of not receiving tracking information, maybe 7-9 days I can't remember exactly, I e-mailed the seller to inquire on the status of the sale. The seller wrote back he had received the FFL but had not received the payment. Hmm...... I replied with the day I mailed the payment and that the mail must be slow. He replied he would watch for it. A couple of day later I e-mailed again and he replied payment had not arrived. I called the sellers to discuss the situation. We agreed to wait until a given day and he would e-mail me if it was not received and I would then mail him a personal check and get a refund from the USPS when the 30 days to do so were up. He even went to his shop that day just to check the mail though he was closed that day. The money order didn't arrive and I mailed a check which we had agreed he could wait for it to clear before shipping the rifle.
Four days later the seller e-mailed me a picture of both envelopes, they had arrived the same day. He opened the one with the earliest postmark which contained the money order and mailed the other unopened envelope back to me. I was aware the seller could be scamming me and he was aware I could have been lying about sending payment. But we both had enough basic trust to give each other an honest try at a resolution. It was about 17 days before the money order arrived in the mail.
Had he wanted to relist and give me bad feed back I would have demanded he complete the sale as I had sent payment according to his auction criteria and it would have went down hill quick. Both of us being decent fellows that never happened. That's my point, thing happen and if a seller has attitude in his auction add you can bet if something does happen it will go down hill quick. Why would I, as an honest buyer, want to do business with someone like that? I don't, it would be a waste of my time. So I wonder how many buyers these sellers are missing out on. It's their loss.
As an A+ buyer I do not bid on auctions that display seller attitude and that includes payment information. A seller is not doing me a favor to sell me something it is a transaction, an exchange of money for goods, no one is doing anyone a favor. I often read auctions that want payment by USPS money order and have something like "payment must be received within five days of auction closed or item will be relisted negative feed back left". Uhhh okay, I pass. I've had the mail take longer than that when I mailed something that day. Usually I mail payment that day or the next but occasionally I am busy working 12 hours shifts and can't even get to the post office for a couple of days. I e-mail the seller and tell them that, I've never had a problem. But then, like I said, I do not bid on auctions that have attitude built in.
For the sellers who want to not abide by the auction service rules, the ones I agree to abide by as a buyer, they lose this A+ buyer's business. I'm fairly certain I am not the only one to practice this caution.
I bought a rifle from a seller in New England, I can't remember the exact state. I made contact with the seller to confirm the amount owed, mailed the money order and e-mailed the receiving FFL who e-mailed his FFL to the seller. I wrote the seller that those steps were taken and I would appreciate tracking information when it was available.
After a period of time of not receiving tracking information, maybe 7-9 days I can't remember exactly, I e-mailed the seller to inquire on the status of the sale. The seller wrote back he had received the FFL but had not received the payment. Hmm...... I replied with the day I mailed the payment and that the mail must be slow. He replied he would watch for it. A couple of day later I e-mailed again and he replied payment had not arrived. I called the sellers to discuss the situation. We agreed to wait until a given day and he would e-mail me if it was not received and I would then mail him a personal check and get a refund from the USPS when the 30 days to do so were up. He even went to his shop that day just to check the mail though he was closed that day. The money order didn't arrive and I mailed a check which we had agreed he could wait for it to clear before shipping the rifle.
Four days later the seller e-mailed me a picture of both envelopes, they had arrived the same day. He opened the one with the earliest postmark which contained the money order and mailed the other unopened envelope back to me. I was aware the seller could be scamming me and he was aware I could have been lying about sending payment. But we both had enough basic trust to give each other an honest try at a resolution. It was about 17 days before the money order arrived in the mail.
Had he wanted to relist and give me bad feed back I would have demanded he complete the sale as I had sent payment according to his auction criteria and it would have went down hill quick. Both of us being decent fellows that never happened. That's my point, thing happen and if a seller has attitude in his auction add you can bet if something does happen it will go down hill quick. Why would I, as an honest buyer, want to do business with someone like that? I don't, it would be a waste of my time. So I wonder how many buyers these sellers are missing out on. It's their loss.
Comments
This place is quickly becoming less of a community and more of a “dot com” everyday. I will just add- if the only form of payment is USPS money order I will pony up the $7 to priority mail and get tracking info.
One other thing. I am always a little leery of a seller who won't take a USPS Money Order. Mail Fraud is a serious crime. If you are a bad seller and a M/O is involved a postal inspector (police) can make your life a living hell.---------------------------------------Ray
What would YOU do? I'm ready to open a claim against him here and out him as a lazy lying scheming *. But I haven't yet.
I can say when I first joined problems were not that common and most people I did buy from were individuals. A couple of times they shipped the package before they received payment since I made contact to verify amount etc. I guess they weren't worried about getting paid. These were not firearms but stocks, choke tubes and things like that. Now most of the sellers seem to be in the business and that makes the environment different. Not that there's anything wrong with it just that's it different.
Right now it's a seller's market but most of the time it's a buyer's market. I see sellers complaining about xyz and how it should change to make it easier for them. Okay, go ahead, but how easier will it be if the buyers start leaving. Like I said as a buyer I try to avoid issues. I passed on an auction this morning because they wrote "payment expected within five days". Well I can't control the mail so I pass.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain