BlackMetal
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2005
- Messages
- 4,688
To the management of this site:
I have my doubts that any change will come from my complaints, but I have to at least try.
A major flaw in the Parts for Sale and Parts Wanted forum is a lack of concrete rules about where the negotiating should take place, i.e. in the thread, or through private messages (PMs).
In fact, there are hardly any rules at all for the sales forums except that you have to be a supporting vendor if you want to sell large quantities.
Too many times now I have really gotten my hopes up to purchase a part from someone and I have clearly been NEXT IN LINE in the discussion thread, only to have the seller contact me and say "sorry, someone PMed me and purchased it". Now, I know this is simply a message board and it's hard to keep things perfectly in order, but there should be some fairness to the buying and selling process.
Go look through the Sale forum and see how many people reply to threads with nothing more than "PM sent!". What the heck do you mean PM sent? The rest of the people interested in the items for sale would like to see which parts are claimed, which are sold, which are being negotiated, etc. Simply sending a PM leaves everyone else in the dark about what is going on, and makes it an uneven playing field when multiple people are after one part.
In my opinion, all initial negotiation and declaration of interest in the item should take place IN THE THREAD. Once the seller acknowledges that a certain person is next in line to purchase the item, THEN you can move to private message discussion about the transaction. The seller should be obligated to honor the order in which people replied to the thread and give each person a chance to respond.
It just seems childish that people try to "snake" their way into a deal by PMing a seller instead of posting in the thread, and I don't think they do it by accident, they know that they are trying to take advantage.
This all applies to the Parts Wanted section as well. Someone will respond to a thread saying "I have the part that you want" and then the original poster comes back and says "sorry, a second offer came along", even though you never see a 2nd offer posted in the thread.
I'm not asking to change the world here. The summary of what I request, and what I think is best for everyone (not just myself) is that you must post in a thread to declare your interest in an item, you must mention which item you are after (in the case of multiple things for sale in one thread), and if the seller receives any PMs about the item, they should tell the interested party to go post in the thread like everyone else and wait in line like a big kid. PMs can be used for finalizing the offer where private information (address, payment, etc) needs to be exchanged.
Just my opinion, in the interest of fairness...
I have my doubts that any change will come from my complaints, but I have to at least try.
A major flaw in the Parts for Sale and Parts Wanted forum is a lack of concrete rules about where the negotiating should take place, i.e. in the thread, or through private messages (PMs).
In fact, there are hardly any rules at all for the sales forums except that you have to be a supporting vendor if you want to sell large quantities.
Too many times now I have really gotten my hopes up to purchase a part from someone and I have clearly been NEXT IN LINE in the discussion thread, only to have the seller contact me and say "sorry, someone PMed me and purchased it". Now, I know this is simply a message board and it's hard to keep things perfectly in order, but there should be some fairness to the buying and selling process.
Go look through the Sale forum and see how many people reply to threads with nothing more than "PM sent!". What the heck do you mean PM sent? The rest of the people interested in the items for sale would like to see which parts are claimed, which are sold, which are being negotiated, etc. Simply sending a PM leaves everyone else in the dark about what is going on, and makes it an uneven playing field when multiple people are after one part.
In my opinion, all initial negotiation and declaration of interest in the item should take place IN THE THREAD. Once the seller acknowledges that a certain person is next in line to purchase the item, THEN you can move to private message discussion about the transaction. The seller should be obligated to honor the order in which people replied to the thread and give each person a chance to respond.
It just seems childish that people try to "snake" their way into a deal by PMing a seller instead of posting in the thread, and I don't think they do it by accident, they know that they are trying to take advantage.
This all applies to the Parts Wanted section as well. Someone will respond to a thread saying "I have the part that you want" and then the original poster comes back and says "sorry, a second offer came along", even though you never see a 2nd offer posted in the thread.
I'm not asking to change the world here. The summary of what I request, and what I think is best for everyone (not just myself) is that you must post in a thread to declare your interest in an item, you must mention which item you are after (in the case of multiple things for sale in one thread), and if the seller receives any PMs about the item, they should tell the interested party to go post in the thread like everyone else and wait in line like a big kid. PMs can be used for finalizing the offer where private information (address, payment, etc) needs to be exchanged.
Just my opinion, in the interest of fairness...
