How to protect our flea market sales guidelines, Ideas anyone?

CaligulaPolk

Any ideas to make safer Polkies' flea market, people trading, need to ask questions, to prevent fraud, theft, or misunderstanding. I suggest sticky Trading guideline thread set up by this thread in flea market section.

Share your suggestion, lets keep this civil thread for better polk audio forum.

1. verify phone number, address.

2. Send Money Order via certified mail. (party has to agree pay half 50% 50% for each certified mail to be fair!!) you cant go wrong with certified mail, statement of check cashed.

3. Give/request tracking # mail sent out

4. if you have traded with members here before, ask if address / phone # still current, open communicate.



5. you all fill in rest of ideas.



(I havent done anything warrant to stoning me!)

Face

Common sense.

CaligulaPolk

some dont have it

Conradicles

I love it the way it is. Like Face said, use Common Sense.

steveinaz

It's impossible to cover all risks, as people sometimes do things outside of what we would consider their normal character.

Selling/buying feedback are already in plce--everything else can be worked out between the buyer and seller. Just my 2 cents.

CaligulaPolk

send out fingerprints/ Driver license on piece of papers??? :rolleyes:

Fongolio

CaligulaPolk wrote: »

send out fingerprints/ Driver license on piece of papers??? :rolleyes:

I hope you are kidding.

Ricardo

This is getting ridiculous. Our flea market has proven to be a safe place to buy/sell, but nothing will substitute common sense. Buyers still buy at their own risk, period. Do your homework, and avoid extreme situations (divorce, etc). Still, you might get into a bad deal. Surprise, we are talking about human beings here.
When it happens, the bad buyer/seller will get flamed and people with common sense will not get into transactions with them. If it was for me to decide, they should be banned.

heiney9

Deja Vu

metal83

I've had a great experience with Club Polks Flea Market so far. I Don't think anything needs to be done to it. Except maybe giving us the option to show our threads as "Sold", instead of having to wait for a Mod to do it (not a big deal though).

Like others said, just use common sense when buying or selling.
The same goes for anything, Ebay, Craigslist, etc.

We don't need our hands held....haha

strider

Despite what the couple of occurences recently may suggest, the FM here has been a pretty safe place to do business. I think the group does a pretty good job of self-policing.

The only change I'd like to see is something that they do on the Steve Hoffman forum. People with under a certain number of posts (I think 50) can't even see the classified section there. I didn't know they had one until someone mentioned it in a thread. Doesn't show up on Google searches, either.

metal83

CaligulaPolk,

I hate to be rude here, but I "hope" you take that quote from me out of your sig sometime soon, it's annoying the $hit out of me seeing that everytime you post!!! :rolleyes: lol

dkg999

face wrote: »

common sense.

+ 10000

Willow

what's wrong with the FM.............It has been and will continue to be the best and safest place to purchase A/V gear!

Pauly

Willow wrote: »

what's wrong with the FM.............It has been and will continue to be the best and safest place to purchase A/V gear!

Agreed. Not much more you can do like Face and Ricardo pointed out. Common Sense and do your homework/research. $hit happens.

Pauly

inspiredsports

In my opinion, the current format works exceptionally well.

Did you recently get burned or something we don't know about?

What, perhaps a tax? Good God, don't try to bring the politics of over-governance to the forum

TECHNOKID

CaligulaPolk wrote: »

Any ideas to make safer Polkies' flea market, people trading, need to ask questions, to prevent fraud, theft, or misunderstanding. I suggest sticky Trading guideline thread set up by this thread in flea market section.

Share your suggestion, lets keep this civil thread for better polk audio forum.

1. verify phone number, address.

2. Send Money Order via certified mail. (party has to agree pay half 50% 50% for each certified mail to be fair!!) you cant go wrong with certified mail, statement of check cashed.

3. Give/request tracking # mail sent out

4. if you have traded with members here before, ask if address / phone # still current, open communicate.



5. you all fill in rest of ideas.



(I havent done anything warrant to stoning me!)

CaligulaPolk, I honestly commend you for starting this thread... Finally some positive about the situation. It seems from most people that have been long enough around that the FM has always been fairly safe. However, there is always room for improvement.

* I think the banning is definitely some to consider.

* I also think a thread should be made such like "Flea Market Black List" and should potentially reflect the thrue name along with user name and particular (only area from) of the offender.

* New member of the forum (like me) should be checked and proved them selves(I think the 50 posts minimum is an idea but not enough)... I guess trust should be earned...

Anyway, I hope your thread goes a long way with positive improvements for the Club and that not too many negatives posters poison the end result of the thread.

Cheers

shack

I used to monitor the FM for the club for a couple of years. That function was taken over by Justin (Polk Audio) and we now have the feedback system. They (Polk) have set down rules, guidelines, etc...

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/announcement.php?f=34

The text in the pink box says it all. There is really nothing else needed IMO.

As I said in another thread...Our track record at the Club Polk FM is excellent...the trust level HERE is extremely high and the chance of loss very low...if you use common sense.

cfrizz

Caligula, the flea market is about as good & as safe as it gets. There used to be flame wars breaking out all over the place in there. But Justin put down some pretty clear rules & guidelines and things have settled down nicely.

All that is required is common sense, curtesy, communication, and luck.

When all that fails, then yes, call them out & let them face the wrath for having screwed up a deal that shouldn't have been made in the first place if you weren't committed to doing the right thing.

9 times out of 10 that wrath brings about the correct ending & the offender leaves never to be seen again. (as it should be).

So while it might be a bit unpleasant, it ensures that 99.9% of the deals done here go through smoothly.

This is something that affects the ENTIRE club, not just old timers but newbies as well, and all should have a say.

inspiredsports

CaligulaPolk wrote: »

. . . [common sense] some don't have it

??????????????

So the other 99.9% in the group pay a price for the "some don't have it" crowd?

I repeat, "Good God, don't try to bring the politics of over-governance to the forum."

danger boy

the only suggestion I would have.. and it would have to be totally on the honor system.. which may get some people in trouble who can't abide by simple rules. but anyway.

i suggest that the seller ship the item to the buyer before payment is made... once the buyer receives the item, then payment must be made within 24 hours via pay pal. no if's and or butts. that way no one gets screwed out of $$ or the item purchased.

it can work as long as both parties are solid, i mean really solid individuals.

tcrossma

danger boy wrote: »

the only suggestion I would have.. and it would have to be totally on the honor system.. which may get some people in trouble who can't abide by simple rules. but anyway.

i suggest that the seller ship the item to the buyer before payment is made... once the buyer receives the item, then payment must be made within 24 hours via pay pal. no if's and or butts. that way no one gets screwed out of $$ or the item purchased.

it can work as long as both parties are solid, i mean really solid individuals.

If both parties are solid individuals then there wouldn't be a need for this in the first place. One party has to trust the other party no matter how you slice it, and I for one would only *very* rarely (if ever) ship an item before payment. And I certainly would never sell to someone without a large amount of feedback, which would then cut out a large base of potential buyers.

The whole buy + pay + ship system works -- it's the way the entire world does things and I don't see a need for change.

As to making the FM safer, I too say it's fine as it is.

timlitton

I'd rather not see a blanket policy on how every transaction will be handled. If a seller wants to work out a special deal like cash sent after receipt, that should be up to him... I don't want to have to do that.

I've never met any of you, but I'd trust that a transaction with someone like Ben62670 (for example) would be smooth, simply from the things he says in posts and the things said about him. The same is true for many others.

On the other hand, there are some on here I'd be very hesitant to do business with because of their tenure or my assessment of their character.

We're all adults. Exercise some good judgment and due diligence.

metal83

danger boy wrote: »

the only suggestion I would have.. and it would have to be totally on the honor system.. which may get some people in trouble who can't abide by simple rules. but anyway.

i suggest that the seller ship the item to the buyer before payment is made... once the buyer receives the item, then payment must be made within 24 hours via pay pal. no if's and or butts. that way no one gets screwed out of $$ or the item purchased.

it can work as long as both parties are solid, i mean really solid individuals.

That's seems pointless, it just leaves the seller more liable to get screwed rather than the buyer, it wouldn't make a difference. What stores or websites do you know of that will ship you an item before you pay? I can't think of any.

No offense to anyone, but I personally wouldn't feel comfortable selling something to someone I don't personally know without payment first. I wouldn't take that chance, money is easier to recover depending on how you pay, an item, not so much.

Just my opinion of course. I'm sure that could work for you guys that have been here for years and know each other.

shack

danger boy wrote:

the only suggestion I would have.. and it would have to be totally on the honor system.. which may get some people in trouble who can't abide by simple rules. but anyway.

i suggest that the seller ship the item to the buyer before payment is made... once the buyer receives the item, then payment must be made within 24 hours via pay pal. no if's and or butts. that way no one gets screwed out of $$ or the item purchased.

it can work as long as both parties are solid, i mean really solid individuals.

I personally tell everyone I have bought from on this forum to feel free to make sure my check has cleared before shipping any item I've purchased. I always use a check or cashiers check. I DON'T AND WILL NOT USE PAYPAL!...especially on this forum.

reeltrouble1

I would turn your attention back to helping out folks, I am not about spilling beans and most likely should keep my yap entirely shut, but I cannot.

There are bigger happening's abrew.

Lets keep the forum strong through all the menusia, its about helping others, having fun and of course learning from RT1 that Tubes Rule. When Doro posts one of his Moron pantless threads read between the lines. If GG tells you he going to bite your leg off be thankful it is only a leg. If brett tells you to the STFU be thankful that is all he wants. The old guys really are here everyday to help, the mid-timers have a handle on the place and the new guys sort of keep things lively and growing.

Its a great board, definetely one of the best on the web for audio.

RT1

metal83

shack wrote: »

I personally tell everyone I have bought from on this forum to feel free to make sure my check has cleared before shipping any item I've purchased. I always use a check or cashiers check. I DON'T AND WILL NOT USE PAYPAL!...especially on this forum.

Do you mind if I ask why? Just curious.
I haven't been using PayPal very long but I've had no problems with it yet.

tonyb

Hmmm......if it ain't broke,don't fix it....'nuff said.

shack

metal83 wrote:

Do you mind if I ask why? Just curious.
I haven't been using PayPal very long but I've had no problems with it yet.

It is another useless middleman in the process that affords me no protection as buyer. I can pay for something with a check, cash or credit card. If the seller is not comfortable with that, they don't have to do business with me. I don't need or want paypal.

Jstas

Ricardo wrote: »

This is getting ridiculous. Our flea market has proven to be a safe place to buy/sell, but nothing will substitute common sense. Buyers still buy at their own risk, period. Do your homework, and avoid extreme situations (divorce, etc). Still, you might get into a bad deal. Surprise, we are talking about human beings here.
When it happens, the bad buyer/seller will get flamed and people with common sense will not get into transactions with them. If it was for me to decide, they should be banned.

DING!

And a DING! to Face too.



The problem isn't with the Flea Market. The problem is with the behavior of how people handle those who screw up a deal.

dorokusai

Between Russman and myself I'm pretty positive that we've sold the most items in the FM(360+). I've had zero problems. The rules may need to be tweaked but don't expect sweeping changes. The feedback system functions here and simple common sense sure goes a long way. Sometimes things happen that are beyond both or one parties control...hey, it happens, work it out and move on.

YMMV.