Where to post negative feedback for seller?

[David Johanson]

I can't seem to find a place to post negative feedback for a transaction on the B&S forum. There is a positive feedback thread but can't seem to find anyplace to report a deadbeat seller.
Thanks for any help.
David Johanson

[Jon]

There isn't one. 99% of the time negative feedback is a result of miscommunication between buyer and seller and leads to a witch hunt, which we will not tolerate.

[David Johanson]

I've got a situation where a member uses his brother's Paypal account. I sent $90 for a Canon 18-55 IS lens August 27 and have yet to receive the lens despite being told 6 times that it would ship. I haven't heard from the seller in weeks but his brother has communicated with me. He said that he has been trying to get the seller to ship the lens but to no avail.
I have an open dispute on Paypal which I have to elevate to a claim today or else it expires.
I don't think this is a case of miscommunication. I paid for the lens and haven't received it.The seller will not respond to my private messages or emails and is continuing to advertise items for sale on POTN.

[David Johanson]

I guess I should also say that I'm not at all sure the "brother" isn't the seller. He said he gave the $90 to the seller and therefore couldn't refund the money. Yet the seller is continuing to accept Paypal in his recent ad. Just sounds rotten. And as I said, I don't have my $90 and I don't have a lens.

[PicSniper]

I would suggest elevating your dispute with Paypal. The seller will not be able to provide shipping information because he hasn't shipped anything and you should get your money back. It's a pain, but that's what happens when scammers do their thing.

Every transaction is a risk and, now more than ever, it's become "buyer beware". I certainly hope that more buyers don't get scammed by this seller, though.

Best of luck to you on the Paypal dispute.

[Mark Anthony]

If he's still advertising items for sale on here then can't anyone name and shame to stop other members getting scammed then.. surely if not that's just giving the seller free reign to rip people off

[PicSniper]

If he's still advertising items for sale on here then can't anyone name and shame to stop other members getting scammed then.. surely if not that's just giving the seller free reign to rip people off

If there was a mechanism here on POTN for that, then yes, but management on POTN has made it clear that there is no mechanism for negative feedback, therefore, the scammer can continue to prey on unsuspecting buyers. In my opinion, it's not a good thing and it gives the sell section a bit of a black eye, but that's the rules of the site and there's nothing one can do about it.

On the other hand, if there were a negative feedback section, it would eventually turn into an uncontrollable section of endless back-and-forth complaining, which is what Jon was referring to in his post above. Nobody wants to deal with that and, quite frankly, I think they're right.

The bottom line is, they already provide us with a place to talk about our common interests and a place to list our items for the sake of buying and selling. If you choose to buy or sell, it's your individual decision to do so, which means that you're on your own. Caveat emptor.

[Pete]

Jon was right... If we give people a negative feedback mechanism, then it would be used before any miscommunication issues could be resolved. As already stated in the sticky sections, marketplace deals are entered into at the buyer's own risk. It's up to the buyer to assess the genuineness of the seller.

We will (and do) act against proven scammers when they are reported to us (by reporting a thread or PM to Moderators/Admin team).

[Mark Anthony]

Yeah i guess it would be impossible to operate fairly wouldn't it.. just not nice to think people on here can act that way repeatedly.. spoils it in the end for the people that bend over backwards to give great honest service.. i get your point though.

[David Johanson]

I have PM'd the Moderator of the Classifieds:Sell forum. Guess that is all I can do.
Dave

[asysin2leads]

It sucks that there are people who are out to cheat someone else. Welcome to life. There are those people everywhere. I have dealt w/ several people on POTN w/out a single issue. However, it happens. OP, good luck at getting this resolved in a timely fashion. This doesn't sound like a simple mis-communication, but still agree w/ POTN's policy w/ no negative feedback. It works. The mod team is good at taking care of things.

[Pete]

All of us are truly saddened in the rare cases when someone has been scammed on POTN's marketplace. Unfortunately, there is no way that we can completely scamproof the marketplace beyond simply removing it (and that's not really an option).

We are always open to ideas about how we can help prevent mis-use of the marketplace.

At the end of the day, however, any deal you may enter into (regardless of where it is) is open to abuse. The onus is always on the buyer to protect themselves.

[MDJAK]

While this is all well and good, there's a member here who not one but two members were ripped off by. He has still not made good and it's been months. It's been reported and this person has still not been banned.

mark

[mikeassk]

There isn't one. 99% of the time negative feedback is a result of miscommunication between buyer and seller and leads to a witch hunt, which we will not tolerate.

Of which in my mind is the FAULT of someone whether both or not.

Good sellers are excellent communicators, straight foreword, smart and fair.

Bad sellers are not.

While it is true that you cannot make everyone happy, lack of proper communication is a poor excuse to abandon a negative feedback system.

It lets people know: here is someone who is not good at dealing with people, good luck.

Discretion can be taken easily when someone has 1,000000000000 positive and 1 negative feedback just as when someone is 50/50 ...you really have some info.

Your scenario (which does exist frequently) where a seller sells and item and the buyer has some issue with it and their is no mutual resolution will result in negative feedback.

The issue there is uncommon when a seller is as forthright as possible and willing to take steps to resolve issues. Sellers SHOULD be burdened with this responsibility to ensure a healthy marketplace.

[Jon]

Of which in my mind is the FAULT of someone whether both or not.

Good sellers are excellent communicators, straight foreword, smart and fair.

Bad sellers are not.

While it is true that you cannot make everyone happy, lack of proper communication is a poor excuse to abandon a negative feedback system.

It lets people know: here is someone who is not good at dealing with people, good luck.

Discretion can be taken easily when someone has 1,000000000000 positive and 1 negative feedback just as when someone is 50/50 ...you really have some info.

Your scenario (which does exist frequently) where a seller sells and item and the buyer has some issue with it and their is no mutual resolution will result in negative feedback.

The issue there is uncommon when a seller is as forthright as possible and willing to take steps to resolve issues. Sellers SHOULD be burdened with this responsibility to ensure a healthy marketplace.I sure hope you don't believe that miscommunication can only be the seller's fault. Yet you seem to believe, based on what you just posted, that only the seller should be vulnerable to negative feedback. Or maybe clear communication isn't as easy as you'd like to believe. We have ample threads here that demonstrate quite clearly that even the best of us can misunderstand something that's quite explicitly made clear in print. For instance (sorry, LightRules) this one (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=430473) (the first 3 pages are plenty to demonstrate the point). We also have threads which show that someone received third-party advice that led them to unreasonable expectations, and cases where the buyer went off half-cocked when they hadn't received proof of shipping within 2 hr. of the sale concluding.

[Pekka]

POTN will in the future have a marketplace that has full transparency what is going on with sales and how members have performed the process, but that will still take some time until we get it tested and online.

Meanwhile, please report bad apples with documents that prove your point and we will ban the user and notify others involved (those with PM mailshot and thread posters). Please note that we still do not handle any disputes or act as intermediator with quarrels, what happens between you and seller/buyer is not our business. Take all precautions & read the Stickies. In case of proven fraud we will give relevant post/ip/pm/db info to officials if requested by officials (and we have).

[asysin2leads]

POTN will in the future have a marketplace that has full transparency what is going on with sales and how members have performed the process, but that will still take some time until we get it tested and online.

Meanwhile, please report bad apples with documents that prove your point and we will ban the user and notify others involved (those with PM mailshot and thread posters). Please note that we still do not handle any disputes or act as intermediator with quarrels, what happens between you and seller/buyer is not our business. Take all precautions & read the Stickies. In case of proven fraud we will give relevant post/ip/pm/db info to officials if requested by officials (and we have).

Pekka,
Thanks for updating everyone.

[Hangerhead]

how about if the MODS post a list of users and their account details in case they log again as a different user. the MODS would post/update the list at the conclusion of a bad seller/buyer investigation?

[Pete]

how about if the MODS post a list of users and their account details in case they log again as a different user. the MODS would post/update the list at the conclusion of a bad seller/buyer investigation?

We have tools at our disposal that we can use to identify returning banned users and they promptly get re-banned. We're pretty good at doing this.

[LightRules]

I sure hope you don't believe that miscommunication can only be the seller's fault. Yet you seem to believe, based on what you just posted, that only the seller should be vulnerable to negative feedback. Or maybe clear communication isn't as easy as you'd like to believe. We have ample threads here that demonstrate quite clearly that even the best of us can misunderstand something that's quite explicitly made clear in print. For instance (sorry, LightRules) this one (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=430473) (the first 3 pages are plenty to demonstrate the point). We also have threads which show that someone received third-party advice that led them to unreasonable expectations, and cases where the buyer went off half-cocked when they hadn't received proof of shipping within 2 hr. of the sale concluding.

ARGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:

[MDJAK]

LightRules could never make a mistake. How silly to even thing so. :lol:

me