A suggestion BoB should consider

[Carel_Electronics 10]

Here is just two of many suggestions that I have been thinking about for quite some time:

 

I really think it is a good idea for BOB to show ALL questions on a listing, including the unanswered questions. For this very reason: Sellers will advertise items which is in a @#$%^&* condition or not working at all, but they will never say anything about it in their listing. The minute someone asks them "How many do you have in stock", "Can I ship with speed services" or "can I collect" they will reply immediately. But the minute you ask them something like: "Does the item work" or "What is the condition of the item", they just simply don't reply (but no one can see that question that has not been answered yet)... So - what does this tell you??? There are Buyers that will either bid on the item or buy it without knowing they are going to be ripped off. The only way for buyers to see each other's questions is if they ask a question themselves and the problem is that human beings trust each other too easilly (so sad that we can't). If BoB shows all the previous questions asked, then buyers can share their suspicions about a product and thus can "Negative Rating fights" be reduced. Obviously If I see an unanswered question like what I just mentioned, then I, as a buyer together with other buyers, will know that this seller has someting to hide... Actually, unanswered questions should be marked red to attract attention.

 

Also, something that is really nice is that BoB have added the new tab to listings that specify the shipping costs. I really think that bob can add more options to the "create listing" sections to force sellers to give more information. For example if you create a listing, then you must either place it on auction or sell it. There is an option to specify if the item is New or Secondhand. I feel BoB must add a section where seller MUST specify the condition of the item as either "fully working", or whatever and give a rating out of 100% on what the condition (appearance) of the item is as well as an extra option for cellphones, computers or other electronics on wether there are any accessories coming with the items which the seller can specify as N/A or choose an option for each accessory where the seller must select from a dropdown list wether each accessory is "Original" or "Chinese". The reason for this is that I have read numerous, no, thousands of negative ratings that buyers had given sellers and the reply the buyers get from the seller usually starts with: "Nowhere in the listing did I say..." in other words "You never asked" or in other words "I never said..." so it translates to "I really got you now - there is nothing you can do to me, I already got your money". I really think this would prevent sellers from ripping off not only their own customers, but remember - a customer for any given seller is also a customer of BoB.

[Just Beachin 10]

Hi Carel_E,

I salute you for giving this some thought, and please keep the suggestions coming, but....yes, you could feel that coming, Idea one would only be valuable to the discerning buyer, seems most of the buyers now, are using their smart phones and don't even bother to read the descriptions let alone the terms and conditions of the items they bid on.

 

Idea two - is just plane crazy, cause the seller who will not respond to the question, may not tell the truth in the description. As far as Chinese or other, take a look around your house, most everything is Chinese from tooth brush to cell phone, takkies to tennis balls!

 

All I want is a pause button for my listings so I can take a break when I need to!

[Carel_Electronics 10]

Hi Carel_E,

Idea two - is just plane crazy, cause the seller who will not respond to the question, may not tell the truth in the description. As far as Chinese or other, take a look around your house, most everything is Chinese from tooth brush to cell phone, takkies to tennis balls!

 

Yes, this is true, but I think what I am trying to say is that If I sell something to you like a Nokia cellphone and when you open the box it's not a Nokia - it's a copy, it looks like a Nokia, but it does not work like one at all. If I sell a car you and I clearly stipulate that is a Nissan GTR and when you receive it, is is a car that does look very similar to one but it isn't - wouldn't you go to court and make a case against me? Isn't that actually called fraud and as far as I know the NCA (National Consumers Act) will even make work of that. The fact is, that if you advertised something for Original and you give the buyer a Fake, then BoB should consider banning you.

If you didn't adverstise it as fake or original, wel, then you are probably free to sell it the dishonest way.

 

So obviously if the seller does not tell the truth in the description, then BoB has a very good reason to give him/her a warning. I do not think BoB want to change their image in the eyes of the public as Bid or Buy being like a hawkers nest.

[Just Beachin 10]

Exactingly my friend, and from what I have seen, bidorbuy does not suffer scamster. It is not a good business practice to chase away good clients with fraudsters, and these fraudsters show there true colours very quickly.

[Not1CentMore 10]

All I want is a pause button for my listings so I can take a break when I need to!

 

Yeppers, for those little 'important' things in life:

 

 

Ruthie

[Carel_Electronics 10]

Exactingly my friend, and from what I have seen, bidorbuy does not suffer scamster. It is not a good business practice to chase away good clients with fraudsters, and these fraudsters show there true colours very quickly.

 

This is true, obviously if one client had problems with a seller then he will most likely not buy from that seller again. Unfortunately for this to happen, that particular buyer will have to be scammed first aka test the waters first and see if he gets good or bad service.

The ratings system is also not flawless since most people don't even look at the ratings or comments. I know I do because for some reason I always find myself in a ripped off position thinking by myself that If this seller lived next door then I would be in jail tonight. Sellers always rate buyers negative if they rated the seller negative. But even this does pay off a little, even if it is a drop in the bowl. Its like cars, you can't prevent an 18-year old boy from drinking and driving if he desires to, but you can as a manufacturer add features to the car, like Safety and Security which includes features like impact zones, airbags, etc, etc to save lives in certain cases. Again, saying an airbag or even safety belt is useless is true because I bet in 80% of cases where the driver were doing over 180km/h these items would not have helped because they could not prevent the driver from reaching that speed, but the 20% that did help were effective enough to save 20% of lives.

 

Systems can also be implemented into any Marketplace, they can't prevent someone from doing something they should not, but it can add a drop to the bowl to make it more difficult to do so.

[Vinyl Lady Decals 10]

Here is just two of many suggestions that I have been thinking about for quite some time:

 

I really think it is a good idea for BOB to show ALL questions on a listing, including the unanswered questions. For this very reason: Sellers will advertise items which is in a @#$%^&* condition or not working at all, but they will never say anything about it in their listing. The minute someone asks them "How many do you have in stock", "Can I ship with speed services" or "can I collect" they will reply immediately. But the minute you ask them something like: "Does the item work" or "What is the condition of the item", they just simply don't reply (but no one can see that question that has not been answered yet)... So - what does this tell you??? There are Buyers that will either bid on the item or buy it without knowing they are going to be ripped off. The only way for buyers to see each other's questions is if they ask a question themselves and the problem is that human beings trust each other too easilly (so sad that we can't). If BoB shows all the previous questions asked, then buyers can share their suspicions about a product and thus can "Negative Rating fights" be reduced. Obviously If I see an unanswered question like what I just mentioned, then I, as a buyer together with other buyers, will know that this seller has someting to hide... Actually, unanswered questions should be marked red to attract attention.

 

This would only work if the seller does not delete the unanswered questions.

In the past, BoB did have this functionality and it had happened that "buyers" would "ask a question" with malicious intent to sabotage the seller, knowing full well that everyone can read the "question". this is the reason, this functionality was changed to what it is now.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Vinyl Lady Decals

[Miss Jewels 10]

What I would like to see is a function for "updated questions". Currently we only have for new questions, but often there are updated questions which sometimes get lost. The mails from BoB are sometimes slow to reach us, or we might be busy on other pc's which do not have the same email ad. It would be nice when you're actually working on the site and can see that there is an updated question which can get immediate attention.

[alloway65 10]

This would only work if the seller does not delete the unanswered questions.

In the past, BoB did have this functionality and it had happened that "buyers" would "ask a question" with malicious intent to sabotage the seller, knowing full well that everyone can read the "question". this is the reason, this functionality was changed to what it is now.

 

As the saying goes there are two sides to every coin...I personally would like to see all questions even if they are not answered.....and the Seller should not be able to delete questions.

 

To my mind most Buyers would only ask pertinent questions.

 

If a Seller does not have an answer to a certain question he/she should just say so....there is no crime in that.

 

If a Seller does not answer a question then the Seller could be hiding something!

 

 

[Just Beachin 10]

As the saying goes there are two sides to every coin...I personally would like to see all questions even if they are not answered.....and the Seller should not be able to delete questions.

 

To my mind most Buyers would only ask pertinent questions.

 

If a Seller does not have an answer to a certain question he/she should just say so....there is no crime in that.

 

If a Seller does not answer a question then the Seller could be hiding something!

 

 

 

Hi D,

Funny most of the questions I get are, "can I collect", "where is your store", "how much is postage to Muizenfontainsprit", " how do I buy this", "do you have this in stock", "I want 100 of these for my party Friday,green and bigger"

 

So many of the questions I get can be answered by reading the description of the item, and I always answer, no matter how ridiculous, but for the most part, leaving them up for general consumption serves no purpose, unless your trying to teach people to ask stupid questions:thinking:

 

Just my take on it, and Seasons Greetings to you and the Mrs! :smile:

[alloway65 10]

Hi D,

Funny most of the questions I get are, "can I collect", "where is your store", "how much is postage to Muizenfontainsprit", " how do I buy this", "do you have this in stock", "I want 100 of these for my party Friday,green and bigger"

 

So many of the questions I get can be answered by reading the description of the item, and I always answer, no matter how ridiculous, but for the most part, leaving them up for general consumption serves no purpose, unless your trying to teach people to ask stupid questions:thinking:

 

Just my take on it, and Seasons Greetings to you and the Mrs! :smile:

 

I mainly get logical/pertinent questions or the prospective buyer wants to negotiate a discount.....which is fine with me.

 

I have to admit sometimes I ask questions that would have been self-explanatory if I had read the sales page properly...but I am generally impulsive by nature!

[wayjen 10]

Ok while we are on that note how about BoB make it a rule that people add thumbnail and description pictures to their listings and not just a worded description?

 

How about BoB make it a rule that no negatives will be issued unless all other avenues are exhausted. I bet that in a few cases when negatives are issued, there was no communication from the Buyer. I know that when negative ratings are issued by a Seller, they had countless process to follow before issuing a negative.

 

How about we make it a rule that Buyer read descriptions and look at pictures before placing a bid because too many times they do not do this and it ends bad for both Buyer and Seller.

[Carel_Electronics 10]

Hi D,

Funny most of the questions I get are, "can I collect", "where is your store", "how much is postage to Muizenfontainsprit", " how do I buy this", "do you have this in stock", "I want 100 of these for my party Friday,green and bigger"

 

So many of the questions I get can be answered by reading the description of the item, and I always answer, no matter how ridiculous, but for the most part, leaving them up for general consumption serves no purpose, unless your trying to teach people to ask stupid questions:thinking:

 

Exactly my point in post #1 - in cases like this then all other buyers can see that that buyer did not read the listing and in such cases I can fully understand why a seller won't reply (which means it will not hold me back on bidding on the item or buying it). But if 7 people ask "What is the condition of the item", and the seller does not answer, wel, then the message is loud and clear: "Do not BidOrBuy the item". I do konw that some sellers anyways do not reply to questions, but it is also funny to see that when you ask an important question and someone asks something else after you've asked the buyer something that the buyer claims he had never seen the question you have asked, but he did reply to all questions that have been asked after yours. If other people did see those questions like you said some buyers asked you then it is important to ask yourself: Would this do any harm if they are shown under the listing? I bet the answer is no.

 

I really still think the idea is NOT plain crazy because if I ask a seller what the condition of the item is then he can either answer me or ignore me, but there is a lower possibility that the buyer can trick the seller. Usually the seller tricks the buyer into buying something he/she does not want. And, like I said, if I buy an item for original, then I do not want a generic. Generics should be advertised as generics and I can promise you they do not deliver nearly even hald the same performance or carry the same quality characteristics.

 

Something else that really p155e5 me off is when I buy a part such as housing for a mobile phone and I ask the buyer if it is generic and he replies with a "No, all items are Original" and the minute I receive the item - it's a generic. I as a buyer in this case feel that I have the full right to give the seller a negative rating. But you know what happens - the seller immediately rates me negative too just because I rated him negative and this usually leaves me with the crap of e-mailing BoB to sort it out - luckily they always do help me out but they won't easilly suspend the sellers account, even if this happens repeatedly.

 

I guess if each of us owned BoB, then we would have managed it differently. It usually turns out that not all peoples ideas lead the complete success - some are bad, some ok, some better, some excellent and some just simply the best. I must say eBay is quite a HUGE marketplace, but I guess it's because they have huge amounts of cliënts from all over the globe.

[alloway65 10]

When one is buying & selling collectables then giving/getting precise answers to questions is very important.

 

I think certain sellers that mainly sell Chinese goods sometimes fool themselves that they are really selling genuine goods...oh but I think they are....they are selling genuine Chinese goods!

 

When one is bidding/buying items for one Rand what can one really expect.......I have made quite a few one Rand purchases lately and in most cases I have been quite impressed with the quality!

[JohnBenn 10]

I would like a ratings email sent out by BoB - like the ones we receive as sellers,but to buyers.

I have not received any ratings as of late.:cry:

[alloway65 10]

Don't worry JB I RATE you as one of the best!!!!!:cool:

[admin 0]

like the ones we receive as sellers,but to buyers.

 

It works both ways JohnnyBennie.

[JohnBenn 10]

It works both ways JohnnyBennie.

 

Really?

Hopefully the buyers will get out of the holiday thaw and rate a bit.

Thank you Dries.