I posted my LF Cochins on here and Craigslist, I was contacted , by someone from BYC, sent pics, ordered a box after they picked out 3 and said I will PP you $ on a certain date. This person has done business with a couple others on here and always was on the up & up so I trusted her. Waited, day for pp came and went, I emailed and PM'd, after a couple days got a PM saying family sick etc etc would be the next week. A couple days later she responded to my email with a slightly different "story" , now would be about 2 weeks before payment can be sent. Well in the meantime, I had someone from CL contact me, I told her I had someone interested and would let her know what was left, this happened in the beginning. After the second, "excuse" I contacted the CL person, they already bought birds. So now I am out $$ I really did not have on a box, and lost a sale on birds elsewhere because this "original" buyer has left me hanging. If you can get to a computer long enough to email and PM, why the heck can't you PP??????? I had someone else contact me about some laying hens, was supposed to meet them this weekend, they also put me off...... at least I have not lost money on that sale.
Can poor feedback be left against buyers here? I know there is a feedback system to report on sellers.
Well, I experienced this quite a bit, especially on CL. My solution is to sell to the first person that pays. At first I hated doing this because you want to be compassionate and work with people who have situations, but it just doesn't work most of the time. So, what I do is stay in contact with several people and set appointments. If the person can't pay buy "this" date, then the next person in line gets it, and so on. Most buyers will understand this as long as you explain this is the deal. Sorry about it all. Business is business, sometimes people lose out and sometimes people luck out. It's just a matter of who can jump on the deal faster and pay up. May sound callous, but you are trying to sell birds. You'll learn to love the sale "pending".
I had a similar experience on here with a duck buyer...was told to "consider them sold" and we will be there tomorrow to pick them up...the ducks are still here...
I wish I had a dollar for all the excuses, back outs, no shows we have ever gotten. That would add up to alot of feed money. lol Now we just go with standard "canned" answers to people. "Can you custom hatch for me" - Sure cash up front, full non refundable payment before the first egg is even collected. "Can you hold the birds for me" - Sure until the first person shows up with cash in hand - call before you come out to see if we still have them. "is a check ok" - make sure you have proper ID. It weeds out the deadbeats real quickly. Around here the Carolina Bargin trader is the most classic (Kim or anybody else can share I'm sure). They must save them forever, we get calls still for chicks and we turned off the 'bators 2 months ago. Steve in NC
This doesn't just happen on Craigslist and BYC. Hubby and I have a print shop and do some large projects for a nearby city that involves many local advertisers. We have had people say they want an ad, reserve the space and then flake out on more than one occasion. We NOW tell people up front it isn't considered sold until we have the payment. PERIOD. Quite a few people ended up with much smaller ad spaces (or none at all) because they dragged their feet on paying for a recent project. It may sound harsh, but over the years I have seen quite a few of my non-paying (or very slow paying) customers driving new cars, buying new houses, or hearing about how they are sending their kids to private school or about their latest plastic surgery. I guess they can afford these things by not paying their bills. NO MERCY now when it comes to getting paid.
I agree with Steve; you need to understand that's the nature of buying & selling. Yes, it's frustrating at times, so figure out ways in which you insulate yourself from things like this. Sorry, though! (PP is PayPal)
