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Change needed at Audiogon

Dear members,

I don't know how others feel about stupid inquiries from non-members about items for sale but I will no longer even bother to answer them. I take great care to word the ads as accurately as possible and include enough photos to properly show the listed item. I also try to be realistic with pricing.

I certainly don't mind being asked to soften my price or to do something a little special for an interested party. But when I list the item as being sold only in the U.S., including original box and manual, and the price is firm with the buyer paying for shipping and then an UNKNOWN person with a Hotmail account asks if I will ship to Canada, lower my price and inquires if the equipment includes the original box and manual I get angry. Can't these people read??

As a verified member I would like to see the owners of this website make two changes. We sellers should ONLY receive emails from registered users that have a REAL email address. I don't mind a buyer's real identity being hidden from me during the initial correspondence but feel strongly that Audiogon should know who they are. I would also like to see Audiogon institute a verified "buyer" service for a reduced fee. I know, as a seller, if a buyer were verified I would take even the lame inquiries more seriously. A verified buyer fee could be quite low and upgradeable to full verified status for the monetary difference.

The benefits would help everyone have a little more confidence with each other. It would provide an influx of revenue to Audiogon. It would save all the sellers the grief of crank inquiries.

I want to close this rant with expressing how much I value my association with the fine folks that provide this service and the community involved. All of my sales and purchases through this site have left me feeling that I have made friends. It's just a few anonymous jerks that need to be filtered out.

Feel better now,
Patrick
lugnut
lugnut OP
1,190 posts
 
Sean,

You're right about not needing double monikers. I apologize for not thinking that one through. And no, I don't think anyone misunderstood your comments previously. I sure didn't.

Joman,

I may have to take you up on your offer. As I recall, I had countered with 2 Nubian goats and six square feet of your living room including the coved ceiling. Maybe we can firm this deal up now. How about doing business and we can eat one of the goats?

For the curious, Joman is a previous customer and lives in Idaho also.
thorman
1,262 posts
 
I agree with your frustration,having sold many Items of late.I think the easiest thing is to just not answer these people.I do think that we are all very fortunate to have Audiogon at such a small fee.I wouldn't want to change the format as to hurt the success that Audiogon enjoys. My 2 cents.
lugnut OP
1,190 posts
 
Glen,

I really don't have a problem with Hotmail, it's just that a non-member is totally invisible when using it. Nearly 100% of such inquiries are beyond lame in my limited experience.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I have a Question to all participating in this discussion members about Verification.

Is the verification process similar to paypal that you have to verify your bank account?

If Yes than I will stay Unverified due to the unsolved security issues on this site.
angela100
435 posts
 
Lugnut, first of all, this reply is in no way meant to address you personally or directly. You have brought up a point that has been discussed many times here in the past.
So my reply is to all of those discussions, not yours in particular.

The way I see it, if we have something for sale, we'd like lots of people to see the ad and that gives us more of an opportunity to sell it. These discussions have taken place by folks many times before, usually when they have just gotten one too many emails asking the same stupid questions. IMHO, that's part of the deal when we choose to sell our gear on line - I think we just have to deal with it.

I don't believe that this site is here to protect us, it is simply a vehicle for us. It is our own responsibility to know who we are dealing with and make our own choices.

The proposal to close off emails, bidding, communication to ONLY members feels WAY too snobby and too isolated for me and I for one, don't wish the site to go that route.
There are people everywhere that are either having a bad day or just don't read all the detail, but that's just the way it is. If we can't deal with it, then we probably should get out of selling gear on line.

just my two cents,
aj
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