Classifieds safety: Suggestions and Feedback

[Eddy Gordo]

Need some sort of middle man for cash , you decide to meet someone to sell your goods, they deposit cash into middle man, ,once deal is done they release cash to seller. Shows up front as a buyer that you are actually interested and have the cash to complete the deal. Protects both parties if something goes wrong. I reckon most people would be willing to pay for this service, not limited to here either as local computer and remote control forums seem to be having the same problem with classifieds.

 

Some courier companies work on pay on delivery. They will collect and pay for you and then you pay them when they deliver

[Sportsworld.co.za]

SAYS THE MAN WITH NO NAME "ON PROFILE" STEPHEN :ph34r:

 

Funny enough, I just double checked, where you put your name in your profile, underneath it says 'this information will not be displayed'. I've put it in under public profile but it appears that's all I can do. Until it CHANGES, haha.

[Stretch]

i like the idea of voluntarily making yourself a verified advertiser by submitting id/passport scan to admin...that way you can have a verified user icon next to your name...and then people know to trust you when selling/buying

[DIPSLICK]

i like the idea of voluntarily making yourself a verified advertiser by submitting id/passport scan to admin...that way you can have a verified user icon next to your name...and then people know to trust you when selling/buying

I SAY PASSPORTS , ID^s ARE LIKE LUCKY PACKETS, half the people stealing here can just buy one at the SPAR

[Ed-Zulu]

As a small internet ecommerce site I would have a few suggestions that I would like to see implemented which not everyone would maybe agree with, but I think would help.

 

From our point of view we get asked daily 'do you have a shop' to which we always have to reply 'no'. Our reasons for going ecommerce were numerous. We have had shops in malls before, Lakeside Mall, Benoni and Park Meadows in Edenvale. We got sick and tired of the yearly rent increases which never stopped, labour laws, shoplifting, theft by empoyees etc etc etc.

 

Being ecommerce has opened us up to fraud and we have lost some stock this year, but this has now been largely stopped due to the change in OTP's for credit card purchases etc.

 

We realise that we do lose a lot of business due to not having a physical shop but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. In order to facilitate some people who live locally we do meet clients in Blouberg so they can either save on postage or see the goods before they part with any cash.

 

We always do this in a public place and never at our premises, purely for our safety.

 

However, i think there are maybe a couple of improvements that could be made to the Hub:

 

The rating system for buyers and sellers could be far easier to manage (I believe this is going to be looked at)

 

Hubbers could voluntarily become verified users by supplying Admin with a copy of ID and proof of address (not older than 3 months), this is already done on Bid or Buy and buyers take you far more seriously.

 

Admin may be able to run an Escrow service where payment is made to them and only released to the seller once the buyer confirms they have received their goods, like Alibaba does. I'm sure Admin could charge a small percentage fee for people choosing this service as an option.

 

And lastly, why aren't real names in the members profiles mandatory? (Flame suit and extinguisher standing by )

I like your ideas!

[Ed-Zulu]

I SAY PASSPORTS , ID^s ARE LIKE LUCKY PACKETS, half the people stealing here can just buy one at the SPAR

Caps On Caps off, is it really that difficult?

[DIPSLICK]

Caps On Caps off, is it really that difficult?

HEY CHECK then theY on then they OFF

 

I FOUND THE BUTTON

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

HEY CHECK then theY on then they OFF

 

I FOUND THE BUTTON

Sure I just drove past you, managed to get a quick pic. This you?

[DIPSLICK]

wiff my bakkie my hat and all fhat is for ME KORRECT

[ChUkKy]

Sure I just drove past you, managed to get a quick pic. This you?

 

Thats not Dips but that does look like my dog

[SoftTail]

As a small internet ecommerce site I would have a few suggestions that I would like to see implemented which not everyone would maybe agree with, but I think would help.

 

From our point of view we get asked daily 'do you have a shop' to which we always have to reply 'no'. Our reasons for going ecommerce were numerous. We have had shops in malls before, Lakeside Mall, Benoni and Park Meadows in Edenvale. We got sick and tired of the yearly rent increases which never stopped, labour laws, shoplifting, theft by empoyees etc etc etc.

 

Being ecommerce has opened us up to fraud and we have lost some stock this year, but this has now been largely stopped due to the change in OTP's for credit card purchases etc.

 

We realise that we do lose a lot of business due to not having a physical shop but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. In order to facilitate some people who live locally we do meet clients in Blouberg so they can either save on postage or see the goods before they part with any cash.

 

We always do this in a public place and never at our premises, purely for our safety.

 

However, i think there are maybe a couple of improvements that could be made to the Hub:

 

The rating system for buyers and sellers could be far easier to manage (I believe this is going to be looked at)

 

Hubbers could voluntarily become verified users by supplying Admin with a copy of ID and proof of address (not older than 3 months), this is already done on Bid or Buy and buyers take you far more seriously.

 

Admin may be able to run an Escrow service where payment is made to them and only released to the seller once the buyer confirms they have received their goods, like Alibaba does. I'm sure Admin could charge a small percentage fee for people choosing this service as an option.

 

And lastly, why aren't real names in the members profiles mandatory? (Flame suit and extinguisher standing by )

 

Verified user is a great idea. Only verified users can buy or sell. Also, you should be able to record and store the ip address for every verified user. Maybe the verification process can include the mandatory submission of a contact phone number which is called to confirm by the admin as part of the verification process.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Just used the seller / buyer rating thing for the second time. Norvs is one of those no post wonders and I would vouch for him (met him in Durbs where I handed over my gripshifts)

[Andrew Steer]

If only there was a way to enforce the ratings system.

When goods are sold or bought the seller or buyer are very seldom rated.

Don't know how this would be enforced though.

I think this is a great idea, the ratings system should give peace of mind to a degree, but hardly anybody uses it, so it doesn't really fulfill its purpose... Why not set it up so that as the seller closes their advert, it automatically asks who the buyer was (if a hubber) and a rating can then be done. The buyer then can also rate the seller once he has been allocated to the sale?

 

Another thing to maybe look at is the "friends" system... At the moment, anybody can friend a hubber without them necessarily knowing - giving a false sense of belonging to a degree should it is abused. Could we not make this a more concrete relationship, so that friends are actually hubbers we know and will vouch for?

[mikeonthetown]

You will never get around the issues of online shopping. And the idea about hubbers who don't post enough posts is a load of nonsense, Im on the Hub most days cruising around seeing whats out there and a bit of escape. Ive bought and sold stuff. Im just not the type to write random things to posts or to add a comment for the sake of commenting, its a form of social media spam. I guess this would be my first bit of spam.

[Matt]

I think this is a great idea, the ratings system should give peace of mind to a degree, but hardly anybody uses it, so it doesn't really fulfill its purpose... Why not set it up so that as the seller closes their advert, it automatically asks who the buyer was (if a hubber) and a rating can then be done. The buyer then can also rate the seller once he has been allocated to the sale?

 

Another thing to maybe look at is the "friends" system... At the moment, anybody can friend a hubber without them necessarily knowing - giving a false sense of belonging to a degree should it is abused. Could we not make this a more concrete relationship, so that friends are actually hubbers we know and will vouch for?

 

Great points.

 

On the rating system we'll be implementing exactly this sort of thing. Buyer closes ad > specifies and rates buyer (where they have an account) > buyer gets an email to rate seller (and reminders if they don't)

 

It won't guarantee ratings, but certainly improve over the current usage and visibility.

 

Regarding the friends feature - you can actually set that they will only be added when you approve them: http://www.thehubsa....e&module=usercp

 

[LazyTrailRider]

One purchase sticks out in mind, was a bit of a drive went a long to his house, saw the item liked and he let me take it home without payment so I can make a EFT to save me from driving back, lots of trust and ended up being a really pleasant experience. I know its the exception.

 

Yep, I've had the same. We met, I mentioned a mutual friend (also a hubber), loaded up the goodie (it was a R3k fork, not something small) and did an EFT when I got back home.

 

Very much the exception, but still possible even with all this !@#$ flying around.