Hours old profiles - asking if it’s available or low ball Bikehub offers

[Sampaj]

Anyone else experiencing this?

yesterday, I got contacted on the Hub by 3 profiles; 

Asking if an item was available

and 2 were Bikehub offers at half my asking

 

Anyone else notice this new trend?

[Ispeed_V]

Had a similar scenario a while back.

Bike Hub offer at half asking price.

Excuse being CT based.

[Mike Dewing]

Low ball offers are never going to be something new.. 

hours old profile though.. avoid.. any bad feelings and I bail.. not worth it..

[Shebeen]

ask to speak on the phone. not whatsapp message, actual phone call.

if the person doesn't know his bottom bracket from his ball bearing then it's a scammer

[Mike Dewing]

3 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

ask to speak on the phone. not whatsapp message, actual phone call.

if the person doesn't know his bottom bracket from his ball bearing then it's a scammer

According to the “pig butchering” doc I watched the other night that’s not even full proof anymore, with things like deepfake AI altering video appearance in real time it’s just chaos out there.. 

[Barry]

Maybe the title of this thread should be "The Pot Calling the Kettle Black." JP, you are not exactly a poster child for bike hub, and you have made the occasional lowball offer yourself. While your ratings include many positives, they also show an above-average number of negatives. Is this hypocrisy? As a dealer, buying and selling, shouldn't your hub profile reflect this?

[Nick]

We know that dealing with lowball offers can be frustrating and feel like a waste of time. Unfortunately, it's a tricky issue to solve completely, as people will always try their luck. But for your own peace of mind, try not to take it personally, just ignore them and move on.

That said, we want Bike Hub Pay offers to be taken seriously and not used as an easy way for opportunistic buyers to throw out lowball bids. We're reviewing the data on accepted offers to set a reasonable limit on how low an offer can be through Pay. Hopefully, this will help cut down on the unrealistic ones and keep negotiations more meaningful.

A quick word on new users: They are genuine! Everyone has to start somewhere, and most are simply giving Bike Hub a go to buy or sell. Bike Hub Pay was designed to remove uncertainty, making it easier for new users to build trust and establish a good reputation while also giving others confidence in dealing with them.

[El Duderino]

11 minutes ago, Barry said:

Maybe the title of this thread should be "The Pot Calling the Kettle Black." JP, you are not exactly a poster child for bike hub, and you have made the occasional lowball offer yourself. While your ratings include many positives, they also show an above-average number of negatives. Is this hypocrisy? As a dealer, buying and selling, shouldn't your hub profile reflect this?

It's Friday!! Shots fired!

[David Marshall]

Low ball offers do not offend me.  In most cases they are a sign of a "legit hubber". You can accept, reject or negotiate further.  If you don't know the buyer or seller use Bikehub Pay. 

I don't have a problem with dealers using the Hub either.  Negative feedback usually comes when an item is underpriced to start with and then reappears at the true value under the dealers profile.  Would not happen if the original seller had done more research. 

 

[Jono]

How do you view someone’s profile on the classified side of the hub if you click on their profile on the forum side and vice versa?

[Barry]

1 minute ago, Jono said:

How do you view someone’s profile on the classified side of the hub if you click on their profile on the forum side and vice versa?

The forum and classifieds are run separately. Go to Bike Hub home page and use the search user option in the search bar or click on user name in the ad.

[NotSoBigBen]

24 minutes ago, David Marshall said:

Low ball offers do not offend me.  In most cases they are a sign of a "legit hubber". You can accept, reject or negotiate further.  If you don't know the buyer or seller use Bikehub Pay. 

I don't have a problem with dealers using the Hub either.  Negative feedback usually comes when an item is underpriced to start with and then reappears at the true value under the dealers profile.  Would not happen if the original seller had done more research. 

 

I must be honest that I have on (rare) occasions made what I would consider a low offer, not ridiculously so though, on something that I either didn't need now but might in the future or don't really need but it would just be nice to have ....

Generally only after it has been in the ads for a while and always with the caveat added that I know it's a low offer but as per above reasons ... In all cases they have been received courteously and mostly rejected, I'm cool with that, but here and there got something I hadn't bargained on

As you say the options are accept, reject, ignore or negotiate

[Ivan Bergman]

Isn't it just par for the course? The second hand market is built on the freedom to deal as the seller and buyer sees fit.

If you don't like the offer, no one is forcing you to take it. You can mos decide if you want to engage or not. I understand it adds to the admin of selling things, but it's not nearly as bad as other places. Try FB marketplace.

22 minutes ago, Nick said:

We know that dealing with lowball offers can be frustrating and feel like a waste of time. Unfortunately, it's a tricky issue to solve completely, as people will always try their luck. But for your own peace of mind, try not to take it personally, just ignore them and move on.

That said, we want Bike Hub Pay offers to be taken seriously and not used as an easy way for opportunistic buyers to throw out lowball bids. We're reviewing the data on accepted offers to set a reasonable limit on how low an offer can be through Pay. Hopefully, this will help cut down on the unrealistic ones and keep negotiations more meaningful.

A quick word on new users: They are genuine! Everyone has to start somewhere, and most are simply giving Bike Hub a go to buy or sell. Bike Hub Pay was designed to remove uncertainty, making it easier for new users to build trust and establish a good reputation while also giving others confidence in dealing with them.

I can appreciate the drive to innovate and make peoples dealings on the hub safer and less frustrating. Bike Hub Pay is a great tool for safety and boosts confidence when dealing with unkown buyers/sellers, but I don't think regulating offers would be the move.

If offers are regulated, asking prices should be too. If someone is selling their 30 year old bike that has never had a service and done more km's than your oom's 2003 Fortuner, they shouldn't be allowed to ask R35k for it.

But then, if sellers aren't free to price things according to what they feel is right and buyers aren't able to make offers based on what they think is right, why should any of them use this platform? - I know, kinda slippery slope fallacy, but over regulation has proved to be more destructive than constructive.

I am not opposed to having gaurd rails though. When entering an offer, a prompt that states "this offer is lower than the means" - or whatever and vice versa on the selling side would be nice additions. It won't stop people, but it could make them reconsider.

People should be free to choose.

In my experience, a large percentage of hubbers try to deal as fair as possible, pricing items in accordance with market apetite and making decent offers. Leaving it in the community's hands is the best way of regulating unfairness. No one will buy that old bike for that price, nor will Piet Pampoen buy an S-Works for R2.

[Nick]

51 minutes ago, Ivan Bergman said:

Isn't it just par for the course? The second hand market is built on the freedom to deal as the seller and buyer sees fit.

If you don't like the offer, no one is forcing you to take it. You can mos decide if you want to engage or not. I understand it adds to the admin of selling things, but it's not nearly as bad as other places. Try FB marketplace.

I can appreciate the drive to innovate and make peoples dealings on the hub safer and less frustrating. Bike Hub Pay is a great tool for safety and boosts confidence when dealing with unkown buyers/sellers, but I don't think regulating offers would be the move.

If offers are regulated, asking prices should be too. If someone is selling their 30 year old bike that has never had a service and done more km's than your oom's 2003 Fortuner, they shouldn't be allowed to ask R35k for it.

But then, if sellers aren't free to price things according to what they feel is right and buyers aren't able to make offers based on what they think is right, why should any of them use this platform? - I know, kinda slippery slope fallacy, but over regulation has proved to be more destructive than constructive.

I am not opposed to having gaurd rails though. When entering an offer, a prompt that states "this offer is lower than the means" - or whatever and vice versa on the selling side would be nice additions. It won't stop people, but it could make them reconsider.

People should be free to choose.

In my experience, a large percentage of hubbers try to deal as fair as possible, pricing items in accordance with market apetite and making decent offers. Leaving it in the community's hands is the best way of regulating unfairness. No one will buy that old bike for that price, nor will Piet Pampoen buy an S-Works for R2.

Good points. The goal is to encourage reasonable offers, which will improve transactions on Bike Hub while preserving the marketplace's open nature.

We fully understand that what one person considers a reasonable offer might not align with the seller's expectations, and there should be room for that adjustment. However, there are also many instances where people make a string of obvious lowball offers that carry little value. Any measures we take would aim to address these mischievous outliers rather than reshape the marketplace experience.

Like you, lowball offers don’t bother me. I simply glance at the message and move on. But many others take them personally, and the reactions can be surprisingly emotional and unpleasant. We'd like to help ease those frustrations a bit, without disrupting the balance of the marketplace ecosystem.

[droo]

I think the takeaway is that people can be unreasonable. 

In this context - some ask stupid money for rubbish, some think they can offer peanuts for something decent. Sometimes these people are on opposite sides of the same advert.

To turn this into a bleat about the classifieds platform, where thousands of good deals are made on a weekly basis, is a bit like putting your picnic blanket down next to the only dog turd in the park. Just move on.

Edited March 14 by droo

[dexterdent]

Classifieds here are awesome, I've bought and sold quite a few things on here and never had any issues. Low-balls don't bother me, but they clearly bother some people - so how about adding a field to your ad which may or may not be public, and says "Ignore offers under Rxx"? Allows the people bothered by low-balls to avoid the irritation, and allows the free market folks to continue as is.