Suggestion Junkyard: Buyers/Sellers Feedback?

[amish]

Hello,

I have a suggestion/discussion I wanted to bring up in regards to the junkyard.

Personally, I have sold a dozen or so things on the Junk Yard and from what I gather everything has gone through without any problem. However, each day I hear more and more of others being scammed and screwed around with from their dealings on the JY.

My question to the powers that be, is that since the JY is a RPF sanctioned area, why is there not a better control. Understandably, the RPF cannot control what people do, but why not keep a list of people that have messed up in their sales or buys on the Junk Yard? I understand that one person may have had a problem with a certain seller where 100's did not, but that does not mean that the one person does not have a valid complaint.

Similar to EBayÂ’s feedback system, do you not think it would be relevant to have a JY rating system? I am unsure of how this could be handled, but I thought it would be worth bringing up.

Thanks for listening.

Tom

 

[rocketeer25]

Thanks for the suggestion, Tom.

While the buying and selling of items is allowed in the JY, members do so at their own risk. Having said that, there are quite a few "best practices" that should be followed to make transactions successful.

Here are a few tidbits from around the board:

From the Code of Conduct

6. Selling/trading items on the RPF:
In order to sell or trade items on the RPF, all members must be members for over 90 days and have more than 20 posts total. All selling, advertising or interest-taking must be done in The Junkyard. Note: Only members who have been here for longer than 90 days and have more than 20 posts may post in the Junkyard. Members who choose to offer items on this board assume ALL responsibility for those items. Rights holders with a concern are welcome to register and contact a member offering an item in question directly.

Here is an item from the "JY Help" section"

http://www.rpf.invisionzone.com/index.php?act=SR&f=11

"Using the Junkyard"

Responsibility
Members who choose to offer items on this board agree that they do so at their own risk, assume all responsibility for any items in question, and agree to hold the board, its staff and its host harmless.

We recommend that members seek references before entering into any deal with a person you do not know. We also recommend reading "JEDIRICK'S TIPS - http://www.rpf.invisionzone.com/index.php?...&CODE=01&HID=26 "

If you are involved in a deal and are having problems, please understand that it is not the RPF Staff's responsibility to mediate or put pressure on either party to deliver. However, should a pattern of behavior emerge, a member who's business conduct is in question may be removed from the RPF at the staff's discretion.

Member Conduct in the Junkyard

Bumps
As with the rest of the new RPF, editing your post will no longer "bump" it to the top of the forum. Additional posts will "bump" threads, but please respect your fellow members and only do so if you have real information to add to a listing (such as a price change or new photos).

Price Bashing
Please respect our fellow members' right to ask whatever price they like for an item and conduct yourself accordingly.

Hijacks
Please respect our fellow members and do NOT hijack threads. Hijacking includes situations where someone offers a similar item within another member's sale thread, or jumps into another member's "WTB/WTTF" thread.

Auctions and Raffles
Members are welcome to alert their fellow RPF'ers to auctions in which they are the seller. Members are also permitted to hold Junkyard auctions, although all bidding must be posted publicly.

In the case of a Raffle, all information (rules/terms, who's purchased, assigned raffle numbers, deadline, etc) must also posted publicly.

Firearms
The sale of firearms is not permitted on the RPF. Any item that would require special handling (i.e., shipping to an FFL) should not be offered on the RPF. Links to private sales on other boards are not allowed. A link to the sale of a prop related firearm listed on http://www.gunbroker.com, however, would be acceptable.

COMMON TERMS:
We encourage the use of the following in the titles of your listings:

FS- for sale
FA - for auction
FT - for trade
WTB -want to buy
WTTF (or WTT) -want to trade for

Interest Threads - Interest threads are for items that are available for sale or trade, or could become available, depending on member interest. Because interest threads are essentially for sale/trade purposes, they should be posted in the Junkyard.

SOLD. After you've sold or traded your items, please edit the thread's subject to Sold (or Found in the case of a WTB).

We've also have started a thread in the Announcements forum for those members who have had their JY access removed due to bad business practices.

 

[amish]

Hello everyone,

Since it is obvious that many transactions take place in the Junk Yard and the RPF is the "sponsor" of the Junk Yard, would it be a good idea to create a sub-forum where people could post feedback for buyers and sellers who operate in the Junk Yard?

I know many would greatly appreciate the opportunity to read about if someone is trustworthy or not. On many occasions I have passed up great deals because I either did not know the person selling, or thought they may have had a bad reputation.

In short, it would be nice to have an area where the community could discuss there transactions. If someone has something nice to say, they should say it, if they have something bad to say, this would be the place.

Also, I would suggest that the sub-forum be enabled so that topics donÂ’t fall off into the great black void after a certain amount of time.

If this is not an acceptable idea, please consider some type of feedback system for the Junk Yard. I am sure if there was such a sub-forum or system in place, some people could have saved thousands of dollars in deals gone bad.

Thanks for listening.

Tom

 

[Jedirick]

I am certainly in favor of finding a way to encourage members with transaction problems to step forward much earlier. We've had to many situations where a seller starts out great and then goes sour to the tune of thousands of dollars stretching out over a one to two year period.

I sometimes think members are reluctant to come forward and admit they are being abused until a reality check spurred by anger and frustration, causes them to expose the wrongdoer. What everyone seems to find rather startling is once posted it is found out that they are far from alone. Some cases it seems the guy is selling the entire active membership the same line of BS one member at a time.

What ever develops it should be voluntary not mandatory. I also would like to see that it is a system requiring no administrative support or moderating other than seeing that feedback remains credible and reasonably civil.

 

[Jedirick]

I'm planning to have a phone conversation with one of our membership today about what members can do to better safeguard transactions. Also swaped a few Pm's with a couple others and some of the staff have made comments.

Out of suggestions made, I think the best way members may be able to encourage or contribute feedback is to include comments within the actual JY sale post. Posts would no longer be auto-deleted after X days, Someone wants to know about a guy who buys or sells, just do a JY post search on his board name.

The seller could invite comments and comment on buyer habits or the buyer could offer feedback about the transaction. Again I feel strongly that this must be voluntary and most importantly no member tries to use feedback as a tool for extortion. Seen enough of the "witholding feedback" crap on ebay thank you.

That way "we" don't have to set up a good guy/bad guy sub forum where one man's blemish is another man's gouge and some regard this as an open season on members who they may dislike regardless of performance.

 

[amish]

I think what you have above is a good idea, though I think it is a bad idea to do it in the JY. It will create a lot of bulk and can cause confusion by having old items bumped just for feedback given.

I still think it would be much easier to create a sub-forum to the JY for feedback or move the threads that have been sold to the feedback area.

Just a thought. Thanks for the support on the idea

 

[Jedirick]

No problem. Frankly the scammer affliction that plagues the hobby sucks. There are days when if a membership vote were taken, I'd vote to pull the plug on the whole forum just to stop providing a resource for bad dealers and recasters.

 

[mikajedi]

Hello,

I agree with amish,
I think that it is really important in this kind of forum
to have a place where we can read the feedback from a seller or a buyer from the JY.
I buy in the JY and sometimes I have to pass up because I don't trust a seller...

So it would be nice to realize this project of feedback.

May be it can be a special post , I mean something stuck in the JY

Thank You

 

[misterfusion]

Much like ebay, I'd like an opportunity to post POSITIVE feedback, not just negative.

In fact, I think that with the 95% of good transactiosn that take place around here, it's important to have a forum to give kudos to those members who go out of their way to make sure to give us great products and great service.

Sure, I think it's important to weed out the bad apples, but one or two shady deals and they're usually outted, ostracized, crucified, villified and banned.

Steve

 

[BOBATAFF]

i think this would also be a great idea about feedback

ive been doing props for a while over here in germany but im not well known on this board

and to get other peoples trust is quite a hard thing too do

with some good feedback this would make good sence

im all for it

jay

 

[Jediwannabe]

I agree wholeheartedly. Feedback would be a welcome addition to the RPF. Also, what if there are RPF memebers that are using PayPal loopholes to their advantage.

I'd like to see a list of members who's transactions were mysteriously never completed due to items getting "lost in the mail". It is all too easy for someone to say they never received the item and a list of troubled transactions could point to fraud if someones name keeps poping up.

-Jediwannabe

 

[pmrjulio]

I agree.
A feedback thread will be good.

 

[Hootini]

Feedback?

Greetings,
Perhaps some of you know me from the fx saber forum. Just wondering if there is a feedback rating topic for Junkyard transactions. Thanks

 

[Rylo]

Re: Feedback?

No but bandits don't last long on the RPF

Many of our propmakers have been here the better part of a decade.

Just look for the established guys or work to become one.

Good luck

 

[Hootini]

Re: Feedback?

Thanks Rylo,
Just joined and already had 2 positive transactions. Just wanted to give recognition and thanks.

 

[amish]

Re: Can a Feedback Sub-forum be created?

Just thought I would whip this one out again

 

[Yorpheus]

Let's start using Heatware to rate Junkyard sellers

I think anyone buying and/or selling items in The Junkyard needs to start using this ratings system called Heatware: http://www.heatware.com/support_faq.php#1

It's totally free. If everyone got into the habit or practice of using this system each one of us could develop an eBay feedback-type profile we could refer to when buying or selling from or as prop dealers.

Here's an example of a typical profile:
http://www.heatware.com/eval.php?id=8187

For a long time it's been in popular use by people selling computer hardware. But I see no reason why we couldn't use it for the buying and selling of props.

If you like the idea let's sticky something in The Junkyard telling people to start using it. :thumbsup

 

[Yorpheus]

Re: Let's start using Heatware to rate Junkyard sellers

Okay, I just noticed tonight the Feedback forum at RebelScum.com:
http://threads.rebelscum.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=UBB21&page=&view=&sb=5&o=

I see some of our members here in the list. I suggest this info be stickied in the Junkyard so EVERYONE knows about it.

 

[Lumpy]

Re: Let's start using Heatware to rate Junkyard sellers

I was just going to start a new post about this. Just had someone basically
say 'No' to selling to me because of a low post count.

Well I waited over 1 year to get 'LET' into the forums. I've purchased from
numerous well known names on the JunkYard but yet I have no way to
reference that to this seller.

He simply looks at my post count and considers me 'shady'. lol

I think a feedback seller/buyer system would be a great addition to the
JunkYard.

 

[scarf man]

Re: Let's start using Heatware to rate Junkyard sellers

So far the RPF has done pretty well with references from other forums and ebay feedback.
Do you have an ebay account to reference for the member you want to buy from?
We were all newbies once.