Trademe Questions

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Awrrr
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#1836782 3-Aug-2017 19:12

RunningMan:

I know it seems a silly question to most people here, but for a non technically minded person, I don't see this as an unreasonable thing to ask.

Imagine that that's your mum or dad or aunt or whoever wanting to move the phone a bit further away from where it is, but they've heard you talking about line length and such things, and want to make sure it won't be a problem.

I don't know how the OP answered this, nor the exact question asked, but I'm not a fan of having a laugh at potential clients - it doesn't tend to convert them into actual clients.

I think you can be polite to the asker and still enjoy a laugh over it with your mates.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

RunningMan

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#1836788 3-Aug-2017 19:22

Rikkitic:

RunningMan:

I know it seems a silly question to most people here, but for a non technically minded person, I don't see this as an unreasonable thing to ask.

Imagine that that's your mum or dad or aunt or whoever wanting to move the phone a bit further away from where it is, but they've heard you talking about line length and such things, and want to make sure it won't be a problem.

I don't know how the OP answered this, nor the exact question asked, but I'm not a fan of having a laugh at potential clients - it doesn't tend to convert them into actual clients.

I think you can be polite to the asker and still enjoy a laugh over it with your mates.

Yep - absolutely agree, gotta have a laugh sometimes, but don't have a crack at them when they have a genuine query.

eracode

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#1836806 3-Aug-2017 19:29

Recently: "What is the reserve?".

Many times ("Pickup Only"): "Will you courier/mail to me at my cost?".

Occasionally people have ignored the Pickup Only and bid/won when they live an Island away. That really pisses me off.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Geektastic

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#1836860 3-Aug-2017 21:33

eracode:

Recently: "What is the reserve?".

Many times ("Pickup Only"): "Will you courier/mail to me at my cost?".

Occasionally people have ignored the Pickup Only and bid/won when they live an Island away. That really pisses me off.

Pathetic quibbles about shipping. You say $10. They say "can you send it cheaper for $6?"

Sure. I'll find a box, take time out of my day to pack it well, use petrol to drive 10km to drop the parcel off etc etc - all for $6.

Wiggum

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#1836865 3-Aug-2017 21:42

Geektastic:

Pathetic quibbles about shipping. You say $10. They say "can you send it cheaper for $6?"

Yea, I have had this, especially for smaller items. They ask if you can put it in an envelope and send it standard mail.

Rikkitic

Awrrr
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#1836883 3-Aug-2017 22:22

You can make sales or stand on your high horse and lose them. Customers are under no obligation to buy from you. I have occasionally asked for standard mail on small items, making it clear that it was at my risk. Some sellers accommodated me and it all worked out fine. Others did not and I took my business elsewhere. Rural delivery charges in this country are a rip-off. Either way the parcel comes in exactly the same manner, delivered by my rural postie and left in the box. The only difference is one costs (much) more than the other. I refuse to pay $7 on a $1 item.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

andrew027

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#1836894 3-Aug-2017 23:05

Geektastic:I'm heading to Asia in a week on business. MiL arrives 3 days later. I get back in 3 weeks. MiL leaves next day.

Result!

You can't tack, say, one day's holiday onto the end of your business trip?

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Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

andrew027

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#1836895 3-Aug-2017 23:07

Batman: If seller is rude I don't buy

I totally read that as "If seller is nude..." I really need new glasses.

mattwnz

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#1836898 3-Aug-2017 23:28

What really pees me off, is traders who write in your questions, that the price is too high without justification. They have no intention of buying and it is basically sabotaging the auction.

Geektastic

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#1836966 4-Aug-2017 08:54

andrew027:
Geektastic:I'm heading to Asia in a week on business. MiL arrives 3 days later. I get back in 3 weeks. MiL leaves next day.

Result!

You can't tack, say, one day's holiday onto the end of your business trip?

Sadly no. So I paid for her and wife to go to Auckland the day after I get back as a treat...!

gnfb

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#1837022 4-Aug-2017 10:08

Ok ? Well that created a lively debate.

To answer some of the points

I am actually surprised that we do not get more questions on TM than we do. I have been on since 2003 and have done a fair bit of volume.

So I will quite often add information to a listing based on questions so they can be helpful.

I estimate answering a question has a "cost" of about $5-10 to me , but you do it because its part of selling.

I have a therapeutic technique of typing in the answer I would like to give, taking a breath then deleting that and typing the user friendly one. :)

Traders who leave a question that "did you know the warehouse has them for $10 less" Should be taken at dawn and shot by firing squad no trial or prison .... :)

The amount of times when asked for the reserve price I would like to answer "What part of the word auction , do you not understand?"

all in all it is the main conduit to customers in NZ so thats what we have to use!

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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sleemanj

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#1839186 4-Aug-2017 14:02

The #1 most irritating question I get is... "Where is pickup", I don't allow pickups, as is of course already stated in the listing details. If they ask "can I pickup" that's not so irritating, but just demanding "where is pickup" like they are entitled to do so even though I don't allow it... of course a lot worse are the occasional ones who buy first, select the $0 combined shipping option and THEN demand a pickup address.

Various other common runners-up are;

"How much is...", the price is right there, what you mean is "give me a discount"

"Can you create a listing for this and that and ....", use the cart - in the past I might have and most of the time they never buy anyway, what they really mean is "Can you create an obscenely discounted listing for..."

"Do you have X of these available", when the quantity displayed says >X available

"Will this fit my [thing]", how should I know.

"Please provide [various extra information] about this $1 thing you are selling", yes of course for a $1 item I am going to open up a prepackaged thing, dig through looking for certain stuff for you, take measurements that nobody else has asked for, advise you on the design characteristics you need to employ, provide you with a schematic.....

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

mattwnz

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#1839208 4-Aug-2017 14:55

gnfb:

I estimate answering a question has a "cost" of about $5-10 to me , but you do it because its part of selling.

So you are intrade?

Since it is unskilled labour involved in answering questions, and to answer a question should take no more than a few minutes, it should only cost a few cents in time. But if you value your time by that much, perhaps you shouldn't be selling trademe? Unless you are intrade, you are likely making a loss on anything you sell, based on what you originally purchased it for. If people are buying and selling for profit on a regular basis then they should be intrade.

I just put a higher buy now price, and all auctions have the start price as reserve. If your start price is not the reserve, then aren't you paying a listing fee each time it is listed and relisted?

Hammerer

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#1839211 4-Aug-2017 14:59

I'm always evaluating a trader's feedback, the sort of questions they ask and how they sell products. Any time I don't want them to do the same to me then I blacklist them. That way I'm reducing the likelihood that I have to waste my time on them. The blacklist primarily functions to prevent them bidding on your auctions but the list serves as a useful reference I can check when buying.

Spending time blacklisting traders might seem a waste of time given that there are so many traders and their is little likelihood that they will actually be active on one of my auctions. In reality the probability of them interacting with me is much higher than a random selection because I see these bad traders involved in the same subset of auctions that I have bought and sold in.

mattwnz

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#1839212 4-Aug-2017 15:01

sleemanj:

The #1 most irritating question I get is... "Where is pickup", I don't allow pickups, as is of course already stated in the listing details. If they ask "can I pickup" that's not so irritating, but just demanding "where is pickup" like they are entitled to do so even though I don't allow it... of course a lot worse are the occasional ones who buy first, select the $0 combined shipping option and THEN demand a pickup address.

Various other common runners-up are;

"How much is...", the price is right there, what you mean is "give me a discount"

"Can you create a listing for this and that and ....", use the cart - in the past I might have and most of the time they never buy anyway, what they really mean is "Can you create an obscenely discounted listing for..."

"Do you have X of these available", when the quantity displayed says >X available

"Will this fit my [thing]", how should I know.

"Please provide [various extra information] about this $1 thing you are selling", yes of course for a $1 item I am going to open up a prepackaged thing, dig through looking for certain stuff for you, take measurements that nobody else has asked for, advise you on the design characteristics you need to employ, provide you with a schematic.....

I am often a little suspicious when people don't allow pickup. I usually always offer it as an option when selling, unless it is something small that is cheaper and less hassle to send. I just have a pickup area that people can pick it up from if I am not home.

One thing that annoys me is when selling a blu ray player with a remote, the number of people who ask to just buy the remote. They seem to think that they can get the remote for nothing, when I will then be left with a crippled bluray player that will be.

It also seems that trademes support these days is MIA. I have emailed then a couple of times recently, and never had a reply.

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