There seems to be a core of so called buyers on Delcampe who seem to 'buy' for fun. They 'buy' items and never respond to any form of contact. When one examines their feedback closely one notices they seem to hover around the 98% mark and have strings of negatives for non payment. They seem to pay for enough items to hang onto their Delcampe membership. I find these persons extremely annoying and tiresome because of their ill manners and the amount of time they consume with reminders etc.

Gripe over! Tomorrow it will be negative time for the latest batch who think Delcampe is for playing around and not paying!

I agree with you, except for that 98% mark. Most of the ones I've come across seem to be around the 96% mark.

I'm not holding my breath awaiting payment for some of my recent "sales". I'll expect they will turn out to be neg's/reclaim fees/relist.

"I agree with you, except for that 98% mark. Most of the ones I've come across seem to be around the 96% mark."

Maybe we have a better class of non payer in my categories!

There seems to be a core of so called buyers on Delcampe who seem to 'buy' for fun. They 'buy' items and never respond to any form of contact. When one examines their feedback closely one notices they seem to hover around the 98% mark and have strings of negatives for non payment. They seem to pay for enough items to hang onto their Delcampe membership. I find these persons extremely annoying and tiresome because of their ill manners and the amount of time they consume with reminders etc.

Gripe over! Tomorrow it will be negative time for the latest batch who think Delcampe is for playing around and not paying!

Hello,

We will close their account if the last 5 raters give negatives ... or if their average feedback goes too low.

Sebastien

Hello,

We will close their account if the last 5 raters give negatives ... or if their average feedback goes too low.

Sebastien

I do not think that is enough. Many of the members who are serial non-payers have good selling feedback but very poor buying feedback, So they will probably not be noticed under your "5-raters" system as the buying zeros will be absorbed by selling positives .

Also, many sellers seem to be reluctant to give non-payers zero feedback in case the non-payer retaliates the feedback.

I am told that if a seller cancels the sale through your "unpaid" system that the non-payer cannot give feedback at a later date......"impossible" was the word used. . However, this did actually occur on one of my cancelled sales only a few days ago........

So, can you review your policies....it really is extremely irritating (apart from the fact that each cancelled sale then has to be re-listed individually as your system does not seem to cope with multiple re-listings)

Best regards, Mike

Dear Mike,

" I do not think that is enough. Many of the members who are serial non-payers
" have good selling feedback but very poor buying feedback, So they will probably
" not be noticed under your "5-raters" system as the buying zeros will be
" absorbed by selling positives .

We could indeed make a difference between feedbacks received as buyer or seller. Idea noted for future thoughts.


" Also, many sellers seem to be reluctant to give non-payers zero feedback in
" case the non-payer retaliates the feedback.

Unfortunately, our system considers that members are using it correctly, otherwise we can not do anything.


" I am told that if a seller cancels the sale through your "unpaid" system that
" the non-payer cannot give feedback at a later date......"impossible" was the
" word used. . However, this did actually occur on one of my cancelled sales
" only a few days ago........

Who said that "impossible" ? Someone of my team ?

" So, can you review your policies....it really is extremely irritating (apart from
" the fact that each cancelled sale then has to be re-listed individually as your
" system does not seem to cope with multiple re-listings)

Indeed, you can not restart sold items items in one go (you could with closed unsold items).

Seb Delcampe

Good morning Sebastien,

As far as the feedback % for non payment is concerned: I can see a serious flaw there on 2 accounts.

Firstly, as Mike has pointed out, there are sellers who don't leave fb for non payment to avoid possible retaliation. In effect, there's nothing Delcampe can do about that one.

Secondly, many of the serial non payers receive as many neutral fb as they do negative fb. However, the neutrals are not taken into account. If they were, there score would drop considerably lower (and possibly/likely below the acceptable level).

Maybe, there should be a system in place that monitors how many unpaid items are reported vs how many successful transactions for each buyer, rather than purely relying on the feedback score.

Marianne

Hello Marieanne,

I think we also take the cancelled sales in account, but I should doublecheck this function.

Sebastien

It is time that Delcampe added a confidential seller assessment to the feedback package.This would not only allow buyers to add a general feedback comments as are in place now but also assess the seller confidentially in areas such as communications,mailing costs ect.This would allow buyers to convey accurate assessments to other buyers without the threat of return negative feedback.

I disagree with this because postal costs and delivery times are very subjective and outside the control of the seller.

For example - I have just returned from Namibia from where I shipped to myself some used aerogrammes and material in Registered Airmail envelopes. These were sent eight days ago yet I have beaten them back to the UK! Also postal costs were less in Windhoek, the capital, then they are in the UK. Postal costs vary considerably from country to country - if you come from a high cost country one is going to get crappy feedback due to costs - the same if you are from a place where the mail system is slow. These are outside the control of the seller!

The feedback system here is quite meaningless..............we'll just carry on giving everyone positive ratings and everyone will be quite content and happy.....case closed.

The feedback system is only meaningless if you do not use it properly. if you get bad service from someone you should state so. What is the point of giving glowing feedback to someone who gives awful service. Is it because you are afraid the feedback will be reciprocated? This would only happen in a few cases and would be obvious to anyone who reads feedback that the bad feedback was retaliatory. In a case like this I would complain most strongly to the administration as well.

Usually the 'bad' sellers have feedback that indicates this already unless they are fairly new to Delcampe.

It is time that Delcampe added a confidential seller assessment to the feedback package.This would not only allow buyers to add a general feedback comments as are in place now but also assess the seller confidentially in areas such as communications,mailing costs ect.This would allow buyers to convey accurate assessments to other buyers without the threat of return negative feedback.

I disagree with the idea of confidential feedback from buyers. This is the way that Eb** has gone where sellers cannot even leave any feedback other than a positive one. This thread is about non-paying buyers and not about problem sellers.
Perhaps sellers who are having problems with non-paying buyers can ask Delcampe to send an "official" request to complete the sale.

Dear Mike,

" I do not think that is enough. Many of the members who are serial non-payers
" have good selling feedback but very poor buying feedback, So they will probably
" not be noticed under your "5-raters" system as the buying zeros will be
" absorbed by selling positives .

We could indeed make a difference between feedbacks received as buyer or seller. Idea noted for future thoughts.


" Also, many sellers seem to be reluctant to give non-payers zero feedback in
" case the non-payer retaliates the feedback.

Unfortunately, our system considers that members are using it correctly, otherwise we can not do anything.


" I am told that if a seller cancels the sale through your "unpaid" system that
" the non-payer cannot give feedback at a later date......"impossible" was the
" word used. . However, this did actually occur on one of my cancelled sales
" only a few days ago........

Who said that "impossible" ? Someone of my team ?

" So, can you review your policies....it really is extremely irritating (apart from
" the fact that each cancelled sale then has to be re-listed individually as your
" system does not seem to cope with multiple re-listings)

Indeed, you can not restart sold items items in one go (you could with closed unsold items).

Seb Delcampe

Spot on! At least here as a seller you will get some sort of indication whether a transaction might go wrong, based on your buyer's feedback. Over there it's impossible to judge buyers. Their system is a joke and absolutely one sided.

Also, as already pointed out, delivery time is out of your control once you've handed over to post office/courier. P&P charges will also vary from one seller to the next, depending on how they package their items and many buyers still seem to forget that packing materials are not free and only look at the value of the stamp.

I've recently started to list a little on Ebay again after an absence of 4 years - taking advantage of their free listing weekends. Obviously I had no dsr's. All my items are packed in exactly the same manner and my charge is the same (exactly the same as here on Delcampe). Everyone was giving me 5 stars and than all of sudden I received a 1 or 2 star rating (with only 12 ratings that had quite a severe impact). I know who did it, yet there was no difference at all in charges and packaging material used.

Hi....100% agreement. Delcampe has several flaws in its system but at least they take notice and try and introduce new ideas over time. We heed to remember that D has grown rapidly over the recent past and it takes time to adjust to become truly international.

I am not sure that I could stomach the thought of returning to EB with their "buyer is king" attitudes and "like it or lump it" policies.......even though my 9000 or so feedback is still there after 15 months absence.

Mike

"However, I must say that I have experienced a much larger number of non payers on Delcampe compared to Ebay and maybe Delcampe should tighten the rules a bit more"

This is true but remember Ebay regulate almost everything down to the last cross of a 't' and dot of an 'i'. The reason I gave up using them except for listing items difficult to sell easily on Delcampe was because I found I was working for Ebay not myself. Also the number of non payers is less because Ebay insist you have to accept Paypal and have some of payment system set up to pay their fees. In the balance of things I much prefer the more loosely regulated Delcampe style - I can get on and run my business instead of jumping through hoops all the time to please the powers that be over there!

"However, I must say that I have experienced a much larger number of non payers on Delcampe compared to Ebay and maybe Delcampe should tighten the rules a bit more"

This is true but remember Ebay regulate almost everything down to the last cross of a 't' and dot of an 'i'. The reason I gave up using them except for listing items difficult to sell easily on Delcampe was because I found I was working for Ebay not myself. Also the number of non payers is less because Ebay insist you have to accept Paypal and have some of payment system set up to pay their fees. In the balance of things I much prefer the more loosely regulated Delcampe style - I can get on and run my business instead of jumping through hoops all the time to please the powers that be over there!

Yes, that is eeasonablexactly right.

I started at the other place UK in 2001 when they were not that old themselves All my sales were.auction type and after the run-in period till feedback grew (& in those days it was possible to give buyers negative feedback), EB was taking about 20% of my selling margin.....& that seemed quite reasonable.

Over the years, margins fell as more and rubbish was being offered by other sellers & the rake-off of EB from my selling margin increlf-congratulatory Based as high as 75-90%.....the month that it reached 125&, I through in the towel.

Incidentally, I now understand from an ex-EB employee that this was deliberate policy and when they acquired PP, matters just got worse & worse.

I was in business in UK for a long time & saw companies rise to the heights quiickly then fall to nothing even faster. Most of those companies had forgotten their roots and failed to remember that it was their customers who mattered not their own self-congratulatory bull***t. Maybe one day, EB will have 1bn buyers & no sellers!

OOps........ens of soapbox session.

Mike

Sorry....excuse the typos.....but you get the point I guess

I think I got the gist of what you were saying, but I'll have a glass of whatever you're on!

I joined eBay back in 1999 when they really were still nascent - in fact I had to sign up to ebay.com, the UK branch not then existing - and like you say, it was fun in much the same way as Delcampe is today

Sadly they went down the road of gross commercialism and with the acquisition of PayPal and their emphasis on being a professional sellers' marketplace a lot of the enjoyment has gone out of it, to the point where I just maintain a presence on free listing days and special occasions, but now most of my effort is concentrated on this site where people are prepared to put their names in the frame - no 'virtual assistant' here - and where it is still possible to buy and sell in a (generally) pleasant atmosphere - rather like a 'bring and buy' at your local stamp/card/coin collecting society

Long may it last, and thanks to Seb and all his staff - it isn't perfect, we all know that, but we put up with its little faults and foibles 'cos we enjoy it and like being part of it

Well said....that was really what I was trying to say but my typing ran away with itself.

I too have items that do not seem to sell that well here....mainly higher value BC Victoriana & small assortments. Most of these were, on reflection, leftovers from EB days so it may be that I will have to return as the local land-based market out here in the wilds is zero.

What I am on.....with alcohol out here at 10p per gallon, a pack of crisps at 35p & temperatures constantly over 30C it's sometimes difficult to focus well on the world (even though I do not drink.....)