As good as your word.

[rustynail]

A week or so ago I purchased a piece of Huon pine on the timber sales section of the forum. Well I thought I did. I contacted the seller, said I'd buy it and arranged to pick up two days hence. The following day I received an email advising the timber was no longer available. I phoned the seller for details and he said someone else had contacted him later, offered more than the asking price and had just left with the timber. His justification was that he didn't know if I would show up.
I have been in the timber game for over 40 years and have negotiated with some pretty earthy customers. None have ever stooped as low as this pair.

[Groggy]

This issue has been noted by the moderators and will be discussed with administrators.

One of the reasons I (personally) do not like sales being negotiated in PMs or over the phone is there is no record or trace of the timing of events, making resolution of such issues difficult.

I recommend to everyone that they conduct the transaction in full view of the forums and only use PMs for private information such as addresses, phone numbers etc.

This is also a good time to recommend that people limit the items in their sale posts to just one item, it is much easier to administer for all concerned.

[Groggy]

This has been a problem at times, along with some other issues with the Market Place. There has been considerable discussion amongst the mods and admins to determine the best way to protect members from others (and themselves).

Shortly there will be some changes to the Market Place Rules that will be significant - read them carefully. There will be an announcement message and a few links may appear in moderators signature blocks to get member's attention. Any comments should be directed to the admins and mods BY REPORTING THE RULES POST (use the )and providing comment.

[Wongo]

I think I know which one you are talking about. Oh well it is annoying but what can you do. Let it go.

[conwood]

Why can't we name this person? Seems like he or she have done this before. World is full of this cr#p. Trouble is we allow them to get away with such behaviours.

Well done mods and admins for their actions too.

cheers
conwood

[doug3030]

Why can't we name this person? Seems like he or she have done this before. World is full of this cr#p. Trouble is we allow them to get away with such behaviours.

Well done mods and admins for their actions too.

cheers
conwood

Conwood its not difficult to work it out for yourself. the item for sale was mentioned and the dates are given. that only leaves one post. therefore one unscrupulous seller and unscrupulous buyer. But this is only one instance. I too committed to buy an item and still have a copy of the post the seller made saying it was mine, before he edited it to sell it to someone who openly admitted he PM'ed the seller more than six hours after it was "sold" to me.

But seriously, what can the mods and admin do if the seller does not follow the rules? The mods make the rules and do their best to publicise them but I bet less than 50% of users of the marketplace have read them and even fewer who understand them.

About the worst thing a Moderator could do is to ban someone either from the forum as a whole or just from the marketplace. then the perpetrator will just sign up with another username and its business as usual. From that perspective I would rather the mods not ban them; then at least we know who we are dealing with when they step back in the marketplace again. I had thought about suggesting a "Wall of Shame" that the mods could post their names on for all to see but that would have the same effect, forcing them to rebadge themselves and continue under a new identity.

The mods are great and do what they can to help in these cases but if a seller digs in and refuses to play by the rules what can they do?

Just my 2c worth from someone else who has also been stung.

Doug