Re: Fraudulent TE member "Raaga" VANISHED !!
These days anyone can start threads in market even a guy with 13 posts
Mods...make some rules for newbies. Allow them to post in market section only after 100 posts or so.
If they want to post it before their 100 post counts, ask them to do so via mods. Mods should create a thread for them and monitor the same strictly.
That is really bad!!! For newbies there shouldn't be any advance payment for first five transactions unless he gives reference of any senior member, who takes responsibility of the deal. Listing item on eBay would be another way as there is paisapay protection, in case things go south.
Seems like this thread has suddenly turned into a 'newbie bashing' club. So let me understand this, by newbie, you mean new users who have zero, or less number of posts. That automatically means that you do not trust them as they are the 'lesser beings' who do not have post counts. So, does that mean that I should blindly trust a user who has 100+ posts on this forum as a 'senior member' and then deal with that person with complete trust? Just because the user's post count is high. What if a newbie is taken for a ride by a senior member irrespective of the senior member's post count? What would the opinion then be? Duh...bad luck, mate?
Regarding references from senior members, how many senior members know new users? What is the criteria of the reference? What if the new user still vanished? Then the senior member refunds the money to the buyer? That doesn't even make sense!
There had been a dealer on TE who used to get stuff from USA for users over here. When the going was good, users who had bought from the seller recommended the seller wholeheartedly to everyone else. One fine day, the seller vanished alongwith the users money. So, should I say that the users who recommended the dealer are responsible? Or are the people who trusted the dealer/other users irresponsible?
I've read threads which later becamse squabbles between senior members over stuff that one says has been DOA and the other says was working when shipped. Who will you trust in this case?
Ebay charges transaction fees. Afaik, listing a product on eBay will require the seller to pay some amount to eBay. Will the buyer pay that extra 5 or 6% to the seller for something that he wants to buy at a discount anyway? There are plenty of other rules to be followed to make a listing on eBay. All that to sell maybe a used CPU cooler for maybe 500 bucks? All this so that the a new user can sell something?
I completely sympathize with the OP since he has lost his money. I sincerely wish that he gets his money back. The forum member who met with Raaga can probably try and help the OP get his money back. But using this opportunity to say that newbies are untrustworthy is really not a very good thing to do.
Here's what I think can be done for new users who want to sell.
1. Inform the new user that he/she will get the money when the product is received by the buyer. As soon as the stuff is recieved by the buyer, the money is transferred to the new users account.
Risks:
a. Can the buyer be completely trusted?
b. Should the money be in an escrow account once the deal is struck?
c. Who takes responsibility to transfer the money to the new user after the buyer receives the goods?
d. What would be the legalities involved in case of an escrow account since there may be plenty of transactions happening through that account?
e. What if it is an emergency sale?
2. Limit the amount to which the new user can put up a sale item for. Start off with small amounts, gain iTrust and then deal full flegedly.
Risks:
a. What if he only wants to sell only one item that no one else wants to buy?
b. How do you gain iTrust if you do not buy or sell on the market frequently?
c. What should the maximum amount be for which a new user? What is the criteria?
There are constructive ways to think about a resolution so that such incidents do not occur in the future. I've tried offering a few which will require discussion. However, random rants are definitely not the resolution.
One thing to understand is that when you are dealing with a person or dealer online, there is always a risk involved, newbie or not. Making generic statements as above is discriminatory and goes against the spirit of the forum. I do agree that there must be rules in place for deals. But the whole newbie, senior member argument is wrong. What is at work here is the intent. And there is no way that you can check someone's intent through his or her post count.
I hope this post is taken in the right sense. In the end, we should remember that we all started out as newbies.
Peace.