A small request for some help

penev10

I've been using Adverts (mainly for selling games) for 3 years and on the whole have found it to be a great platform for private sales.

The off-thread dealing would be my main gripe. In fairness, I think a lot of people aren't aware that they are "off-thread dealing" and that this is behaviour is forbidden. The rules need to be a bit more in people's faces. Maybe a pop-up when someone goes to ask a question/make an offer? Possibly with a tick box stating they agree to the following rules making it harder to skip without reading. Wouldn't have to be comprehensive just a quick note about keeping dealings on the thread etc.

I know the Seller's House Rules appear in a small link when you create an ad but again this is easily missed.

Adverts.ie: Richard

EnterNow wrote: »

It happens often enough, that a seller will renege on a deal in light of an offer higher than asking. In a scenario where a seller accepts an offer, & then another offer comes in, higher again, or higher than asking price even, & they do the deal with the second user/higher offer...I trust that'd be grounds for negative feedback? Or will the thread auto-lock once an offer is accepted, to stamp out any rule breakers?

This should be sorted when the new private messaging restriction come in. If you have an accepted offer from a seller, you can leave feedback if they pull out.

EnterNow wrote: »

Does Adverts not share some responsibility in ensuring that users are abiding by rules though? In relation to users who continually break rules etc, can we not expect some sanctions in those cases? To use Retrogamer's recent case:

We give out warnings to users which are not visible to the general public. We do have a 3 strikes and your out policy but this can be quicker if we feel they are complete messers. We are trying to reduce the amount of timewasters and it is at the forefront of our minds.

EnterNow wrote: »

Is the seller in this case just getting off Scot free with just some negative feedback? What about a strikeout rule, where if enough cases of screwing people over come in about a user, they get flagged for a review & possible ban? Is that even worthwhile, or can they just reregister a new account?

Negative feedback can be quite powerful and usually users have to build up a few positives to get users to trust them again after a negative. We have a vast amount of filters in our system, checking numbers, email addresses etc so we can catch scammers or rereged users when they try and engage on the site after been banned. We are not restricted on banning users as we have a massive volumne joining up daily. But of course our users play a huge role in helping prevent timewasters.

EnterNow wrote: »

I agree that if a user is hard-done by when another backs out of an agreed deal, then negative feedback is warranted. Perhaps only open up feedback issuing once an offer has been accepted?

That is the plan.

Myrddin

Sounds like some very positive changed ahead Richard, thanks for the info

Adverts.ie: Richard

Thanks for everything, I am going to close this thread now. Hopefully any of you that have not used Adverts recently will be back when the new changes come in.

Thanks again

Richard

Dav

Just to reiterate Richard's thanks folks, this sort of feedback is extremely useful for Adverts and it's good to see they're working on a lot of the issues raised already. I'll close the thread, but will bring it back up when some of these changes get rolled out on the site just to let you all know.