[Pepsione1]

The PM has never failed me (yet) and i think its a very good tool. However, I still think that the message limit should be increased to 250+.

 

[bangraman]

It's FANTASTIC. It's enabled me to speedily conclude many a good deal.

 

[nArKeD]

Many large forums limit the size of the inbox to 10 messages!

Quote:

Originally posted by Pepsione1 The PM has never failed me (yet) and i think its a very good tool. However, I still think that the message limit should be increased to 250+.

 

[Pepsione1]

I am sure with all the members we have now, we can put together some money for a spare drive for more space. Or is this a bad idea?

 

[rc0]

Quote:

Originally posted by Scrypt ... That being said, rc0, was it really necessary to leave William negative feedback and call him a liar? You don't really know that he was a liar because you don't live in his PM box. ... IMO, your comments made you look problematic as a buyer, not William as a seller. After reading that exchange, I'd think twice before selling to you. I'm not trying to disrespect you, rc0, I'm just telling you the truth.

Scrypt, you need to go back and read my feedback message again. I did not call Williamgoody a liar. I said he might have lied to me and sold the Ipod to another member based on what I read in his feedback thread. I posted the negative feedback based on the information I had. And I believe feedback may be edited (or with a followup posting) if more information is revealed later to change how buyer/seller feels about the transaction.

The fact is that I sent 3 PMs to the seller asking for status of the transaction in 2 weeks, I checked Message Tracking to confirm that my PMs were read, and I still did not receive any responses from the seller. Thus I posted this thread asking for the reliability of the PM system from more experienced users.

Your comments do not help me. If you think I'm a problematic buyer, then please tell me what I can do to improve and be a better buyer.

Thanks.

 

[williamgoody]

I only have one thing to say about this matter. If you had my phone number and I was unresponsive to your PM's, why didn't you just call me? Or at least try to Email me. You had my phone number apparently, and my email address is in my profile.

It's been my experience that when I'm buying something from someone I don't really know, I normally ask for more than one way to communicate with them if they are not forthcoming with the info. This way if one way fails, there are other options.

I'm sorry if you weren't able to get in touch with me via Email. And I'm sorry if this caused you to miss out on other deals. But as far as this solely being my fault, I don't think that's very fair.

 

[scrypt]

Quote:

Originally posted by rc0 Your comments do not help me. If you think I'm a problematic buyer, then please tell me what I can do to improve and be a better buyer.

Despite the comments of a certain Head-fi spokesmodel who might increase his own epistolary restraint before applying the word *duh* to others (have I ever called *you* stupid (inference of the word *duh*), Dan?), I've noticed that the posting of negative feedback regarding a lost deal is fairly rare on Head-fi, Audiogon and Ebay. In my experience, it is almost always the work of a newb.

I can only tell you that tact and discretion make a difference to me as a buyer/seller, and that honoring all reasonable attempts to work out the situation makes a difference, too. Look at William's feedback generally, and look at your situation. Do you honestly think he seems the kind of guy who would blow you off for sport? I tend to think he isn't.

I've been dealt worse hands than you and never written negative feedback. If I truly felt that the buyer was going to gyp someone or had gypped me intentionally, then I'd post a comment in the service of helping someone else. What I wouldn't do is engender ill will just because I was disappointed -- even if I felt the buyer could have handled things better.

I like to enter into a transaction feeling that, if either party screws up, good faith between the two will resolve the issue. If I see evidence that a buyer might bad-mouth me just because s/he didn't get her/his way, I'm not going to sell to that person. Why go through with a transaction unless it's beneficial to both parties, not only monetarily but also in terms of faith?

Here's what I'm saying. When you wrote, "If you think I'm a problematic buyer, then please tell me what I can do to improve and be a better buyer," I had a choice as to how to interpret the context. I could have been cynical and presumed that, based on what you wrote previously, you were effectively telling me that I and my comments were worthless. Or I could have given you the benefit of the doubt and believed in your sincerity. Based on the principle of good will, I chose to do the latter. That's why I've taken your question seriously and tried to answer you thoughtfully.

I understand the disappointment of not getting something you feel you won fairly. But I also think it's more important to trade/sell equipment as potential friends than to approach each deal as a battle to be won or lost. I've had a few teapot tempest battles with people here lately, but never about anyone's rep as a buyer/seller. And I always walk away from such battles with regrets -- thinking there must have been a better way to resolve things than with animosity.

All the best to you, rc0.

 

[kelly]

Why can't you people use email?

 

[vwap]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly Why can't you people use email?

Precisely why I've turned PM off.

 

[DanG]

Quote:

Originally posted by scrypt Despite the comments of a certain Head-fi spokesmodel who might increase his own epistolary restraint before applying the word *duh* to others (have I ever called *you* stupid (inference of the word *duh*), Dan?), I've noticed that the posting of negative feedback regarding a lost deal is fairly rare on Head-fi, Audiogon and Ebay. In my experience, it is almost always the work of a newb.

First, to clarify that I most certainly am not calling you stupid... I wrote "Scrypt, the point of the buyer/seller feedback forum is to give feedback (duh)" -- meaning that I wrote a sentence and realized how trivial it was, so I wrote "duh" at the end of it. I then went on to explain what the accepted feedback should be in the feedback forum. I certainly did not intend to give the impression that I thought you were stupid, and if I did, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful in my next "epistle."

I would say that negative feedback can be useful for a number of reasons. The one that you suggested -- warning people of charlatans and other assorted shady internet characters -- is probably the most important one. Yet sometimes people establish trends of behavior, whether intentional or not, that can make for a bad trading experience in certain situations. Maybe rc0's feedback shows that it's worth e-mailing or calling Bill instead of communicating via Head-Fi's private messaging system. I don't think that it provides any evidence that Bill is a poor seller, rather that PM isn't the way to go with him.

As I said before, the party receiving feedback has the opportunity to respond when necessary. The recipient's ability to defend himself makes all the difference.

 

[scrypt]

Fair enough and very well said, Dan. I can live with that. My apologies for misunderstanding you.

What I can't live with is a full PM box despite my clearing out the tracking list! What's the maximum number of posts allowable? Is it really the number of posts or the amount of data?

 

[jude]

Quote:

Originally posted by kelly Why can't you people use email?

I like PM because I get almost a thousand e-mails per day (much of it junk, but still plenty left over to try to get to). When I come to visit Head-Fi it's usually purely for fun, and as a break. So I like my Head-Fi-related messages to arrive in the context of Head-Fi, instead of being commingled with my bazillion other e-mails.

 

[JMT]

Quote:

Originally posted by scrypt: What I can't live with is a full PM box despite my clearing out the tracking list! What's the maximum number of posts allowable? Is it really the number of posts or the amount of data?

Quote:

Each registered Head-Fi member is allowed to store, at any given time, 125 total messages. Please note that this total is the sum of all messages in each member's Inbox, Sent Items, and Message Tracking folders.

 

[vwap]

Quote:

Originally posted by jude I like PM because I get almost a thousand e-mails per day (much of it junk, but still plenty left over to try to get to). When I come to visit Head-Fi it's usually purely for fun, and as a break. So I like my Head-Fi-related messages to arrive in the context of Head-Fi, instead of being commingled with my bazillion other e-mails.

Hehe.. but for those of us that aren't as popular as Jude.. PM works well.

That, and I have a separate e-mail account for Head-Fi related stuff.. so it makes life a lot easier.