Buying And Selling On Techwatch Suggestion

[Smurf]

Hi people following the number of people that have been scammed i would like to first of all thank the administrative team for the great job they have done in ensuring everyone gets a smooth transaction i know its not always possible. The things we can look for is post counts that can show a person is quiet active on the forum but even that dont help all the time what ive seen on other forums is like i trader points its basically for every item sold or brought that person receives points and by them points we can tell that member has traded before and is trustworthy. Is it possible to bring such a thing to this forum. And what do you ppl think about this idea?

Many Thanks.

[sassbs11]

Originally Posted by Smurf

Hi people following the number of people that have been scammed i would like to first of all thank the administrative team for the great job they have done in ensuring everyone gets a smooth transaction i know its not always possible. The things we can look for is post counts that can show a person is quiet active on the forum but even that dont help all the time what ive seen on other forums is like i trader points its basically for every item sold or brought that person receives points and by them points we can tell that member has traded before and is trustworthy. Is it possible to bring such a thing to this forum. And what do you ppl think about this idea?

Many Thanks.

Itraders great idea. Most Buy sell trade forums have these nowadays.

[kimigonzales]

I second the thanks to the admin team! I also believe the itrader is a good idea too.

[Smurf]

Thanks Kimi

[brian]

iTrader is a good idea, but the only issue I have with it is that Techwatch is only supposed to be used for private sales, not traders. There are only three authorised traders on the forums, and each has their own board here.

I've made a big point of not allowing unauthorised traders to use the General Sales board precisely because that will always attract the dodgy traders.

The recent issue was exactly where someone was trying to use Techwatch as a trader when it was explicitly not allowed, and the only way we knew about this was because of the complaints that came in after.

So I'm not planning to offer iTrader as an option because traders aren't supposed to be using the boards unauthorised in the first place - it's only supposed to be private individuals selling individual items every now and then. If anyone is using the boards as an unauthorised trader I'm happy to be informed so I can stop it, as there are plenty of places online where they can trade, and also ensure better protection for buyers such as at eBay.

Hope that helps.

[Rick]

I agree with Brian, turning Techwatch into ebay would be alot of time and effort on the part of the Mods. (don't they do enough already?) And that isn't what the site is about. Plus keeping yourself safe from fraudsters is as much your own responsibility as anyone elses.

Would you give £50 to a bloke in the pub if he promised to come back the next day with a cable box ?

That said I do sympathise with those who have been conned. It is a shame that there are a number of dishonest people out there who sleep quite soundly after conning numerous people out of hundreds of pounds.

[k.jacko]

Another forum i use has a 'trust' popup attached to their account, whereby any other user can click their trust button and see the feedback left for them as a buyer/seller. Its very useful as it doesn't involve 'points' per se, more of people feedback regarding their transactions which is far more helpful imho.
A lot of folk would ask for the item to be sent before payment if the seller had little or no 'trust' feedback to go by. These systems are never 100% foolproof, but it does go a way in helping.
Worth considering? I certainly think so.

[jimbo]

even with a trust popup, if someone is devious enough they can do a couple of bona fida sales then scam a lot of ppl as well, im against it.

[k.jacko]

Why would you be against it?
It may not be a guarantee but its surely going in the right direction.
A scammer would surely have to make plenty of sales to build up trust before trying to scam someone. Unless the buyer is plain dumb.
The forum i'm a member of has had very few 'scammers' due to the trust popup, and the fact that you have to have a certain amount of posts before you are allowed access to the buy/sell forum.
If only high posters/timer served users were allowed access then i think there would be less chance of scamming going on, as maybe these users wouldn't want to get banned over one dodgy deal. Also, users who 'know' each other (forum-wise) are less likely to shaft each other.

Again, its not foolproof, but you can't suspect everyone of being a con artist.

[brian]

The main problem, really, is that we'd have no real protection for buyers, and I've seen even with iTrader on forums a lot of scamming going on.

Techwatch would gain nothing, but lose trust, if we allowed traders on at present.

Perhaps there's a system that can be used at some point, but I'd need a serious think about any option to ensure it allowed proper protections.