Selling a lathe and building trust?

[lazylathe]

Hi all,

This may seem a bit strange at first, but bear with me for a while.

I posted a Sherline lathe for sale on here a few days ago.
Found a buyer, haggled over the price and reduced it by $500.
The buyer seems happy with the price and i have got a lot of shipping quotes.
He decided on the one he wants to use and now comes the tricky part.
MONEY

He is asking how he can trust me that i will send him the lathe and all the accessories.
I have given him my cell number and home address.
He has my e mail address and he knows who i am on here.
I have supplied him with details from my ebay account and i have 100% positive feedback from all sales and purchases.

What else can i do to gain his trust??
I have the lathe and accessories all packed and ready to go, just waiting for payment.

I am kind of stumped for now.
I know that just telling someone half a world away that you are an honest guy just does not cut it sometimes.
But short of going there, i do not know what else to do.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew

 

[Ed T]

In a similar situation, I ended up using UPS cod. That way I get my money as soon as UPS makes the delivery (or shortly thereafter)and the customer doesn't "pay" til he gets the goods. That way neither of you has to have faith in his fellow man. No good reason that either of you should . There is a fee for doing it this way, but I don't think it was huge

 

[kcmillin]

Could He send you a Pay Pal payment. I think buyers are protected from merchandise not being delivered.

Or maybe you can setup an E-Bay transaction, where he could purchase it with some confidence.

Kel

 

[lazylathe]

Thanks for the reply Ed T.

We researched the UPS choice and the costs involved where extreme!
Some reason shipping from Canada is just way more expensive.

I will look into the COD options, thanks for that!

I was wondering about putting it up on ebay and then he is protected by paypal for up to $2000.
That might be an option too.

As i was typing kcmillin was reading my mind!!

 

[Ed T]

Yes, the buyer is protected by paypal, but you are not. He only has to say that he didn't like what he got and you have almost no reasonable recourse. E-Bay is making it increasingly difficult for the small, auction seller to do business. I think they want to become a storefront like Amazon. Once the goods are on the other side of the world, things get ugly. Just be sure you understand what both sides of the transaction look like.

 

[NickG]

yep, I'd be more scared selling it via paypal than him buying it. As Ed said, all he has to do is either say he didn't receive them, broken, whatever, apparently the way this buyer protection works he'll get his money back no questions asked and you could have a hell of a job getting the lathe back.

Nick

 

[lazylathe]

I know that feeling from a buyers perspective!
Bought and expensive item off ebay, paid for it in full with shipping and the seller disappeared!
Closed ebay account and paypal account, not before withdrawing all the funds.
Opened up a case against her, but i lost close to $500 on that item!
Paypal and ebay would not back me up!
Seems that if you supply false info, no one really cares...

I have offered to do it over Skype so he can meet me and watch the packing process and show him the actual paid invoice and tracking number.
I will be taking photographic evidence of the condition of everything that goes into the box to cover my butt!

Will have to wait and see what he wants to do.

 

[Blogwitch]

Just cancel the sale, readvertise it at the price you really want, and wait for another customer.

It sounds like he is a tyre kicker, and you can guarantee that if he finds even a scratch on it, he will threaten action thru either paypal or ebay.

There is no way you will ever satisfy a person like that, and he needs teaching a lesson.

 

[NickG]

I agree with John, you can understand him being nervous about paying all that money but I think if he can't see that you're a genuine seller he should buy something locally (if he can't then he doesn't have a choice) and it'd be easier for you to sell it to someone more local. When I sold all my stuff I just put local pick up only and made sure I got cash. Even better if somebody comes to see it and pays before the auction ends - then you can just end the auction, they've paid cash and have no come back.

Nick

 

[Peter.]

...He is asking how he can trust me that i will send him the lathe and all the accessories.
I have given him my cell number and home address.
He has my e mail address and he knows who i am on here.
I have supplied him with details from my ebay account and i have 100% positive feedback from all sales and purchases.

What else can i do to gain his trust??...

The answer to this is simple - ask him to tell you what would satisfy him that you are a genuine and honest person. If all he can come up with is that you should send him the goods before payment you can cite his own argument as the reason why not.

 

[Ed T]

My son has done thousands of E-bay transactions; all of them auctions and mostly for non-commercial, eclectic items. He hates returns or other "issues" so he spends an inordinate amount of time documenting every item with photos and pointing out whatever flaws he can find and includes that info in the listing. Several times, a buyer has taken issue with items specifically shown in the listing and simply got ahold of Paypal and pulled back the money leaving the seller hanging. Fortunately, most of the items were not worth chasing after, but the whole system is really skewed to the buyer. The seller cannot even leave feedback about a buyer anymore.
Anyhow, I think I would drop that customer and find a local PU as suggested above or someone that you feel more comfortable with.

 

[Spinnetti]

Just cancel the sale, readvertise it at the price you really want, and wait for another customer.

It sounds like he is a tyre kicker, and you can guarantee that if he finds even a scratch on it, he will threaten action thru either paypal or ebay.

There is no way you will ever satisfy a person like that, and he needs teaching a lesson.

2nd that... beat you down on price, then doesn't trust YOU? If you can't do a transaction based on mutual trust, just skip it and wait. Heck I sold a car to a guy in Texas sight unseen over the internet with no promises. He got a one way ticket 1/2 way across the country and drove home happy.

 

[dsquire]

Hi

Sorry to have to do this but this topic is now locked. The last comment has been removed.

Don