I've only had buyers pick up twice. Once it was a man delivering his daughter to Cal Poly, picked up the dress form he'd bought for her. The other time it was a guy who bought a big tall desk with a hutch on top. He brought his family with him. Both times I made sure my son was here.
Kiara mentioned having Plan B in place... A long time ago I sold real estate. Our office's Plan B was if we felt the least bit funny about someone who wanted to be shown property we'd say to our broker, "Hey Tom - I don't think you've seen this place - wanna come along?" Tom, of course, had seen everything on the market but went anyway. Tom is 6' 2" and weighs about 200 pounds...
The point being, set up a Plan B with your husband, neighbor, kid, whoever, to go with you when you meet or be there when the buyer comes to pick up their item.
posted on August 19, 2003 04:46:13 PM new
Thanks, Lucy. Plan B is best when it's another person. There can be a lot of Plan B ideas like knowing your exit route, self defense, weapons, etc.
Are you aware of the route you took from your vehicle if you met the person in a public place? If they acted strange and you felt uncomfortable do you really want to head back out to your car right away?
In many situations when you come right down to it, there are just a lot of weirdo people out there and some of them do stink. I meet some of them daily. Very few of them will ever want to harm you and most people are good even if they act or look strange.
Most probably just want to pick up their eBay stuff in person because it's the way they do business or they're cheap. I doubt any of them even think that it may be an inconvenience to you or that it may make you nervous that they come to your home. There are lots of clueless people out there.
My store door is open to strangers daily but never the door to my home. I do trust most people that I encounter.
I think it's a good idea that this topic is brought up occasionally as it reminds us all to be more aware, even me.
