posted on November 6, 2000 04:43:38 PM new
HI all -
Well, it happened, amazing though it may seem. I had one book listed in two places, one of them half.com. When it sold in the other place I immediately zapped over to half.com to remove it, but couldn't find it. I thought I was just mistaken and went on my way. About 2 hours later, a half.com sold email arrived.
I selected the option to Cancel and got a stern warning about how this will affect my rating and more of the same will get me kicked off.
My question: should I care deeply? I have no intention of ripping anyone off, but mistakes do happen.
I guess I should just not double-list but sheesh, stuff can sit and sit for ages with no bites.
posted on November 6, 2000 06:09:46 PM new
If by "care deeply," you mean "make sure you perservere in finding the book you want to remove from half.com when it sells elsewhere," then yes, you should.
posted on November 6, 2000 06:18:57 PM newI guess I should just not double-list
Exactly. And remember this experience next time you're bumped from a flight or have to wait 2 hours in the doctor's office because the scheduler "double-listed".
[ edited by HartCottageQuilts on Nov 6, 2000 06:19 PM ]
posted on November 6, 2000 06:48:18 PM new
Or be willing to meet your commitment by purchasing another copy of the book and forwarding it to the second buyer.
I happen to feel that offering slow moving books at several sites including the new Amazon Marketplace makes pratical business sense if you accept the responsible of the rare potential for dual sales before secondary listings are cancelled.
Half.com inventory can be placed on suspension using the "vacation" option if you again need time to locate a listing without risking a sale.
posted on November 6, 2000 08:22:28 PM new
Keziak,
Sorry, but double-listing is unethical. Your intentions may be sound, but you ultimately wind up stiffing a buyer. I knew of one case where a seller of high-end audio equipment was listing the same item for auction both on eBay and at a well-known audio site. On both sites he had bids of over $1000.
So who got stiffed? He did. Both sites bumped his auction and he lost his seller status at eBay. Mind you, he had over 1000 positive feedbacks and only one or two negatives. His motives were pure, but ultimately he lost out mightily. I only came across this because I was extremely interested in the piece of equipment he was selling.
I really do believe he was honest because he showed up with a new eBay identity the next week, apologized to his buyers in his ad, and started again--with ZERO feedback.
posted on November 6, 2000 10:31:03 PM new
It is perfectly ethical to double-list something on sites that have a fixed price....that's why you have the reject button. We have books that are listed on ABE, Bibliofind, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and others---all with the ability to say---'SORRY--this item is no longer available' .
Half.com is being a poop by trying to get you to list only there
posted on November 7, 2000 02:46:02 AM new
thanks, everyone, that's why I asked, to see if there is some sort of guiding principle at play. Of course I don't want to stiff anyone. I am still puzzled how come a book that sat and sat suddenly got bought at two sites virtually at the same moment. I would not have thought that would happen [it's not Harry Potter].
Also, I thought the reason half.com had the confirmation in place was to make sure the item was really available before the customer was charged. There were several other copies on half.com at the same price [actually, two copies were cheaper than mine, and same quality]. I'm not saying that's an excuse if I committed a major boo-boo, but a factor.
I did see in the Amazon Marketplace info that they will charge a seller for the price of a book if it's not immediately ready to ship.
Also, I would never list anything on an auction site with bidding plus a fixed-rate site. I thought it would be OK on the fixed-rate sites though, because I really didn't think two people would buy at the same time [I am on the computer all day, so I tried to cancel my half.com listing almost the moment the other sold notice came in]
posted on November 7, 2000 03:51:07 AM new
Put a disclaimer in your half.com TOS, stating that availability on the item is uncertain due to prior sale. Other non-auction used book sites do this.
posted on November 7, 2000 05:13:56 AM new
Quote from Half.com's Help Pages:
"Due to the unique, person-to-person nature of Half.com, an order is not final until it is confirmed by the seller. On rare occasions, some sellers with brick-and-mortar locations actually sell the product at their physical location before we get their electronic inventory update. In these cases, the order for this item is cancelled, and your credit card is not charged!"
If a B&M can actively sell items listed on Half.com, then a CyberMerchant can as well. You just need to stay on top of your inventory. During the slow summer months, we leave all our auction items on our website, available for sale. If the auction gets a bid, we delete it from the site. If it sells on the site first, we delete the auction. This works fine when it is slow, but is a nightmare during the holiday season, so we delete the items this time of year before auctioning them.
