seller etiquette


I have been reading here for a decade, first recent post under my newly found login.

I have contacted a seller about a subwoofer for a fair price. I asked if local pickup was an option. I got a response that it was. I wrote him that I would drive up, from 2 hours away, in 3 days. I told him I don't want to disturb him by plugging it in, I would just pay and pick it up, as I'd trust his word that it works. I was ok paying full price.

I then yesterday afternoon got an email that I needed to pay asap or he'd sell it to someone else as he got another offer. I didn't read the email until this morning when it had already been sold.

Is this normal? Fair? How could I have avoided it? Should have offered to pay in advance?  Should he had been waiting for my response and payment for a little longer?

 

 

parkergetdean

@speedthrills 

"Why would you think a seller would hold his sub for you without receiving either a sizable deposit or payment in full from you?"

Maybe because the seller, who controls the terms of the sale since he owns the property being sold, didn't ask for a sizable deposit or payment in full? What if the buyer was on his way to pick up the sub as agreed upon and the buyer got another offer while he was in transit? Would it have been perfectly okay to accept the new offer because after all, money talks? Once again, I'm not aware of any form of commerce where it's up to the buyer to establish the terms of a purchase. I'm finding it hard to believe that so many here are siding with the seller. 

When money rules over the "word given" it is not civilization but jungle or a peculiar zombies hive...

The creator of our social fabric design , the Calvinist  B. Mandeville, not Adam Smith nor Marx, wiser than them all, knowing the unconscious centuries before Freud,  Mandeville, if we listen to Hayek who called him "our master to us all" , Mandevile said it in this way: " the private vices create the public virtue"...

I am not very fond of this "virtue"...

Ignorants applauded and called this "economy"  and "civilisation"...

I understand the OP reaction...When i gave my word i mean it...

 

Road:

What didn't you understand after the definitions of uh huh I posted?

 

DeKay

@mitch2 

You pay first, and then trust that the seller will ship your purchase to you

Interesting angle. So I would send nearly a $1000 to a stranger WITH ZERO guarantees because I must TRUST the seller. 

But the seller has all the reasons in the world to NOT trust me that I will come at the agreed time and date with cash in hand. Seems like a very biased, one-sided view.

This is not a hard question.

He agreed to your terms.

He broke his agreement.

He is in the wrong.

Not sure what makes it uncertain to you, because it's clear as day to me.