Jon, I appreciate your response. What are you selling? I've been here for
about 1 1/2 years without being aware of it! I had a small business
Internet site myself. It got too busy, both with the site and my regular
job, so I stopped. I never mistreated anyone, however. I guess the only
problem with relying on "word of mouth" was demonstrated a couple of weeks
ago when R&D made a post. There were about as many posts pro as there were
con. What do you do if you want to do business with them? An escrow, paid
by the buyer, would give one piece of mind.
Cal
----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Steiger <jon@dakota-truck.net>
To: <dakota-truck-moderator@bent.twistedbits.net>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 9:33 PM
Subject: Re: DML: DML, Trust & a Thought for Discussion : Please Read
>
> Cal, (and everyone else of course)
>
> I did notice your post before, but was running out the door at the time
> (actually, that's what I'm doing now, but decided I'd take a few minutes
to
> reply) and figured I'd see what others had to say first. Speaking from a
> seller's viewpoint, I would personally not have a problem if someone
wanted to
> purchase something through me via an "escrow" arrangement. However, I
would
> expect any additional expense incurred to be picked up by the buyer.
(Though I
> suppose if the shoe were on the other foot and a seller had a buyer they
> weren't completely sure of, an escrow arrangement could work in the favor
of
> both parties...) I don't want to come off as a cheapskate, so let me
explain
> my reasoning. :-) We small guys don't make a whole lot of profit. (In
fact,
> my recent startup has yet to break even...) Although it may sound like a
small
> amount, a little here and a little there can really add up! I have people
> telling me all the time that I should charge more for my stuff, but I set
my
> prices where I can make some money for my time and effort, but still keep
the
> prices low enough so as to make my products available to a wider range of
> people. I believe this will work for the benefit of everyone in the long
run.
> Who knows, maybe this isn't such a hot idea, business-wise, but at heart,
I'm
> still the same guy who wants to get the best price I can on every mod, and
I
> suppose I have a hard time picturing a buyer as anything else; I just have
to
> go by, "if I were interested in this product, how much would it be worth
to
> me?".
>
>
> There are definitely risks in doing business, especially when dealing
with
> small outfits, which have the potential to be "fly by night". (No insult
> intended to anyone, my outfit is me, myself, and I; it doesn't get any
smaller
> than that!) I think the best indicator of the future performance of an
outfit
> is to look at its past. That's one really good thing we here on the DML
have
> going for us; we're a close knit bunch of folks who aren't afraid to let
> everyone know when we've had a bad (or good) experience. :-) My personal
> business philosophy is to deal honestly and fairly with everyone.
Integrity
> and "doing the right thing" comes foremost; I'm not here to rip anyone
off, I
> set up my outfit with the intention of helping my fellow DMLers to improve
> their Daks and hopefully earn enough cash to improve my own! (Still
waiting on
> that second part.) ;-) When I first read your message, my gut reaction
was,
> if a seller isn't trustworthy, do you really want to do business with them
at
> all, escrow notwithstanding?
>
>
>
> In the same vein, let me throw this idea out there... What about making
it
> easier for the "word of mouth" principle to work? I have seen some web
sites
> for mailing lists where members who sell things are listed, and people who
have
> purchased from them can post comments about that person (positive or
negative).
> Prospective purchasers can then check out these sellers and determine for
> themselves what sort of risk they'd be taking in doing business with them.
> (Such a tool might also be used to help a buyer decide wether or not they
might
> want to make their purchase through some sort of escrow arrangement.)
Would
> something like that on the DML home page be beneficial? Something like
this
> could even cover non-DML sellers, such as Summit, JC Whitney, ProGlass,
etc.
> anyone that sells Dak stuff. Perhaps it could be broken down into sub-
> categories as well, such as experiences dealing with sales, after sale
service,
> shipping speed, etc. This probably wouldn't be too hard to set up, I
should be
> able to recycle my existing code for the dealership rating resource.
(see:
> http://www.dakota-truck.net/dealer for that, and to get an idea of how it
might
> work). Any thoughts?
>
> --
>
> -Jon-
>
> .---- Jon Steiger ----- jon@dakota-truck.net or
jon@twistedbits.net ------.
> | Affiliations: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA; Rec & UL Pilot -
SEL |
> | '92 Ram 150 4x4 V8, '96 Dakota V8, '96 Intruder 1400, '96 FireFly 447
|
> `------------------------------
http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ----'
>
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