Opinion on an acceptable wait time for classified ads response.

[Birks and Grey Socks]

I'm kind of a newbie here, but not new to buying/selling used items on the internet. I ran into a situation this morning and I wonder if I'm off base or was it the other party. I've bought and sold a few items here on SF, and never ran into anything like this.

A seller listed a shirt I was interested in, late yesterday night. I sent a PM at 5:30 AM indicating that I was interested and made a reasonable offer, including asking for a paypal address if he accepted. The offer was very reasonable and was for full asking price, and included enough to cover shipping costs (but not pad them).

At 7:30AM the seller responded that the offer was acceptable and he gave me his paypal address.

At 10:00AM, the seller PM'd again and said since he hadn't heard from me (after 2.5hrs??!!?) he would be selling it to another person

Since I'm at work, I can't check SF all day, but did log back on at 1:00 PM (7.5 hrs later) and expressed my dismay that he couldn't wait even 12 hrs for a response. He then sends a PM indicating that he has had buyers flake out before and he won't wait for anyone.

Now I'm in agreement that a seller should not have to wait, but is a 2.5 hr window to pay a reasonable time? Or am I off base? The seller BTW is not a newbie to SF, he sells many items here. It's not like he listed his paypal address in the FS ad. Nor did he list shipping prices to my location, so I couldn't paypal him preemptively. When I sell something, I usually give a buyer at least 24hrs to get back me. Opinions?

 

[JamesX]

It is his stuff, and he really have the right to sell it to whoever he wants.

But unless he specifically mentioned it on his sales that he will not wait for any responses beyond X hours, I find the way he handled it distasteful.

 

[SpooPoker]

Sorry man, but its the sellers call.

I cannot stress enough to sellers to put in their listings "THE FIRST TO PAY GETS IT". Clears up any and all confusion, as I have seen this same scenario about 100 times.

 

[tullytra]

I just had this happen to me (as a seller). I had two people PM me overnight for the same item. I contacted both, informed the second to PM that someone had PMed me before he, I asked him if he could wait roughly 24-36 hours in case the first buyer flaked, and the second guy was very understanding of this. The first buyer did flake, and I contacted the second person to tell him the item was his if he wanted it.

What I'm getting to is 24 hours seems like a decent amount of time to give someone to pay after given PayPal information. I suppose a seller's time-frame can be skewed by how many people he has had flake though.

 

[TheBurnOut]



Sorry man, but its the sellers call.

I cannot stress enough to sellers to put in their listings "THE FIRST TO PAY GETS IT". Clears up any and all confusion, as I have seen this same scenario about 100 times.

+1

 

[usctrojans31]

As someone who has bought and sold on here, I find that to be sketchy at best, rude at worst. I can't fault the seller, as it is within his right, but that seems a bit unnecessary. A day seems like a fair time frame, especially since many of us are in different time zones and cannot respond instantaneously.

Birks - typically when I make an offer, I include what type of time frame just to prevent any type of issues like that. Most sellers are accommodating, but there could be an issue. Better to be superfluous than sorry.