Selling poilicy: Pricelist or no peddle?

Hi folks

Too often when commercial sellers list their items for sale here, its with a "Email for price", "Pm me for the price".

This is quite annoying. I'm not going to email you for a price. One price for all unless bulk order. (obviously shipping costs will be different for each part of the world).

The Buy/Sell/Trade section should really have an eforced policy:

"No Price? No Peddle!".

An exception to this is : "Visit XYZ website for more information/prices", but that website, once you get to the items the seller was advertising on his for sale thread, MUST have prices listed (preferably in USD as that what most of us trade herein), and not just a "Contact for quote" etc link beside each item.

Peddling wares is another way to say "selling stuff".

This should not be enforced on forum members, as most of us stick a price up anyway, only for those who are of an commercial entity.


So. Violators....

First violation should be: advertising post deleted and content replaced with "oops I forgot to post my prices!", and a PM sent to the offender explaining to read the forum rules on selling commercially on LPF. We know their first language may not be english (hey they could be french, spanish, australian, germen, korean, chinese... you get my drift). So this gets the message across that there must be a price posted for each model and make of item they want to sell.

Second violation: Ban from posting new threads in the for sale forums for 14 days. IF caught threadjacking with their wares, regardless if they post a price or not, the ban is extended to 30 days and their posting priveledges revoked across the forum for that period.

Third Violation. 90 day ban from the for sale forums, with a very stern warning that they will be removed from the forum if they do it again.

Fourth Violation. (caught trying to sell in other LPF areas, or repeat offence after the 90 day ban): Permenant ban from LPF

What do you guys think?

I agree its irritating going into a thread and the first 4 replies are asking for price...

Unfortunately, the reason they do this, is the same reason most 'sales reps' require you to get a "quote".

First of all, let me just say, even in business, when i'm doing "b2b", I can't stand this. If I need something, I dont want it to "be sold to me", I want to buy it. In other words, I do not have the time and patience for a "pitch".

However, this is not how the business world works and salespeople are in the business of selling people things they don't need. They often operate off of commission and margin and because of this, it's their goal to get you out the door with the highest price possible (of course.)

Often I hear that 'well, the market is volatile / prices change rapidly and frequently" - No. They want to size you up. They want to assess how much you can pay, and charge you that much.

Most of the high end laser manufacturers who advertise here do not really want to sell to hobbyists. There's not enough quantity and margin. I'm not quite sure what they think they're getting at by selling here; maybe that they figure government contractors or medical distributors will happen across the site in search, as LPF of course does have good search rankings.

Think of it as "free stow-away SEO."

Most often, when I see (or am made aware of) a post like this in the B/S/T board,
I move the thread to the companies board or delete the thread and
send a PM to the company telling them how to use the forum

Trying to "police" the guidelines and graduated sanctions you have outlined above
would be VERY problematic as well as VERY labor and record keeping intensive

Vote with your wallet

If you do not like the way a company operates, do NOT patronize them

As Aryntha pointed out, they are not really interested in most of us anyway.
This is just another advertising venue for them

Peace,
dave