Couple of questions to some of the veteran board members out there from a relative newbie-

1. How long would you wait for a seller on the equipment exchange to ship a high ticket item after payment has been accepted? If it helps, it is a private party sale of an expensive accessory, not a firearm, and not requiring an FFL transfer.

2. And how many days of waiting for the seller to return an e-mail is too many?

Thanks,

Kobayashi

If it's me? I'm sweating after about 20 minutes. Since this is a time of year that lots of folks take vacation, wait a week.

If he was going to go away, it would have been nice of him to let you know.

How long have you been waiting?

How did you pay; by check, money order, visa?  If you paid by check, you should expect to wait a couple weeks while the seller makes sure your check isn't going to bounce.  If by MO or some other more immediate means, I'd say give him a week to get it to the USPS/UPS/FedEx and allow appropriate delivery time on top of that.  When I sell stuff, I try to get it out ASAP - I don't like the liability of holding on to sold merchandise any longer than I have to.  Sometimes I'll have to be away for a week or so and it may take a little longer to ship an item out, but I'll try to let a buyer know ahead of time, and I'll do what I can to contact the buyer to keep them informed so they're not worried or thinking I've run off with their money.

How long have you been waiting?  When was your last contact with the seller?

It has now been 11 days since I purchased the item, and it has been 5 days since the seller confirmed that the funds had cleared and been deposited in his account. Originally we agreed that he was going to ship the day after funds had cleared. They cleared Monday (the 26th). It didn't ship, and after asking him about it, he sent me an e-mail Wednesday night, and stated that it was going to ship tomorrow (meaning Thursday the 29th). He never got back to me. He has not sent a confirmation stating that he had shipped it, nor has he given me a tracking number, which leads me to believe that it still hasn't been shipped.

DO US A FAVOR and if you see any new posts of this person selling items, reply to his post with a "Just checking where my part is" . This might help others keep from being trapped. I would encourage people to really research who they are buying from on the board. The Equipment Exchange on this board is ripe for fraud, in my opinion. I would shoot him another 'just checking' type email. (Another trick I learned to tell if someone is avoiding replying to you, is to open a hotmail account with a different name and send him an email asking to purchase the same product you already bought from him, to see his response). If he responds to your alternate hotmail identity and not your real email, you know he has checked his email, and you will see if he is selling the same item you bought to a "different" person. Then sic the dogs after him after that.

I'd shoot him another polite email today or tomorrow asking for a tracking number.  If it went out on thursday (yesterday) by US mail or UPS ground, it may be a week in transit depending on how he sent it.  I wouldn't get too bent out of shape yet.  Even if he mailed it out on Monday as originally promised, you have to allow time for transit.  Did you have an agreement on how it would be shipped?  UPS ground?  Regular US mail?  1-3 day priority mail?  Overnight?  If it wasn't agreed on, figure it went by the slowest (and least expensive) means possible - UPS ground or regular US mail - and allow a week from the time he shipped it out.

Hi Wilson, thanks for asking. Apparently the individual had plans, and went on vacation without notifying me. The item has finally been shipped (more than two weeks after payment cleared I might add) and I do have a tracking number for it. The UPS website says it should be here tomorrow. We'll see.

BTW, the seller has always (well, maybe not always, but for the most part) been polite and courteous, just a *bit* of a procrastinator.