Best Standards and Positive Practices for Buying and Selling at a Distance

[rternbach]

Dear Apugers,

I believe that many Apug members, sponsors, and advertisers must have a good deal of experience to share regarding Best Standards and Positive Practices for Buying and Selling at a Distance.

A discussion on this topic that cites sources of information and gives positive examples would be helpful to the great majority of us who use the internet to buy or sell products and services.

If such a discussion could be carried out without citing examples of negative practices, bad experiences, or tales of woe it might serve as a standard in itself.

Best to all,

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

I could probably dig up said source but I think the best piece of advice can be summed up in a single word.

Communication.

Talk with the person with whom you are carrying out a transaction. Buying, let them know you're real and ask questions until you're blue in the face. Selling, be up front about anything you would want to know as a buyer. Give frequent updates on things as shipping where a longer lapse in time is expected.

Miscommunication can lead to bad feelings by all. But never commit until you are completely comfortable with every facet of your transaction. And the best way to assuage fears is to talk them out before hand rather than to scream them out later.

My two cents.

 

[rternbach]

Yes. Then, how best to ensure good communication? You've said a buyer should ask questions up front and a seller should give frequent updates. Great. Are there other key things to do as a buyer or a seller? Not trying to get an exhaustive listing out of you just trying to keep the good suggestions flowing.

Best,

 

[rternbach]

Perhaps I should have asked about e-commerce not distance selling. The former term I believe is used more on this side of the pond, the other on that side.

Best,

 

[rternbach]

e-commerce standards

On the British/EU side of the pond this would be one governmental source of info:

Dead Link Removed

On the US side there is this source:

http://www.marketingtoday.com/marketinglaws/usemarketinglaws.htm

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Another aspect of communication is reading the other party and figuring out how you might have to adjust your own communication style to get your idea across. Some vendors are natural salespeople, and will adjust their communication style to the customer's, but some are technicians and craftspeople, and if you want their services, things will go smoothly if you can go with the flow.

Some vendors, like Bill Maxwell, who makes custom focusing screens, will talk with customers at length to be sure they know that the customer is aware of all the options and is getting the best tool for the job. Martin Arndt, the Linhof repair technician at Marflex, likes to be very precise and concise and seems very conscious about not wasting anyone's time, so it's best to send him a bullet list of what you want done, and if there are any questions, he'll call and resolve them in about 30 seconds or less, and will do a brilliant job. By all accounts both are great at what they do and are honest businesspeople, but the experience of the transaction is going to be very different.

 

[rternbach]

Another aspect of communication is reading the other party and figuring out how you might have to adjust your own communication style to get your idea across. Some vendors are natural salespeople, and will adjust their communication style to the customer's, but some are technicians and craftspeople, and if you want their services, things will go smoothly if you can go with the flow.

Some vendors, like Bill Maxwell, who makes custom focusing screens, will talk with customers at length to be sure they know that the customer is aware of all the options and is getting the best tool for the job. Martin Arndt, the Linhof repair technician at Marflex, likes to be very precise and concise and seems very conscious about not wasting anyone's time, so it's best to send him a bullet list of what you want done, and if there are any questions, he'll call and resolve them in about 30 seconds or less, and will do a brilliant job. By all accounts both are great at what they do and are honest businesspeople, but the experience of the transaction is going to be very different.

It seems these are good examples of very different but still effective styles of communication and I agree it is good practice for buyers of services to expect to adjust to the individual style of the company or vendor they are doing business with. But does that lead to a standard which applies in general to business communications on the internet? It seems that without clear standards it would be impossible to have global communications even if all those providing services on the internet were as good as Bill Maxwell and Martin Arndt. What may be required is a totally new set of standards which integrate legal, ethical, commercial , political, and engineering approaches in a totally new way. Here's one more example:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&arnumber=872510&isnumber=18885

Best,

 

[rternbach]

And then there's this if anyone has time to read it...

http://books.google.com/books?id=SH...eu1Z0B&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4

Best,