Do you ever worry about the advice you give?

coachfreak

coachfreak

Looking for LVOE
Oct 27, 2007
6,677
5
#1
I have said this several times, but there are two sides to every story and usually on tPF we only get one side, scammers and inaccuracies are the least of the problem.

I give alot of advice here in the eBay forum. I am one of those people who like to read, like to be right, and likes to know the rules of the game. In another life I should go to law school... but writing a brief just isn't my thing. I give advice to help the person posting here on tPF, but what if I am helping someone get over on someone else?

A few days ago I gave advice to someone about the lack of buyer protection on non-eBay transactions and someone else indicated I was giving false information. I checked and according to Paypal policy and the experiences of many who have written here in this forum my advice was accurate, but what if it wasn't? Also, the advice I wrote could be used by a scammer to get around Paypal's policy and many could be screwed because I pointed out the flaw.

This weekend I gave advice to a buyer to leave neutral or negative feedback, based on their recollection of events in the thread. Now that it has been connected to another thread [that I responded to previously] I no longer think a neutral or negative is warranted. While the buyer stated tracking and postmark indicated the seller mailed the bag after 10 days, in violation of Paypal seller protection, the seller posted for help 4 days before that postmark. I am not saying the seller or buyer are lying, just that the dates don't make sense I think UPS or USPS may be to blame.

So..... rambling to my point, do you ever worry about the advice you give here on the eBay forum :confused1:
 
#2
i tend not to give advice unless i'm sure i'm correct, so it annoys me when someone corrects me or posts contradicting information with a bit of smug in their writing tone. also when it comes to either a buyer or seller ranting about the other, i tend to not say anything because there's always another side of the story we don't know. with that said, i'm not too worried about advice i give about ebay.
 
#3
i think you can't take what someone says here as gospel. get the advice, then research the best option for you. so i don't think anyone giving advice would be responsible for the results. it's just advice. which i think is good. see other angles/points of view.
 
#4
i total understand what you mean, i have for a long time just watched and learned,and agree have tended to side on the member, but now i respond with what i think to be right, i could have made a coment while ago about a situation, but because eveyone was jumping to the member's defence, and shouting down another party i stayed quite, i realise now i should have said something, so in short, i think you have to think about. they have asked your input by posting, and say what you really think alfie x
 
#5
hartofalyon said:
i tend not to give advice unless i'm sure i'm correct, so it annoys me when someone corrects me or posts contradicting information with a bit of smug in their writing tone. also when it comes to either a buyer or seller ranting about the other, i tend to not say anything because there's always another side of the story we don't know. with that said, i'm not too worried about advice i give about ebay.
Click to expand...
yes i agree to that, people being sooooo smug, and so uncalled for IMO :P ALFIE X
 
#6
coachfreak said:
I have said this several times, but there are two sides to every story and usually on tPF we only get one side, scammers and inaccuracies are the least of the problem.

I give alot of advice here in the eBay forum. I am one of those people who like to read, like to be right, and likes to know the rules of the game. In another life I should go to law school... but writing a brief just isn't my thing. I give advice to help the person posting here on tPF, but what if I am helping someone get over on someone else?

A few days ago I gave advice to someone about the lack of buyer protection on non-eBay transactions and someone else indicated I was giving false information. I checked and according to Paypal policy and the experiences of many who have written here in this forum my advice was accurate, but what if it wasn't? Also, the advice I wrote could be used by a scammer to get around Paypal's policy and many could be screwed because I pointed out the flaw.

This weekend I gave advice to a buyer to leave neutral or negative feedback, based on their recollection of events in the thread. Now that it has been connected to another thread [that I responded to previously] I no longer think a neutral or negative is warranted. While the buyer stated tracking and postmark indicated the seller mailed the bag after 10 days, in violation of Paypal seller protection, the seller posted for help 4 days before that postmark. I am not saying the seller or buyer are lying, just that the dates don't make sense I think UPS or USPS may be to blame.

So..... rambling to my point, do you ever worry about the advice you give here on the eBay forum :confused1:
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^^ No worries CoachFreak - btw I was pondering the thought myself. :confused1:
However we did not know that they were related. I think you are correct - I also believe the the shipping carrier is at fault.
You have a great deal of knowledge, so we welcome your opinions and thoughts. It is up to the OP to also use their common sense too. BTW - yes, sign up for law school! Think you would be wonderful at it. :tup:

Also the seller stated that she mailed it before the 4th of July weekend. So right there delays -due to Holiday and didn't she (the seller) start her thread on the 5th of July. Your the detective - does that make more sense now???
 
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#7
I suppose there will always be devious people who will use a place like this to promote their own agenda. I'm thinking about the schemers and scammers who deliberately set up a one sided set of facts to justify their actions (or planned actions). We can only hope that most posters are not in that category. All we can do is continue to respond to requests for advice and feedback based on the information we are given.

People often post when they are panic stricken, want to vent, have a serious problem, etc. This section of tPF is so valuable that it would be a shame for experienced members like Coachfreak to hold back wondering if her advice will be used in an underhanded way.
 
#8
i only post when i have examples of things that have happened to me and/or how it was handled rather than giving an outright answer. although many people in this forum give out there own opinion as if it were gospel and then get defensive and rude when others correct them to try and help the situation. personally i take everything with a grain of salt.
 
#9
I feel the exact same way, Coachfreak. Like you, I also only frequent the eBay forum because that is one area that I have become quite knowledgeable with over the last several years. But, and this is a big but, I am no expert by any means. I never wrote a book, and I am not a moderator or employee of eBay. So what I offer is advice, just that.

What a lot of us forget is when we come to these forums, not just tPF, but others, as well, that most of us are here to give our opinions. Now whether or not they're related to factual information that is given, that's something we'll just have to trust and hope is being foretold.
:goodpost:
 
#10
I try to err on the side of moderation. I assume there are two sides to every story, so I try to keep the advice factual (and stuff that is pretty well known). I get worried when people post threads on this forum like "10 Ways Paypal Ebay and Buyers can rip you off!" because I'm afraid a scammer reading it will get some bad ideas!

All you can do is take the information given to you and based on it give the best moderate advice you can manage. ;)
 
#11
As the OP and some of the other posters in here know, I'm the seller in the thread that has been referenced. I certainly don't blame anyone for giving the advice that they gave before my thread from early July and the thread started a few days ago were linked, and I really appreciate CoachFreak because she's the one that alerted me that my buyer had posted so that I could make my side clear.

Like I said, I don't hold it against anyone in that thread that gave advice to neutral or neg me before the whole story came out - all anyone on here can do is give advice based on the good faith assumption that the person asking for the advice has been truthful and included all of the salient information. No one here has any way of checking whether or not the advice-seekers are holding anything back or spinning the details in their favor, and it's not anyone's responsibility to find out that information. The posters here provide an extremely valuable service to eBayers (including myself), and I fully believe that those that give advice here regularly do so with the best intentions and never give inaccurate information on purpose.

So don't worry too much, Coachfreak! I don't think anyone thinks you're being irresponsible with the advice that you give.
 
#13
I don't give a lot of advice on the Ebay forum because I am no expert on Ebay.

What does sometimes worry me is some of the advice I see given on the Money forum. I have an extensive background in real estate and finance and I do see incorrect advice given there or sometimes just wrong information. Most of the time, I don't call the people out on it because I figure if you ask for (and take) advice on a public forum, you should verify that it is correct before taking it. But sometimes I am amazed at some of the people who just throw stuff out there and clearly have no idea what they are talking about.
 
#14
Things are changing so fast at eBay and it is such a complex mixture of responsibilities, I believe there is no one person who can claim to be an expert. Some might be more informed, but it is too large and evolving too much to know all information accurately.

eBay University can not get the information fast enough, so for now, I have suspended my classes (except for ones contracted previously) until I see more stability.
 
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