I'm mostly talking about the classified here. This gonna be a rant, you've been warned.



I'm really fed up of dealing with childish/lazy/irresponsible/untruthful people in the classified, and I'm not only talking about the 1-post-random-guy, the same happens with "trusted members of the community"(TM).



Group buys

This is where most of the frustration comes. GB are slow by definition. I totally take that. Look at Round4 it took 2 years from start to finish, but 7bit has always been extremely informative about what was going on. When I participate to a GB I know that it is going to take a lot of time. That's not the point.



The problem is that a GB is no easy business. I'm forever grateful to those who invest time and money organizing the GB, but it's a responsibility nonetheless! If you are not ready to spend time, money and frustration DO NOT START A GROUP BUY!



Paypal sucks! We all know that but it sucks even more if you don't play by their rules! Orders have to be flagged as delivered. If you fail in that it may work for a few dozens but as soon as you reach hundreds of transactions they will likely close your account. Don't blame Paypal, blame yourself.



Also if you are going in the $10k+ range be sure to use a business Paypal account. Beware that even business accounts can be "frozen". When you reach $7-10k paypal asks a lot of paperwork. It's nothing that can't be handled, but you need to prove that your business is legit. (they request bills, invoices, ID, ...).



The GB doesn't stop when you receive the goods from the producer. You have to pack, spend in wrapping material, go to the post office, deal with "hey can you split my order in 2... and delay one shipping until moon, venus and juppiter are triangulated?". It takes a lot of time and --again-- responsibility. Consider that you have to be extremely committed to the cause for months. If you know that you'll have an important exam, or you are going to relocate, or your cat is ill, or your girlfriend changes boyfriend every three months, ... don't start a group buy!



Also International orders are boring (from US to rest-of-the-world). You need more paperwork and there are some countries with very strict customs rules (see Germany). You have to play by their rules, not yours. If you are not ready to deal with this don't ship internationally. Find a proxy or state clearly that you don't want to deal with customs. Nobody will blame you.



I could go on forever (remixing the GB thousand times when people have already placed their order for example). But I hope you've got the point. Taking care of a GB it's not a game, even if we are among friends and we are not doing this for money.



Participating to a GB

- Cancelling your order

- Pissing the organizer with "If you don't include Aramaic legends I'm not interested" (there's the IC for that)

- "ops, I forgot to pay"

- "I can't pay by the deadline, but I'm fapping like crazy and in a month I'll get money for selling my semen"

- ...



Well... you know what I mean, right?



I've been here for a year now. Every time a GB ended I saw the goods in the classified within few hours! If you can't afford it right now, don't worry, you'll get the chance to grab the cool stuff in the classified shortly!



Classified and general attitude

I have the goods I want to sell. I put them in the classified in a period I know I'm not too busy. Someone buys them. I ship them within few days.



How could it be simpler than that?



"But my cat died... I had a locusts invasion... my soda is flat...". You know what?! Life sucks! It sucks for everybody! But you already took my money (and my trust). I know the last thing you want to do in this terrible phase of your life is dealing with geekhackers, but try to be informative about what is happening. Just say that you can't fulfill and you will: 1) give the money back OR 2) ship the goods in X-days.



I understand and sympathize with all your troubles and I'll do my best to help you out (need help relocating? need money for your wedding band? need a shoulder to cry on?), but take your responsibilities and do lemonade out of those lemons life throws at you! Everything else is blabbing and excuses.



TD;DR

I'm not taking part to any other GB or buying in the classified (excluding from mkawa and boost and few others I know "personally"). I already participated to some of the ongoing GBs, I am not cancelling my orders because I like to fulfill my commitments, but those will be my lasts.



I know you don't give a **** about it, but I've told you this was a rant.