I wanted to make a post where people can talk about their craziest/worst experiences.
I’m a longterm user and I have about 2.000 ratings so I experienced many “wtf?” moments.
1st: dirty items with sweat, blood or pee stains.
I don’t expect somebody to wash them before sending but man, please check them once at least.
2nd rude and demanding people.
Girl bought a whole set of clothes after confirming the pictures and asked me after the purchase if another skirt is included, I said no? The amount is for the 4 items only so she said ” well I won’t accept the package then” she accepted it after I wrote the support so yeah the support is useful sometimes.
Demanding people asking for discounts on already cheap items (best if they are resellers shipping the clothes overseas) ~ no , I won’t give you a Himekaji dress I bought for 10.000¥ for 2.000¥ including shipping, some people really lack of common sense.
3. Fake items, bought some fake ugg boots accidentally and had to pay for shipping them back, I mean… it’s ridiculous and the seller is still on the platform.
How are your experiences so far?
26 comments
Only have a dozen transactions, mainly selling. Nothing super weird yet. Weirdest has been a guy asking for a discount, promising to buy instantly, then ghosting. There’s also these people asking for unspecific discounts, just “can you lower the price a bit” lol.
I only really buy and sell books and magazines so things are usually straightforward…some people ask for discounts not taking into account the delivery cost so you actually end up losing money.
There used to be so-so ratings. After my first purchase, I recieved a one of those and when I followed up with the seller. I was curious as to what I did, I literally couldn’t think of anything, and I wanted to be more prepared next time. They said the transport company told them they delievered it Wednesday, but I didn’t leave a review until Thursday.
Funny thing, a few months ago I forgot for about a week that I didn’t mark an item as recieved/left a review, so I profusely apologized thinking I was done for. In the end the seller was really chill about it and left me a really nice comment in my review.
People who tell you they could get it cheaper elsewhere. Go get it from there then?
I got a bad rating for a transaction once because I didn’t send any messages.
I shipped the day it was bought, used the 発送知らせする button. Buyer received it in 2 days. But said “didn’t send me any messages” and gave me a negative review.
I just had one buyer who was frantic if I didn’t respond to his message after a few hours. Nothing urgent, just a few hours passing between the purchase and me confirming when it will be sent, basic stuff like that.
I don’t see any problem with asking for discounts on already cheap items. An extra ¥500 discount is better in my pocket regardless if the item is ¥1000 or ¥100,000. I almost always ask for a discount, but I give a specific number, and the seller is of course free to say no, and I’ve still purchased many times after having offers refused.
I’ve never used any auction sites myself, but I am constantly astounded by the random stuff that my darling offloads via Mercari.
I suspect that for some people, it’s a kind of hobby.
Still, better than the landfill, I suppose 🙂
Never buy designer goods on second hand market places especially expensive ones. Even sneakers. You have no way to know if real and if its fake and you dont mind you are over paying.
I did ebay for many years, and somehow Mercari manages to be worse than that cluster fuck of a platform.
That said my wife sells items on Mercari. Sometimes i feel sad when people buy her old clothes that she has worn a lot, like a gym shirt. Even if in good enough condition still and sold for under 1000 yen just feel sad some people lack money and shop like that. Would rather give it away i always tell her sell them for postage cost.
Just the usual really. List an item and 10 minutes later get a message asking if i’m willing to sell it for 60% off.
I bought something and it was damaged, they cut the price tag, which I specifically asked them to keep. They said they thought it was common to cut them off. I was mad but said it’s fine. Gave them a so-so rating and they responded with a so-so rating. I was sooooo pissed. It was THEIR mistake!
I’ve been using Mercari for years. After a while I have a few rules that keeps the crazies away.
– Asking for discounts? Blocked
– Giving a weird vibe? Blocked
– Asking weird questions? Blocked
– Bad reputation? Blocked
– No buy/sale history? Blocked
And anecdotally the people who want to pay by conbini are the most likely to cause problems. They’re most likely to take forever to pay or ask for discounts. Do they pay by conbini because they don’t have a credit card because they’re broke? Who knows.
I’ve sold and bought lots of small cheap items but also some very expensive stuff related to my hobbies. Never had a single issue with people when dealing with the more expensive stuff, people seem a lot more level headed when it comes to significant purchases, even though I’ve had to ask for returns before.
I’ve never had any issues with Mercari, but on Yahoo Auctions I had some bastard sell me a busted up figure (Darth Maul, for the curious). The description made no mention of the severe damage, and looking after the fact it was clear that all the photos were angled juuuust such that you couldn’t see the damage in them. I contacted them immediately but they completely ignored me and refused to respond. I escalated it to support, and that’s when I learned that if you didn’t pay with a credit card you’re shit out of luck for getting a refund, so the fucker got away with it. I left a scathing negative review, but obviously that’ll do fuck all.
The worst I’ve (exclusively 400+ buyer) had was a seller who cancelled a purchase because I didn’t sent them any message within 24 hours. A few other times sellers have cancelled purchases due to not having the item anymore since it was sold on another site and they had forgotten to close the Mercari post.
I love Mercari. I have been using it for years at this point and my experience has been great but I have had a handful of odd experiences.
1) I bought a bundle of items related to one of my hobbies and one of them turned out to be a fake. I couldn’t tell by the photo alone but once I had it in hand it was extremely obvious. I messaged the seller and threatened to go to the police and they promptly accepted the return. I often can easily spot fake items and I always report them but the listings never get taken down.
2) I found an item I wanted at a good price and pushed the purchase button. The seller canceled and I have no idea why. Mercari should definitely implement a way to show you why it was cancelled. I suspect that they probably sold it already on another website and forgot to take down the Mercari listing.
Aside from those two situations, there have been zero problems on my end. Sellers usually do a pretty good job about showing the condition of the items being sold and I have never received any kind of bad review for buying or selling. It has been a great way to get money back for older things that I no longer need, and it has been great for my hobbies. I don’t mind being asked for discounts because I also regularly ask for discounts. It’s basically mercari’s culture. If you’re not asking for discounts then you’re purposely spending extra.
As for websites similar to Mercari, I don’t like using Rakuma because sellers always take forever to ship out the items, and I hate using PayPay Furima because it’s loaded with fake items. I question the existence of PayPay Furima in the first place because both it and Mercari are owned by Soft Bank. Son is an idiot.
Ordered cat nutrition paste to boost my cat’s immune system (she goes crazy for it too), and the listing suggest 4-7 days shipping. Order was made on Sunday, and the following Sunday, I decided to check-in with the seller (my cat is not getting any better), when I could expect the shipping to happen. She replied immediately, it will happen soon (happened a day or two later), and asked whether I read her mercari profile page, which contained the following:
>◎商品説明にも記載していますが発送は７日以内、場合によっては期限過ぎる場合もありますのでご了承ください。 不安な方は購入しないで下さい。
I ignored her question, and just said thank you, looking forward to it.
The package arrives, and so does a negative review:
>トラブル防止の為、プロフィールを必ずご覧頂くよう商品説明の最初に記載しておりますが、お読み頂いていないようですので残念ですがこちらの評価に致します。
お取引ありがとうございました。
One of my first Mercari Karens
I am also an experienced seller/buyer on Mercari and the one thing that blows my mind is the degree to which sellers think they can make their own set of rules and “enforce” them.
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Sellers will write “it is necessary to read my profile,” then when you take a glance it’s literally a massive wall of text. The most absurd “rule” lots of sellers try to enforce is “I don’t accept returns.” Sellers have absolutely no power to enforce that.
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All in all, I have a perfect rating and have had mostly good interactions, but man there are a lot of “unspoken” rules of etiquette on there.
I had pretty good experience on Mercari these few years. But once I bought something rare quite cheap but the seller cancelled the transaction without any message. I tried to ask them about this on other item’s comment section but then they blocked me. I checked with my friend’s account and seemed that they tried to resell it with much higher price.
not mercari specific, but japanese rating systems in general baffle me. for example restaurant reviews that are like. “excellent service, food was delicious, good price, 2.5 stars” why 😭
Bought a Pokemon card for a friend on Mercari
The listing said mint so I was pretty confident that it would be okay
Looking at the actual card, it was in a pretty rough condition but the pictures didn’t show it.
When I confronted the guy, he said that the Mint in the description was just his interpretation of Mint, and not the commonly used definition (basically new)
>bought some fake ugg boots accidentally
Unless they are made in Australia, they are all “fake” UGG boots.
/australianationalpride
As for discounts, I usually know my products and when sellers are being ridiculous in their asking price, or if I am being a tight prick by asking for a discount.
I bought a used dehumidifier and got a broken one and never worked. I didn’t bother to return it as the shipping cost will be handled by me but I gave a bad review to the seller.
“dirty items with sweat, blood or pee stains”
On the other side of the coin – some people would pay good money for that stuff (giggidy)
I’ve encountered Listing Police and 無在庫転売 Police.
Listing police ask for size of item or additional details that you thought wouldn’t be necessary to the average buyer. (Example – Star Wars Black Series figures are 6 inches/15cm. Anyone who owns one knows the size automatically if Star Wars Black Series is mentioned in the title)
Listing police also ask you to reframe your wording to not offend the reader. (weird example – I listed the ruby red Nintendo DS set that came with a black pleather case. After 20 years, the outer case pleather was starting to come apart so I threw it away. I mentioned such in the product explanation but someone asked that I should consider the feelings of the reader in regards to throwing out the case. I reworded it to say that the case was not included and the listing police person was appeased.)
無在庫転売 police is a person who checks on Amazon and other resale sites and tells the original seller if someone is using their same pictures and selling for higher price. (I was selling an item for ¥2000 and this police person told me the same item and same pictures were being listed for ¥10,000. While nothing could be done about the fake listing, I became aware of someone taking my pictures and this type of police person.
Someone gave me my only negative feedback because the item arrived at night and I didn’t hop on to review until the next morning. Like…bro, it’s a ¥500 used baby jinbei, what’s the rush? You really that pressed for the ~¥200 profit?
Nothing too terrible. Got a negative feedback without explanation once (apparently for not leaving my rating the day I got the thing?). Had a seller refuse to do business with me when I asked politely if they were willing to take something out of a mixed lot and charge me for the other items only. One time I bought a figure that didn’t get packed properly and the box got damaged in the mail. Had a few things stink of smoke. One was a skirt that the seller had said she had never washed at all/that it couldn’t be, only sprayed with Febreze. I was worried as I have allergies to certain Febreze scents, but I couldn’t tell there was any used on it, just the heavy tobacco smell. I hand washed it and it was OK after, luckily. One time bought something but the seller cancelled because apparently they had it listed on multiple sites and it sold somewhere else first. Oh, I bought something on Yahoo Auctions and the seller cancelled it and banned me without explanation, then relisted the item.
Edit: I bought a set of mirror panels, and half arrived broken. I was only able to get a half refund despite the trouble and danger of dealing with broken glass.