Members with No Feedback

the presence of feedback for a member on A'gon is only useful to show the person is legit or not. Any system that has a binary rating scale (ie favorable, or not) is of little use otherwise. I've had a few transactions here with members who had extensive favorable feedback scores, where my experience was less that outstanding (though still satisfactory).

I would really prefer a 1 to 10 rating scale with criteria spelled out as exists for the condition rating system. Further, the only disputing of that rating should be via a rebuttal comment. It would also be preferable to have the 1-10 apply in multiple categories like ebay has done. Then, the verbal input is no longer needed, but it too is marginally useful since most of the comments are trite anyway. This is more complex, and doesn't solve all of the problems but would provide more meaningful ratings to judge by and set your expectations.

This past year I have completed several transactions with new members with little or no feedback. I have been pleasantly surprised as they have all worked out flawlessly. That being said, when buying it does make me a little nervous dealing with a new name with no feedback. When selling' if paypal is used I have no problem.
I also agree that the new feedback system is fairly useless. This is the only site where I have been ripped off. Made payment and after a few promises never heard from seller again. He was removed from Agon but that didn't help my pocketbook.

Check out people who have feedback over many years. I got scammed for the first time recently from a "seller" in Indonesia who received funds for a preamp and never responded. Audiogon said they took him out of the members list because others had also complained but did not do anything else to help other than point me to the police. I have filed reports etc. What can you do, there are some bad apples out there.

Yes, the removal of our ability to post Negative feedback is one of those Audiogon moves that makes you wonder what's up. It's one in a series of wierd decisions:

1. Making threads just "disappear", sometimes for no reason , then refusing to respond to questions as to why.

2. Sudden removal of the ability to post links.

3. Changing the feedback system, turning it into a toothless pit bull.

I try to remind myself that I don't own Audiogon, I'm just a customer, and these guys are trying to make a living.

I do however wonder about some of these moves.

I have had offers in the past three months from people who had only been members for a day or two, and the offers were weird. In two cases, I let A'gon know, and in those cases and one other the "member" was booted within the day. It seems A'gon is doing pretty good at identifying that type of scam. Regarding feedback, I believe it still has meaning especially when left by another longer-time member who you can trust, so I also look to see who has left the feedback. My personal limit is about $500 for no feedback folks, and only if they sound legit, preferrably if I can speak with them on the phone. I recently missed out on the CD player I have been looking for when a no-feedback member posted it at an unusually low price, and I offered to purchase it COD. Someone else took the chance and bought it, and it turns out the guy was legit. No regrets, everyone has their own limits on "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."