Thread: Classifieds: Double-Selling

I've encountered a problem in the SRP/PayPal purchasing feature where the item is sold to more than one person. Basically, two people see the ad at (almost) the same time, click to purchase, and PayPal sells to both parties. I've had to issue two refunds within the last month.

I feel bad for the member who was less than one minute late. Maybe nothing (programming magic) can be done to fix the situation, but I thought it was worth noting.

Thanx,
Christopher

I dont t hink the add is marked as sold until the transaction is complete from paypal. So if 2 buyers click "buy it now" close apart and I could see this happening. It happened to me a while back actually.

Originally Posted by CJBianco

I've encountered a problem in the SRP/PayPal purchasing feature where the item is sold to more than one person. Basically, two people see the ad at (almost) the same time, click to purchase, and PayPal sells to both parties. I've had to issue two refunds within the last month.

I feel bad for the member who was less than one minute late. Maybe nothing (programming magic) can be done to fix the situation, but I thought it was worth noting.

Thanx,
Christopher

I had the same thing happen once. Fortunately most of the people we're dealing with here are pretty gentlemanly and understanding.

Originally Posted by CJBianco

I've encountered a problem in the SRP/PayPal purchasing feature where the item is sold to more than one person. Basically, two people see the ad at (almost) the same time, click to purchase, and PayPal sells to both parties. I've had to issue two refunds within the last month.

I feel bad for the member who was less than one minute late. Maybe nothing (programming magic) can be done to fix the situation, but I thought it was worth noting.

Thanx,
Christopher

If I had seen that Friodur you had in time you might have been able to sell that one three times.

The only thing I can think of is an intermediate "Commit to Buy" button to determine which buyer was first. The first purchaser is then directed to the Buy It Now button. Subsequent purchasers receive a message that it was already taken.

Another way to improve the Buy It Now button is for it to allow you to add money to the purchase if, for instance, you are overseas and the seller requires extra shipping.

Generally speaking, I prefer the Buy It Now because of the immediate feedback both buyer and seller receive. It's especially helpful if I'm at work and can't check very often. The early bird catches the worm, but if you miss out due to circumstances out of your control the early worm catches the bird!

Originally Posted by CaliforniaCajun

...Generally speaking, I prefer the Buy It Now because of the immediate feedback both buyer and seller receive...

That's the problem being addressed here; in some cases the "buy it now" allows more than one person to purchase the item.

Originally Posted by HNSB

That's the problem being addressed here; in some cases the "buy it now" allows more than one person to purchase the item.

I understand that and hope something can be done to fix this bug.

Not right now. The classifieds system is basically a black box for us.
We are looking at implementing a new classifieds system when with the next site upgrade, and that would be implemented the way we want it to work, rather than how a generic classifieds system works.