Ethics

Dan Pattison

I have contacted management at HipStamp multiple times.. Each tine someone named Justin tells me to contact the seller. HipStamp has no courage to weed out the unethical individuals that sell on their format. If you suggest that they police their sellers they simply do not respond beyond "do it your self"! 'saratogatrading' is advertising US stamps that are F-VF but using XF to Superb photos on their Lisings. This is just not ethical. I am sure Justin would tell me to contact the seller. We need a stronger management who will remove unethical sellers if we are to be able to list accurate items on HipStamp. Each crook makes all of us look poorly in the eyes of the buyers.

Ted Tyszka

How is it unethical to under-promise and over-deliver? If a customer feels that a stamp he bought, described as F/VF, is actually XF, then that dealer has just brought himself a lot of goodwill that will manifest itself in customer loyalty and more sales.

Mark Rosenberg

Hi Dan,

All Sellers on HipStamp are required to follow our terms and conditions. This includes that if an image is being used to represent a item in a multi-quantity listing, that the image must represent the same quality of item which a buyer will receive - unless explicitly and clearly stated otherwise.

I understand that your concern is that the Seller in question is using images which are of better quality that those which the buyer would receive, and I would agree this would certainly be an issue, and one which we would take prompt action upon. While we can't review every item sold, this is exactly what our feedback system is for. When buyers purchase items from our Sellers, they can share their experience for others to review. Our staff regularly reviews the feedback of all of our Sellers, and if an issue becomes apparent, appropriate action is taken.

In this specific case, the Seller in question has over 10,000 feedback with us, and a rating of over 99.9% with no neutral or negative feedback having been received within the past year, out of the 3,000 feedback received since then. So among those who have purchased items from this Seller - there is no current issue with the quality of items being received. That being said, if you have questions for a Seller, you're of course welcome to follow-up with them directly.

Dave Bennett

I am constantly amazed at your calm restraint and polite diplomacy in dealing with whiners and malcontents!

Good for you, Mark!!

Ted Tyszka

^^

Dan Pattison

Showing one thing and sending another is plain old bait and switch!

John P Fields

They should send what they show. And they occasionally do not.

Paul Varty

Dan
Can you show any specific examples of the bait and switch?
You would need to scan and upload images of actual received items and provide the link to sold listing?

Jacques Famery

In my description of the stamp, I always mention if its "actual stamp" or a "similar stamp". And if similar, I will send only a stamp that has a cancellation mark very close to the scanned stamp,, if not I will make a new copy and change the listing.
Once, I had a customer that was disappointed, the scanned stamp had a light round cancellation mark and I sent a square light cancellation...but it was mentioned that it was "similar" . Now, to eliminate this problem, when I can I put several scans of the same stamp, so customers have a idea of they will get.
https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/usa-1986-sc-2202-o-used-cpl-set/15279531

William Horsfield

I think the bigger issue is when a dealer really thinks he as an XF stamp when in my opinion and/or yours I would list it as a VF or even less. I know some issues are XF because of the issue not having very good printings. Grading is not an exact science and an opinion from 10 collectors/dealers on any given stamp can get you 5-10 different opinions. Some dealers think just because it clears the perfs it is VF - not so. It's up to the buyer to look very closely at the item and question it with the dealer before bidding or buying. I made this mistake on some occasions.

Roderic Little

Most of my listings carry a clear statement that what you see is what you get, I always upload individual images.

Rodney Washington

I always "feel out" the seller by testing them with a small order first. Then, if they are trustworthy, I go ahead and keep using them. I've never had any problems.