I have recently become a fan of online transaction, after my second time to successfully book flights to and from Cebu, it was a natural progression that I try buying something online. I was then searching for a camera as I am planning to go to Sagada this summer and my old camera’s lens was busted after a Corregidor Trip, It was an old model of Canon Powershot series and was damaged due to my irresponsible use in a very hot and humid environment. I have asked the Canon service center for a repair quotation, sadly the repair cost about three thousand pesos plus, so I figure it’s better to buy a new one. And that’s how I discover the power of ecommerce!
I visited numerous ecommerce sites, my favorites are www.sulit.com.ph, www.ebay.com.ph and www.multiply.com. I was feeling good about being able to compare prices from various online businesses though cross-referencing between sites stretched my patience because I am using smart bro prepaid and the connection is soo slow (so much for their claim of 7.2 mbps).
It was one site to another, check that, check this, and the great thing is most online businesses offers brand new products at a huge discount as compared to their in-store counterparts! Though be aware that not all online businesses give warranty other than personal warranty. That’s another thing, I didn’t hear of the term ‘Personal Warranty’ only until I was deep in my search mission. It’s like we are back again in ancient time of the barter trade wherein the thread that binds buyer and seller alike is Trust! Trust that your ‘meet-ups’ will push thru, trust that the buyer represents the products as is, trust that the seller have the means to pay, trust that should the product malfunction while on personal warranty, the buyer will see to the product repair etc. But, here’s a but, everyone should be picky in choosing whom to do business with because just like in any marketplace, there are people who are out to con you. Do background checks on the online business, a good way is to check the feedback of their previous costumers and sometimes the ecommerce portal (like ebay) has an official affirmation of the seller’s status (in ebay ‘powersellers’ are people who have made numerous completed transactions) and this is meant to give you more confidence.
Back to my camera, after a very long deliberation and evaluation of the various offers online, I finally decided on a seller, and contacted him, his post in sulit.com was very attractive and it leads me to cross reference to his multiply site. It amazes me how prevalent is online businesses on multiply.com in our country. Anyway so I contacted him and request if we can meet-up the following day, I was that excited to play with my new camera! Ordinarily a seller asked for a ‘goodwill’ money to be deposited to his account before actual meet-ups, this is for the seller’s protection that his time and effort in agreeing to meet you will not go to waste in case you changed your mind about buying. Maybe because he realized that I’m good at my word and very eager (I bombard him with texts, ym messages, reply post on his ad, private message on his site) he grant my request of foregoing the ‘goodwill deposit’.
Online businesses must be pretty perky in this day and age, because instead of him I met with his assistant. And by the assistant’s recounts, she has 5 people to meet that day who bought bigger ticket items compared to mine. I wonder how these guys pay taxes, and how the government is regulating ecommerce. On positive note they create jobs (the assistant as an example) and gets more money moving in our economy (I hope).
So the following day I got my new camera, it’s a Sony Digital Camera H20! I can’t wait to take pictures in Sagada!
So I have become an official online buyer!
The next step is becoming a seller myself.
From the moment I made my intention to my previous company that I am buying my service car, it was already firmly planted on my mind that I will try to sell my car online once I got it. I availed of the free ad posting services of www.sulit.com.ph, and I am pretty, pretty please with the result!
After 10 minutes of posting my ad online (it was not even completed because I can’t figure out how to attached the car pics to my ad and I was still editing my post), I got numerous calls and texts regarding the car that I was selling. And most online car shoppers are pretty serious, as a seller I have to choose the best offer. To cut the story short, just after 3 hours of posting my car-for-sale ad online, I met the buyer and sealed the deal, it was a great deal! And the agreed price was higher than what the buy and sell car business I brought my car to previously offered as well as the offer of my landlord’s friend. So I’m pretty please :-)
Anyway, I’m thinking now what online transaction to aim for next, bidding perhaps?
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