I had an interesting experience last week and was very glad for the support of iCraft.  I received an e-mail from someone who was interested in purchasing one of my products.  Of course, I was excited, who wouldn't be, and I responded accordingly. Here is the story"

The person wanted to know the condition of the item and wanted my Paypal information to pay for the item.  She was going to arrange for someone to pick up the item.  I realized that she was not buying off my iCraft site because she was having the item picked up and didn't want to pay the shipping costs.  I went in and reduced the price of the item by the shipping cost and told her to go in and pay for the item.  I was willing to allow the pick up of the item in the interest of the sale.  

Her response was to again ask about the condition of the item and then told me that she was having trouble paying her pick up agent through her bank account and could she send me the money through PayPal and I wire the money through Western Union.  

Oddly enough, the first question I asked was "What does she mean am I sure of the condition of the item?  Of course I am, I made the stupid thing".  This is what really caught my attention that something was off.  I also asked myself if I wanted to got to the trouble of doing she asked, but my first question was what really caused concern that something was off.  I sent an e-mail to iCraft about this and found out that I was not the only person who had received the e-mail from this person.  We were advised to not respond to her.  That it was a scam.  I am not sure what the scam would be, whether it had to do with PayPal or if she just wanted my address.  I was voting for the second and that really spooked me out.  

It is not nice being suspicious, and losing a sale is not always easy to handle, but I wrestled for a large part of day with the question of how for I was willing to go secure a sale.  What were the limits of customer service, and how did her requests and situation follow-up with my question of why do people buy on-line (she said she was an oceanographer who was at sea).  Others I spoke to me asked her she didn't get her friends or family to accept her bank money to pay her pick up agen, and I eventually realized that the story was questionable because she would have to be buying everything on-line locally for the pick up agent story to work.  

It was a disturbing experience but I have to thank the people at iCraft for being there as support.  It makes selling through a crafter mall totally worth it.