What is SmartSell?
Fishpond New Zealand offers customers the option to pack their books, DVDs and games into a parcel (or more) and get them picked up by a courier. Fishpond will then list your second hand items on their website. They will sell it for you, send it to the buyer and you will receive the money (minus 17% fee) on either your bank account or your Fishpond account (which can then be used for future purchases on the site).My experiences with SmartSell
Why I use it
I decided that I need to sell quite a few of my books, DVDs and computer games but the thought of listing everything myself either by using Fishpond's normal selling system or by using TradeMe (which is a bidding site similar to eBay for New Zealand) wasn't a nice one. I've done things like that before and right now I don't have the time and energy to do this. I simply wanted an option to get everything out of the house and then receive some money in return. Fishpond's SmartSell programme sounded like the perfect solution and a 17% success fee sounded reasonable. We all know that there's hardly any way of selling things online without having to pay some kind of fee. So I decided to give it a go... Little did I know about the trouble that lay ahead of me.The organizing of the pick-up
It all started with organizing the pick-up of the two parcels I had prepared. I decided to do everything online. You send a message over the Fishpond site and tell them that you have parcels to pick-up. You enter your address, how many parcels and the approximate number of items. You can also choose a date and time for the pick-up. After you enter the information, you print labels for the parcels and if it's your first time to use that service, you also need to put a packaging slip into one of the parcels. This contains information about how you want to be paid for SmartSell sales: as mentioned before either on your bank account or as credit on your Fishpond account.The waiting for the pick-up
Even though Fishpond stated that they would send you a confirmation email within 24 hours, my experience told me that a pick-up would not happen that soon. So I gave them a desired that a few days in the future and I was sure that this was very realistic. When I did not get a confirmation email after two days, I was a bit worried. Then one of the two desired dates for the pick-up arrived. I got up early in the morning because our courier always drives past at around 6.45 am. On both days, he did not stop here. The weekend came and I decided to send an email to Fishpond, asking about the pick-up and why I hadn't received the promised confirmation email. This already seemed quite unprofessional to me. A couple of days later I received the confirmation email but no reply to my inquiry. The email said, the items would be picked up. Yes, but when? The stated dates had already passed. So I got up every morning, ready with the parcels. One day, the courier came up to the house - but only to deliver a parcel. I asked him whether he knew about picking up two parcels from my place and he said he had no clue about anything. No one got in touch with him. However, he asked me about the parcels and said he can take them for me. So at least I had them out of the house. The next step was the wait and the hope that they would be listed and not for a very low price. Because by that day, I had looked up blogs and comments of other users and I didn't like what I've read.Another email and a snail mail letter from Fishpond
A day after the mail-man had taken the parcel, I received another email, telling me that Fishpond was sorry for the delay. It was the COURIER'S fault (who was clearly innocent as he wasn't contacted at all) and that the parcels would be picked up in 2-5 days. Another day after that, I received a letter in the mailbox which included two labels for Fishpond parcels. The letter said I needed to use those labels for the parcels. I was quite annoyed by that time - why did they not tell me that there were ADDITIONAL labels when they told me to PRINT labels? I was annoyed, confused and worried that the parcels might not arrive. So the following morning, I talked to the courier and showed him the stickers. He just shook his head and couldn't believe the inefficiency of the company. Fortunately, he didn't need the stickers and the labels I had printed were sufficient. What a relief! But my items had not been listed on the website yet and I had received no other email from Fishpond.The listing of the items
After two weeks have passed, I finally received an email from Fishpond. But lo! It was not all positive. Yes, my parcels arrived but there were 15 (FIFTEEN) items they could not sell. They told me I had sent them FIFTEEN books that are not in the English language. Excuse me? Everything I've sent was in English. Every SINGLE item. So I sent them an email requesting information about the foreign language books - hey, maybe some magic miracle has turned everything in my parcels into foreign language books and DVDs. Of course, it might take a few days until I get a reply to that email. They said my options are either to pay for the shipping so they can return the items to me or I can donate them to charity. It costs almost $10 to get each parcel picked-up (which will be paid from the first sales), so it already cost me $20 to get the items to Fishpond. I'm not too keen to pay even more - esp. for foreign language items that I don't even remember possessing!I then went to my account and checked the items that have been listed. Fortunately, the prices they chose for the items are okay and some are even higher than I expected to sell the items for. But what did I have to see then? DVDs that I bought in NEW ZEALAND were listed as items that cannot be sold in NZ because they were not rated. The DVDs all had ratings. One example is Spartacus. It's rated 18+. I've bought it in New Zealand. Fishpond themselves sell those DVDs on their site - so seriously? What's the problem? Also "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" concert. Some of the DVDs I might even have bought via Fishpond. And now they tell me those cannot be sold in NZ? Why is every good entertainment store selling them then? Are they all doing something illegal?
Fishpond also sells in other countries, so they did list the DVDs - but I find it ridiculous that they supposedly can't be sold in the country where I legally bought them from normal offline and online stores...
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for posting this. Their explanation of 'SmartSell' on the website is so loose I couldn't make ends or tails of it.
I'll be trying the SmartSell thing next week and hoping for the best, I wonder if being based in Australia makes a difference to the sales, vs. your experience?
BEWARE FISHPOND SMARTSELL.
ReplyDeleteThey take your $30 book & give you 30 CENT in return.
DO NOT USE THEM.
Yes, I sadly made that experience, too. I was so disappointed about some of the prices they sold my books, DVDs and games for. I think it's a bit of a rip off, who knows how much they make on their end.
DeleteSame problem - booked a courier pickup a week and a half ago - still no sign of them - 4 emails to fishpond and the matter still not resolved
ReplyDeleteWhat happened with me was that they sent me a sticker to put on the parcels. Then I just handed them over to our regular post courier, and he said that was fine. Did you get any stickers sent from them?
Deletecould there be problems because it was christmas and new years recently ?
ReplyDeleteWhen I had my issues with Fishpond, holidays definitely were not an issue.
DeleteI am utterly gutted with my Fishpond SmartSell experience. On the 22/08/16, I posted off (rather than using their more expensive courier service) the first two of a total of seven cartons of books - 327 books in total. I posted them to their 'reply paid' number, knowing that freight would be $9.95 each, and that these charges would be deducted from my eventual sales. Up until last week, only four books had sold, but THREE more sold last week - hooray! But just today, I received this email from them: Hi ShaniCat
ReplyDeleteWe have reviewed your smartsell sales and you have only sold 7 items within the past 3 months. This is below the required sales rate for our Smartsellers.
We can either return the items to you at a cost of $192.61 or donate or dispose of them. Please let us know which option you would prefer prior to 15/11/2016 by replying to Catherine@fishpond.co.nz.
Thank you for using Fishpond's Smartsell.
Regards
Catherine
I am absolutely irate!!!!!!! Many of those books were in brand new, mind condition (from my own shop!) and in total, worth thousands of $$$'s, and they haven't even given them a fair time to sell! It's not even three months since I sent the first box, which took at least four weeks for them to list for sale online! I am . . almost beyond words, and shall be taking up the matter with the NZ equivalent of the ACCC (Australian consumer protection). Fishpond's SmartSell seemed absolutely the most wonderful solution - win win . . ??? Not so - it's an absolute rort, and they know people won't pay that kind of money to have their unwanted books returned to them. So what will Fishpond do . . donate them? I very much doubt it. They will somehow make money on the side from them, with absolutely no return for me. I repeat - I am gutted.
I am sorry to hear that you also had issues with Fishpond. I had received an email like that, too. It taught me to not use services like that again in the future. If I wanted to donate books, I would go to a local charity shop (and I sometimes do - but the really expensive books I want to sell!).
DeleteI hope that you will find a solution to this problem. It would be worth it to try and get the some public attention, i.e. try to get a TV channel to get into this. I think there were some shows that looked into customer issues - and this one is something that simply should not happen!
I even had them tell me they sold certain books that I never even sent them - so most likely there is someone who sent in books and never got money for them. But when I told Fishpond, they did not care.
Bet you can't beat my Fishpond Smartsell stuff-up...
ReplyDeleteI sent 5 boxes to FP (au) using the reply paid.
All the books had ISBNs as I used my scanner & book catalogue program to keep track of what I sent.
Fist box was listed fine - but I did have to 'correct' 2 of the listings. They listed titles that I hadn't sent.(for which I was charged a 'barcode' correction fee...no amount of emails or complaints could get that changed...plus they couldn't tell me which books caused the fees...
The next 4 boxes were sent shortly after the first box listed. (June 2016)
Those books were listed...except 34 books added. I emailed them to advise that not all the books I sent were listed. No reply. I thought as I was a new Smartsell seller there might be a limit of the amount of books I could list. I emailed again in Aug 2016 (after some sales) to remind them of the missing 34 books. They replied that all my books had been listed under my ID.
With the ISBNs I searched Fishpond & found what looked to be MY books listed under 'Fishpond Smartsell' ID...but 6 out of the 34 were missing (presumed sold??)
I immediately emailed Fishpond.
Yep - those 34 books were indeed listed under the Fishpond ID. A system error I was told...yeah...right...
The remaining 'missing' books were then listed under my ID...BUT I was then charged another $9.95 box fee...
It took from 19/8 to 16/9 to receive the funds owing for the 'sold' 6 books & the refund of the incorrect 'box' fee.
What happens to the books that are supposedly donated to charity that you don't want returned due to the high courier costs???
They sell them under 'Fishpond Smartsell'
When I first looked at Smartsell it sounded fine. I looked at the current similiar Smartsell books & was fine with the prices they seemed to listed at.
Nobody mentions that Fishpond NZ lists your books at a fraction of the AU Fishpond price with 'specials' for NZ customers. (3 books for $10-$3.33 each, 5 for $15-$3.00 each, 10 for $25-$2.50 each)
I stupidly thought that the NZ Fishpond site would have comparable prices to AU with only currency conversion making the difference...
NOT SO.
If you're thinking of using Smartsell...DON'T
I wish I had never seen the advertising blurb for 'Smartsell'. I sent nine cartons of books totalling 321 - many certainly requiring barcode applications as close to a hundred were hardback historical/romance novels (Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer) purchased in the Sixties, plus some spiritual books without barcodes. However, the remaining majority of books were brand new stock from when my shop closed in 2009. I sent off two cartons a week (posted - not couriered) for four consecutive weeks, followed by a single carton (I had many more to send, but had other priorities on my time at that point). Approximately six weeks after my first consignment of two cartons was POSTED (not RECEIVED by Fishpond!) I received an email advising that my books were not selling at the required rate for the Smartsell process, and would I prefer them to be returned to me (at my cost, of course) or disposed of at their end? I was gutted, not knowing what the hell they were talking about, and was eventually directed to a clause in the 'Terms and Conditions' (NOT visible and with no reference made to this, in the 'Smartsell' blurb.) Apparently they require a 5% turnover rate, and if this is not achieved on a monthly basis - they don't want your books. So they say - I wonder, in truth, just how they on-sell them further, doing the owners out of any chance of a payment. Anyway, after much to-ing and fro-ing of emails, it was revealed that that particular email had been sent in error, but by that point, I had lost heart and advised them to delete about 100 titles from my 'Smartsell' listing, in order to increase the chances of the remaining books selling. Of course, I had still accrued the postage and barcode application costs on these books, but . . between a rock and a hard place. So many of the ones I advised to discard, were brand new books on cats . . . funny ones - lovely stories . . !!!!!!! To date, 21 books have sold since they would have received the first two cartons (at approximately the beginning of September) but I am still IN DEBT to Fishpond for $96.63 - being their costs and commission! There is no way I am ever going to see a red cent for any of my 321 books sent in good faith to Fishpond, as the prices they sell for are miniscule. The seller WOULD receive an average of $3.00 - $4.00 per book if you could ever get on top of the initial debt to Fishpond.
ReplyDeleteSuffice it to say that I am disgusted and disenchanted, and have donated my remaining brand new books (three further cartons) to our local library, rather than be the means for Fishpond making any further money out of me. One only has to Google 'dissatisfied customers of Smartsell' to find that we are not alone in our bad experiences, and I would reiterate the words of the above post . . DON'T use Smartsell!!!!