To be fair, this is nothing to do with Shpock and could have happened no matter how you sold the item.

I have tried using it to sell locally as an alternative to gumtree and facebay. I have one good experience and one bad. A buyer offered on a high bed, and asked a question in the offer pane, asking if I could deliver. There is a dedicated question pane but she did not ask there.
I accepted the offer but then discovered there is no way to reply. I am disabled, and can not drive. She then asked about pick up, again I had no way of replying.
She complained to Shpock that I had gone back on the deal, which I had not, I simply had no way of answering. I wrote to Shpock explaining , several times, they replied that the buyer must ask the question in 'Ask a question' or I would not be able to reply. I said that was obvious but how do I tell her that? She then went on to leave negative feedback saying I was rude and never answered her. I asked Shpock to remove it, but they said she was entitled to her opinion.
I now an offer on another item, they have asked me to post, by asking the question in offers, so I have no way of replying. CS are useless as they only speak broken English.

How can I give the buyer my PayPal email address as I can see the same thing happening again. The buyer doesn't have items for sale so I can't ask a question on one of his items to give my answer.

That's odd, when someone accepts and offer and it gets confirmed, you can then privately message each other as much as you want (this is not publically viewable). Until an offer is accepted/confirmed, the sale is not binding and no one is able to leave feedback.

When I sell stuff on Shpock, I always list the terms of the sale in the description e.g. postage only, collection only etc. Say if I have an item for sale which is collection only for £20 and a buyer makes a bid for £20 with the message "can you post please?", I will send back a counter offer for £20 with a message, "sorry collection only". If they accept then it is on the basis that it is collection only, if they are not happy then they will reject the offer. If however, I am happy to post but I need to ask them a question then I can place a counter offer of £100 with a message like "I have counter offered £100 so I can privately send you a message. Please tell me where it will be posted?". The buyer will get the message and they will obviously not accept it at a high price but they know it was only done so that the seller can send a private message.

Effectively, there is no way to send a private message without bidding so Shpock even say that if a buyer wants to send a seller a private message before bidding then they should make a bit of £0 and tell the seller they are doing that just so they can send a private message. Likewise, if the seller wants to respond to the buyer, they should be an unreasonably high counter offer and mention that it is done so they can private message back.

Hope that helps.

Buyer has bought and I have accepted offer, Shpock say the buyer must ask the question in Questions not offer but there is no way of telling him this. SHpock confirm that no way of answering the question unless buyer asks a question in the correct manor. I have been a succesful eBay business shop for 13 years and waiting for a young designer status on Shpock. I hope it works better than this. Waiting for more guidelines on how to suck eggs, been waiting since April, now this.

I'm still doing fine on Shpock, but agree the ability to ask questions without upgrading to a paid for service is a bit of a pain. I find people use the offer system which then allows buyers and sellers to chat a little.

In that case it sounds like the bid has not been complete so it is not yet legally binding. Whether it is the buyer or the seller, one person must accept the offer and then the other person must confirm the accepted offer. Only when both of these are complete is the deal sealed. Once it is sealed, you can private message each other.

It sounds like you've accepted the offer but the buyer has not confirmed. You are not locked in until they confirm so there is no issue at all. If they are taking a while to confirm, you can use the interface to remind the buyer (it's kind of like a prod to hurry them along). If they are taking too long to confirm, there is an option to cancel it. I can't remember what the option is called but should be obvious when you click the little icon on the item page (where you accepted the offer).

So the process is always:
1) Buyer makes offer or seller makes counter offer
2) Other person accepts
3) Person from 1 needs to confirm

Only after 3 is the deal sealed and then you will be able to private message each other.

I'm extremely confused as to what is going on and why people are getting stuck. I currently use shpock and have not encountered any problems.

Public messages:
If a buyer asks a question in the public area, you can reply to the question in the public area. I don't believe you can answer a question until a buyer has asked a question. But once someone has asked a question, I think you can keep writing subsequent messages in the public area.

Private messages:
Only a buyer initiate private messaging by placing an offer of £0 along with their private message (it's a bit of a hack to send private message but this is what Shpock advise). The seller can then send a private message response with a counter offer with their associated message (probably best to ensure the value of the counter offer is high). Once the price and terms of the sale are agreed via bidding private messages, someone then sets the real bid price, this then needs to get accepted and confirmed. Once that is done, then normal private messaging is enabled. Either party can send whatever private messages they want without it being attached to an offer (because an offer has already been set and agreed).

Hope that helps and clarifies things.

Have a look at the Shpock Faq:

Q: When is the sale legally binding?

A legally binding agreement is entered when both sides agree on the deal, this means that one party accepts and the other confirms. Offers are not legally binding.
If you accept an offer from a buyer, the buyer will have to confirm the deal before it is binding. If you send a counter offer to the buyer and he/she accepts, you will have to confirm the deal before it is binding.

https://en.shpock.com/faq/#faq-selling-on-shpock-5

Q: When can I cancel a deal?

You can cancel a deal until the deal has been confirmed by you or the interested buyer. After a deal has been confirmed you can no longer cancel the deal, and you have entered a legally binding agreement to sell your product.

https://en.shpock.com/faq/#faq-selling-on-shpock-6

Techno79 Thanks for the Shpock Private Message explanation. Just had a full price offer but buyer wants me to post. Shpock FAQ are not clear on how you agree additonal postage costs using the service. If you accept the offer the screen shows a three step process. The sellers acceptance. Then a step where the buyer needs to confirm. Then a chat step. There are two action button displayed Cancel Deal and Remind Partner. Along side this there is a warning that As soon as the buyer confirms you have legally sold the item.

My question, if you accept the offer without adding the additional postage cost are you obliged to cover that cost. I have already selected accept on this one and may have to take the hit. It's a learning process!

Techno79 your way of dealing with this is better than the way Shpock seems to have set this up, with the Chat step being after accept and confirm.

I'm new to Shpock. How should you list multiple items of the same type. eg. BNWT umbrellas.
Description: 3 x umbrellas £10 each ...... with a Sale price of £30 or a Sale price of £10
Or would it be better to list them individually.

If you want to sell them as a batch then list them as 3 x umbrella. If you want to sell the individually then best to sell one at a time. If you list all 3 individually at the same time then your questions and interest will be spread, as well as your offers so you'll get less money and you only sell all 3 when 3 people buy it. If you list them one at a time then you'll still sell them when 3 people buy but you'll have all your offers and questions concentrated on the item that is currently on sale.

I'm still doing surprisingly well on SHpock but am finding an increase in the number of people wanting an item delivered. I had a brilliant one the other day, my postcode is clearly shown and someone messaged me to say that would be happy to pay my full asking price if I could deliver next time I was out in my car. I took that to mean they were local and believing it might just be possible I asked where they lived . It transpires it is nearly 30 miles away and the other side of London so would mean me paying the congestion charge ! The worst thing is the item is listed at £5.

Why, it has a built in mechanism for sending messages. Buyers can send public messages on your item listing which is visible to everyone and sellers can publicly respond. Buyers can also send a private message along with an offer, which sellers can counter offer along with a private message of their own. Once a price has been agreed and confirmed, you can continue to send private messages freely. I try to keep all messages in private chat where possible.