Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Ehvyn on September 05, 2013, 10:48 am

Title: FE?
Post by: Ehvyn on September 05, 2013, 10:48 am
Hi all,

This is more of a two pronged post.

First of all, what the hell is 'FE'? By which I mean, a seller has posted 'Due to an increase in problems with scammers, I will now require all users who have less than 5 sales on SR and are first time customers to FE.'

I've had no luck googling this and assume I'm just an idiot and missing something obvious.

The second part is I noticed this in a sellers profile page after purchasing his goods. He has a positive rating with multiple sellers and seems completely legit. That said however I purchased something 3 days ago now and have sent 2 messages and had no response and the sale has not changed its status. He has posted saying he has a lot going on and given the issues with TOR lately I'm not surprised but I am concerned. I understand I'm purchasing illegal items etc but is it wrong to assume the seller would be efficient?
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: johnwholesome on September 05, 2013, 10:54 am
FE = Finalize Early

Means the seller wants you to finalize the sale and give up escrow.

My advise would be, move on to another seller that won't require it (see my sig).
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: cbdx_en on September 05, 2013, 11:02 am
Just give some time. You are safe for now since the order is still in process.
He might have problems logging in SR or something..
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: Weaponstech on September 05, 2013, 12:48 pm
FE:FINALIZE EARLY
AND I SUGGEST YOU DONT EVER FINALIZE EARLY.
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: HereXVII on September 05, 2013, 02:06 pm
There are some good reasons for vendors to ask FE.
Especially if you live in a country with intense customs.
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: Amarantii on September 05, 2013, 02:26 pm
FE:FINALIZE EARLY
AND I SUGGEST YOU DONT EVER FINALIZE EARLY.

It's easy to say that, but when half of all vendors require you to finalize early if you're relatively new on SR, you're left with no option unless you can find someone who offers the same product for the same price without FE. As already stated, never finalize early unless the vendor is reputable and has a lot of positive feedback.
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: spunjtom on September 05, 2013, 02:40 pm
i don't require FE so if you need PEDs check me out, my links are in my signature
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: MrsKing on September 05, 2013, 05:16 pm
Finalize early

Never do it.  Alwasy use escrow, never FE and use someone else til you get there standards.
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: Not My Username on September 05, 2013, 05:32 pm
As everyone said, FE = Finalize Early. Once your guy processes your order, it'll be "in transit", and a finalize button will appear.  Which you're not meant to press until you receive your order, unless FE is required.

As a newbie, I finalized early on my first two orders; had a good vendor, received great product next day. Ironically, it was when FE wasn't required by another vendor that I got sent shoddy stuff haha.

As for your concerns, I probably wouldn't be worried. You can always cancel your order after a few days anyway if you want. Not sure if this effects your own stats in anyway though?
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: Sasha Shulgin on September 05, 2013, 06:26 pm
Never FE that's all you need  to know.
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: razael on September 05, 2013, 07:03 pm
dont  FE , i think i just bought from a bad vendor , he offers discount for people that FE , his reputation is good but i've been reading all his feedbacks and people got scammed , luckily i didnt FE so i might get my bitcoins back
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: Feesh on September 05, 2013, 07:16 pm
I FE'd my 1st 2 transactions and all went well with them. But even so, I'd advise not to, as I was naive when I FE'd and could easily have been stung.

But thanks to the trusty vendors that shipped after I FE'd! :)
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: jibbah on September 05, 2013, 08:03 pm
i think it's interesting in that i see lots of vendors request or give incentive for FE, and I see some vendors flat out require in some situations as well, and then there are the vendors who require FE no matter what.

but I also see, in the forums, "never FE". so the buying community says "don't FE", but the vending community sometime says "you must FE if you wanna do business with me".

whats the deal with the difference?

personally i woulnd't FE unless I absolutely had to. like if there was only 1 heroin vendor, then i might.

maybe it's only seen with certain types of products? i.e. opiates you'll see FE requests more often?

Title: Re: FE?
Post by: johnwholesome on September 05, 2013, 08:43 pm
i think it's interesting in that i see lots of vendors request or give incentive for FE, and I see some vendors flat out require in some situations as well, and then there are the vendors who require FE no matter what.

but I also see, in the forums, "never FE". so the buying community says "don't FE", but the vending community sometime says "you must FE if you wanna do business with me".

whats the deal with the difference?

personally i woulnd't FE unless I absolutely had to. like if there was only 1 heroin vendor, then i might.

maybe it's only seen with certain types of products? i.e. opiates you'll see FE requests more often?

The reason you see "Don't FE" so often on the forums is because even with 300+/5.0 vendors there is no guarantee that the vendor will be here tomorrow. This isn't necessarily because the vendor is turning scammer, but what if they get arrested, robbed, stabbed, run in front of a bus, get ripped off themselves? You be shit out of luck and your money is lost. You will often read stuff like "my 300+ speaks for itself" as if that is some sort of insta-trustworthy feat. But it's not, for it is in the nature of this trade that even the most well intentioned ones will trip up sooner or later, if only because they grow too fast and can't keep up with demand.

Then there are those vendors that ship out their crap rather selectively, escrow first, FE'd whenever they feel like. It's all been here before over and over again. Just look for the Tony76 threads in this forum, or look at SuperTrips review threads from about a year ago.

There are plenty of good smaller vendors on the road that struggle because cashing out the coins already poses a bottleneck and takes time, the added escrow wait doesn't help that problem, but the point is, would you give a stranger on the street any amount of money in hopes he'll be back in a couple days because some other stranger(s) said oh dun worry he is cool?

I think of it this way, my general rejection of FE doesn't mean I mistrust the seller, but I do certainly mistrust the world around the seller. A guy/some guys that have substantial amounts of drugs and money lying around somewhere are just that much more prone to fall on some misfortune than the guy selling RC models on Amazon. I dun need to assume their risks too, I already have enough with the possibility of my mail being lost/intercepted, cops banging on the door, getting sheistered etc.
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: frank-butcher24 on September 05, 2013, 08:48 pm
People shouldn't finalise early, generally.

People who aren't newbies should recognise that often newbies do have to finalise early if they want a particular product, domestically, at a particular price, sent in the way they want it to be sent.

Newbies should realise that finalising early is not wise, and they should only do it if they are prepared to take the risk that they lose their money and receive no goods in return. Then once newbies have a few transactions under their belt, they should never FE again, ever.
Title: Re: FE?
Post by: jibbah on September 05, 2013, 09:08 pm
thanks john & frank. good explanations!