Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 20/Nov 04:25

Bamboo gives customers a safe place ‘to cell’

It happens more than it's supposed to – a person goes online to buy or sell a product, they find someone interested, make arrangements to meet and conduct the transactions, but what they meet with instead of an interested customer is a crook, who robs them of more than the item but of money and all their other belongings. As recent as this month, a 29-year-old Couva man was relieved of more than an electric device but a $250,000 car after being lured to Barataria, in what he thought was a completed Facebook marketplace sale of a Playstation 5. In May another man was robbed of his car and cell phone while trying to sell a security camera system. Quincy Richards, the founder and CEO of Bamboo Marketplace, which launches in February next year is all too familiar with the scenario and as such decided to build a platform where someone can safely and seamlessly sell an electronic device without the danger of having to meet at shady locations and deal with even shadier people. In an interview on November 10, Business Day learned about the platform Richards and his team are in the process of completing which makes selling your cellphones online simpler and safer. The phony phone sale Richards, an account manager in a telecommunications company, told Business Day he used to sell his old cellphones online to make extra money, but one sale made him consider the risks of selling products to strangers. [caption id="attachment_1191368" align="alignnone" width="731"] Quincy Richards, founder, CEO of Bamboo Marketplace -[/caption] “One of the things I always look for is to see if the buyer is pushing back,” he said. “If I come to you to sell a phone and you say: ‘Okay no problem,’ without any question, that raises some red flags for me. “That was the position with this one sale in particular. He didn’t question the price or the condition of the phone and he seemed in a rush to leave with the product.” After some observation, Richards realised the purported customer was planning to fleece him of his phone using a phony receipt. “He tried to doctor a text to make it look as though it came from a bank,” he said. “I didn’t get scammed but we were there for almost two hours. “That was when I asked myself why we didn’t have a platform where, if I want to buy or sell something I don’t have to see you. I could pay for it online, have it delivered to me safely and conveniently, and that is where the idea came.” How it works Richards said he realised the market did not have something that filled that specific need. Platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Pin.TT allowed you to interact with potential customers online, but the actual transaction still had to happen face-to-face. So, he developed a system to make the entire sale contact-free. “If you have a phone you want to sell, you can go on our Bamboo Marketplace app and list it. When someone makes a purchase, we have a system which we call ‘Escrow’ (a digital wallet) where we will hold the funds until the item is delivered,” he said. He said delivery is done through a network of smart lockers by Aeropost in 14 locations in TT. The customer and the seller will get online updates from the point of sale to the point of delivery. When the customer collects the item, we release the funds. “It creates a system for buyers and sellers where you wouldn’t have to worry about safety and you get convenience as well.” He added that the company also provides a 24-hour warranty system where customers can have their items refunded if they have any issues. “We have a dispute management team in place that will review the problem, whether the device is faulty or damaged or whatever it might be.” [caption id="attachment_1191367" align="alignnone" width="1024"] -[/caption] He said the business will have a lot of vendors – cellphone and tech stores – on the platform along with individual sellers. He said sellers have to be verified as a business or “We have covered all the bases that we believe are necessary where safety is concerned,” he said. “From the point of the individual to the device that would be sold. Those key areas are where we are ensuring that the proper vetting and verification is done for both companies and individuals." He said Bamboo is affiliated with two tech companies. One is called Verif, an AI-driven verification programme that verifies the existence of companies and worldwide. “This company will verify your identification, so for individuals you will have to upload your ID and it will do a biometric scan.” He said there are also fail-safes for the items themselves where people would have to share serial numbers and IME number – a unique 15-digit serial number for cell phones. This will verify whether the cellphone was stolen or blacklisted. “The verification is on both ends. We have to ensure that we cover ourselves because we plan to partner with reputable companies.” He added that companies and individuals can take part in sales in different ways. Individuals are charged a transaction fee, while businesses are offered a subscription where they are exempted from transaction fees and have the opportunity to sell to other markets. He said after extensive research he realised that there is no company similar to Bamboo marketing that streamlines transactions between an online seller and buyer. He said the business’ aim and mission is to be the pioneers of bringing safety to peer-to-peer online transactions. “In the next five years we wouldn’t just want to be the main platform where people buy and sell. We want to see that this issue that keeps happening over and over does not happen again. We want when people think of doing transactions that they are concerned about they automatically think about us.”   The post Bamboo gives customers a safe place ‘to cell’ appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.