Zapper - www.zapper.co.uk

I’ve been trying to scan books for over 3 weeks now and keep getting a message saying the system is down for essential maintenance .

I had 100 books and DVDs to give away, in very good condition, and didn't have the time or energy to sell in ebay myself, especially as I haven't had much luck with selling things in the past. So I thought I would use a book and DVD selling place to at least make something off all of it. Zapper was the only place that would accept all of them, so went with them.

By the time I had finished scanning the 100 items, my offer came to just under £6. An absolute insult! But it took me such a while to do it all, I didn't have the energy to look elsewhere. So I boxed them all up and sent them. It took over a month for them to process my boxes, and to add insult to injury the final offer was £2.75! An absolute joke for 100 items in very good condition! One of those items alone would have sold for more than that, so they should be getting more than 100% profit off my items.

It makes me sick that I have given them to such a money grabbing company, who will have made loads off my stuff. Needless to say, I will not be using them again, and urge you to do the same. I do not wish to take part in lining the back pockets of people who must be sickeningly rich, while those giving to it are struggling to make ends meet. Next time, although I will make no money whatsoever (though £2.75 isn't far off nothing anyway) I will be giving to charity, so then I at least know it is going to people in need rather than people full of greed.

NEVER EVER USE THIS COMPANY. If I had read the reviews first I certainly wouldn't have.

I sent two boxes, correctly labelled and with contents photographed.

Part of the contents - the ones they are giving you the most money for.... amazingly weren't there. How can that be that part of a boxes contents is there and the other isn't.

They refused to entertain that this could happen.

They are just cowards who take ages to do anything and denie everything, saying you as the customer is incompetent

I had a large box of books, all in excellent condition, some brand new hard backs and texts - every booked I scanned they were paying 1p each - what an insult, better to decline offering. Uninstalling the app - rubbish.

**Avoid obtains YOUR STUFF AND NEVER PAYS ** so far sent off 3 boxes and I am awaiting payment.. Well that was over 14 days now (30DAYS COMING UP). I have emailed them asking where the cheques are... the reply was Oh sorry blar blar blar.. We will re issue them Or send over your bank details and we will make payment asap.. Well that was Monday and still no payment.. Chased yesterday and still nothing..

WILL BE LOOKING AT TAKING IT FURTHER Fraud-act-2006

I received a good price for my items, however, after waiting for some time, I didn't receive payment until I sent an email requesting for it's whereabouts.

At one time I was really enthusiastic for this site, and sent them all my old stuff. But the delays between them receiving the parcels, and paying out was infuriating. Nice enough people on the phone when I phoned to grumble, but have now moved to a rival of theirs which pays much more promptly. Which is a real pity, as I have no complaints about their site or its prices, but they really have to up their game on payout times.

People want payment not promise. It's unacceptable for Zapper to take 5 weeks to send a cheque on a small trade when competitors can achieve the same in 5 days. I've used Zapper once. Never again. I'm concerned that they have cash flow or solvency difficulty. Poor communication and delay is not a convincing business model.

The website is easy to use and there are convenient drop off points. Those are the good points. The bad points: they don't pay much for items and cheques take the full 21 days to be issued and printed. Then you have to wait for them to be posted and arrive. Plus when you contact customer services they say the cheque has been posted when it hasn't because you get an email two days later to say your cheque has only just been printed. Still at least it's a way of getting a little cash back in the recession.

Entered book barcodes and was offered 20p each for first two, remainder not wanted. Later, going back to the site, I entered the same books, in a different order, and was again offered 20p for the first two (which were previously not wanted) and the remainder were again not wanted - including the two previous worth 20p !!! This happened several times.

So is this a deliberate policy to initially offer a pittance to suck you in to the system, or a glitch, or what ?

Obviously 20p is not of interest and I just took the books to a local charity shop, but this inconsistent valuuing system seems very odd and doesn't build any confidence in the accuracy of the bidding