I haven’t sold on Olx for about two years and last week when I tried listing a product, I realized that the platform has changed. I posted a product and waited for a confirmation email but what I got was rather something I had never seen before.
This is the mail I got:
Thank you for posting on OLX!
In a bid to ensure OLX is safe and secure for all our users, items posted on the site will be physically verified before being approved. This means that your ad is pending verification and one of our agents will contact you within the next twenty four hours to schedule a meeting with you to physically verify your item(s).
We are sorry for any inconvenience caused, but this is to ensure that we give you a great User experience and have a very safe and secure classifieds site.
Physical verification? I know Efritin does this and it seems Olx copied this but it’s much welcome. Scammers have plagued Olx and there are so many sad stories of how people got duped on the platform.
Most fake sellers out there who are actually scammers don’t have nothing to sell and this physical verification of goods to be sold will definitely ward a lot of them off.
The Challenge
While this is much welcome, one still has to look at the feasibility of this. There are so many sellers on Olx and it appears the platform doesn’t have enough workforce to make this effective. The product was posted on Thursday, last week and I didn’t get a call from Olx till Wednesday, this week.
The Olx agent is expected to come to my listed address to verify the product on Friday. The process is rather slow but if this is what is going to sanitize the platform and make it a trusted place for buying and selling, then it’s surely the way to go.