[rant] I used Nookazon once and I am never touching it again

[deleted]

I knew this would end badly.

I read horror stories. I heard about how terribly Nookazon transactions can go. But I still tried it. I was desperate.

I don’t time travel, so when a villager that I don’t like decides to move, it’s a big deal. Yesterday Marina finally wanted out. It was great. I started my search for Sylvia on here. Today she was in boxes and my TBT search got me nowhere. So I thought I’d try Nookazon.

To my surprise, someone had posted that they had an original Sylvia for sale only 30 minutes before I joined the site. I jumped on it and offered 10 NMT. The seller messaged me and said that it was a deal.

Great, right? No. What this person failed to mention was that Sylvia was not in boxes.

Who does that? On TBT, it’s just implied that a villager for sale is ready to go (unless it’s on a cycling thread or shop of some kind). However, I decided to give this person a chance since I had nowhere to be. It was 8pm. I told them that I would not be online past 11pm. Then the chat fell silent. I messaged them twice over that 3 hour period and got nothing but the occasional “still trying.” At 11pm I shut off my game and assumed that it wasn’t going to work.

Then, at ONE IN THE MORNING, I got five frantic messages telling me to hurry and pick her up. I was already awake, but I explicitly told them that I do not play my game at that hour. And this person had the nerve to tell me to hurry after making me wait for FIVE HOURS? Come on.

So I got my game booted up while this person REPEATEDLY told me to hurry. Then I arrived on their island, where they made me drop the NMT first. I thought nothing of it.

After all that, I finally made it to Sylvia’s house... only to find that she was sleeping.

I was infuriated. I voided Marina and emptied my plot early just for this person to screw me over. And they didn’t even seem all that sorry.

No, all they did was suggest that I time travel backwards to keep my plot open for tomorrow. I tried that, but it was too late and now I have a random villager that I didn’t want and I’m short 10 NMT. I am still very angry, mostly at myself for going outside TBT for trades.

Just now I told that person to keep the stupid NMT. I will never use Nookazon again. At this point I am considering buying Sylvia’s Amiibo card.

 

[Xara]

yikes. i’m sorry about that; the beginning actually isn’t all that out of the ordinary as i’ve definitely seen my fair share of people attempting to sell villagers that weren’t even in boxes but it got worse as i kept reading. i can only imagine how frustrating that was, i’m sorry you had an experience like that ;/

 

[Insulaire]

Every post on Nookazon just convinces me further to never ever trade outside of this forum. On the plus side, I just looked on eBay and her authentic Amiibo card is selling for under $3 shipped, which seems like a more than fair cost for moving past this bad experience and guaranteeing a happy ending

 

[Skunk]

I like nookazon, I use it a lot, especially for villager trading! The thing is though, there's a lot of people on there who don't know trading manners, or know much about community interactions within the game like they do on TBT.. so there's bound to be people that just don't grasp the games etiquette. It's common for listings for villagers on the Nookazon website just mean the villager is able to be cycled, the discord is where people post proof of them being in boxes etc, so if you ever try again check the discord if you use discord of course! very unfortunate that your first experience was so traumatizing, I can replace the NMTs you lost if you'd like.

 

[niko@kamogawa]

Yikes! That's one nasty experience you had there. This is why I am absolutely avoiding villager trading at all costs.

By the way, this forum is no exception. I had two bad experiences so far. (One is trying to swindle me!)

If you want to pursue trading for villagers here, my tip is not to entertain newly created accounts or accounts with no positive feedback yet.

 

[Toska]

Sorry this happened to you. After hearing all the horror stories, I don't think I'll ever be looking on there to trade. And as an above user said, for under 3 dollars, it may be worth it so you don't have to deal with the mess of buying her online.

 

[BluebearL]

Nookazon can be very difficult and I am so sorry to hear of this experience! I use the discord nookazon because there is a little more etiquette there and more monitoring but that being said it still isn't brilliant. I find it can take days on the forums at times to find specific villagers and nookazon has an abundance so I still use it but generally after using it for a while you learn what to look out for in terms of sellers. For one, always ask for a picture of the villager in boxes with their username and take a look to see if they have any reviews and if so what they are like etc. There are some lovely people on there and there is a free villagers section on the discord in frequent use so I would recommend it if you are able to get a free plot again some day. However, I always try to do everything in the forums, I have never had a bad experience here and it is very well organised with lovely members. I definitly understand you never wanting to use it again, I hope you are able to get a villager you want to replace the random one eventually. As an amiibo collector I would recommend it as well, I love collecting cards of my favourite villagers. Amiibo cards are worth it, I've had mine for years.

 

[Che5hire Cat]

Sorry to hear that you had to deal with something like this. I kinda had a similar experience like this on Nookazon too a few months ago. I was also looking for a villager (Jacques to be exact) and found of course someone who offered him. I offer 25 NMT, the seller contacted me and we had a deal. I made my way to the seller's island, dropped the tickets, went to Jacques' house, only to find him there not being in boxes at all. I asked the seller why he's not in boxes and got the answer back that I should still talking to him. I knew that this wouldn't work that way, but did talk to him anyway and as expected I couldn't invite him to my island. I explained the seller the situation, they seem to be confused why it wouldn't work, telling me that Jacques told them that he wanted to move out. After a while of reading the same thing from the seller over and over again (like, I was at this point not sure if they really didn't know how villager trades work or if this was some sort of a bad joke), I went out of the house, the seller dropped the NMT, I picked them up and just kicked myself out of the island via - (I had not the nerves to walk all the way back to the airport tbh, since I was a bit salty for wasting my time here). When I was on my island again, I realized that I only got 20 NMT back, 5 were missing. Okay, I thought, nevermind about those few tickets. Later, I got a message back from the seller via Nookazon, telling me that this never happened to them before and that they actually traded other villagers in this way before (quite hard to believe that others were capable to adopt a villager who's not in boxes), they didn't apologized or tried to fix this problem and just call it a day. I checked their feedback, they had over 50 positive ones and I was still wondering if they ever traded villagers before. After all, I found Jacques later while island hopping.

Besides another bad encounter with a scammer, I had overall actually positive experiences there. I don't wanna praise Nookazon for being the best thing out there however, as it sure has it's faults, but for general trades, it's useful. Just keep an eye on the people you trade with and break up the trade when you think that this will not work out, that's what I did to prevent any possible trouble.

 

[JSS]

I knew this would end badly.

I read horror stories. I heard about how terribly Nookazon transactions can go. But I still tried it. I was desperate.

I don’t time travel, so when a villager that I don’t like decides to move, it’s a big deal. Yesterday Marina finally wanted out. It was great. I started my search for Sylvia on here. Today she was in boxes and my TBT search got me nowhere. So I thought I’d try Nookazon.

To my surprise, someone had posted that they had an original Sylvia for sale only 30 minutes before I joined the site. I jumped on it and offered 10 NMT. The seller messaged me and said that it was a deal.

Great, right? No. What this person failed to mention was that Sylvia was not in boxes.

Who does that? On TBT, it’s just implied that a villager for sale is ready to go (unless it’s on a cycling thread or shop of some kind). However, I decided to give this person a chance since I had nowhere to be. It was 8pm. I told them that I would not be online past 11pm. Then the chat fell silent. I messaged them twice over that 3 hour period and got nothing but the occasional “still trying.” At 11pm I shut off my game and assumed that it wasn’t going to work.

Then, at ONE IN THE MORNING, I got five frantic messages telling me to hurry and pick her up. I was already awake, but I explicitly told them that I do not play my game at that hour. And this person had the nerve to tell me to hurry after making me wait for FIVE HOURS? Come on.

So I got my game booted up while this person REPEATEDLY told me to hurry. Then I arrived on their island, where they made me drop the NMT first. I thought nothing of it.

After all that, I finally made it to Sylvia’s house... only to find that she was sleeping.

I was infuriated. I voided Marina and emptied my plot early just for this person to screw me over. And they didn’t even seem all that sorry.

No, all they did was suggest that I time travel backwards to keep my plot open for tomorrow. I tried that, but it was too late and now I have a random villager that I didn’t want and I’m short 10 NMT. I am still very angry, mostly at myself for going outside TBT for trades.

Just now I told that person to keep the stupid NMT. I will never use Nookazon again. At this point I am considering buying Sylvia’s Amiibo card.

You can have my Sylvia for free when she decides to move. It may take a while though (as in real time days/a week/Idk) and while I TT, I don't TT for that kind of thing. At best I may do the thought bubble trick. I just had someone move so again, it can take a while.

Idk how "original" she is though, she has a starter home and I think I've only ever given her fruit and one random green reclining chair for her birthday.

 

[Candy83]

Does Nookazon have a system in which you can report people for fraud?

(I don’t have a membership there. I don’t use Nookazon.)

 

[wolfie1]

Yikes, that sucks. Sorry you had to deal with that poor excuse of a person.
I also had a bad experience trying to get Apollo.

Luckily he's pretty sought after so there were a lot of Apollos up for sale, but only one had recently been posted, so I offered 40 NMTs (that's what I saw other people offering for him). Apparently that wasn't enough as there were other potential buyers, so I thought "screw this" and went all in: I offered 80 NMTs (I had 15 in my inventory, but I'd have to spend quite a long time withdrawing the rest).
They immediately accepted, so I asked them to wait until I got all the tickets. I spent 45 minutes withdrawing those damn tickets, and when I finally had them, they gave me the dodo code. I dropped the tickets as soon as I got there and ran to get to Apollo's house. Lo and behold, there was no light and the curtains were closed, which made me grow suspicious.
I click on the door and a message pops up: "I moved out". I was like "ummmm, it says he moved out?????" and they were like "oh, I guess I TT'd forward too far in time. No "sorry", no apologies of any kind. So I was like "give me my tickets, I'm leaving". They were like "sure", but still no apologies. I left with my 80 NMTs and eventually found another Apollo for 35, but they made me waste my time and my Nook Miles (granted, they're of no use to me anymore, but still).

I haven't touched that website from that day on.

 

[Marines]

Oh no! I use only nookazon for times I desperately need. A lot of people tried to scam me, but I always look at their reviews but for villagers, I use a discord server (villager haven) people can post that they have a villager in boxes with a picture! And if you can't find a specific villager that you want on that list you can also post who you are looking for and someone will probably give you a villager for free! I haven't had any bad experiences with this server!

I hope this helps!
-Marina

 

[tajikey]

I've never had a bad experience with Nookazon, and I use it regularly. I got Julian that way, and sold Lucky that way. The problem is that one negative interaction can potentially spoil your entire perception of the Site. I'm sorry it happened to you, though. I'd be happy to give you 10 NMTs for the ones you lost.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

see the fact that they made you drop the NMT before even going to see if Sylvia was available was pretty messed up of them. I've adopted many villagers on this forum and I ALWAYS drop the NMT/IGB after I'm 100% positive that they're moving to my town.

I'm really sorry that you had to deal with this. maybe for now you should make a post in the Looking For thread stating that you want Sylvia. hopefully someone here has her amiibo and can get her for you.

 

[Nefarious]

This, plus how common it is for people to lie about whether or not the villager is gifted is why I’d never use Nookazon for villager trades.

I’d recommend sticking to these forums for that purpose. There’s a few cycling shops you can check out. I can vouch for user airpeaches’ shop. It’s closed right now for the fair, but when she’s back open, definitely hit her up. She has all the amiibos available and all priced at 25 tbt/nmt, her times are flexible and she’s communicative.

As for Nookazon, while it sucks for villager trades, it’s not a bad site for item trades. I’ve done about 200 touch trades on there and I’ve only ran into a handful of bad apples. At most, it should be use to get items that aren’t readily available here.

 

[Your Local Wild Child]

I’m sorry that you had such a horrible experience. I myself never use the site for villager trading (I find villager trading extremely risky-your story just solidifies that) but even still I’ve been burned by the site.

 

[Lynnatchii]

There's a problem with trading for villagers. People can lie. Most sellers want us to pay first before taking the villager cause they want to avoid getting scammed. On the other hand, us buyers, don't want to get scammed too. So we want to pay after taking the villager. We all don't want to get scammed. I used Nookazon if I don't get any luck in here. I haven't get scammed yet. I usually pay half the price before talking the villager, and pay the other half after talking to the villager. I rarely trade for villagers in Nookazon, cause I think here is safer. Sorry that happened to you, i recommend give that user a 1 star rating and complain. But it's up to you.

 

[Llunavale]

I thought Nookazon kind of faded into obscurity honestly as the popularity around the game died off. Sad to hear it's still as much of a problem now as it was a few months back.

I feel like it was only really useful for people during the popularity boom. The smaller communities like this one tend to be pretty good for trades, it's just a little slower.

 

[FRANS_PLAYER]

Yeah, Nookazon people are insane and horrible at communicating. Sorry that happened to you! This actually reminds me of when I got scammed on Depop - I purchased shoes the seller "didn't have yet" and they blamed me for buying the shoes when they "didn't have them" yet they were listed for sale! Ofc, when I confronted the seller, they had the audacity to blame me. I hate people sometimes. Glad that you stood your ground and didn't let that person walk all over you! I'm never too scared to fight with idiots on the internet

 

[Hypno KK]

I've only tried Nookazon a couple of times for items and it went well, but it's still not a good as this forum. There's just an added layer of safety you get here that it's harder to get on Nookazon. They have a feedback feature so while it won't change things on your end, you can always use it to leave a negative review (and hopefully that person will learn better etiquette/others will avoid them).

I wonder if one of Nookazon's issues and the reason for some of these incidents, the overinflated prices, etc. is just that many people on there probably never played AC online before and if they're not part of a discord they don't have a sturdy community to explain the basic etiquette and issues.

I hope someone on here has her amiibo and can get her for you

Post automatically merged: Aug 30, 2020

By the way, a lot of stories in this thread have people dropping their NMT before even going inside the villager's house. Getting scammed is not your fault but it might help in the future if you specifically tell the trader you'll only drop the NMT if you get the villager or at least that you'll do half before and half after. These are ridiculous amounts of NMT and I can see how scammers would really be hoping to grab them while putting 0 effort into making sure you get your villagers (or even knowing you won't).