OT - Craigslist Vent - What Happened To Being Polite?

I'd rather give something away to a young family in need than deal with the low-life scum on Craigslist.

Hey, I'm one of those "low-life scum"! No, wait, I mean...umm...errr, oh never mind.

That's Mahayana, Moonie.

Back in the '60s I applied for a job for what I thought was an instructor's position. It turned out to be sort of a proto-ITT university scam and the real job was selling courses to the suckers. I went out a couple of evenings with their top sales guy. His con was something to watch. I'd swear the people didn't have a pot to piss in but he could extract cash out of the cookie jar. I didn't have the stomach for it.

I'm not implying that sort of high pressure scam is typical of the sales profession but that was my exposure. On the other end, I've never enjoyed haggling. Tell me your price and either I'll pay it or I won't. I guess I just don't have the camel trader genes.

Been there too. When I moved from NH if it didn't fit into my pickup it was history. Some of the stuff was okay. A school teacher was trying to put together a computer course and was happy to get all my computer stuff. I ran into a guy that I'd briefly worked with a few years before and asked him if he wanted a microwave. Instant suspicion. Why? What's wrong with it? And so forth and so on. After that I just put the household stuff on the sidewalk for whoever wanted it or the trash collector, whoever got there first.

I had a rowing dinghy, same story. Finally I left it on the shore above the tie line with the oars in it. I hope someone got use out of it.

SBH:

Just the very word "Cr_____ist" on my screen, and I have to clean it with LYSOL. I avoid conducting any business on there if at all possible.

Farmers here in Nebraska sell some of their stuff on it. The most expensive thing I noticed at quick glance was a Cat tractor for $45,000. There were also some old neon farm equipment signs.

Same here. I've never sold anything. It goes to the curb with a "free" sign, Goodwill, or is dropped at a used store in town.

Scum is scum. We have a "Freecycle" for our area where we offer up, for free, all kinds of stuff we no longer need to keep it from the dump. "One man's trash is another man's treasure" rings true here.

At any rate I posted an item in good condition, could have sold it on Craigslist or Ebay if I wanted to mess with it.

Woman responded right away and wanted the item. No problem but she lived about 20 miles west of us and wanted to pick it up in a couple days. Would I hold it for her and she will be by on Wednesday at

Tuesday the original responder called to tell me she still wanted it and would I be available THIS Wednesday. I explained that when she failed to return my call or email after standing me up the preceding week, I gave it to somebody else.

Whoa! You'd have thought I'd snuck in her house and stole all her property. "How dare you! You promised it to me, you a**hole!"

I responded by saying "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were a rude, obnoxious bitch when I made that promise. You didn't show so eat sh*t and die!"

Most folks are genuinely appreciative on Freecycle but this was one for the books.

P.S. I thought Mayayana was fooling around with his/her post but apparently he/she is really that big an a**. Perhaps related to my Freecycler

I was on the freecycle list for a while. Some woman was looking for a GameBoy for her kid but my offering wasn't good enough. It had to be the new, color version. Beggars can be choosers.

LOL...so it is. Ooops. Close enough.

Seems kind of silly if you ask me. I've bought and sold lots of stuff on Craigslist. Made a bunch of money, saved a bunch too.

When selling, I meet folks at the front door of a nearby large supermarket in a big shopping center. Lots of people around, daylight hours only.

If I don't get a good hit off a potential buyer trading emails leading up to the meeting, I end it right there. Once in a while I get a no-show or a late arrival but most times, folks show up on time with money in hand and I close the deal, usually for the asking price.

When buying, I'll only meet in a very public place in a safe neighborhood, daylight only. I size up the seller via phone and email before I show up and end it immediately if something doesn't feel quite right.

I agree.

I'm not sure what you are buying/selling, but that wouldn't work for me in most cases.

My last few sales and buys were fairly large to really large items: computer desk, microwave stand, TV stand, etc. I recently found a frame for my 10 x 10 EzUp canopy on Craigslist. I bought a bunch of reclaimed wood on CL and some of the boards were 16' long. Currently I'm trying to sell a bunk bed with mattresses.

I have a van and a trailer, so pick-up and delivery is easy for me. Most of these items would not fit in a car. For example, if I wanted to sell that computer desk in a parking lot, I've limited my buying pool to those that have access to a large vehicle. By offering local delivery, I increase my chances of a sale.

Granted, I don't live in a scary area, so I'm not concerned with going to people's houses. In addition, I prefer to deliver because I don't want them coming to my house. The only people that have been to my house was the guy that bought a lawn tractor and the guy I bought a car from. I had already been to the car guy's house and it was nicer than mine, so I wasn't worried about him coming over. ;-)

A few years ago my son arranged to meet a buyer in a mall parking lot. Let's call it the northeast corner, blue car, female driver. He parks next to her, walks over to her car and leans in the passenger window. "Hi! I'm James!" She gave him a panicked look, hit the button to raise the window and drove away. My son jumped backed, confused. He was about to leave when a blue car with a female driver pulled up next to his car. :-)

Guess that I have been lucky on both Craigslist and the places on Facebook. I have sold a few items, given a few away and bought a few. Sofar everyone has showed up at the given time.

My worst thing was with Lowes. Bought a stove that had to be ordered. Got an auto call and then a person called saying they would deliver in 2 days at 5 PM. No show or call. The next day I called them in the afternoon to find out what hapened. The next week the same thing hapened. Another call and I had them to check to see if they had another modle in stock. They did and did show up that time. They did give me a 10% off for all that.

Later got some flooring put in by them. The flooring had to be inthe house for a couple of days before installing. That time all went well, the flooring showed up on time and the installers showed up on time a few days later.

Same story, different media. We had a huge garage sale this past weekend, and posted ads for it, including photos of several in-demand items on a local Facebook page and also on Craigslist. Got all kinds of contacts requesting we hold stuff for them. Nope - first come, first served. The really hot items sold before we officially opened - people showed up a half-hour early to make sure they would get it. That didn't stop people from continuing to text us with requests, and following up with whines when we told them, sorry, too late.

So, later in the day on Saturday we agreed to hold two kids' bikes until the next day, when the person would show up with the cash. Yep, never showed.

Another lady asked us to hold a dining set and we refused. She had big hair, tight jeans, cigarettes, and was drunk off her butt. She showed up the next day, having *hitchhiked* back to our garage sale. Looked like she was tweaking. She pulled a bunch of singles out of her pocket and shook out a ton of coins from a prescription bottle while babbling on about how awful people are and how the world sucks. She was three dollars short. We let her have it anyway, just to get her outta there. She drags it all to the curb and waits for her ride to circle the block again. We overheard her ask him to take her and her new furniture to the Greyhound bus station in a nearby city.

I told my neighbor it was like a country song come to life.

When I list something on Craigslist, it goes to whoever shows up with the money first. I don't wait while people I don't know on CL think about it. Somebody calls and expressed interest in it, then an hour later somebody else calls and wants to buy it, I sell it, having no obligation to the other person.

It could be worse. I just got screwed on Ebay selling a $350 clothing item, with $16 for shipping. It was like new, worn 3 times. I had perfect pics of it and described it as used, but in perfect condition, only worn a few times. So a buyer in San Francisco contacts me, wants to know if I will sell it for less or consider a "discounted sale on Paypal". That latter is a clear violation of Ebay policy, ie trying to take a sale off Ebay to avoid the fees. So, I offered to sell it for $25 less, but on Ebay and with no return. They accepted. Being smart, I made sure to change the Ebay listing to no returns accepted before accepting their offer.

So, I ship it, which cost me $21. They get it, and immediately demand a refund, complaining it was not as shown in the pics and not as described. They claimed it was covered in cat hair and smells like mold/mildew, is so toxic they can't keep it in their apartment. Now, I know this is bogus, but the way Ebay works, they show you a screen that says a buyer is asking for a refund. I looked over the page, which had no choices as to what to do, then clicked next at the bottom, assuming this would take me to a page where I could grant a refund or dispute it, reply, etc. Instead it said, "You've agreed to a return". Nice. So, I guess I could call Ebay and complain, try to get it undone, etc, but at that point, I figured might as well just take it back and be done with it. I had to pay another $13 for return shipping.

So, I get it back, and I took pics of the box before I opened it, and right after. The item is exactly like it was shipped, perfect, not a cat hair on it, smells just like leather, etc. So, I'm out $35 and also have an Ebay strike against me for shipping something that wasn't as described. After processing the return, I was presented with a chance to complain to Ebay about the buyer abusing the Ebay system, which I did. It won't help me, but hopefully it goes in their file and if they pull this again, with some other seller, it could help them with their dispute. If anything, Ebay might be more interested in suspending them for trying to take a sale off Ebay. If I have to do a return again, I'll be real careful with that return screen in the future. If I had not accepted the return without realizing it, I would have asked the buyer to send me pics of the item. After the buyer suggested doing the sale off Ebay, I was suspicious, so I took pics of the item again, just before it went in the shipping box, a pic of the box, etc. Had I been able to dispute it, maybe I would have won, but no way of knowing. A skunk like this could get some cat hair and crap and soil it up, which would be even worse.

Ebay has become a real mess for sellers. As a seller you can't leave negative feedback for a buyer, no matter what they do. I've seen a lot of sellers complaining about ebay policies, high fees, booting them for minor issues, etc.

We had a series of problems with Lowe's on appliance delivery too a few years back during a major home remodel. Both their delivery subcontractor and the local store were culprits.

The local store manager not only didn't fix the problems but wouldn't even apologize for their c*ck-ups. I lost confidence in the company, decided they weren't folks I wanted to do business with, and cancelled our order for six high end kitchen and laundry room appliances.

My sister got her flooring for free after Lowes screwed up the delivery timing, which delayed the other work she was having done. She called the manager and told him that for all the inconvenience and additional expense he'd put her through, he was going to give it to her for free. He did. Sis knows how to push.

Most of my old stuff I trash. One of my sisters had an absolute fit, pulling stuff out of my trash and exclaiming I could sell it. Sure, I could - for a little bit of money, meaning it wasn't worth my time. And the thrift/donation stores get rid of up to 90% of the stuff donated to them, mainly because they simply haven't got enough room for all of it. So I figure I'm saving them the trouble and expense of trashing my marginal-value stuff.

If I think they can sell it, and for enough to make it worth their trouble, I'll donate it, or give it away to anyone who wants it.

I got talked into putting some stuff into my sister's garage sale this past weekend. She then shanghaied me into helping her set it up, work it, and clean up afterwards. I probably made two bucks an hour after all that time. It was a complete waste of a beautiful weekend. Never again.