Craigslst rant, picky buyers

Mebfab · Jun 2, 2014

Any one else notice a sharp decline in quality of "customers" on craigslist as of late?

I mean rude, nasty angry people but on a regular basis?

Also, noticed a direct inverse correlation. The lower your asking price the pickier the customer?

Mike C. · Jun 2, 2014

Eh, I got a little of both. I was selling a car for $200 (priced simply to recoup the set of tires I had bought two weeks before the head gasket cut loose). Some jackass calls up and asks if I'll take $100 for it. NO. OK, well, I want to come look at it next week. Fine. Next day guys calls and doesn't even argue the price, so off it goes. Other ass calls back a week later and gets mad that I sold it. Screw 'em.

Next one was a guy that had a "air compressor" for sale for $1000. Meet him and he takes me to a storage unit where I find an old Ingersoll vacuum pump they had been running backwards for decades as a compressor. I went home and did enough research to figure what it was and informed him that it was just not what I needed. He goes off on me about how he didn't ask enough for it and how I wasted his time (even though I drove 45 miles to look at it). That was last spring. He had it listed for $700 last month, lol. Guy is a former used car dealer, so I figure he'll die with it before he'll sell it for what it's actually worth. I then found my 7 1/2hp compressor, met the guy, worked out a price, as it was missing the air cleaner and he helped me load it up. Super nice fellow and both of us satisfied.

I think a lot of CL is now getting perused by the flea market/ebay crowd looking for stuff they can buy for nothing and ask a fortune for. Those are the difficult ones.

Blazemaster · Jun 2, 2014

I think it goes both ways. I recently went to go look at a vintage diesel mercedes that was advertised as "mint". I have the same model car that I bought from a friend for $500 just to get it out of his driveway, and it has grown on me so I was looking for a little nicer one. The guy was asking $3250, and I think my $500 car had less problems, and drove better. The only thing the car had going for it was it had decent paint, which mine doesn't. I took it for a test drive, and 20 mins later I come back, the guy is standing in the road waiting for me, with a look like I had been gone for hours. I told him the car made a weird grinding noise at about 2000rpm, and made the car shake. He smirked and acted like I didn't know what I was talking about. I could tell that I had pissed him off, but he wasn't about to say anything. No thanks buddy!

S_W_Bausch · Jun 2, 2014

Yes, the buyers are becoming picky picky assholes. I have a number of cordless DeWalt tools I wanted to sell, one guy said he wanted to come by and see the various drills. I had three drills, one right angle drill, a two speed drill and a three speed drill. I scrubbed them up, though the right angle drill was used less than five episodes in the ten years I owned it. It was pristine.

Guy comes and starts sniffing them, telling me only the right angle drill is acceptable, unless I drop my prices. I knew the right angle drill was too cheap ($30) but I let it go. No more calls on the drills, but some jerk texts me about the saws-all. I immediately call them back and they refuse to answer the phone.

I'll take them apart and toss them in the trash before I deal with those dicks that insist on texting me. I really don't care to peck out some message when it's easier to talk. "No texts" was in my listings.

Perhaps I will take them apart and list in the Free category... minus the screws.

D.Brown · Jun 2, 2014

I think pickiness is a dealing ploy.......lot of resellers on c-list.

aspp · Jun 2, 2014

I used to go to the local impound auctions and buy salvageable cars/trucks, fix them up, and sell them at a nice profit. Its how I started my side business actually. 90 day warrentee, cash terms. Made for good business. Now there are people who buy at these auctions and turn around and sell the cars on clist as "fixers". Used to get salvageable runners for 5-600 and non runners for 200. I can't even buy a never run parts wagon for less than 600 now.

11 Bravo · Jun 2, 2014

I helped a friend do an engine swap on his pick up. The used engine he got had a 5 speed transmission on it and his truck had an automatic, so the 5 speed was left over at the end of it all. So I had the 5 speed sitting at my shop and asked him what he wanted to do with it. He told me if I wanted it I could have it, if I wanted to sell it I could just keep the money, or he would haul it to the scrap. It came out of a running roll over that he knew was a good truck before the wreck, so I figured what the heck, I'll sell it.

I put it on Craigs list with an accurate description. $125 for the tranny and all the clutch parts and flywheel. This guy about 200 miles away calls me and says he wants it and needs it for some special thing he is building. Then he wants to know when I can deliver it. How much do you want to pay me to deliver it? Nothing of course. He says "After all, you are the one needing to sell it". Seriously?

It did make me laugh though, because it just so happened that I had to go to Denver for work about 2 weeks later and would be driving pretty near where he was. I told him if he could wait a couple of weeks and meet me at an exit on the interstate at a specific time I could deliver it. After he boobed a little he decided that would be OK.

I called him the night before to make sure we were still on before I loaded the stuff in my truck and he said "Yup, still on". I meet this guy at the place and after he looks at it, he hands me a bunch of $10 bills folded in half. I count them out real fast and there is only $80. I say, "There is only 80 bucks here" and he says "Right, that is what we agreed on". I tell him "No, the price was $125 and you never offered anything different". He says "Man, I am retired Air Force and I live on a fixed income".

I tell him I don't give a care what his deal is, the price is $125 as I am closing the tailgate on my truck. When he realized I was going to drive off he miraculously pulled $45 bucks out of his other pocket and hands it to me saying " Well, you don't have to be that way about it".

I sold him the tranny, and even helped him slide it into his truck, but I still wonder why I didn't tell the guy to piss off. Where do people like this come from?

Tommy · Jun 3, 2014

Mebfab said:
I mean rude, nasty angry people but on a regular basis?

Quite a lot of those types throughout society these days. Civility and grace certainly appear to be in general decline.

~TW~

S_W_Bausch · Jun 3, 2014

11 Bravo said:
Where do people like this come from?

Our employers are a bunch of selfish assholes hiring obnoxious supervisors, and it's stressing the rest of us.

If our paychecks were adequate, most of the craigslist offerings would be sitting on the curb.

People are getting a bit desperate, it seems to me. I know a guy who has worked for the same employer for over 10 years for less than $10 an hour (or so he says).

DDoug · Jun 3, 2014

If craigslist would charge $.10 (that's 10 cents) per ad it
would clean things up immensly.

You and I would easily pay the money to place an ad,
the "everyday and multiple location" sapmmer would
scream bloody murder.

The crappy responders ain't limited to craigslist, some real pieces of work reside here
as well.....

Walter A · Jun 3, 2014

11 Bravo said:
......I tell him I don't give a care what his deal is, the price is $125 as I am closing the tailgate on my truck. When he realized I was going to drive off he miraculously pulled $45 bucks out of his other pocket and hands it to me saying " Well, you don't have to be that way about it".....

Have had the "two pocket" shell game played out for me a couple of times. but honestly I have found more decent buyers on both eBay and Craig's list then bad ones. It's just that the bad ones stick out so much.

Walter

Walter A · Jun 3, 2014

S_W_Bausch said:
Our employers are a bunch of selfish assholes hiring obnoxious supervisors, and it's stressing the rest of us.

If our paychecks were adequate, most of the craigslist offerings would be sitting on the curb.

People are getting a bit desperate, it seems to me. I know a guy who has worked for the same employer for over 10 years for less than $10 an hour (or so he says).

Absolutely right! I own my own business and my customers are our "employers". I agree that many are selfish asses who hire some of the most obnoxious purchasing agents. (I have to admit that we also work for a few good ones.)

Walter

Atomkinder · Jun 3, 2014

Lately I've found that everyone wants to haggle. Generally I look at an ad, decide if the price is reasonable, and if I want to pay their asking price, I offer to buy the item! I don't know why this is so difficult, especially when you have "price firm" in the ad. Other than that I haven't had any issues selling on Craigslist, aside from the occasional flake.

toolsteel · Jun 3, 2014

I think the ones who piss me off the most are the ones who call and try to talk you down on your price without ever coming out to see what you have for sale. While trying to sell my wifes motorcycle I had a guy get pissed at me because he called and asked what my bottom price was. I told him I would only negotiate price face to face after he saw what were selling. Quite honestly, I could have been talked down $200 if someone really wanted the bike but was stretching their dollars to afford it.....but only if they had seen the thing first. I think he was just trying to figure out how much he could make by flipping it.

toolsteel · Jun 3, 2014

Mebfab said:
Any one else notice a sharp decline in quality of "customers" on craigslist as of late?

...................... The lower your asking price the pickier the customer?

This is a universal truth. My wife works in a dental office. She has people who come in for dental work that are on public assistance. She says they are the rudest pickiest pains in the ass, and they feel that they are somehow doing the clinic a favor by gracing the place with their presence. Conversely.......she also claims that the kids who come in from a local runaway shelter are surprising polite and respectful.
At one point in my life I did a morning paper route ( 7 days a week) along with my regular job, in order to pay the wicked witch her child support. The only complaints I ever got were from the people I delivered to in the trailer park. I think working at McDonalds all day makes them want to find someone to bitch at. Or maybe it is the high stress of wondering whether the welfare check would be in the mail before the weekend?

Bob-J-H · Jun 3, 2014

If you can make money on Craigslist, you will certainly earn it. I have stuff on there right now. I have in the ad. firm price. so people won't start giving me offers over the internet without even seeing the item. It does'nt stop them, they still do it. I had one guy make a new offer daily on a phase converter I was selling. When I finally accepted his offer, I never heard from him again. Where do these people come from, a persons word means nothing anymore. Bob

Walter A · Jun 3, 2014

How about the ones who cannot figure out how to delete an ad after the item is sold? Need an item, find the item, email or call and leave VM. Wait all day for an answer then try again and get "I sold that last week"

Walter

BobRenz · Jun 3, 2014

11 Bravo said:
I helped a friend do an engine swap on his pick up. The used engine he got had a 5 speed transmission on it and his truck had an automatic, so the 5 speed was left over at the end of it all. So I had the 5 speed sitting at my shop and asked him what he wanted to do with it. He told me if I wanted it I could have it, if I wanted to sell it I could just keep the money, or he would haul it to the scrap. It came out of a running roll over that he knew was a good truck before the wreck, so I figured what the heck, I'll sell it.

I put it on Craigs list with an accurate description. $125 for the tranny and all the clutch parts and flywheel. This guy about 200 miles away calls me and says he wants it and needs it for some special thing he is building. Then he wants to know when I can deliver it. How much do you want to pay me to deliver it? Nothing of course. He says "After all, you are the one needing to sell it". Seriously?

It did make me laugh though, because it just so happened that I had to go to Denver for work about 2 weeks later and would be driving pretty near where he was. I told him if he could wait a couple of weeks and meet me at an exit on the interstate at a specific time I could deliver it. After he boobed a little he decided that would be OK.

I called him the night before to make sure we were still on before I loaded the stuff in my truck and he said "Yup, still on". I meet this guy at the place and after he looks at it, he hands me a bunch of $10 bills folded in half. I count them out real fast and there is only $80. I say, "There is only 80 bucks here" and he says "Right, that is what we agreed on". I tell him "No, the price was $125 and you never offered anything different". He says "Man, I am retired Air Force and I live on a fixed income".

I tell him I don't give a care what his deal is, the price is $125 as I am closing the tailgate on my truck. When he realized I was going to drive off he miraculously pulled $45 bucks out of his other pocket and hands it to me saying " Well, you don't have to be that way about it".

I sold him the tranny, and even helped him slide it into his truck, but I still wonder why I didn't tell the guy to piss off. Where do people like this come from?

That's happened to me as well. I was selling a machine about 5 years ago for $ 1600. Buyer shows up with his wife waiting in their van, likes the machine, and then discovers that he only has $ 1000 in his wallet. I told him that I wouldn't sell at $ 1000, so he dug in his glove box and found another $400. I told him that he was getting close, but not there yet. His wife happened to have $200 in her purse, so he bought the machine and left.

I've reached the point that I'll either throw something in the trash, or donate it to charity instead of all the pain of trying to sell it. Right now, I have an engraving machine and a parts washer that might go either way -- Craig's List, charity, or trash.

The rule I use on CL is that the first guy with the money gets the item. I don't deliver, and I don't store things for a buyer. Cash & carry - no checks.
I've done a few flea markets over the years, and when someone wants to leave something and pick it up later, I tell them that if I leave before they come back, their widget will be left where I was set up.

Guest · Jun 3, 2014

Haven't sold anything on Craglist since 3-4 years ago when I was having a pre moving sale. Sold off a few mills, a lathe, surface grinder, vises, etc. Probably went hassle free because I priced everything for quick sale, don't think anything took more than a few days to sell.

kensmachine · Jun 3, 2014

The Craigslister's I love are the one's that put something on there for sale email only then never anser there email's. I have even had a buddy email them to see if they git back to him. Then the add runs out and then sometime later you see the ad back up on C/L and the they still dont get back to you Ken

Craigslst rant, picky buyers

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