Public Service Announcement for Craigslist Users

[SuperBuickGuy]

If you don't show up when you were scheduled, fail to call, and this twice.... odds are, if you contact the seller later, he'll tell you to pound sand


A guy set 2 appointments, got countless pictures sent for my Skylark.... and recently contacted me to buy the fiberglass bumpers from the car.... uh, no he cannot buy them - they look great on my shop wall

I did spend a bit of time, though sending a couple emails - I told him I'd sell them for cheap (25% of retail) since I don't need them, and that I still had them....

then told him today that there's no chance I'll sell them to him - that VFN still carries them

[BluLightning]

I haven't really had any trouble with people that are trying to buy my stuff. It's more when I'm trying to buys something and people can't be bothered to get back to you. If you sold it, take the damn ad down. If you still have it and want to sell it, maybe you should respond to emails.

[Dan Barlow]

Blu, that is the problem I have, then again when I'm down with car stuff....it's usually on for.

[Beagle]

My favorite ads to respond to - "If you see this f*ing ad, it's for sale. Don't call and ask if it's for sale."

Hello? Is this car still for sale? hehe. Just kidding. I'll email and ask when I can look at it, not if it is for sale. When I'm looking to buy something it's usually the seller that is a flake...

Nobody likes having their time wasted. I suspect you might have become used to saying "You scheduled the meeting, you're getting billed." and whether they show up or not, they get billed. My services are billed by the hour, so the shortest of voice messages cost 75.00 ... usually makes people a little more appreciative of your time. When we agree to 2:30, be there at 2:30. I don't mind if they are early if I have a clear schedule, but I will start billing at 2:30.

I had a tough time getting the 460 headers here, I thought it was going to go wrong because they were getting shipped. We missed each other on a trip to Sherman and so I had them shipped, took all the fun out of it. I was dang happy to finally see them. Sometimes life happens.

[Scott Liggett]

I just went through this. Some dork wants my 3.73 gears. Kept wanting to meet up when he drives over to this side of town. Never called for a month. Calls again a month later and wants to meet up. Never met up.

[yellomalibu]

I guess some of it is just what people do nowadays when shopping. I think women are the worst, but guys do it too. Multiple calls, make people jump through hoops to answer all your questions about the product... but still "just shopping".

I've had a bit of that with C/L, too. (both sides of it, admittedly) The guy I bought my truck from - I didn't hear back from him for 3 days or something... I figured it was sold, then I get a call (or email? I don't remember) saying "when do you want to come look at it?"

On the other side, I called a guy about a dash cover for this C10, cuz mine is fubar, really... his looked perfect, but it's brown... and I wasn't really sure if I wanted to part with $50 for something that isn't truly necessary... so I wasted 5 minutes of his time with my phone call. *shrug*

It's just part of sales. People can be flaky, for a myriad of reasons. First come, first served - no I won't hold it for you, no I won't take the for sale sign down until I have a pocket full of money. I like the idea of telling them I'm going to start charging a fee the minute they are supposed to meet me!

[tardis454]

Craigslist is free, free attracts cheap, cheap attracts bargain basement, low budget, cut-rate, dime a dozen, irregular, low priced, poor quality, skinflint buyers.

I've been using craig's for the better part of 7yrs & I follow a few simple rules to save on aggravation.

• Use magicjack &/or google voice for phone number.(I use both)
• Meet at a big place 1st, walmart, mcd's, grocery store, gas station.
• Be available for 2hrs tops, not there within the 2hr time frame, tough shit.

(I also do a little 'pre-screening' on big money deals)

Google Voice helps out immensely. It does voice to text, & emails when get a call or a voicemail. The text feature rules too, you can text from your computer for free. I've weeded out a lot of douchey buyers that way, & if you don't like the person you're talking to you can block them.

There's no way you can make them show up, but you can control the amount of time YOU waste with them..

[bulletproof]

ive had good luck. i have them call and then meet me at the QT down the road from my house.if they dont call its no issue .i dont like total strangers coming to my house.

[SuperBuickGuy]

1) I wasn't and haven't advertised the part... the only reason he knew about them was I said I'd removed them
2) This yahoo actually arranged a specific time to look at the car - then never called. That meant I drove 10 miles from my office (at lunchtime) to meet him....

I totally get when I'm selling something that it's part of the free process to deal with flakes, but it's rare I get the chance to give a bit back to one that really wasted a bunch of my time and money (gas). In this case, he'll spend nearly $1000 to buy the parts from VFN when, I probably would have simply gave them to him if he'd met me the 1st time he promised (or even the second time). I don't expect him to say "can't afford" or "don't like" or even give a reason why not my car - I do expect (there I go again with wanting a moral person) that when they make the appointment to at least call and cancel..... then, when, after I sold the car, had he contacted me I'd have said "they're yours for the picking"....

Seriously, I have better Buick grills for my wall

[Huskinhano]

I like the ones that want to buy your item but....they're out of town. They really, really want it so they tell ya they're going send a check for the full amount plus a little extra for your troubles. They want you to pull the ad as well. And they'll send some one to pick it up. Yeah, right.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I like the ones that want to buy your item but....they're out of town. They really, really want it so they tell ya they're going send a check for the full amount plus a little extra for your troubles. They want you to pull the ad as well. And they'll send some one to pick it up. Yeah, right.

lol.... I really like the generic ones "I'll buy your item for your asking price, simply send me your address, cc number, phone number and all personal information to my trustable colleague in west Africa"

[kyhunter89]

I like how everyone knows your automatically supposed to meet halfway... When selling a $1000 car, and they live 100 miles away.

Im meeting someone 30 miles away tm. Thanks guys, now im doubting it.

[dieselgeek]

Make him do your bidding, that'll make you feel better.

[milner351]

The spam from CL is getting worse, I really hope I can sell the nephews silverado soon so I can stop putting up with all the out of town hot widows that want me and will pay $1000 more than I'm asking for the truck if I'll meet them at their "studio". hahaha NOT.

It comes with the territory I suppose. I don't put my phone number in - if you're looking at the ad - you have a computer and you can email.... then we'll exchange phone numbers if you don't sound like you're dumber than a sack of hammers.

[SuperBuickGuy]

The spam from CL is getting worse, I really hope I can sell the nephews silverado soon so I can stop putting up with all the out of town hot widows that want me and will pay $1000 more than I'm asking for the truck if I'll meet them at their "studio". hahaha NOT.

It comes with the territory I suppose. I don't put my phone number in - if you're looking at the ad - you have a computer and you can email.... then we'll exchange phone numbers if you don't sound like you're dumber than a sack of hammers.

tell me about the truck... friend of mine is looking for one