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Can I vent about Craigslist?


alisoncooks
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I'm just so annoyed by Craigslist and the flakes that respond to my ads. In the past 3 days, I've had 3 No-Shows (after going back and forth and giving out my freakin' address) and twice as many spam/bot responses.  

I generally try and meet somewhere public, but it's a larger, pricier item (digital piano) so it's kind of necessary to try before buying. 

I just don't get it. Like, why engage me in negotiations and agreements and then ghost me?!  

And it's not just Craigslist. I'm selling some curriculum on a FB homeschool page. I got a query about the availability of an item...I responded with an "It's available" and they immediately came back with, "Sorry, we can't buy it at this time."  Like...what? Did their circumstances drastically change in the last 30-minutes? Why even engage with me if you can't follow through. 

/rant over 

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It’s so frustrating.  Flakes, rude people, lowball offers that people get angry when I say no.  Most of the time I don’t even bother selling things anymore and just list them on Buy Nothing.  

For the things I do sell, I’ve stopped giving out the address until the person is literally on the way over.  Until they are enroute I just give them a major landmark/intersection that is near us.  

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You are not alone😃

We have successfully bought and sold vehicles, sports equipment, furniture, tires and other things on Craigslist and FB marketplace. Unfortunately, the flakes (and scammers) seem to be part of the deal.

We do what Lucy/Katie does: give address only when they're on their way. Many people are not flakes, but it does seem like there are a lot of people who are completely unconcerned about inconveniencing others. That's what's maddening: a simple text of "we're not coming" would be so helpful. 

The scammers are at least entertaining and eager: "We are very interested in your item and would like to pay you by check. We will make the check $1000 over the amount, and you can keep half and send my brother a money order for the other half. OK?" 

We have only done bigger/ costlier items, always for cash only. I probably wouldn't put up with the flakiness for less than $100. 

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9 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

Oh man. My family and I just watched this like 3x in a row. Lol. Thsnks. 

We did too! This is solidly sky-high in third place on the WTM YouTube recs after

1. Reality His You Hard Bro and

2. Chegg McBuffin (which we now eat at least once a month thanks to the Pestaise/Mayesto)

 

Edited by SusanC
swype is not my friend!
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I put something up for sale last week on FB Marketplace and had a guy respond. I felt a little “off” and despite having sold a dozen or so things from our home, did a search on this guy. High risk offender and I almost gave him my address - with all my kids. Yeah, never Craigslist ever again and I’ll scan every profile/name and stay local on FB. It really freaked me out. 

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53 minutes ago, SusanC said:

We did too! This is solidly sky-high in third place on the WTM YouTube recs after

1. Reality His You Hard Bro and

2. Chegg McBuffin (which we now eat at least once a month thanks to the Pestaise/Mayesto)

 

I was thinking that first link sounded like the intro song for The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt...and lo and behold: 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2015/03/kimmy-schmidt-theme-song/amp

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7 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

I put something up for sale last week on FB Marketplace and had a guy respond. I felt a little “off” and despite having sold a dozen or so things from our home, did a search on this guy. High risk offender and I almost gave him my address - with all my kids. Yeah, never Craigslist ever again and I’ll scan every profile/name and stay local on FB. It really freaked me out. 

Wow. That's crazy! You might've scared me off Craigslist!

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31 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

I put something up for sale last week on FB Marketplace and had a guy respond. I felt a little “off” and despite having sold a dozen or so things from our home, did a search on this guy. High risk offender and I almost gave him my address - with all my kids. Yeah, never Craigslist ever again and I’ll scan every profile/name and stay local on FB. It really freaked me out. 

Yeah. I'm always hesitant to have people come to our house.

Right before we ran into the family as friends, Candy Kirtland was killed by someone who, at the time, it was thought came to the house due to a newspaper ad selling stuff.  This was before Facebook/Craigslist/etc.

 

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It’s never really crossed my mind as a real threat... although I wasn’t careless. When FB Marketplace came around I liked the comfort of being able to check profile pictures. This was off - I felt like he asked for my address to quickly without asking some more pertinent questions. I actually did an offender search to find him and it matched the location area. It creeped me out because, at the time, I had my current senior’s picture as my profile pic and she was about 7-8 at the time. Shudder. 

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I have such a love/hate relationship with CL. I mostly use it to give away stuff because it is not worth the hassle of selling, and buying can be a PITA as well. BUT, yesterday, I actually scored a serious "win." My husband (I know--NOT the 3 teenaged boys who live in my house, but my grown-up husband) wanted a PS5 for his birthday, which was months ago. They are in horribly short supply, so I've been stalking restocks intermittently for several months with no luck. And then a guy on CL posted one for "only" $250 over retail price. His ad sounded legit, and it was. Score! So ya' just never know.  I was very close to buying a dryer on CL a couple of weeks ago because my gas dryer died on a Friday night. No one has gas dryers in stock; they're special order, usually, and the thought of going a week without a dryer (see above re. the number of teenaged boys living in my house) drove me straight to CL where I found one pretty quickly. One of the boys and I, however, started taking my dryer apart and watching youtube videos, and by golly we fixed my dryer! We were so proud of ourselves. But I absolutely would have bought another one on CL if we hadn't figured it out. I am hardly a raving environmentalist, but I do love the idea of shopping used when I can to reduce the amount of stuff in the world. But, yes--CL users can be horribly flaky. It makes me worry even more for the future of our society.

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@plansrme - I totally agree. 

We have used CL a lot over the years!  We've bought/sold tons of kids play equipment there. Speaking of dryers: we bought our current one 5 years ago from a CL listing for $50! Still going strong. (Some older, country gentleman had it on his large porch and wanted it gone. Score!)

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Yeah the flakes on CL drive me nuts.  But it still is worth it sometimes.  

I always have the meeting spot be out front of our police station.  Always.  And I say that in emails that we are meeting in front of the police station.  I figure that would  ward off  a bad person.  Or it should.   Dh always does the meetings.  And he brings along someone else and a dog or 2.  Just like to feel as safe as possible.  Never had an icky meeting.  It has always been really nice people.  

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Ah yes.  When we moved two years ago, I sold a lot of things on FB Marketplace.  Wow, I couldn't believe all the crazy requests and no-shows.  I still had enough good sales that I kept doing it, but it was often very frustrating.

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2 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Yeah the flakes on CL drive me nuts.  But it still is worth it sometimes.  

I always have the meeting spot be out front of our police station.  Always.  And I say that in emails that we are meeting in front of the police station.  I figure that would  ward off  a bad person.  Or it should.   Dh always does the meetings.  And he brings along someone else and a dog or 2.  Just like to feel as safe as possible.  Never had an icky meeting.  It has always been really nice people.  

Our police station has a spot out front specifically for this purpose!  

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22 hours ago, SusanC said:

We did too! This is solidly sky-high in third place on the WTM YouTube recs after

1. Reality His You Hard Bro and

2. Chegg McBuffin (which we now eat at least once a month thanks to the Pestaise/Mayesto)

 

Okay. We have now watched the Chegg McBuffin video about 3x. My kids and I think it's hilarious. DH was just very confused, lol. 

When making dinner tonight, I may or may not have said, "Now some salt and pepper pepper pepper." 😂

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9 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

Okay. We have now watched the Chegg McBuffin video about 3x. My kids and I think it's hilarious. DH was just very confused, lol. 

When making dinner tonight, I may or may not have said, "Now some salt and pepper pepper pepper." 😂

I lucked out and my dh watched with skepticism and then got a faraway look in his eye, and now we have it for breakfast if i remember to buy English Muffins... or French Muffins and have dd teach them to be English. 😂

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We have bought via Craigslist for years, but I have been very active lately looking for furniture for a couple of my young adults who are moving out.

I am sure there are a few sellers who think I am a flake. We needed a bed/bedroom set and I made plans to see one about 30 minutes away one evening. However, my son ended up working late, so I cancelled and said I would reschedule. That night a cheaper bed showed up closer to home and my son liked it better, so I contacted that seller to set up a time to see it the next day. The seller responded and said anytime was good to just let them know.

Even later that same night, a seller who had a whole bedroom set contacted me a week after I contacted them to say it was available. We set up a time for us to buy it the next day. The next day she contacted me to say it had sold, but she had a bed that was available. She was 20 minutes away, and my son liked that bed the best. We set up a time for the next day and it worked out.

I never recontacted the other sellers. I felt bad, but I felt the items probably sold before we bought the bed.

In April, I contacted someone else for a free door we need for our house. I finally heard from them last week saying they were home till 9 and I was welcome to it. I responded immediately saying great, what’s your address. I didn’t hear back till yesterday. That email had their address, and I said we will be there in 30 minutes. We got the door. Hopefully, it will work for us. 

 

 

 

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20 hours ago, alisoncooks said:

Thank you. He was a sweet, old dude that we had for 15+ years. He left us 3 years ago. 

I'm so sorry. I know. Three years is nothing when you're grieving. I had one go in 2000 and I still can't think of him without tearing up.

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