Some people prefer phone conversations, some people prefer email conversations, never the twain shall meet.
Yeah. But text is like the worst of both worlds. It’s typed, but you have to type it on a tiny fucking keyboard.
Craigslist is the armpit of the internet. The internet! The place that’s almost entirely comprised of porn, cat pictures, and inkjet cartridges spam. Next time you want to sell something on Craigslist, don’t; sell it online like a normal person. And if you insist, put up the ad on a day when you’re just sitting around anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a no-show.
Ha! I would even venture to go one further and say it is the perineum of the internet!
Oh, come now. Craigslist is pretty awesome. I buy stuff maybe 4 times a year off of it, but it’s a great resource and I’ve gotten amazing deals on furniture and stuff. I use eBay for stuff that can be mailed/shipped, Craigslist for stuff I’d rather pick up personally. You get a lot of people who grossly overestimate the value of their crap, but there’s a good amount who just want to get rid of their bulky items ASAP when they’re in the midst of a move.
Most of us know that. I sell stuff on Craigslist that is otherwise not worth selling through different methods. Recently I sold two 40 pound bags of rock salt. I sold 300 worthless LPs. Also, furniture many times. That stuff really can’t be shipped.
Yes, its an armpit, but its free, it works for me, and that’s something.
Well Mr. Elf seems to be setting aside time for Craigslist appointments and being let down when they flake. I’ve sold things twice through Craigslist because I wasn’t about to ship them, and I pretty much did them when I was sitting around, gave my phone number, and cut off all stupid questions with “If you’re interested, come get it; I’ll be here.” If you simply must sell on Craigslist, you don’t carve out time for these people.
After our first recent experience we decided the word “Craigslist” actually meant “idiots, please waste our time.”
Our new house came with a pool table. We didn’t want it, but the sellers didn’t want to pay to remove it, so we said “sure.” Well, we quickly wanted it gone, so we figured we’d put it on CL as “free stuff.” Now, I knew disassembling and moving a pool table was going to be a big job. And I didn’t know how or want to do it myself. But we got any number of responses saying, “When can we be there?” When I followed up asking if they knew what was involved in the process, responses varied from, “Can I use your tools”, to “Looking it up on-line right now.”
Add in the skeez factor of having folk we don’t know traipse through our house, and the potential risk of someone dropping the slate on their foot and suing us - and it was a bargain to pay a bonded and insured firm $290 to remove it. Turns out it was a jury-rigged piece of shit anyway. Even the professionals had a bear of a time taking it apart, and they said there was no way it was going back together in any useable fashion.
No shit. Today I got a text asking me if one of my items was still available. I texted back, “yes, still available…pls call.”
He followed up with another text message, asking about whether it would work for his situation.
Was that my fault? Should I have spelled out “please” instead of “pls?” Does “pls call” mean “send me another goddam text message” in l33t or something?
:smack:
In a spectacular instance of cutting off my nose to spite my face, I opted not to continue the text conversation. I’d rather lower the list price and sell it to someone who can actually pick up a phone and have a voice conversation.
Wait… cat pictures? Really? I love cat pictures! When did this happen, and why hasn’t a single news program even mentioned it?
I think Craigslist is a good antidote for my inherent belief in the native intelligence of the human race. Man, we as a species are pretty irresponsible.
I’m going to try putting “Sorry, my phone can’t receive text messages, but if you’d like to talk on the phone, you can call…” at the bottom of emails when people respond, then just totally ignore all text messages I get. Worth a shot, right?
I HATE talking on the phone to people I don’t know. I mean, it’s almost a phobia. If I cant do at least most of the deal through email or text messages I move on. It is becoming more and more common, especially with younger people who have grown up texting rather than talking on the phone.
And when I respond to a Craigslist ad to buy something, the first thing I ask is “is it still available” because half the time someone forgot to delete the add when the item sold.
Craigslist is annoying. But spending money on a classified ad to deal with the same flakes.