Seriously… What is wrong with you? Why are you so weird?? Why are you so rude?
Why do you send me emails asking if my posted items are “still available” only to go silent as soon as I say “yes”? Are you “just checkin??” Are you really bored? Do you just surf Craigslist? Because I assure you, there are way more interesting things to look at on the web than used crock pots.
Don’t believe me? Here. Or here. Or there’s this. Or you could spend all damn day doing these.
You’re welcome.
Why do you ask me questions and then ignore the answers? If you’re asking if something is “in good condition” or “available to pick up next Thursday,” I assume you are happy to hear me say “yes.” Yet, as soon as I do, you’re all: “Yeah, ok. Whatevs… Don’t care….Sooooooo bored…” What happened to simple common courtesy? Is typing “Thanks for the information, I’ll get back to you” so difficult?
How bout using full sentences? Would you agree, for example, that it is more polite to say: “Hi. Is your widget still available?” than: “Widget?” Would you walk up to a sales associate in a store, get up in their face and yell “Widget?!?!” No. Of course you wouldn’t. That would just be rude. Yet, on Craigslist, it’s the norm.
Recently, I placed an ad for an iPad. Here it is in all its glory:
As you can see, I worked hard to avoid some of these issues. I told readers where I was located. I told them that the price was firm. I told them that if the ad was active, I had the item. Put another way, I tried to help the people of Craigslist help themselves not be obnoxious.
Let’s see how that went….
Within an hour, I received this:
As you can see, Mehdi worked just as hard to prove to you that I’m not making this stuff up.
Mehdi, If by “$200 firm” I meant “Please offer me half” then you would not be the most annoying person on the planet. And yet, here you are….
And how about a full sentence, Mehdi? Hell, I’d be excited to see a question mark to indicate you are actually asking whether your 50% offer is reasonable – which it is not – rather than telling me.
Next there was Ghafour, a man of few words and fewer punctuation marks.
My mental response to his email? “Ummmmmmmm No.”
But these guys were golden compared to my next friend…Ken. Oh Ken…. what are we gonna do with you?
It all started on Saturday morning when I rolled out of bed around 9:00 a.m. to find the following message:
All of which would have been fine, if not for the the time at which he sent the message:
Ken. Seriously. What the hell? 6:23 in the morning? On a Saturday? Go back to sleep. You’re drunk.
But I was nice, responding….
Sigh….
First, “are” means “area.”
Second, friends, go back to the original Craigslist ad and read it again. Go ahead. I’ll wait here.
See? Annoying, right?
After, again, telling him I lived in Ballston, he said “Great! Call me so we can arrange a time.”
Sigh…..
3:00 KEN! THREE O:CLOCK!!!! Why is this so hard?????
Since it was about 3:00, I told him I was home and would be home for the next 90 minutes. Then I got this:
Followed exactly 2 minutes later by this:
No Ken! It is not OK with me. How did you go from being “on your way” to the chairman of the Party Planning Committee in two minutes?? HOW???
Of course then there was Carlos, god bless him. He really confused me….
I posted this:
And received this:
I read it and thought: “Wait…what?” Followed by… “Oh for fuck’s sake, Carlos… They’re free weights…..not FREE weights… Good God, man….”
And seriously… I LIVE IN BALLSTON!!!
Then there was Lilly who somehow managed to turn “two ten pound weights for $15” into “two weights for $10”??? I don’t even know.
Also, while she’s apparently observant enough to note where I live, she was unable to come up with a single way in which she could determine our relative locations…. because it’s so hard to figure these things out.
*cough* “INTERNET” *cough*
Honestly, I can’t even be mad. And perhaps I should be a little grateful. It can be hard to see all our stuff marching out the door in the hands of strangers. Heck, perhaps I even owe Mehdi, Ken, Carlos, Lilly and ALL the people like them a little debt of gratitude. If their rude, maddening, grating, insufferable tendencies distract us from the fact that we’re letting go of all our possessions, I guess that’s a good thing.
???? I find this hilarious & sad! You just need to have a yard sale.
My wife is going through the same hell with the Offer Up application, ridiculous offers, non response after agreement on price, rude and ignorant people. She has done better with co-workers, friends and with a local HOA ad for our neighborhood (at least then we don’t get asked the where do you live questions….). I come at this problem with a different approach. If what I see in postings on the Internet are from a vast majority of the people, it tells me there are many more people without a clue and part of the reason I just want to get away….so I am more willing to give things to family, friends, and Veterans organization, that way I can minimize my need to have to try and interact with “these” type of people….
Hey Jon,
Yeah, we have donated a lot of items after screwing around with Craigslist for too long. At the end of the day, it’s just easier. It’s just funny because so many people talk about how great it is to sell things on Craigslist. I’ve found it’s almost always more hassle than it’s worth.
This is awesome! Haven’t laughed this hard in years.
I hate to say it but a few of these are scammers. Especially Ken. I have sold things on Craigslist and helped people look for apartments, etc. and it is rampant with these scammers. The first clue is the awful grammar. Another would be the single words with no punctuation. Need more to i.d. scammers… (I am away on an oil rig, or in deployed in the military, etc.) but “I will send my agent to pick it up”. I wish a lightening bolt would strike every one of these pieces of crap. I have friends who have had someone deposit money in PayPal and somehow they can cancel it, meanwhile they have your item. It’s a cruel world out there with these people with no conscience and make a living scamming people so you have to be on your A-game. Good luck.
LOL This post made my day! Thank you ~
I have been having the same experiences with craigslist over the past 10 months while we’ve emptied out our house to start full-timing.. We just moved into our RV and will be listing the house for sale next week. I will be so happy to not have to deal with the rude people who hang out on craigslist, although I will miss some of the really nice interactions I’ve had, too.
For instance, after getting cussed out on the phone by someone who lost out on an awesome deal due to not bothering to show up when promised, we had the pleasure of selling the camping gear to an amazing young woman who was willing to drive 85 miles (on time) to pick it up. We chatted with her for half an hour and had a great visit, only to go home and find a nasty follow-up e-mail from the previous loser. Sheesh, people, this is craigslist, not a box store. Whoever shows up with money first gets the good deals. Duh.
Yes to alllllll of this. And you are right. Some folks are just fine. They show up, they’re not weird, they’re not annoying, they don’t have an attitude…. But the normal ones really do seem to be outnumbered by the terrible ones. Anyway, we’re slowly getting through all of our stuff. It’s a process. I’m glad we started a long time ago so we could spread the insanity out. 🙂 Best of luck on your upcoming travels!
I totally get this…We recently posted housekeepers position on C-List….5 NoShows, then a landscaping position. ..3 No Shows….we gave up, so we feel your pain
I just wanna share my story here… I was selling a TV FOR 100 bucks. Someone emailed me “30 cash”. That’s all he said…
Hahahahaha! Yup. Sounds about right!!
Cannot tell you how much this made my day. I had to do a search to see if other people like myself are running into these rude degenerates that are barely classified as human. I posted a set of snowboard goggles on CL for $90 which are basically brand new and essentially still go for $150 retail. Someone emailed me “Would you take $20”? I couldn’t believe how insulting the offer was. Guess all we can do is ignore these idiots.
People promise to buy an item then when you ask when they might be picking it up they don’t respond for a day and half when they finally do they say they looked at their budget and they can’t afford to buy it now .Why didn’t check you budget before agreeing to buy it in the first place .Like Sally she emails I wanted to buy your item and live near you i can come anytime and pick it up just tell me when i will come right over so I email her back get no response try again later in the day to email again no response try again that night no response the next try again she finally emails back well I was looking at my bills and I forgot I have some due on Friday so I need to pay them so i was wondering can you hold the item for 2 weeks then maybe when I get paid again I will have enough to buy it because I really do want it badly so please don’t sell it someone else .You can trust me I promise .You forgot you owed money on your bills and no i can’t hold onto the item for two weeks because you might have the money to buy it not without putting something down to hold it first even a store doesn’t let you do that I am not a storage unit i am trying to sell something .If you really want it that badly borrow the money from someone and pay them back in two weeks or maybe you really don’t need it in the first place .These people drive me nuts .
Haha. Yup. There is zero chance that Sally is buying your item. Less than zero… Anyway, sorry you’re dealing with this. It truly is amazing how ridiculous people can be.
I’m selling a pickup truck but included in the ad that I’m open to offers as I’m in the market for small car for my teen daughter… someone emails me with pictures of the vehicle they’d like to trade. So I responded that I’m interested, asking for their location and the mileage on their vehicle (my pickup has 62k). They respond: 202k and they’re 3 hours away and wanting to meet today. So I respond as kindly as I could that the mileage was higher than I’m comfortable with and that I’m not able to drive an hour and a half to meet them today. Their response: “your a f** idiot” (they weren’t so kind as to sensor their choice of words as I did for this comment.) :sigh: I’m so terribly tired of what so many out there think is acceptable behavior towards complete strangers. Some people’s children….