Posted: 2/13/2011 8:21:24 AM EDT
|
Before Christmas I listed a couple of cameras for sale on CL. This woman contacts me and says she would like to buy one for her boyfriend. Asks if I can meet her so she can look at it. I agree, meet her at the bagel shop and she looks it over and says she loves it, can I hold it for her? Normally I don't do this, but she was a nice lady in her 50's and kind of reminded me of mom. She said she would have the money the next week. OK, I'm not in that much of a hurry to sell. Next week comes, contact her and she says her boyfriend doesn't want a camera... but she would like one for herself. Is the cheaper one still available. Yes, it hadn't sold, and I had some bites on the one she asked me to hold so I said I'd meet her so she could see the cheaper one.
Well all of the nibbles on the more expensive one didn't pan out, and it ends up it took me a month to sell it at my price. Since I was in no huge hurry to sell I decided to wait and get my price, which I eventually did but that is not relevant. Anyway, I meet her and show her the less expensive camera and she is disappointed the lens is not as nice and blah blah blah... but I explain to her it has a battery grip which the more expensive camera did not have and it was half the price. She says she will take it, but only has half of the price of the cheaper camera, will I do installments. My Lord, we're talking $300 here not $3,000! I told her 50% up front and it was non-refundable, final payment due by today. Drew up a receipt, she and I both signed it, terms clearly laid out. I contact her yesterday and she asks to meet at 9:00 this morning at the bagel shop... 9:00, really? I was out last night and was damned tired... but OK. Meet her at the bagel shop and she proceeds to tell me she doesn't want the camera any longer, she found it on eBay for $20 less and bought it. I told her fine and got up to leave. She demanded her deposit back, I told her it was non-refundable and showed her my copy of the receipt for the deposit she signed. She told me that didn't mean anything and she pointed at the ATM demanding her money. Now it has been two months that this transaction has been dragging on from first call to today. I'm in no mood for this and figure I've been accommodating enough. I told her pay the balance now and get her camera, or don't pay it and I keep the camera and the deposit... her choice. She says she is going to call the cops, I said go for it. So she calls the cops and tells them I took her money and won't refund it, from the sound of the conversation I'm guessing they told her it was a civil matter and not criminal. She however insisted they send someone and I figured OK, it should be worth the lulz. So I ordered breakfast and sat their eating it waiting for the officer to show. took an hour, guess a CL dispute is not a real high priority. Officer walks in and she starts saying how I stole her money. I looked at the officer and asked if I stole the money would I have sat here waiting for you. I showed him the receipt and informed him she decided to buy a camera elsewhere and was demanding a refund which she was not entitled to per the agreement. He looked at her and said this is a civil matter, pay him and get your camera or sue him, but stop wasting the police department's time. She then had the audacity to ask if I would take $20 less because that was how much it was on eBay. I told her no, pay what you agreed to because you've wasted my time for two months. She took $160 out of the ATM and asked if I had change. I told her no, but I'd be happy to take the extra $10 for wasting the past hour and a half of my time. The officer was nice enough to break the $20 for her to give me my $150. Seriously, the ridiculous fees on eBay are almost worth it to not have to put up with this nonsense. 
|
Rule #1 dont "sell" to someone who does not have money.
|
Just sold a four wheeler on craigslist, this one brought out all the characters. Little kids calling me, tons of low ballers, guys saying they didn't want to pay that much for it but would like to come test drive it anyway, people requesting I trailer it 25-100 miles to their town just so they can look at it, a drunk guy wanting to come check it out at 9pm if "he can borrow his daddy's truck so his old lady can drive him up there", etc, etc. Then that one good buyer calls, he was the first one that I actually let look at/test drive it and he paid asking price without even trying to bargain, just had to weed and wait through about 50 calls and three weeks.
|
|
That's why I do Ebay. I don't want to see these people face to face. I take good pics, under-estimate the true condition and double box things up nicely.
I've done 'car' sales where you have to meet with somebody, but the little ticky-tacky stuff, nope. Too bad you couldn't have punched her in the face. Chris |
|
Quoted:
Geeez, how did that lady ever manage to get into her 50's?! All that grief and hassle over a $300 dollar camera. How did she manage to get a boyfriend... he surely must be sick of her shit. But yeah... $300. I paid $200 for it and bought it with the intent of flipping it. The $100 profit was so not worth it. |
|
I was selling 4 -33" tires on chevy 4x4 half ton rims for $40. Tires held air and had some tread, but I wanted to get rid of them and really the steel wagon wheels were pretty nice. You would not believe the asshats that emailed me wanted me to seperate the tires from the rims, wanting to buy 2 tires, buy 2 rims, wanted to know if they fit other vehicles, and said they would come tomorrow to buy then never showed.
my dad sold some small farm equipment(a disk and a antique corn planter) and we sold those instantly for the asking price to normal people that paid cash, no BS. I think it depends on the item for sale what kind of people you bring out. |
|
Quoted: This is very true. When I bought my truck it was 1 year old. It had a drop in bed liner. I really wanted a line-x spray in. So I pulled it out and put it in my garage and got my line-x liner. I listed it once a week for $50 for 3 weeks. Finally some guy calls says he will take it for the $50 listed. I figured he would try to negotiate nope. He just requested I drop it off at the place he works. I figured it seemed fair because he paid what I was asking which I did not think I would get. Lastly I would get it out of my garage.I was selling 4 -33" tires on chevy 4x4 half ton rims for $40. Tires held air and had some tread, but I wanted to get rid of them and really the steel wagon wheels were pretty nice. You would not believe the asshats that emailed me wanted me to seperate the tires from the rims, wanting to buy 2 tires, buy 2 rims, wanted to know if they fit other vehicles, and said they would come tomorrow to buy then never showed. my dad sold some small farm equipment(a disk and a antique corn planter) and we sold those instantly for the asking price to normal people that paid cash, no BS. I think it depends on the item for sale what kind of people you bring out. The last thing I sold was 2 used snowmobiles which for their age were in very good shape and started right up. I had endless strings of people saying I would buy it. One guy said he would be there Monday to pick it up. He called then said it would be Wednesday and never called back. Finally some guy and his friend showed up to look at and buy one of them. He bought the one and his friend after looking at the other one decided to buy it. My take on craigslist is I give people reasonable time to come pay for it and the first person that contacts me gets first crack. But, if you take forever to come pick it up and pay me don't be surprised if I sell it to someone else. |
|
Quoted:
Where was she while you were eating breakfast? Sitting across the bagel shop drinking a cup of coffee waiting for the officer to arrive. I had the Sunday paper and a bacon, egg and cheese on a toasted sesame bagel and some OJ. Man I was out like $8 between the paper and breakfast... shoulda kept that extra $10! |
|
Quoted:
......... Seriously, the ridiculous fees on eBay are almost worth it to not have to put up with this nonsense. True, on Ebay the buyers never call the cops, they just tell Ebay and PayPal that the item isn't as described, or if you didn't get delivery confirmation they say they never got it. Then PayPal refunds the buyer with your money. All this after they charge you 18% to list and sell it. |
Nice.
| I just unloaded a beatup '85 diesel K5 for cheap––it was a rough old 4x4 that was perfect for hunting and beating up. While it was a decent pickup, you wouldn't believe the number of people that would ask me if it would make it 300 miles home, or if it would be suitable for their wife to drive 50 miles to work each day. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
......... Seriously, the ridiculous fees on eBay are almost worth it to not have to put up with this nonsense. True, on Ebay the buyers never call the cops, they just tell Ebay and PayPal that the item isn't as described, or if you didn't get delivery confirmation they say the never got it. Then PayPal refunds the buyer with your money. All this after they charge you 18% to list and sell it. I've been selling stuff on Ebay for 11 years and never had a problem, but there is a fee, usually a buck or two to list and then a staggered tier on the final value. I never list something that's going to come in at say...under $20, for that reason and for the fact that it's not really worth the hassle to box up and and schlep down to the PO. For bigger ticket items, I've done well and I don't have to deal with nutty people at the local Dennys. Chris |
|
That story is funny as hell. Well not really if I was you Op...I mean seriously wtf was she thinking? And you have way too much patience, but I applaud that. I've only posted one Craigslist ad and that was for some free horsesh*t last spring. People came out of the woodwork with their pickups to get their gardens ready. I offered free loading too. It worked out great for me because I needed the room but no money ever changed hands and I don't think half of them had any anyway. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
No pic's after 2 months FAIL Dude, google Bea Arthur Your mother looks like Maude? You guys are sick and cruel... no my mother does not. She was telling me how she does craft fairs and on-line auctions and wanted a good camera that did nice macro shots of the detailing of her work. My mom is semi-retired and does a ton of craft work and on-line selling. It was when she was telling me why she wanted the camera that I started thinking she reminded me of mom... I guess I should have added why she reminded me of mom. 
|
|
*UPDATE*
Just checked my email, she told me the camera is defective because I did not give her the software or cable to transfer the photos to her computer, so she wants a refund. I wrote back and told her they were not included in the auction but she does not need them as I never used them. Simply remove the memory card and insert it into your computer's memory card slot... much easier than monkeying around with 5-6 year old software, which is no doubt available from Canon's website for download if she truly wants it. 
Thank God I set-up a disposable email address for CL listings... just delete and create a new one. Bye bye lady! |