How to cope with responders for own advert ?

biuro74

biuro74

biuro74

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Joined
17 Feb 2009
Posts
1,239
Hi,

I'm wondering how would you (or do you) cope with people who respond to your advert:
* not reading the advert body (just title and price)
* not reading the advert body AND some title (just seeing picture and price)
* hoping for free delivery (if you offer that, obviously) without prior payment.

?

I can't imagine what they've got in their heads, but sometimes I think their demands are soo ridiculous that I need to hold my chair really hard :)

Or maybe I'm soo yesterdays-y and can't cope orders nowadays. What did you order last time with payment upon handover ? Except take-away food ? Any TV, pc, laptop, smartphone, electronics ?
I know it all depends on goods, but imagaine it's electronic stuff worth 300-600 pounds, and delivery within upto 30 miles. I've noticed "buyers" split into few generalized groups, each of which is strictly recognizable - like - for example - guys who want to purchase anything, but always for 50% of value. I'm done with endless explaining things - so maybe I'm doing something wrong. Hence my question -what is your knowledge regarding to orders being processed online ?
If you sell - what would you do ? Or if you buy - what would you accept, and what would you not from seller (like full payment prior to delivery, partial - delivery costs prior to delivery, payment upon handover) ? Where is that crosspoint between giving buyers "small finger" and rescuing before they demand whole arm ?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts in advance.
 
biuro74 said:
Hi,

I'm wondering how would you (or do you) cope with people who respond to your advert:
* not reading the advert body (just title and price)
* not reading the advert body AND some title (just seeing picture and price)
* hoping for free delivery (if you offer that, obviously) without prior payment.

?

I can't imagine what they've got in their heads, but sometimes I think their demands are soo ridiculous that I need to hold my chair really hard :)

Or maybe I'm soo yesterdays-y and can't cope orders nowadays. What did you order last time with payment upon handover ? Except take-away food ? Any TV, pc, laptop, smartphone, electronics ?
I know it all depends on goods, but imagaine it's electronic stuff worth 300-600 pounds, and delivery within upto 30 miles. I've noticed "buyers" split into few generalized groups, each of which is strictly recognizable - like - for example - guys who want to purchase anything, but always for 50% of value. I'm done with endless explaining things - so maybe I'm doing something wrong. Hence my question -what is your knowledge regarding to orders being processed online ?
If you sell - what would you do ? Or if you buy - what would you accept, and what would you not from seller (like full payment prior to delivery, partial - delivery costs prior to delivery, payment upon handover) ? Where is that crosspoint between giving buyers "small finger" and rescuing before they demand whole arm ?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts in advance.
Click to expand...

Is this representative of your normal advert? If so I can help.
 
robfosters said:
I haven’t got a clue what you’re going on about tbh. Can you not word your post a bit more telligibly?
Click to expand...
Sorry for that level of generality, I was thinking rather widely as there are few points that I'm interested in.

I'd like to find out, what are experiences of other people selling used stuff. How they cope with potential buyers who demand a little bit too much from seller's point of view. Does it make any sense for you ?

Example (1) : I sell music keyboard. I do free delivery within some radius. I expect minimum delivery pre-payment being done prior to delivery, just to secure delivery against change-of-mind, or simple paying for "no, thanks, I don't like it" once delivered and played a bit. Or simple closing the door and "bye, I don't know you, that was my keyboard".
Question (1): is it too much ? Or not enough ? I mean my expectations.
Example (1-a): potential buyer wants to buy it really much, but doesn't want to pay prior to delivery saying "all cash upon handover". I feel like a cheater who wants to scam his 15 pounds, lol.
Question (1-a): how do you cope with that ? You say "try Ebay and see if they let you pay upon handover", or you say "OK, I will come tomorrow at 17:30, be there, wait for me with no overloaded pals, and with 100% cash. You probably (or not really) have met guy who accepted your advert & price, came to your house and started to give you 90% of money to your hand.
... and so on. I'm asking about your cases, which you experienced as sellers of anything.
 
biuro74 said:
Hi,
I've noticed "buyers" split into few generalized groups, each of which is strictly recognizable - like - for example - guys who want to purchase anything, but always for 50% of value.
Click to expand...


Indians/South Asians. :p

To be fair, they are quite fun to do business with really. A goodly part of my customer base falls into this group. But You do have to know the rules and apply them in your favour!

:D
 
Are you a trader, or is this just like a clearout sale? - It sounds like the former when you seem to be charging and doing the delivery yourself?

I guess it's the mindset that comes with 2nd-hand goods - it's not an RRP that would usually haggle over, whereas 2nd hand goods are always subjective in terms of item condition, item wear, warranty etc.

If you're getting lots of them, i'd just write up a template reply that says something like you won't consider offers below advertised price etc, and then just fire that back to them. Saves you having to read though and write back the same thing each time, and they'll probably get fed up of a template reply.
 
biuro74 said:
Sorry for that level of generality, I was thinking rather widely as there are few points that I'm interested in.

I'd like to find out, what are experiences of other people selling used stuff. How they cope with potential buyers who demand a little bit too much from seller's point of view. Does it make any sense for you ?

Example (1) : I sell music keyboard. I do free delivery within some radius. I expect minimum delivery pre-payment being done prior to delivery, just to secure delivery against change-of-mind, or simple paying for "no, thanks, I don't like it" once delivered and played a bit. Or simple closing the door and "bye, I don't know you, that was my keyboard".
Question (1): is it too much ? Or not enough ? I mean my expectations.
Example (1-a): potential buyer wants to buy it really much, but doesn't want to pay prior to delivery saying "all cash upon handover". I feel like a cheater who wants to scam his 15 pounds, lol.
Question (1-a): how do you cope with that ? You say "try Ebay and see if they let you pay upon handover", or you say "OK, I will come tomorrow at 17:30, be there, wait for me with no overloaded pals, and with 100% cash. You probably (or not really) have met guy who accepted your advert & price, came to your house and started to give you 90% of money to your hand.
... and so on. I'm asking about your cases, which you experienced as sellers of anything.
Click to expand...
robfosters said:
I haven’t got a clue what you’re going on about tbh. Can you not word your post a bit more telligibly?
Click to expand...
Yeah, still don't have a clue really.
 
Feek said:
Yeah, still don't have a clue really.
Click to expand...

I think he is annoyed that people want to offer him far less for his item than he has listed it for.

I think he is also annoyed when people don't want to pay part of the fee in advance, before he brings it to them, in case they change their mind, he wants to be paid for transport in case they don't want the item.

I think he should type less.
 
its facebook marketplace and gumtree, its renowned for this, there was a post last week or so saying exactly the same thing.
 
biuro74 said:
Sorry for that level of generality, I was thinking rather widely as there are few points that I'm interested in.

I'd like to find out, what are experiences of other people selling used stuff. How they cope with potential buyers who demand a little bit too much from seller's point of view. Does it make any sense for you ?

Example (1) : I sell music keyboard. I do free delivery within some radius. I expect minimum delivery pre-payment being done prior to delivery, just to secure delivery against change-of-mind, or simple paying for "no, thanks, I don't like it" once delivered and played a bit. Or simple closing the door and "bye, I don't know you, that was my keyboard".
Question (1): is it too much ? Or not enough ? I mean my expectations.
Example (1-a): potential buyer wants to buy it really much, but doesn't want to pay prior to delivery saying "all cash upon handover". I feel like a cheater who wants to scam his 15 pounds, lol.
Question (1-a): how do you cope with that ? You say "try Ebay and see if they let you pay upon handover", or you say "OK, I will come tomorrow at 17:30, be there, wait for me with no overloaded pals, and with 100% cash. You probably (or not really) have met guy who accepted your advert & price, came to your house and started to give you 90% of money to your hand.
... and so on. I'm asking about your cases, which you experienced as sellers of anything.
Click to expand...

I think you've confused things/overcomplicated things just as you've done in this thread. You're talking about placing some classified ads/selling second hand stuff either online or via your local paper or something?

People generally look at second hand goods, skim through a list, see the thing they like and see the price then phone up and perhaps think about haggling a little bit.

To bastardise a phrase from these forums "you are not a shop". Sometimes the description or the state of second hand goods isn't as described or the seller and buyer have different interpretations of the words used to describe the condition of the item. Because of this some people will change their bid/haggle, sometimes people will haggle for the sake of it too as they then feel they've won some small victory or something. You might want to factor in the fact that some people haggle into the price, though not too much that you can't sell the item or just be firm and be prepared to turn someone away quite quickly if you don't want to mess round.

I think that when you've done something unusual like offering free delivery on some second hand goods that you're selling and that the buyer hasn't yet seen and you want some sort of partial payment up front you're prone to confuse things. Especially if someone is just skimming the adverts looking for item X, sees item X and then just gives you a call. Making a comparison to e-bay isn't particularly helpful, e-bay has various protections available to buyers.

I think you could avoid this perhaps by not offering free delivery and just selling the item as anyone else would?

If you really want to offer to deliver the thing you're selling then why not charge for it? That would save the confusion, don't call it "Free delivery" when you're also taking (and potentially keeping) a payment. The buyer might still want to reject the item etc.. or haggle but you've been paid for your time delivering it and the buyer isn't put off by this idea of partially paying for second hand goods unseen and with little comeback - the fee is specifically for you delivering the item.
 
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I don’t do any eBay/gumtree/marketplace etc because of all the things you mention OP. Would stress me right out!

If I had to for whatever reason I’d try have a set rule/limit for offers. But then that prob wouldn’t work...
 
Tobywon said:
its facebook marketplace and gumtree, its renowned for this, there was a post last week or so saying exactly the same thing.
Click to expand...

Mrs has some baby clothes up on FB. Quality brands including some designer & genuine Disney and all in good nick. She has each item up at £1 just to get rid.

She's had people offering 20p or similar silly prices. One even asked if she'd deliver one item 13 miles away and got arsey whe she said no (ad is marked strictly collection only)
 
The best way to deal with them most of the time is just to be polite, and if they are asking dumb questions then 9/10 no sale is going to come from it so just give them a short answer so not to waste time or simply ignore them. I am selling some PC parts at the moment on Gumtree and I keep getting timewasters asking me questions then simply not responding, or just asking me stupid questions altogether. One guy on Facebook yesterday wanted to buy my entire PC with about £1500 worth of parts in it for £50, and rather than messaging me on Facebook he was sending me voice messages, the first one ended with "love you bye". You simply meet the weirdest people while selling things.
 
Tobywon said:
its facebook marketplace and gumtree, its renowned for this, there was a post last week or so saying exactly the same thing.
Click to expand...

I see this sort of comment so often. Facebook and Gumtree is awful blah blah blah. The stuff OP is describing happens EVERYWHERE, not just FB and Gumtree. Ebay is rife with it, Amazon is full of stupid questions on items. Its not the sites that is the problem, its the people, and they are not limited to two websites. If you are selling specific parts on a website designed around those parts, ie selling PC parts on a PC Forum then you are going to have a much better experience than selling them elsewhere. If OP tried selling baby clothes on here he would more than likely get the same stupid questions as he would anywhere else. It also depends on what you are selling. I have bought some great stuff of Gumtree with absolutely no issues, and sold stuff as well.
 
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Thank you guys for all replies.
The most weird thing is I should've known of all of these weird behaviours as I'm selling stuff not first time. Maybe my memory became shorter or I've suffered some mental knockdown ;-) This way or another, if you say what you just did, it means I'm not weird. They (buyers) are ;-) Not all of them, obviously, but you know what I mean - all asking stupid questions. Apparently I've heard too many of them last time.
I'm not a shop, but I'm a trader, this is a part of what I'm doing for living. Self employed, this stuff. If I sell, I strictly describe I'm a trader... but apparently nobody reads this. What irritates me really much - is a thought this situation with "lack-minded" buyers has nothing to do with what I've read in a book "You can negotiate anything" by some American writer. Completely like "mum, I've bought you great champaigne for 35 quids" and "sonny-boy, I told you TWO CIDERS for 1.50 and a straw".
Looks like I needed such therapy for a moment to get up :) even if you think it was just a few comments here.

Thanks :)
 
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