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Location: River's Edge Inn, Todd NC, and Lorgues France
1,734 posts, read 2,560,999 times
Reputation: 2769
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Over the past eight years I have bought and sold probably 100 items on CL with only two that didn't pan out.
1. I had a car for sale on CL. A guy came by and said he would take it. He said he would go to the bank and be back in fifteen minutes .... and that's the last I saw of him. Why not just tell me he didn't want it?
2. A guy came buy to buy a range. He supposedly slipped on my deck and said he was going to sue me. After I ignored about six lawyer letters he gave up.
Oh, and expect more than half of the people to respond with the single email: "Is it still for sale" ?
I have done all my furniture shopping on Craigslist. Overall, it has been great and the majority of the people I have met have been great. A couple of odd ones with bad furniture.
On the flip side I have tried selling on Craigslist here and when I lived in another state. There is more spam now and more scammers then a few years ago. For the most part I find selling on there frustrating, but that is just me.
I have bought and sold cars, boats,trailers, downsized, sold tools,
rehomed rescued dogs, bought & sold pet supplies,
bought kayaks & other sports things,
sold baby rabbits, gave things away,
sold land, found painters & movers,
reunited lost dogs with owners..
and much more...
You have to be careful & smart...
Exchange a few emails to see if they can respond normally via email..
Screen, screen, screen..
Keep it anonymous with no address shared until they are
ready to come see item..
Be sure your email that you correspond on doesn't have your name on it.
It's no different than the old newspaper ads, in fact safer because they do not have your phone number unless you give it to them...
If uneasy at all meet in a public place or better yet don't meet at all..
I've had good and bad experiences with CL. Most of the time, people email asking questions and never respond. Good experiences are emails like: "I want the item, what's your address? I'll be over in an hour". They come with cash and leave.
I actually would not respond to that email...
I expect them to ask about convenient times, not just say they are coming...
That email would be a "delete" for me ....
I've only used it to advertise a curb alert for free 30-year-old drop in stove on my curb. It was amazing how many weird replies I got to that - people desperate to get it IMMEDIATELY. The item was free so I never opened my front door.
Am a little afraid to use it for actual sales - and I have some things I'd like to sell. It just seems to be inviting trouble.
For my curb alert - I didn't put the address right away. Finally gave the address to someone who seemed like they'd really show for it. I did give the town and general area to help people decide whether it was worth driving over.
I recently hired a mover off of the services section to move a large piece of exercise equipment that I also bought off of CL. I Googled the phone numbers of each mover listed and many of them had websites and/or I was able to find reviews. I recommend doing the same. I went with the ones with the best reviews and was very happy with their service. They had to move the piece up 2 flights of stairs and were very careful not to damage my home or the equipment.
Make sure to Google their phone number, email address, and name. People that have received poor service or had a bad experience are much more likely to post online, so you should be able to find them. If that information isn't available, ask them for it. That's what I did. The people that are on the up and up will be happy to give you their information, and may even offer references.
I'm sure that you can find good service providers on CL. But it is up to you to spend the time doing diligence to try and weed out the bad ones.
Location: Sodo Sopa at The Villas above Kenny' s House.
2,492 posts, read 3,020,495 times
Reputation: 3910
Buying and selling has been positive. Advertising my home cleaning business was a disaster. I got so much spam and obvious scam replies . If I was bored I would reply with just as ridiculous answers just to see how far they would go with it. Took months before they stopped. Use an email address that isnt your main one.
Buying and selling has been positive. Advertising my home cleaning business was a disaster. I got so much spam and obvious scam replies . If I was bored I would reply with just as ridiculous answers just to see how far they would go with it. Took months before they stopped. Use an email address that isnt your main one.
How have you built your business since craigslist didn't work for you?
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