Facebook Marketplace frustrations

[Morell1]

I tried with a fifth Facebook seller yesterday morning--again, I offered full price and was specific about my ability to collect the item at their convenience.

Since this is probably well outside of the norm, it may be spooking the seller a bit. Maybe a softer approach?

Actually, this is with five different sellers. Each seller has received no more than two messages--with five days between messages. I refuse to send any seller more than two messages. I've been using a light touch.

As for offering full price and noting that I can pick up at their convenience, I'm told that's the best etiquette. Lots of sellers complain that buyers low-ball them and then fall to show up

[AmberolaAndy]

I'm currently trying to get something from FB Marketpkace saying I have the $$$ for the item and all i'm waiting for a response to when to make arrangements with the seller, like what would be a good time to make a purchase and what his location is but I'm met with radio silence (so far)

Like dude, if you sold the thing just tell me and mark the dang thing as sold. But the thing says he hadn't looked at the message yet, so possibly he cannot get to FB at the moment to respond to my message. It could just be my own anxiety getting to me.

[Lah Ca]

In my youth I spent a lot of time on boats on the Pacific Ocean. There was a saying about the people you would meet on the water, "Both cream and scum float."

It is the same with people you meet through FBM and CL Mostly you meet nice people who are honest. But then there are those who would be good examples for an article in a journal of Proctology and those who are just plain criminal.

In the proctology category, there is a guy I recently bought an older computer from to replace my media PC. He showed up on time. The goods were mostly as stated. But for the longest time he refused to answer a couple of minor questions I had after the purchase. After much pestering by me, he did answer ... sort of. Later when working on the case, I discovered that there was a minor and relatively unimportant piece missing. I asked about it, saying that if it were ever found, I would be happy to pick it up. He replied a few days later saying that he had found it. We made arrangements for pick up. I drove 45 min to get there. He never showed up.

As for the criminal category, I once had to resort to extreme physical violence and then call the police. This was back in the early and naive days of CL when one foolishly invited people to one's house.

But the above two examples are anomalies.

I have had more problems selling than buying. I have had more than a few no-shows for pick up of items I have been selling.

For things I am selling, I mostly meet at a gas/petrol station close to my house. There are usually lots of people about, witnesses if there are problems, and the station has security cameras.

I usually price things slightly high with a margin for haggling down the price I actually want. And if people don't haggle and if they are nice people, I hand back the money beyond what I wanted.

[AmberolaAndy]

If the item is sold, the seller really should just take the 5 seconds and delete the advertisement or mark it sold. Simply ignoring messages isn't cool.

I have an overwhelming suspicion this is what’s going on with me currently.

[Morell1]

I have an overwhelming suspicion this is what’s going on with me currently.

Alas, you're probably right. The last four sellers I contacted with firm full-price offers and flexible plans to pick up have been completely unresponsive. Only one ever saw the message, and all of the messages have been hanging out there for between 1 week and 2 months.

The items are probably sold, and the sellers can't be bothered to indicate as much. It's the ones who read my message and still ignore it who bug me the most. I'm guessing terrible buyers flood them with stupid messages, but they could at least take their items off marketplace.

When I sold on Craigslist, always communicated with every buyer and received items when they were sold. It really wasn't difficult, even if I received dozens of requests.

[AmberolaAndy]

I have an overwhelming suspicion this is what’s going on with me currently.

Alas, you're probably right. The last four sellers I contacted with firm full-price offers and flexible plans to pick up have been completely unresponsive. Only one ever saw the message, and all of the messages have been hanging out there for between 1 week and 2 months.

The items are probably sold, and the sellers can't be bothered to indicate as much. It's the ones who read my message and still ignore it who bug me the most. I'm guessing terrible buyers flood them with stupid messages, but they could at least take their items off marketplace.

When I sold on Craigslist, always communicated with every buyer and received items when they were sold. It really wasn't difficult, even if I received dozens of requests.

My only reassurance is that I see nothing that indicated the seller saw my messages so there’s a small chance the seller just hasn’t had time to get on FB to respond. The seller appears to be an older gentleman and maybe he just checks FB once or twice a week. If it doesn’t work out, I got other things of interest I see on eBay I may purchase instead.