Why is Craigslist going downhill?
 

Since I dont make much I use Craigslist to help supplement the income.
My dad has packrat tendencies and I mostly sell odds and ends to help clean the house.
(Its been great as I can almost access the sliding door :D)


In the past year Ive noticed that a lot of people have gotten flakier and generally unpleasant.
I used to notice it more-so in the cars/auto parts section
but now no-shows are in other section like arts & craft & antiques.

I post my ads once every few days (per CL rules)
but sometimes my things still get flagged for no reason.
One day I got 5 calls about 4 items and no one even showed to look at it.

And to make matters worse, some of the sellers are rude or just plain clueless.



Sorry about the rant. I have had some good experiences but
Hawaii is supposed to be a happy place and I hate stupid people.

I agree. Completely. I've had similar issues, to the extent that I'm almost ready to go back to the local newspaper. At least then, the only idiots you get are idiots that are already wasting their money on a paper they don't know how to read.

Ha! I'm glad its not just me. I was starting to think it was ME that had the problem. Its global. And sadly, I think its not going to get any better any time soon. I blame television.

Makes me try harder when I'm in a good space. That way, other traders are pleasantly surprised and in my site feedback congratulate me with words like: friendly, honest, good to deal with, good communication...

Spread the love....dont let the *******s get to you

Alohaspirit,
I don't think it is either unique to Craigslist or to Hawaii.
Stupid people abound and with the economic slowdown there are more of them with more time to waste (yours and theirs) and a chance to show of their "attitude".

By the way if you ever run low on them there let me know...we have a few million here you can have !

I second the advice above from Blueflame.
"non illigimum carborundum" as the old saying goes. Don't let them grind you down.

Pete.

Agreed, they really need to change the name of it from craigslist to bunchofa$$holeslist.

Half the things I post for sale/free get flagged to death almost immediately, when the entirety of the post may just be a description of what an item is, what condition it's in, and what it's good for (like what vehicles it fits if a car part, what accessories work with it if an electronic item, etc) ... and then a matter-of-fact photo of the item.

I asked once on the forums why this happens, and the craigslist forums are an utterly diseased, unfriendly, unhelpful wasteland of jerks who apparently live just to cut people down in text and provide no insight or assistance whatsoever.

I spend as little time on craigslist as possible these days. Just get what I need or post the minimum possible information about what I've got for sale. Any additional effort spent to describe an item in full, or take many photos for the benefit of shoppers basically just results in being flagged and wasting my time.

I like to put a detailed description and a few good pictures
(hosted off-site since the site ones are way too small)


its my half-baked attempt to block any stupid questions before theyre asked


doesnt always work though as I was selling a car one day
I didnt put down 5 spd because I provided full exterior/interior shots
and a lady still called to ask if it was automatic
(when the shifter was dead center with a huge shift boot)


or the people that call to ask one tiny question and then hangs up

them: is that a 400 watt amp?
me: yes (it was in the title)
them: ok, thanks, bye

I believe it is because it is free and anonymous.

With ebay they have your info. So if you encounter a dishonest seller or buyer, at least you have a chance at some recourse. Also there are selling fees, so it's less likely for someone to make up an ad just for kicks.

With the local paper, same thing, they got your info and unless it's the super savers it costs to post. So it is much less likely for someone to post unless they are serious about it. And since it requires talking to an actual person on the phone to answer the ad, it is less likely for someone to hide behind the internet and fake interest then not show.

I subscribe to several local "cheapcycle" and "freecycle" groups, and it is a constant battle of the same thing. A LOT of no-shows, and a quite a few dishonest sellers. It gets old, but once in a while it becomes useful.

When I was a local freecycle member, before the yahoo group, we posted notes in town hall... we never had problems. It's also a town of less than 2,000 people, with some residents of nearby towns participating.

The Yahoo groups seem to make people think that giving away your old stuff is a new concept.

Ever since they lost the "Exotic Services" section by law, the place made a huge nose-dive.

makes sense i guess

shut down the insane asylum and crazies will walk around your neighborhood

I've been selling and giving away stuff from my hauling runs on CL for about 3 years
www.biodieselhauling.org/salvage

Heres what I found works really well:
I use the anonymous email system. Never give them my phone number. Since about 1 in 10 people who say they are interested, I don't want to waste my time on phone calls.
When an email comes in from a CL ad, I have a standard generic reply message:
If a lot of people wrote about the same thing, once it gets picked up I send them all another generic message saying it has been picked up already.

In 3 years only one person has ever picked something up and failed to leave payment.

Cuts down immensely on the time and work of constantly talking to people who aren't actually going to show up.

If I adopted that way, my stuff would all disappear.

Thats an interesting style though. Glad it working for you.


Id also like to share about a good experience I had and hopefully youll share yours.


I was selling a car a little over a year ago. I got a call from a lady from a neighbor island who was interested. She said that she was getting divorced and since she didnt want to fight over their car, she wanted to get a similiar one. As always I was skeptical since shipping cars off island is a huge red flag. But we talked it over and emailed each other back and forth and I agreed. She showed a ton of trust and mailed me a check. (Now ive been burned once when i was younger: sent money to a guy in florida who basically said "haha, f-u") So I was determined not to let her down. I cashed the check and after finding out it was legit, took the car down to the loading docks. She got it a few days later and said she was very happy as it was everything she hoped it would be.

thats what I thought at first too.

I live in a poor part of a large city (East Oakland), and have sold many dozens of things ranging from $20-$200 this way over the past 3 years.
I find people are more trustworthy the more you trust them.

I do prefer to not leave my address in the original ad, so they have to contact me first. Then at least I have their email and a way to contact them.

With that system, you don't even know that the unpaid item was taken by an ad respondent. Thanks for testing and reporting on that method. I used to live where farm-gate produce stands were common. There was always some shrinkage, but not enough to pay for an attendant, just as the deer always got some, because a perfect fence was too costly.
I knew a young woman who often walked through a rough neighborhood around 2 AM. She'd watch out for the first guy who looked vaguely threatening, and ask him to walk her home. They all became perfect gentlemen.

very true.
I thought just last week that I had my second problem (someone who picked up a free item helped themselves to something which clearly wasn't being given away) but it turned out to have been my neighbor, who brought it back a few hours later

...until one wasn't.

paranormal things have happened as a result of craigslist in the crime category.

I still have not ruled out my car getting attacked. the facts of previous events, and then the result..way too freaky to completely ignore. I am a bit loud about the old sube..and will be for the rest of my days at the rate things are going. I know what you mean by retarded or unpleasant. the ads take a long time for responses even from boston. It is free, and the net is stacking up fast, economy for real world does this...leaving more time at computing, and it gathers all kinds of people, including psychopath.

It really sucks ass right now. I'm giving up on trying to list anything through it.

I'm in the process of selling parts off my 'Coma on CL... I haven't gotten any spam so far, just the typical people who want to ask questions that are covered in the post, then ask the same question 4 emails later. I've told everyone so far that I would only discuss majority details in email, if they had specific questions, they'd have to come look at it.

I think I've got the bed sold, which is actually going for more than I paid for the truck. Great for me! That one sale might actually finance my Metroid purchase, also from CL!