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With how many bikes and computers I sell, I'm kinda surprised this hasn't happened before! I sold the GSX last night and had my first bad experience as a seller.
Normally when I post something for sale I’ll get tons of messages. People will say they’ll show up and take it away, give me a deposit, and so on. A good 90+% of these people never show up, so I never put all my eggs into that basket. I've never held an item for anyone before because nobody has asked me to. I'll make exceptions if you're motivated, renting a vehicle and/or driving long distance, but you have to communicate that to me or I'll treat you like everyone else who says "cash in hand" but doesn't show up.
One guy said he was going to come by at 6, give me the money I wanted, and take the bike.
Another guy said he would come by at 9, put down a small deposit *if* he likes it, then come by on Saturday to pick it up. He'll tell me when he's ready to come over.
I tell both guys okay. Both guys seemed to understand there was a lot of interest in the bike, neither asked for a hold.
The 6pm guy arrives early and hauls the bike away as promised. He pulled away at 6:30. I immediately mark the item sold, which sends a notification to everyone who I was talking to about it.
At just after 7, the 9pm guy asks if I sold it. I say yes. He then passive aggressively tells me he'll just take his rental trailer back and thanks for nothing.
I apologize then remind him that he said that he was going to *maybe* give me a deposit tonight. He didn’t say anything about bringing a trailer or taking it home. I’m not holding a bike on a *maybe* I’ll get a deposit. Had he mentioned that he was going to go through the trouble of renting a trailer to straight up buy it, I would have held it.
Communication is important. One guy says cash in hand tonight, other says maybe. Of course I'm not holding it for the maybe. He should have said "hey, I'm renting a trailer and I'll be there an hour and a half early", but I got literally nothing.
He gets angrier and tells me that asking to come by and *maybe* put down a deposit is the same as asking for it to be held, and how awful (he used worse words) of me to sell it from under him.
Look, I wanted to pick up that Sym Symba on Monday. That seller and I talked at length about bikes and he was even going to let me ride his BMW and his Harley. And yet, he marked it as sold before I got off work.
I didn’t shed a tear. Why? Because I had no expectation that he'd hold it for me. Just because someone is basically treating you like you're their best friend, that doesn't mean they're going to show up. And "maybe" I'll give you a third of your asking price as a deposit isn't asking to hold it.
As the back and forth continued I realized I was wasting my time. This wasn’t going to go anywhere and he was getting more irate, so I just blocked him. Unfortunately, when you sell things Facebook creates a Messenger group, and apparently the blocked person can still send you messages. He gets out one last rant saying I screwed him over and how I’m a childish expletive for blocking him. Alright, so I left the chat.
Jeez, it was a cheap bike that didn't run and didn't have a title, it's not like I stole your wife or something. lol
So a future note for myself will be to add a "first come, first serve" disclaimer to every one of my ads...that people don't read, anyway.
Have any of you had a wacky selling experience?
Normally when I post something for sale I’ll get tons of messages. People will say they’ll show up and take it away, give me a deposit, and so on. A good 90+% of these people never show up, so I never put all my eggs into that basket. I've never held an item for anyone before because nobody has asked me to. I'll make exceptions if you're motivated, renting a vehicle and/or driving long distance, but you have to communicate that to me or I'll treat you like everyone else who says "cash in hand" but doesn't show up.
One guy said he was going to come by at 6, give me the money I wanted, and take the bike.
Another guy said he would come by at 9, put down a small deposit *if* he likes it, then come by on Saturday to pick it up. He'll tell me when he's ready to come over.
I tell both guys okay. Both guys seemed to understand there was a lot of interest in the bike, neither asked for a hold.
The 6pm guy arrives early and hauls the bike away as promised. He pulled away at 6:30. I immediately mark the item sold, which sends a notification to everyone who I was talking to about it.
At just after 7, the 9pm guy asks if I sold it. I say yes. He then passive aggressively tells me he'll just take his rental trailer back and thanks for nothing.
I apologize then remind him that he said that he was going to *maybe* give me a deposit tonight. He didn’t say anything about bringing a trailer or taking it home. I’m not holding a bike on a *maybe* I’ll get a deposit. Had he mentioned that he was going to go through the trouble of renting a trailer to straight up buy it, I would have held it.
Communication is important. One guy says cash in hand tonight, other says maybe. Of course I'm not holding it for the maybe. He should have said "hey, I'm renting a trailer and I'll be there an hour and a half early", but I got literally nothing.
He gets angrier and tells me that asking to come by and *maybe* put down a deposit is the same as asking for it to be held, and how awful (he used worse words) of me to sell it from under him.
Look, I wanted to pick up that Sym Symba on Monday. That seller and I talked at length about bikes and he was even going to let me ride his BMW and his Harley. And yet, he marked it as sold before I got off work.
I didn’t shed a tear. Why? Because I had no expectation that he'd hold it for me. Just because someone is basically treating you like you're their best friend, that doesn't mean they're going to show up. And "maybe" I'll give you a third of your asking price as a deposit isn't asking to hold it.
As the back and forth continued I realized I was wasting my time. This wasn’t going to go anywhere and he was getting more irate, so I just blocked him. Unfortunately, when you sell things Facebook creates a Messenger group, and apparently the blocked person can still send you messages. He gets out one last rant saying I screwed him over and how I’m a childish expletive for blocking him. Alright, so I left the chat.
Jeez, it was a cheap bike that didn't run and didn't have a title, it's not like I stole your wife or something. lol
So a future note for myself will be to add a "first come, first serve" disclaimer to every one of my ads...that people don't read, anyway.
Have any of you had a wacky selling experience?