Poor purchasing etiquette

[lastlight]

My wife is always selling kids toys on kijiji. Anyways this guy shows up and he had agreed to pay $40 for something. He apologizes but he only brought $30 and he *did* have to drive all the way from the NW to the SE. So she reluctantly agrees just to move the crap (sorry kids) and he then asks if she has anything ELSE for cheap!

I was not there otherwise buddy would have been making the long drive home empty-handed!

People are pretty unreliable sometimes and I don't currently have time to sell frags when something breaks off or needs to be removed. When I have a frag tank setup at least I'll have space to house the frags until I find them a home. Currently I've just been tossing them away as it's far less hassle.

[mark]

Originally Posted by lastlight

My wife is always selling kids toys on kijiji. Anyways this guy shows up and he had agreed to pay $40 for something. He apologizes but he only brought $30 and he *did* have to drive all the way from the NW to the SE. So she reluctantly agrees just to move the crap (sorry kids) and he then asks if she has anything ELSE for cheap!

I was not there otherwise buddy would have been making the long drive home empty-handed!

bet you he had the $40.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by mark

bet you he had the $40.

He did he wanted to buy more stuff haha.

[freezetyle]

I hate that. It goes both ways though. I was buy a deadmau5 ticket off of some girl and while I was on my way over to pick it up I got a phone call saying she just got other e-mails from people who said they would pay more. That is one reason why I wish I grew up in an earlier generation. People used to stand by their word.

[Aquaria]

Last year I went to buy my current 20g and stand for 200 which I thought was good since it had plumbing sump tank and a beautiful homemade stand. in my excitement since I had to go 6 months with no fish(poor me!!) I picked it all up without looking it over and got it in the car to go home. Ad said it was all in perfect condition and he had it running for over a year After I got it home I noticed all the silicon was cracked an needed to be resealed after it ran for a month I emptied it to move it and it cracked thankgod it was empty so in all I spent 200 on a fancy stand and 10g sump. Back before I moved I was tearing my tank down and I had a huge piece of gsp and a 13 head Duncan well buddy agrees to it and comes over and starts to complain that people give gsp away and that 70 bucks was way to much for a 13 head Duncan Then proceeds to offer me 30 bucks for both pieces (I got 130 from another reefer) so buddy then offers to take my dottyback for free since he drove out there and I needed to shut the tank down anyway. Needless to say he left empty handed.

[Myka]

Most of my experiences have been really good. There have been no-shows of course, but they all seem to live in Saskatoon. Never had a no-show in BC.

I was selling a tank and stand a few years ago. I think it was $250. Guy says he's coming to get it "right now". Two hours later I give up on him (I don't have his number) and leave the house. An hour after that I get a call from him (he had my number from the ad) and he's ****ed off that I'm not home! I tell him I can be there in 15 minutes. So I get back home, and there he is all ****ed off telling me he's going to be late something. He hands me the money, I count $200. I tell him there is only $200, the tank is $250. He says that he thinks it is over-priced and he's going to give me $200 for it and he didn't bring any more than that anyway. I told him to go F his hat (literally). So he left. The next day he calls me and offers $200. I told him due to over-whelming response to the ad I have raised the price to $600. He didn't call back.

Someone came over to buy a $10 frag. I am getting ready to bag it up and then he says oh jeez he only has $5 in his wallet. So I snapped the frag in half and said here ya go! He didn't know what to say, but he took it for the $5. I laughed pretty hard. I would have been nicer, but this guy had already *edit* me before.

[wolf_bluejay]

I read a lot of post about ppl getting upset about being "low-balled". I'm wondering if there is a different definition than the one I know. "Making a low offer"!
I do low-ball on larger items. And can you really get upset when you post a 10 year old 20 gal tank for $100 and someone "low-balls" you? I have and probably will do again and again in my life, it's called haggling.
The "I've only got $x money with me" is an age old line. I don't think is wrong when it is done as part of the haggling. Agreeing on a price and then pulling it after the fact is just not cool.

As my wife is "de-junking" the house again -- my big one is people who go hunting for free stuff to re-sell and make a buck. If I'm giving something away for free, it's because I don't care about the little bit it is worth and would rather see more people enjoying the hobby.

For both me and the wife, the trick we find works is this -- TRADE the item for something common in the hobby (almost worthless) for what you were giving away free. I did trade a 3 year old 90 gal for a SPS frag a few years ago
I honestly was giving it away, but the frag shows he at least has an interest. My wife usually asks a stupid low price for things she is giving away as it avoids the "FREE" label, and then just lets them have it for free when they show.

Around Kamloops there seems to be quite a few that spend all day hunting for free stuff people are giving away -- to re-sell and make a few bucks. I sell/give away any older salt water gear to be nice and promote reef tanks, not so some putz that doesn't even know what it is other than he can sell it on ebay.