Hi guys,
Just wanted to share a little story that really pissed me today. I made a couple of mistakes, so I would also like to share these with you. This thread might be especially interesting to those who often sell on websites like Craiglist (for me, it was the French equivalent, Leboncoin.fr).
So today, I decided to put a little advert online for a beautiful electrical guitar, a Fender Stratocaster US that I've had for 10 years. So I wrote a little advert, and put it online around 11 in the morning. Not an hour had passed that I had already received 21 emails from potential buyers. At first, I was like "cool, I'm gonna sell it easily".
But soon after the initial excitement, I thought: "okay, there are so many interested people, I'm probably underpricing my guitar. I'm going to sell it at a higher price". I went on my computer and immediately deleted my advert to make a new one.
And then, I don't know why exactly, but I didn't want to sell it anymore. Seeing all these people craving for my guitar made me think that, in the end, I would be sad to sell it. I'm attached to this guitar, and wouldn't like it to end up in some unknown's hands. So I decided to not make another advert, and just left it like this. This was my first mistake: to offer people something I was emotionnaly attached to. I will never do that again. My second mistake was to not inform all the people who initially contacted me that the product was no longer for sale. I was busy, and didn't do it.
Unfortunately for me, it was too late...
After a couple of hours going shopping in town, I went back home around 4pm. I went back on my computer, and suddenly I heard someone knocking at my door. Usually, I don't open the door when someone I didn't expect to come is knocking. I hate it, you never know who you're gonna meet after all (how right I was...).
But I decided to open (3rd mistake).
"Hi, I'm coming for the guitar".
A man in his forty's was standing right in front of me. He was quite jacked up, and didn't give a shit about him showing up without any appointement.
What the F*ck? My first feeling was "shit, how unpolite and disrespectful is it to show up at someone else's place you don't even know without notifying!". I couldn't believe it. Furtermore, before arriving at my door, you have to walk through an electrical portal and a locked door that only inhabitants can open. So this guy made all his way to my appartement. He was motivated, and I didn't like it at all.
Being surprised, I told him gently that the guitar was not for sale anymore, that I had changed my mind, deleted the advert and was sorry for that.
He immediately became agressive. We hadn't been talking for more than a couple of seconds that he started to threaten me:
"I really want to punch you in the face sir, I really want to do it" with a very serious face.
I told him that we didn't make any appointement, that it was the least he could have done. Of course, he got even more angry and threatened me again:
"You wrote a shitty adress on your advert (which was totally wrong), I struggled to park my car, and you don't even want to sell me your guitar. People like you desevere my punch in the face, I'm really about to beat you up, I don't know what's holding me back." (While the original language was French, this is exactly in those terms that he was talking to me.)
While talking, he was still looking at me straight in the eyes. My feeling was that he really was about to do what he was saying, so I just stopped talking and looked at him back in the eyes without talking. I was very impressed. It was around 4pm, there's no one at this time of the day in my building, and I could see myself fighting with this man in my studio. That's clearly what he wanted.
Stopping to reply was the solution. After telling me a last "I really want to give you my punch in the face", I said nothing, and he just left in silence. Should I have continued the argument, he would have engaged the fight right away. He was totally pissed.
I locked my door, scared like shit, and thought : "why the F*ck did I put my adress on the advert" ?(4th mistake). Having sold a couple of other guitars on this same website in the past few years, I knew inviting strangers at my place to try the products was not a good idea. I had never experienced something like that before, but I already had to deal with idiots (like someone telling me he wanted the guitar case with the guitar, despite me telling him that I had no guitar case at all, and him insisting again ...).
I also have the feeling that lots of people want to scam you on this kind of website. There is no evaluation system (like ebay for instance), no account needed, so it's really full of idiots.
I now understand why so many biz want to select their customers, in order to deal with the right persons, or at least to avoid most of the morons. It might also be a good marketing strategy to do so. It can be really annoying to deal with crazy customers. What if I had argued more with this crazy guy? He could have killed me or injured me seriously and come back any time he wanted.
A friend of mine once tried to sell his car on this website, and met with the buyers in a random street. The meeting didn't go well, he was alone, they were several and they threatened him to steal his car.
Troubles are numerous on these second hand websites.
I would not go back on a website to meet people without at least an evalution system, with comments from other users talking about the person you are about to meet.
It was a bit long, but for those who are doing business on these websites, here are the lessons I taught myself:
Never put your address on your advert. Never. I would never have thought someone could just show up at my place without prior notification and literally threaten me, until today.
Sell your products on serious websites, where users are ranked, evaluated by other users. This also applies to car pools (car sharing) or any other website where you are to invite someone. The more barrier, the better. This also applies to customers, I think. The INSIDERS section of this forum is a perfect example. Less noise, better quality.
Make sure you really want to sell your product, of that your product is actually good quality. Don't bullshit with people, it will go wrong sooner or later. People sometimes come from far, and when they realize your product is not as expected, they can literally turn crazy.
A more general lesson: select people. I want a track record from people now. I don't want to deal with some strangers coming from nowhere anymore. I want to deal with an employer, a friend I know, a client I know, or anyone who can proove some sort of reliabilty. No more random people.
Just wanted to share a little story that really pissed me today. I made a couple of mistakes, so I would also like to share these with you. This thread might be especially interesting to those who often sell on websites like Craiglist (for me, it was the French equivalent, Leboncoin.fr).
So today, I decided to put a little advert online for a beautiful electrical guitar, a Fender Stratocaster US that I've had for 10 years. So I wrote a little advert, and put it online around 11 in the morning. Not an hour had passed that I had already received 21 emails from potential buyers. At first, I was like "cool, I'm gonna sell it easily".
But soon after the initial excitement, I thought: "okay, there are so many interested people, I'm probably underpricing my guitar. I'm going to sell it at a higher price". I went on my computer and immediately deleted my advert to make a new one.
And then, I don't know why exactly, but I didn't want to sell it anymore. Seeing all these people craving for my guitar made me think that, in the end, I would be sad to sell it. I'm attached to this guitar, and wouldn't like it to end up in some unknown's hands. So I decided to not make another advert, and just left it like this. This was my first mistake: to offer people something I was emotionnaly attached to. I will never do that again. My second mistake was to not inform all the people who initially contacted me that the product was no longer for sale. I was busy, and didn't do it.
Unfortunately for me, it was too late...
After a couple of hours going shopping in town, I went back home around 4pm. I went back on my computer, and suddenly I heard someone knocking at my door. Usually, I don't open the door when someone I didn't expect to come is knocking. I hate it, you never know who you're gonna meet after all (how right I was...).
But I decided to open (3rd mistake).
"Hi, I'm coming for the guitar".
A man in his forty's was standing right in front of me. He was quite jacked up, and didn't give a shit about him showing up without any appointement.
What the F*ck? My first feeling was "shit, how unpolite and disrespectful is it to show up at someone else's place you don't even know without notifying!". I couldn't believe it. Furtermore, before arriving at my door, you have to walk through an electrical portal and a locked door that only inhabitants can open. So this guy made all his way to my appartement. He was motivated, and I didn't like it at all.
Being surprised, I told him gently that the guitar was not for sale anymore, that I had changed my mind, deleted the advert and was sorry for that.
He immediately became agressive. We hadn't been talking for more than a couple of seconds that he started to threaten me:
"I really want to punch you in the face sir, I really want to do it" with a very serious face.
I told him that we didn't make any appointement, that it was the least he could have done. Of course, he got even more angry and threatened me again:
"You wrote a shitty adress on your advert (which was totally wrong), I struggled to park my car, and you don't even want to sell me your guitar. People like you desevere my punch in the face, I'm really about to beat you up, I don't know what's holding me back." (While the original language was French, this is exactly in those terms that he was talking to me.)
While talking, he was still looking at me straight in the eyes. My feeling was that he really was about to do what he was saying, so I just stopped talking and looked at him back in the eyes without talking. I was very impressed. It was around 4pm, there's no one at this time of the day in my building, and I could see myself fighting with this man in my studio. That's clearly what he wanted.
Stopping to reply was the solution. After telling me a last "I really want to give you my punch in the face", I said nothing, and he just left in silence. Should I have continued the argument, he would have engaged the fight right away. He was totally pissed.
I locked my door, scared like shit, and thought : "why the F*ck did I put my adress on the advert" ?(4th mistake). Having sold a couple of other guitars on this same website in the past few years, I knew inviting strangers at my place to try the products was not a good idea. I had never experienced something like that before, but I already had to deal with idiots (like someone telling me he wanted the guitar case with the guitar, despite me telling him that I had no guitar case at all, and him insisting again ...).
I also have the feeling that lots of people want to scam you on this kind of website. There is no evaluation system (like ebay for instance), no account needed, so it's really full of idiots.
I now understand why so many biz want to select their customers, in order to deal with the right persons, or at least to avoid most of the morons. It might also be a good marketing strategy to do so. It can be really annoying to deal with crazy customers. What if I had argued more with this crazy guy? He could have killed me or injured me seriously and come back any time he wanted.
A friend of mine once tried to sell his car on this website, and met with the buyers in a random street. The meeting didn't go well, he was alone, they were several and they threatened him to steal his car.
Troubles are numerous on these second hand websites.
I would not go back on a website to meet people without at least an evalution system, with comments from other users talking about the person you are about to meet.
It was a bit long, but for those who are doing business on these websites, here are the lessons I taught myself:
Never put your address on your advert. Never. I would never have thought someone could just show up at my place without prior notification and literally threaten me, until today.
Sell your products on serious websites, where users are ranked, evaluated by other users. This also applies to car pools (car sharing) or any other website where you are to invite someone. The more barrier, the better. This also applies to customers, I think. The INSIDERS section of this forum is a perfect example. Less noise, better quality.
Make sure you really want to sell your product, of that your product is actually good quality. Don't bullshit with people, it will go wrong sooner or later. People sometimes come from far, and when they realize your product is not as expected, they can literally turn crazy.
A more general lesson: select people. I want a track record from people now. I don't want to deal with some strangers coming from nowhere anymore. I want to deal with an employer, a friend I know, a client I know, or anyone who can proove some sort of reliabilty. No more random people.
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum:
Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
