eBay seller refuses to accept bike auction offer – says "would be unhappy if I sold to Scouser"

Smartstu wrote:

You lot could argue about anything! 🙄 ....

no we couldn't 

You're so wrong about that, you villain.

Captain Badger wrote:

Smartstu wrote:

You lot could argue about anything! 🙄 ....

no we couldn't 

The great Eddie Mair got his first journalism job partly because the interviewer looked at his application and said "I see it says here you enjoy a good argument." 

"No it doesn't," Eddie replied.

Rendel Harris wrote:

.....

The great Eddie Mair got his first journalism job partly because the interviewer looked at his application and said "I see it says here you enjoy a good argument." 

"No it doesn't," Eddie replied.

I really miss him on radio 4 - I don't listen in to PM much anymore, don't even know of it's still going

Eddie Mair now presents on LBC 4-7pm weekdays....It's not London-centric, despite its name.  

Captain Badger wrote:

Rendel Harris wrote:

.....

The great Eddie Mair got his first journalism job partly because the interviewer looked at his application and said "I see it says here you enjoy a good argument." 

"No it doesn't," Eddie replied.

I really miss him on radio 4 - I don't listen in to PM much anymore, don't even know of it's still going

It's not bad with Evan Davis, not a patch on Eddie but nobody is.

A friend, who lived in a million pound plus house that he'd built, got so sick of telephone calls from a kitchen company wanting to sell him a new kitchen that one day he made an arrangement for someone to come down. The guy obviously thought he had set himself up for a bonus of the year when he arrived at the electric gates, parked next to Brian's Porsche 911 GT2 and Ferrari F40. He went in the house, his mouth dropped open when he saw their hand made kitchen, and told Brian he didn't need a new kitchen. Brian said "Exactly, I have just wasted your time just like you waste my time every time you call, now Fuck Off." 

He never got any more calls.

bobrayner wrote:

Last time I listed something expensive online (a car, rather than a bike) I got several calls & messages from clowns offering half or 2/3 of the list price. They wasted a lot of my time. It gets pretty frustrating trying to sell stuff online. Come to think of it, last time I freecycled I got the same thing (ie I didn't want all the hassle of selling a £5 item, only to end up having a lengthy conversation with some clown on the internet who wants me to deliver his freebie in person, 30 miles away).

Selling stuff on the internet can be enraging. Especially if you have to spend all day dealing with the kind of punter who thinks they can get a cheeky 33% discount on a bike at a time when there's a severe national shortage of bikes.

But that doesn't excuse refusing to sell to a scouser, of course.

 

Thank christ I thought it was me that was going mad...

bobrayner wrote:

Selling stuff on the internet can be enraging. Especially if you have to spend all day dealing with the kind of punter who thinks they can get a cheeky 33% discount on a bike at a time when there's a severe national shortage of bikes.

Well, this was a sale that included a "Make an offer" facility ... and he made an offer. He explicitly said he was expecting them not to accept that initial offer, at which point negotiation starts and he also said he was willing to pay more if need be. 

The customer was within his rights to make a low ball offer, the seller within their rights to reject it out of hand or go back and see if the customer was prepared to go higher. That is, after all, how selling stuff works. 

Don't want to deal with that ... do it as a "Buy It Now" with a fixed price, or auction with a reserve

When I sell on eBay, I never open it to offers. I always set a reasonable starting price, and either offer free postage or I subsidise it and pay half. I still get messages offering insultingly low bids. The most annoying part is the rudeness. I recently had an item on eBay, it was a new unused and still sealed item. New cost £140. I started it at £80 including £3.00 postage. I got lots of low offers, the best one was a message which simply said "£50 buy now inc postage" And nobody bothers to leave feedback any more. Ebay has been ruined by rude ignorant people.

Quite agree. My wife and I are going through the house and selling off on ebay classified anything surplus to requirements. Anything useful, but out of date/old fashioned, is given away. Better stuff in good nick goes on at a fraction of the original price and people still come back offering a quarter of the asking price. They don't even get an answer and nor does anybody that writes without a polite address (Hi, Good Evening.....) or sign off.

Only a few pay the asking price plus postage because they know a bargain when they see one.

My favorite is "what's the lowest you'll go on this?"

My response is, "you go first, what's the most you're willing to pay?"

andystow wrote:

My favorite is "what's the lowest you'll go on this?"

My response is, "you go first, what's the most you're willing to pay?"

That one used to wind me up when I was selling cars, got so fed up with it, i just quoted the original asking price.

Probably worse were the calls from other companies promising they could sell the car for the asking price, for listing with them. They were never interested in buying it for the asking price minus their fee though, so it seems they weren't quite as confident as they claimed.

After that checked the part ex vale against we buy any car and stopped messing about advertising private sale any more.

Yes, but, many people on eBay are rude, and will offer insulting low bids. That said, they did open it to offers. If I get insultingly low offers from rude eBayers, I just block them. Easy peasy, I can't be arsed being a great eBayer to fuckwits.

I see it as an offer with room to increase, if the seller said yes great, if not, a bit of offer ping pong may ensue.

The seller's response was polite and apologetic and the donation was a decent gesture.

Add to that Mr Grimes and one other that, as far as can be seen, was not involved at all in the original exchange have twice now been doxxed on Twatter (not by Mr Watt I add), this is turning into a bit of a sorry episode....

Captain Badger wrote:

The response was unwarranted, however the offer was insulting. Mr Watt and his ilk (ie chancers who want to get one over on others) are a pain in the arse on ebay and FB market-place

What nonsense, that's how bargaining works, they would have set the price at a bit more than they wanted, he offers a bit less than they wanted, and they could meet in the middle at £1250 (which would be about right for that bike) and both be happy. If the sellers weren't willing to consider offers, that option can be disabled.

Rendel Harris wrote:

....

What nonsense, that's how bargaining works, they would have set the price at a bit more than they wanted, he offers a bit less than they wanted, and they could meet in the middle at £1250 (which would be about right for that bike) and both be happy. If the sellers weren't willing to consider offers, that option can be disabled.

In which case offer 1250, and be prepared to move on till you find someone who is selling at a fair price. But, these silly Pythonesque games of meet in the middle are a waste of everyone's time and good will.

Captain Badger wrote:

Rendel Harris wrote:

....

What nonsense, that's how bargaining works, they would have set the price at a bit more than they wanted, he offers a bit less than they wanted, and they could meet in the middle at £1250 (which would be about right for that bike) and both be happy. If the sellers weren't willing to consider offers, that option can be disabled.

In which case offer 1250, and be prepared to move on till you find someone who is selling at a fair price. But, these silly Pythonesque games of meet in the middle are a waste of everyone's time and good will.

 

That's just how bargaining works though, and I speak as someone who grew up going to car boot sales bargaining with sellers for video games! Whatever the buyer offers, the seller is going to use the "meet me half way" reasoning. That's why you offer below what you expect they're willing to sell for first.

That's why I wouldn't go near a "It probably belongs in the tip" sale. Everything these days is classic or retro even when it was shit the day it was released. 

If someone sticks a £50 price on a coat stand then walk on, don't offer £1

I'm looking for a laptop for my lad and one was on Fleabay with a start price of £139 and my budget was around £160. I told the seller I wasn't the best in terms of knowing value and my kid had provided the spec he wanted, I asked if he had a BIN price in mind and he said he was looking for over £200. I said fair play and wandered off. Like a normal human!

alansmurphy wrote:

That's why I wouldn't go near a "It probably belongs in the tip" sale. Everything these days is classic or retro even when it was shit the day it was released. 

There's a shop in Golborne Road, near Portobello Road in north-west London, that has a sign in the window, "We buy junk, we sell Antiques".

Admirable honesty.

Boopop wrote:

.....

That's just how bargaining works though, and I speak as someone who grew up going to car boot sales bargaining with sellers for video games! Whatever the buyer offers, the seller is going to use the "meet me half way" reasoning. That's why you offer below what you expect they're willing to sell for first.

In this case, it looks like the bargaining didn't work....

For the buyer, it (eventually) did - they got it for less than they were expecting, and the seller made a donation to charity on top of that.