Arsehole Gumtree Users

steer

My Gumtree selling experience. Had a very big, very old, very heavy upright traditional piano that we wanted to get rid of. I needed the space so stupidly put an advert on Gumtree saying that it was free if someone can collect. That seemingly simple advert brought about the biggest crop of freeloaders and timewasters I have ever come across:-

1) Claims to be a doctor - can he come and collect it. Oh and by the way do you think it will fit in the back of his vauxhall corsa? FFS there is a photo of the huge thing int he advert.  
b) Another two or three saying great , I'll take it. Please deliver to me at this address...
iii) Is it in concert pitch? It's a hundred years old and free FFS. 
d) Others saying they will come and look, but never turn up. 
5) Finally got rid of it to a young guy who could not afford to buy one.  Despite me stressing to him how heavy the bloody thing was, I ended up having the manhandle it into the back of a transit van without any ramps. 

Still, its what online selling has become. Thankfully I have had a good experience the only time I have ever bought anything off there,. 

UnclePsychosis

One lesson I've learned is to never, ever, offer anything for "free" on gumtree.

Even a minimal fee of £5 cuts out a lot of the idiots. If its not worth £5 then its probably not worth your time getting rid anyway.

steer

You are quite right. Lesson learned. Nominal fee would have cut out most these losers. 

stimpsonslostson

I don't think gumtree has a larger proportion of idiots compared to anywhere else (here included) it's just that if the nutter rate is 1% a marketplace of 100000 will have more of them than a marketplace of 1000. 

I've had a few weird experiences, from a guy wanting to take the guitar away to try at band practice that night "If I like it I'll come back with the cash tomorrow". Err, NO.
To a guy who turned up 3 hours late & woke my entire street turning my amp up full whilst trying a guitar. I'd given him headphones and asked that he use them "I'll be fine without- I just want to make sure the pots don't crackle, I won't turn it up past 1". 

Voxman

Query - is it arsehole or asshole?  This is important stuff you know!   

mikeyrob73

Im Scottish, its Arsehole 

fields5069

My main complaint is that it is the repository of the eternally optimistic. Someone's currently trying to get £750 for a Baja Tele.

Sporky

Voxman said:

Query - is it arsehole or asshole?  This is important stuff you know!   

Over here it's arsehole.

If you want to begin it with ass then I'd suggest you should go for "asshat".

Jimbro66

fields5069 said:

My main complaint is that it is the repository of the eternally optimistic. Someone's currently trying to get £750 for a Baja Tele.

I'll take it! And I'll definitely be round at the weekend

Heartfeltdawn

UnclePsychosis said:

One lesson I've learned is to never, ever, offer anything for "free" on gumtree.

Even a minimal fee of £5 cuts out a lot of the idiots. If its not worth £5 then its probably not worth your time getting rid anyway.

Perhaps it depends on where you are. Here in Bristol, I've thrown out loads of freebies on Gumtree. Glass doors from a DVD cabinet, a couple of old televisions, some random electronics, a bit of furniture... people have always been on time and taken it away easily. Far easier doing that than lugging two bloody huge CRT televisions to the recycling centre. 

monoamine

I love it when people try and haggle on the price if they have driven to you. Entirely pointless excercise as they likely have the asking price in cash in their pocket already, or they have wasted their own time by making the trip. The looks on their faces when I immediately tell them that I want the full asking price is classic. Once there was a genuine reason to give some money off though which I did.

UnclePsychosis

Heartfeltdawn said:

UnclePsychosis said:

One lesson I've learned is to never, ever, offer anything for "free" on gumtree.

Even a minimal fee of £5 cuts out a lot of the idiots. If its not worth £5 then its probably not worth your time getting rid anyway.

Perhaps it depends on where you are. Here in Bristol, I've thrown out loads of freebies on Gumtree. Glass doors from a DVD cabinet, a couple of old televisions, some random electronics, a bit of furniture... people have always been on time and taken it away easily. Far easier doing that than lugging two bloody huge CRT televisions to the recycling centre. 

Things like the TVs are easily worth a fiver. Anyway, you don't even need to take the money off them (I've done this in the past). But it seems to be a barrier that stops the timewasting crazies.

mikeyrob73

All is not lost. 

instead of cancelling  my half day on Friday im off beer shopping for the final 7 beers in my 365 Beer challenge :-)

fields5069

mikeyrob73 said:

All is not lost. 

instead of cancelling  my half day on Friday im off beer shopping for the final 7 beers in my 365 Beer challenge :-)

Like. I hope some of that includes Tiny Rebel? It should you know.

mikeyrob73

it has @fields5069  Tiny Rebel Fubar is a fine beer. As is the Tiny Rebel One Inch Punch 

i started on the 1st Novlast year so need to finish by next Monday to complete 365 different beers in a year, only rule is that it must be a min of half a pint. its been a slog at times towards the end trying to find different beers on a night out :-) 

english_bob

We've had no problem with Gumtree freebies. We got rid of a single bed we didn't need within the space of a day. Mrs_bob listed it, had a text message the same day from someone who wanted it and could pick it up that evening.

The bed was collected bang on time by two eastern european men who were both easily taller than me (I'm 6'3") and built like a matching pair of brick shithouses. Sweet dreams, Igor.

fields5069

Good man @mikeyrob73. It's not often there's something to shout about in Newport, so I am very enthusiastic about these guys. They're relocating the brewery soon, hoping to increase production five-fold I believe. It's been a massive success story for my fake city. :-)

bignorm

I've sold various things on gumtree and forums ... after a while you do get a feel for who's interested and who's just tire kicking.
As a rule of thumb I'll only accept cash if they're picking up.  
If I'm buying something expensive, I tend to do a bit of cyber digging first to see if there's a bit of history, most musos have a trail of stuff they've bought or sold (we all suffer from GAS and the me wants) if anyone looks dodgy I avoid them.
When it comes to selling what generally annoys me is when someone wants to effectively part ex a pile of stuff to get a big value item.
What they don't seem to grasp is the price stated is for cash and that's what I want or near enough with a bit of haggling. I might consider something that I can sell on with cash on top, but don't expect me to shift a pile of your stuff for you unless I can make more money by doing so.
 

mikeyrob73

@fields5069 ;
there are some great wee breweries about that we should shout about more, one local to myself Saltaire Brewery do some great beers also. 

http://saltairebrewery.co.uk/saltaire/?page_id=18

Their Coffee and Hazelnut Porter is a fantastic beer 

olafgarten

I've found Free cycle to be quite good with giving stuff away. I don't think we would ever have given away 326 CD Jewel Cases otherwise.