Grrr...timewasters when selling a car!

[bluesntwos]

I've put my car up on Pistonheads. Priced it really well and put all the relevant details in. This one guy e-mails me, says he's 'very interested' but wants more pics and details on transferring the extended warranty that's left on it. No problems I think, both reasonable questions. So I look into transferring the warranty (turns out it will only cost £25) and take some time to take a load of pics and email them to him in .rar file with details on the warranty. He then replies about four days later to say he never received the pics and anyway his car has sprung a leak and when he's fixed that he will be looking for a car with lower mileage. WHAT? After all that, you don't even want the car and didn't in the first place because the mileage was too high??!! Is it me or is the world full of timewasters and dreamers these days???

[nerfherder]

At least you have lots of pics for anyone else that is interested.

Note - many won't be able to uncompress a rar file, though, so I'd recommend another archive format (plain old zip), multiple attachments, or stick them up on a free picture hosting site.

[BriC175]

Yep! I find (bizarrely) it works both ways though. I emailed a guy in Glasgow about a car I was genuinely interested in, but asked for more pictures first, as Glasgow is a fair drive from Manchester.

He said he would get me pictures, but no, he never did. Are people not interested in selling their cars or what!?

[Buzz word]

I have just been through this selling my kit car. Maybe it's just the nature of it as it is very much a second car but I had no end of time wasters and daft enquiries. There were people who would call me up to tell me they may be interested in two weeks when they may or may not have the money. There are some real drips about.

Having said that you need to keep calm and treat every request like a sale. If you can't you may annoy the buyer and they will just walk as they cant trust you as a seller. I did just this the other week looking for another car. You did the right things with that sale and gave the guy all he wanted. It may not be wasted time though as you have the pics ready to send if anyone else asks.

Wasted time is a 2hrs viewing and no sale. You don't know that when you start though so have to go for it. Just dont get grumpy after as they may always come back realising they missed a good thing.

Hang tight you will eventually get the right buyer. The chap who bought my car was a top guy and I'm glad the car went to him.

[bluesntwos]

But surely an e-mail saying yeah I got the file but couldn't access it and I could have sorted it. Bri - I appreciate it works both ways! I have lots of pics now if you want to buy my car!!!

[bluesntwos]

It just wound me up when he said he would look for one with lower mileage as a) He had never seen mine and couldn't compare it to others b) He knew the mileage when he made the initial enquiry as it was in the ad.

[nerfherder]

bluesntwos said:

It just wound me up when he said he would look for one with lower mileage as a) He had never seen mine and couldn't compare it to others b) He knew the mileage when he made the initial enquiry as it was in the ad.

This sounds just like something I read in a forum about buying houses - people who come round to view a 3 bedroom house, and then say "No, we were looking for something with 4 bedrooms".

I think the best thing to do is vent on an internet forum so that you don't get too wound up about it in real life

P.S. good luck with the sale.

Edited by nerfherder on Tuesday 5th October 15:25

[Four Litre]

When selling my Z4, a potential buyed called to say that he really wanted to look at the car that afternoon and couldnt do any other time, so rearranged things, headed back home, washed and dryed it off, guy arrived looked round it , went for a testdrive...then on the drive proceeded to tell me he wasnt sure what to get. Hed been looking at Elises, Boxsters, z4 you name it, dont think he had anything else to do... sunday afternoon entertainment...

[shoestring7]

It's part of the territory, and why you're not paying a dealer a whole chunk to go through the grief on your behalf.

SS7

[Steameh]

Buzz word said:

I have just been through this selling my kit car. Maybe it's just the nature of it as it is very much a second car but I had no end of time wasters and daft enquiries. There were people who would call me up to tell me they may be interested in two weeks when they may or may not have the money. There are some real drips about.

Having said that you need to keep calm and treat every request like a sale. If you can't you may annoy the buyer and they will just walk as they cant trust you as a seller. I did just this the other week looking for another car. You did the right things with that sale and gave the guy all he wanted. It may not be wasted time though as you have the pics ready to send if anyone else asks.

Wasted time is a 2hrs viewing and no sale. You don't know that when you start though so have to go for it. Just dont get grumpy after as they may always come back realising they missed a good thing.

Hang tight you will eventually get the right buyer. The chap who bought my car was a top guy and I'm glad the car went to him.

Indeed, Selling my Supra I had a chap come look over it for about 30 minutes, took him to a stretch of dual carriageway where he proceeded to test drive the car for about 15 minutes.

Back to mine been dealing with him for an hour and a half (he had bought 10k cash) and my Supra was very keenly priced at about 8.5k for a low mileage twin turbo 6 speed manual.

After some more looking over he proceeded to tell me he could get a low mileage 6 speed manual twin turbo for 5-6k and mine was hideously overpriced. He was adamant of this fact and kept asking for my assurance that he would be able to sell it for 7k minimum in 2 years time. I told him that the price wasn't dropping 1.5k and he could take it or leave it.

He left without the car and having wasted 2 hours of my time. Why do people say things such as they can find one for 3k under your price, when you know yours is the second lowest price in the country.

Are they idiots?

Edited by Steameh on Tuesday 5th October 15:34

[8400rpm]

Steameh said:

He left without the car and having wasted 2 hours of my time. Why do people say things such as they can find one for 3k under your price, when you know yours is the second lowest price in the country.

Are they idiots?

No, they're hoping you're an idiot.

I've had people do this to me with cars and selling second hand parts.

"Can get it for xx from yy."

I just tell them to go get it from them at that price, as it's obviously a really good deal. Never hear from them afterwards.

[angusc43]

nerfherder said:

This sounds just like something I read in a forum about buying houses - people who come round to view a 3 bedroom house, and then say "No, we were looking for something with 4 bedrooms".

Edited by nerfherder on Tuesday 5th October 15:25

Yeah, I've had a few of those - some folks come back five or six times and then say they want to live in a totally different area. Or they can't get the money. Or some other inane bollx.

When we decide to move we spend months doing the research, then get the finance lined up and only then go and look at houses. The last time we moved had the sale of ours and the purchase of the new place nailed in about three weeks flat.

Same with cars. I spent months looking for the right E500, finally found what looked like a good one, had a test drive and paid the deposit there and then.

It's really not hard, is it?

[rallycross]

If you want to meet some real timewasters just try advertising an old Porsche (say under £10k).

Nothing brings a timewaster out of the woodwork better!

Especially for viewings on a Sunday.

I guess they have such sad lives the best thing they can think of doing is wasting someone elses valuable time on a Sunday.

If you are not sure how to spot them, they are normally professional job types, aged 35 - 55, they often bring a partner with them (she usually stays in the car, probably been through the procedure so many times just cant face the embarrassment of it).

928's seem to be a speciallity for these sorts.

Edited to add;

They know who they are!

Edited by rallycross on Tuesday 5th October 15:47

[bluesntwos]

angusc43 said:

nerfherder said:

This sounds just like something I read in a forum about buying houses - people who come round to view a 3 bedroom house, and then say "No, we were looking for something with 4 bedrooms".

Edited by nerfherder on Tuesday 5th October 15:25

Yeah, I've had a few of those - some folks come back five or six times and then say they want to live in a totally different area. Or they can't get the money. Or some other inane bollx.

When we decide to move we spend months doing the research, then get the finance lined up and only then go and look at houses. The last time we moved had the sale of ours and the purchase of the new place nailed in about three weeks flat.

Same with cars. I spent months looking for the right E500, finally found what looked like a good one, had a test drive and paid the deposit there and then.

It's really not hard, is it?

This is my line of thinking. Why say you are 'very interested' and then say the mileage is too high. Maybe he meant 'very disinterested!'

Edited by bluesntwos on Tuesday 5th October 15:51

[h4muf]

MX5's attract a certain breed of tosspot too.

Had mine for sale recently,had a bloke come round with his two friends.
Starts off well,then said there's a little corrosion on an alloy wheel and a couple of stone chips on the bonnet!

It's a six year old car FFS!

Spent an hour with them,then he turned round and said he's in no rush to buy !!!

Pen1s.

[chris1roll]

angusc43 said:

nerfherder said:

This sounds just like something I read in a forum about buying houses - people who come round to view a 3 bedroom house, and then say "No, we were looking for something with 4 bedrooms".

Edited by nerfherder on Tuesday 5th October 15:25

Yeah, I've had a few of those - some folks come back five or six times and then say they want to live in a totally different area. Or they can't get the money. Or some other inane bollx.

When we decide to move we spend months doing the research, then get the finance lined up and only then go and look at houses. The last time we moved had the sale of ours and the purchase of the new place nailed in about three weeks flat.

Same with cars. I spent months looking for the right E500, finally found what looked like a good one, had a test drive and paid the deposit there and then.

It's really not hard, is it?

In the past 3 months we had the mortgage supposedly lined up on 2 separate occasions (agreement in principle each time, the second one for a considerably lower amount) and both times the lender then turned round after we had had our offer(s) accepted and basically said "yeah but no but actually we just don't feel like giving you a mortgage on the previously agreed terms". s.
So that might not be their fault you know.
We did have someone come to look and then say they wanted more land - the details clearly stated the 5 3/4 acres, did they walk out into the field and think "this isn't as big as I imagined"?
Anyway, that's a separate discussion....

Cars, I reckon I spend around an hour with the seller then pay a deposit there and then if its a goer.

I must admit though, to promising to call a large shaven headed chap back then driving away very quickly from his utter shed in what turned out when I arrived to be a slightly less than respectable area. I wouldn't call that time wasting per se, more self preservation - I definitely wanted that model of car, and I bought the next one I looked at.
I try to avoid going on my own these days..

Luckily when selling I have not had a time waster yet. MR2 went on E-bay far what I wanted for it no problems, and the Audi went on Pistonheads to the first person who viewed it.

Edited by chris1roll on Tuesday 5th October 22:31

[zx10ben]

Having had a chat with the domestic commander, she/we came to the mutual decision that I should look at getting rid of my ZX10. I had had it from new and had spent a small fortune getting the bike to a level that I was content with.
So I put an ad on one of these crap local free ad websites and half heartedly put a couple of posters on the local shop windows. A week later I get a call from a chap and he said he'd be around the following evening, the next evening, he rang to say he was running late and eventually turned up at 9pm. What he didn't mention was that it wasn't for him, it was for his mahoosive Turkish mate, who coincidently brought another 2 huge Turkish mates with him.
So its getting dark, initially I was a tad concerned that they may just fill me in and take the bike, then for some obscure reason my mind went a stage further and pondered a possible raping then fill in and steal the bike! The 5 of us are in the garden stood around the bike, The chap that wants it makes an offer of £3K (I was asking for £5K) As I clearly wasn't overly bothered about selling it and was only making a show of willingness for the better half, I stood firm on the asking price and I'll be damned, after a good 45 mins of new offers, he paid me the sodding £5K and bought it!

[leemarkadams]

You have missed out the foreign agents looking for your car on behalf of their clients! or should that be all the email scammers trying it on?

[UncappedTag]

Those who call and say 'don't want to waste you time, I'm genuine etc'. Please can you send more high res pictures, then never hear back/email saying thanks etc.

[texasjohn]

I had a car (Vectra VXR) advertised and the amount of MoT and Tax remaining clearly stated.

An email received from an interested buyer reads "I don't want to waste your time or mine, I will give you £7500 if you MoT the car"

Ok then, agreed. A day later I had car MoTd and it passed. Let considerate non time wasting buyer know that it was all ready. Birmingham is light years from Oxford so of course the poor mite struggled to come and pick up immediately.

A few days later "I see it is £425 a year on tax, will you do anything on the price". Obviously not, and I pointed out that he was aware of the tax remaining when we struck the deal.

Deal didn't 'go through' and I MoTd the car a month earlier than it needed to be. Sold it this morning however for my target of £7500, which is what the car owed me (its original purchase price plus maintenance /tyres that I paid for during the ownership period).

As for the write up on a Vectra with a 2.8 Turbo? Nice quick car in a straight line, not very nice ride or steering though. Now off to search PH Classifieds for something enjoyable to drive!!

Edited by texasjohn on Saturday 9th October 16:37