What is it with buyers
Discussion
I know I've read this sort of thing dozens of times on here, but to encounter it first hand today left me bewildered .
I put my car up on autotrader last night. It's a nice, relatively sought after model and at a decent price.
I'd braced myself for the usual "wots ur best price mate" responses but even I was surprised when I got a call from a "gentleman" less than 12 hours after it'd gone live, asking if I'd take a 33% reduction for "cash". And we're talking several thousand here not hundreds,
Did he really think I'd, or anyone, would come down so much in price so quickly
To make him look even more stupid, the registration number is clearly visible, as this is included in the sale, and if you enter that into We Buy Any Car, you get an offer £4000 more than he was offering.
Idiot.
I put my car up on autotrader last night. It's a nice, relatively sought after model and at a decent price.
I'd braced myself for the usual "wots ur best price mate" responses but even I was surprised when I got a call from a "gentleman" less than 12 hours after it'd gone live, asking if I'd take a 33% reduction for "cash". And we're talking several thousand here not hundreds,
Did he really think I'd, or anyone, would come down so much in price so quickly
To make him look even more stupid, the registration number is clearly visible, as this is included in the sale, and if you enter that into We Buy Any Car, you get an offer £4000 more than he was offering.
Idiot.
Going through this at the moment selling a beautiful Audi a6 estate with perfect service history etc and just getting idiots calling up wanting to negotiate over the phone. I have no time for that. Come and see the car and let's talk money with the car in front of us. I had one chap call me to say he would come now to see and would be there in 45 mins, he never showed and turned his phone off? Wasted my Sunday evening waiting in for nothing. Why say he is coming? Such rude inconsiderate tossers. Very frustrating.
I sold my car last month, out of 20ish emails/phone calls probably 2 were genuine, 9 or 10 were scammers and the rest time wasters. "How much for cash", "can you deliver to the other end of the country", "how much did you pay for it mate", f
k off please.I used to be very polite and answer all enquiries even if i knew they were time wasters, I dont bother now , I just reply to normal people.I sold a £100 kitchen on Gumtree last week, I got more polite and honest enquiries about that than I did for my 2013 Cayman.
k off please.I used to be very polite and answer all enquiries even if i knew they were time wasters, I dont bother now , I just reply to normal people.I sold a £100 kitchen on Gumtree last week, I got more polite and honest enquiries about that than I did for my 2013 Cayman.Edited by Little Lofty on Monday 7th April 17:35
I must be extremely lucky, each car I've sold in the last 3 years has been totally hassle free, even when I eBay'd the MGF, the MINI and my Td5 Discovery at 99p no reserve.
Just this afternoon sold my Land Rover to a young chap who came and saw it yesterday, asked all the right questions, we came to a good mutual deal and it's just been driven away. No timewasters, no stupid texts or insulting offers. I must be very fotunate!
Just this afternoon sold my Land Rover to a young chap who came and saw it yesterday, asked all the right questions, we came to a good mutual deal and it's just been driven away. No timewasters, no stupid texts or insulting offers. I must be very fotunate!
I had emails offering me the full price for my mum's car when I was selling it a few months ago, as long as I promised them it was in good condition. Coincidentally, all the people in the emails were in the same situation where they wanted me to ship the car abroad! Probably would have believed 1 of them, if I was very drunk and very mad but I got 9 of them the same day the Ad went on Fleabay!
I only found out what the scam was about a week later, where they send a fake pay pal email or something.
I think I'd rather be dealing with the silly offers than the scam artists!
I only found out what the scam was about a week later, where they send a fake pay pal email or something.
I think I'd rather be dealing with the silly offers than the scam artists!
KillerHERTZ said:
Last month I sold my CLK270 on Autotrader with a note at the bottom saying no part-ex's.
Week into the sale I get an email from a Woman asking if I would part ex it for her CLK270 + £500. Why would I want to swap my car for her identical car ffs!
So she could offload her knackered one. They crack me up these people. Week into the sale I get an email from a Woman asking if I would part ex it for her CLK270 + £500. Why would I want to swap my car for her identical car ffs!
"Yeah mate my 98 fiesta is well worth £4000, and your gtr is only worth 50p. Nobody want em mate, so cash my way?....."
I've just put my car on eBay and within a few hours had the "how much for cash" email question - how else do they think you will accept payment, magic beans?
To make matters worse it is on a no reserve auction with a tiny starting price... so why don't they just bid or make an appointment to come and view and make an offer on the car in person?
And I think the situation is worse the cheaper the car you are selling. Seems like those buying at the bottom end of the market want perfection from a 12 year old car.
I can see why so many people are happy to PX with a dealer and lose a bit of cash rather than deal with time wasters.
To make matters worse it is on a no reserve auction with a tiny starting price... so why don't they just bid or make an appointment to come and view and make an offer on the car in person?
And I think the situation is worse the cheaper the car you are selling. Seems like those buying at the bottom end of the market want perfection from a 12 year old car.
I can see why so many people are happy to PX with a dealer and lose a bit of cash rather than deal with time wasters.
Just sold an old Focus on eBay and had a few 'I'll pick it up tonight mate' messages, followed by the inevitable disappearing act. One cretin actually bought it on eBay and offered to pay a deposit, then disappeared. A few sent texts (the ad said NO TEXTS) with blunt offers like '£300 today', if you can't even be arsed to say 'hello' or use a question mark then it doesn't look good does it!
My cousin works all over the country, so understandably is away often and packs the miles onto his cars.
The last was a B5.5 Passat TDI which is now pushing 200k. It's fairly shabby and smokes a lot, but nonetheless it runs, has tax and MOT.
The garage he bought his new car from wasn't interested in p/x, so instead I suggested putting it on Gumtree for a low price, stating the issues and hoping someone wanted a cheap workhorse with a little life left in, or to use it for spares/repairs.
Perhaps stupidly, I volunteered to field any enquiries/viewings while he was away. I also went round the car with my fairly limited knowledge and listed all faults that I could find (i.e. smokeyness, crack on windscreen, body imperfections) to aid writing the advert, hoping this would give people a good idea of the condition before they turned up expecting an immaculate example.
Clearly, from the 3 viewings we've had, this didn't work. Admittedly, English wasn't the native language of any of the individuals in question, but they all seemed genuinely surprised that the issues mentioned in the advert were present. This is before I even mention the "best cash price 2day bruv" texts that are being ignored pretty much every hour of the day
We have another viewer tomorrow who is travelling some distance to supposedly buy the car, and who I've discussed the issues with on the phone. Hopefully, he arrives aware of what he's buying and doesn't start trying to reduce the price further from the agreed figure...
The last was a B5.5 Passat TDI which is now pushing 200k. It's fairly shabby and smokes a lot, but nonetheless it runs, has tax and MOT.
The garage he bought his new car from wasn't interested in p/x, so instead I suggested putting it on Gumtree for a low price, stating the issues and hoping someone wanted a cheap workhorse with a little life left in, or to use it for spares/repairs.
Perhaps stupidly, I volunteered to field any enquiries/viewings while he was away. I also went round the car with my fairly limited knowledge and listed all faults that I could find (i.e. smokeyness, crack on windscreen, body imperfections) to aid writing the advert, hoping this would give people a good idea of the condition before they turned up expecting an immaculate example.
Clearly, from the 3 viewings we've had, this didn't work. Admittedly, English wasn't the native language of any of the individuals in question, but they all seemed genuinely surprised that the issues mentioned in the advert were present. This is before I even mention the "best cash price 2day bruv" texts that are being ignored pretty much every hour of the day
We have another viewer tomorrow who is travelling some distance to supposedly buy the car, and who I've discussed the issues with on the phone. Hopefully, he arrives aware of what he's buying and doesn't start trying to reduce the price further from the agreed figure...
You need to be selling a good car to get a good buyer.
No Jaguar XKR, Audi A6, Porsche Cayman, Citroen DS3, Fiesta, CLK270, Seat Toledo 150 TDI Sport, Renault Megane RS 250 Coupe, Ford Mustang LX V8, Jaguar S-Type SE, VW Passat TDI Is going to sell because they are crap cars.
MGFs,MINIs,Td5 Discoverys will sell. as will a Peugeot 306 HDi (Meridian).
Its all about description.
No Jaguar XKR, Audi A6, Porsche Cayman, Citroen DS3, Fiesta, CLK270, Seat Toledo 150 TDI Sport, Renault Megane RS 250 Coupe, Ford Mustang LX V8, Jaguar S-Type SE, VW Passat TDI Is going to sell because they are crap cars.
MGFs,MINIs,Td5 Discoverys will sell. as will a Peugeot 306 HDi (Meridian).
Its all about description.
Update:
Despite the first 2 calls/ emails being from idiots, the following week resulted in a dozen or more serious calls and I sold my XKR to the first guy who came just over a week later.
Result
Incidentally, all Initial calls were from autotrader. I only had a couple of emails from pistonheads and no calls.
The buyer however first saw the ad on Pistonheads
Despite the first 2 calls/ emails being from idiots, the following week resulted in a dozen or more serious calls and I sold my XKR to the first guy who came just over a week later.
Result
Incidentally, all Initial calls were from autotrader. I only had a couple of emails from pistonheads and no calls.
The buyer however first saw the ad on Pistonheads
Edited by stuartmmcfc on Tuesday 20th May 07:10
MPowerMark said:
Going through this at the moment selling a beautiful Audi a6 estate with perfect service history etc and just getting idiots calling up wanting to negotiate over the phone. I have no time for that. Come and see the car and let's talk money with the car in front of us. I had one chap call me to say he would come now to see and would be there in 45 mins, he never showed and turned his phone off? Wasted my Sunday evening waiting in for nothing. Why say he is coming? Such rude inconsiderate tossers. Very frustrating.
I agree about the no-show but not about negotiating in advance. The last car I bought was clearly described so when I spoke to the seller we agreed a price subject to it being as he said, I wasn't going to drive four hours to look at the car and then find we couldn't agree on a number.
Don't forget that sellers can mess you about as well as buyers, went to look at a car once having been assured that nobody else was seeing it, arrived to be told that unless I was willing to offer more than the asking it would be going to the guy who had just left. I didn't even look, turned round, went home.
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