Probably the weirdest ever car sale!
Discussion
Disclaimer: before any bed-wetters jump in with comments about religion... if you're thinking of making negative comments on that matter then please just read it all carefully and understand that this small part of the whole is not any more relevant than any other parts. I simply included all the messages and left nothing out except for address, usernames and that sort of thing.
I've sold enough cars over the years to know this was quite exceptional and thought it was worth sharing. I'm not a dealer... I'd say there could be dealers out there who have seen better / weirder... but maybe in the trade the buyer wouldn't be treated so patiently. I do think I was very patient with the guy bearing in mind the volume of messages and the length of time it took to complete the sale.
Anyway, here are the screenshots.
First of all the advert. My view was I just wanted the car gone so didn't clean it, didn't care if it sold for 99p or £1000 so just stuck it on eBay with as honest a description as possible. For context this was my dad's car. My dad is a car killer and he bought this more than 10 years ago with about 14,000 miles on it. It was my job to buy him a replacement and dispose of his old one.
There were signs of trouble very early on in the process. I feel like my handling of the situation was firm but fair, especially for the price and as you do get a lot of timewasters on eBay it's important to flush them out early to save more grief in the long run.
So he's having trouble paying, having trouble sending a message through eBay. He's coming to collect the car but not for 10 days.
Fast forward to the day of collection and we begin SMS dialogue. He's coming from the other side of the country, 250 miles and it would be 4.5hours by car. It rolls over to the following day and then I tell him I'm going away but he can deal with someone else. Anyway by the middle of the week I've not heard anything so I just ask if he's coming to collect the car and get back a one-word answer 'yes'. Then several more days pass with no contact.
As the battery on his phone ran out he managed to call home and ask someone there to message me. At this point I was beginning to feel sorry for the chap but it looked like he wouldn't be coming as planned.
Here are the messages from his folks.
22 days after the eBay auction ended I'm getting a bit miffed that this old heap is still on my property so I do change my approach as I really want to know if he's a messer or not.
Incidentally it's worth pointing out he did message me about insuring the car but I didn't include that message as it contained personal details. So I checked askmid to see if he had actually bought insurance for it. When I saw he had insured it I knew he was serious about buying the car so kept in touch and tried to help him get the hell on with it.
You can see he kept me up until midnight for this second failed attempt at collecting the car.
A new day and new problems. This is the first few minutes of Wednesday morning, just after midnight.
That is pretty much where the saga ends. He arrived with a member of his family who gave him a lift. They wanted the car to be driven out onto the street where they were messing around, maybe adjusting the seat and whatever. I guessed they were probably struggling with the immobiliser hence my final message and shortly after I could see the flashing indicators as they locked and unlocked the doors. And that was it.
I probably will put more cars on eBay for 99p because it's a good way of finding the real value of a car and guaranteeing a sale. This is also the only time I've really been messed around like this so not as if it's usually this much hassle.
I hope he has all the luck with it and happy motoring in his new Mitsubishi.
I've sold enough cars over the years to know this was quite exceptional and thought it was worth sharing. I'm not a dealer... I'd say there could be dealers out there who have seen better / weirder... but maybe in the trade the buyer wouldn't be treated so patiently. I do think I was very patient with the guy bearing in mind the volume of messages and the length of time it took to complete the sale.
Anyway, here are the screenshots.
First of all the advert. My view was I just wanted the car gone so didn't clean it, didn't care if it sold for 99p or £1000 so just stuck it on eBay with as honest a description as possible. For context this was my dad's car. My dad is a car killer and he bought this more than 10 years ago with about 14,000 miles on it. It was my job to buy him a replacement and dispose of his old one.
There were signs of trouble very early on in the process. I feel like my handling of the situation was firm but fair, especially for the price and as you do get a lot of timewasters on eBay it's important to flush them out early to save more grief in the long run.
So he's having trouble paying, having trouble sending a message through eBay. He's coming to collect the car but not for 10 days.
Fast forward to the day of collection and we begin SMS dialogue. He's coming from the other side of the country, 250 miles and it would be 4.5hours by car. It rolls over to the following day and then I tell him I'm going away but he can deal with someone else. Anyway by the middle of the week I've not heard anything so I just ask if he's coming to collect the car and get back a one-word answer 'yes'. Then several more days pass with no contact.
As the battery on his phone ran out he managed to call home and ask someone there to message me. At this point I was beginning to feel sorry for the chap but it looked like he wouldn't be coming as planned.
Here are the messages from his folks.
22 days after the eBay auction ended I'm getting a bit miffed that this old heap is still on my property so I do change my approach as I really want to know if he's a messer or not.
Incidentally it's worth pointing out he did message me about insuring the car but I didn't include that message as it contained personal details. So I checked askmid to see if he had actually bought insurance for it. When I saw he had insured it I knew he was serious about buying the car so kept in touch and tried to help him get the hell on with it.
You can see he kept me up until midnight for this second failed attempt at collecting the car.
A new day and new problems. This is the first few minutes of Wednesday morning, just after midnight.
That is pretty much where the saga ends. He arrived with a member of his family who gave him a lift. They wanted the car to be driven out onto the street where they were messing around, maybe adjusting the seat and whatever. I guessed they were probably struggling with the immobiliser hence my final message and shortly after I could see the flashing indicators as they locked and unlocked the doors. And that was it.
I probably will put more cars on eBay for 99p because it's a good way of finding the real value of a car and guaranteeing a sale. This is also the only time I've really been messed around like this so not as if it's usually this much hassle.
I hope he has all the luck with it and happy motoring in his new Mitsubishi.
Clearly I've missed the bit about religion, was it subtle like "I know I've dicked you about for weeks but insha'Allah I will pick it up later" so I've missed it?
Or was it more overt like "we need this for a church raffle prize after a priest tried to hammer a dent out of the previous one" and you deleted it to avoid moistened sheets?
Either way, you have the patience of a saint!
Or was it more overt like "we need this for a church raffle prize after a priest tried to hammer a dent out of the previous one" and you deleted it to avoid moistened sheets?
Either way, you have the patience of a saint!
donkmeister said:
Clearly I've missed the bit about religion, was it subtle like "I know I've dicked you about for weeks but insha'Allah I will pick it up later" so I've missed it?
Or was it more overt like "we need this for a church raffle prize after a priest tried to hammer a dent out of the previous one" and you deleted it to avoid moistened sheets?
Either way, you have the patience of a saint!
He mentions being Jewish, and the associated shabbat restrictions.Or was it more overt like "we need this for a church raffle prize after a priest tried to hammer a dent out of the previous one" and you deleted it to avoid moistened sheets?
Either way, you have the patience of a saint!
Did you sell it for £370? Ironically it was probably worth more than that scrap and you wouldn't have had to pay any listing/sellers fees.
This is pretty much par for the course with eBay these days, hence I would go the scrap route every single time.
Have you had the "The aircon doesn't work, what are you going to do about it?" message yet?
This is pretty much par for the course with eBay these days, hence I would go the scrap route every single time.
Have you had the "The aircon doesn't work, what are you going to do about it?" message yet?
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 8th April 13:53
Joey Deacon said:
Did you sell it for £370? Ironically it was probably worth more than that scrap and you wouldn't have had to pay any listing/sellers fees.
This is pretty much par for the course with eBay these days, hence I would go the scrap route every single time.
That had crossed my mind. Then again, with it being my dads old car the idea of all his fag ash and mud off his shoes getting crushed into a little cube does seem a bit sad, especially with it being a runner. I have scrapped cars before but they would've been stripped and of no further use to anyone. This is pretty much par for the course with eBay these days, hence I would go the scrap route every single time.
shandyboy said:
Somewhere in a parallel universe, a guy is posting "you'll never guess how I was messed about whilst simply trying to buy a second hand Mitsubishi..."
I like that. You do have to check yourself sometimes. I was wondering if I was being a bit mean insisting that he give me the specifics on when he was going to pick it up. ingenieur said:
Joey Deacon said:
Did you sell it for £370? Ironically it was probably worth more than that scrap and you wouldn't have had to pay any listing/sellers fees.
This is pretty much par for the course with eBay these days, hence I would go the scrap route every single time.
That had crossed my mind. Then again, with it being my dads old car the idea of all his fag ash and mud off his shoes getting crushed into a little cube does seem a bit sad, especially with it being a runner. I have scrapped cars before but they would've been stripped and of no further use to anyone. This is pretty much par for the course with eBay these days, hence I would go the scrap route every single time.
ingenieur said:
That had crossed my mind. Then again, with it being my dads old car the idea of all his fag ash and mud off his shoes getting crushed into a little cube does seem a bit sad, especially with it being a runner. I have scrapped cars before but they would've been stripped and of no further use to anyone.
georgeyboy12345 said:
You might have got £595 from cartakeback scrappy. I quoted for an 04 Outlander I found on AT with 111,000 miles on it & MOT til Jan ‘23.
I would have taken the £595 all day long over £370 minus fees and weeks of dealing with an idiot like that.New owner will probably scrap it at the first sign of an issue and be quids in!
Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area said:
I’m amazed that someone so thick and so disorganised was able to pass the driving test! Did you actually meet him? It reads as though you left the keys with the car hence texting about the immobiliser. I’m love to know what he was like in person.
Oh yes, I invited them in and offered them a drink while they filled in the v5 and handed over the cash, around 10:30pm! Not really the same as meeting in "broad daylight like nice respectful people". Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff