Idiot questions from car buyers

[BigNige]

I'm selling another car at the moment and I am constantly amazed at some of the questions you get asked.

Got a one line email earlier - no introduction, no sign-off
"What is your final price?"

My reply;
"The advertised one"

Yesterday, got a phone call;

HIM "I'm ringing about the car you have on sale"
ME "Which one?"
HIM "Ummm...<pause> the Mercedes"
ME "Oh yeah?"
HIM "I'm from Scamming Car Sales Agency, remember we spoke about a week ago about the car?"
ME "Did we? That was clever, the car's only been on sale for 3 days"
HIM "Well we've got customers who've been wanting us to find cars exactly like yours. I can put you in touch with them if you like?"
ME "ps off"
<Click>

[pr100]

It must be the season of ill will. I'm advertising a (Suzuki) car on Auto Trader and I have had 3 telephone enquiries and 13 email responses. All three telephone calls were from agencies of some kind while 12 of the 13 emails were from scammers allegedly looking to export the car through their forwarding agent. I'm used to a certain amount of dross when I advertise a car but this is running at record levels. There must be enough novices/idiots out there to make the scammers' efforts worthwhile, I suppose.

[sparky35uk]

HIM "Well we've got customers who've been wanting us to find cars exactly like yours. I can put you in touch with them if you like?"
ME "ps off"
<Click>

[/quote]

Made me smile Nige.....good luck with the sale!

[SeismicGuy]

I have been trying to sell my fairly pristine (for a daily driver) 1995 Corvette for more than a year now--very fairly price considering the condition and mileage. All I have been getting is flakes typically asking "how much I would accept" before even taking the time to look. Very frustrating.



Doug
Los Angeles, CA

Edited by SeismicGuy on Sunday 6th December 19:13

[BigNige]

SeismicGuy said:

I have been trying to sell my fairly pristine (for a daily driver) 1995 Corvette for more than a year now--very fairly price considering the condition and mileage. All I have been getting is flakes typically asking "how much I would accept" before even taking the time to look. Very frustrating.

Doug
Los Angeles, CA

Edited by SeismicGuy on Sunday 6th December 19:13

I've had that before and have foolishly answered but have never had any one of those losers come and see a car or bike...beats me why they bother tbh.

I also stick pretty close to my guns on price now - someone will buy eventually, just have to be reasonably realsitic to start with.

[Frimley111R]

What's your final price is a common one. I say 'What's yours?' or 'What's your final offer?' That often throws them. If it's a stupid offer I tell them 'Sorry, you can't afford a car like this, there are lots of high mileage/older ones that would be better for you' (just to p*ss them off).

[BigNige]

...and the there's the ones that come along for a poke and a prod and never come back to you either way.

Had 2 of those so far one of whom turned up just as we were going out even though we'd told him we were going out! (it's a fking Merc MPV for crying out loud...hardly supercar type stuff!)

Or there's the ones that email and desperately want more pics so you ask them what they'd like to see more of...and they don't reply either (I make a point of annoying these ones with follow up emails galore)
2 of these too.

Or there's the ones that arrange everything and are really keen and really want to get there first....and then don't turn up and don't respond to phonecalls or texts either.

Is it me or is the world full of utter wkers?



Some tips from anyone on how best to handle a prospective buyer would be appreciated 'cos if I'm not careful I'm just going to be rude to the next caller.

[Jaguar steve]

Not you Nige, 'fraid the world really is full of them..

I sold a lovely old XJ40 recently, but not without a monumental amount of grief from a tt from the Emerald Isle first. He wanted me to fill the tank up, he wanted me to take it to his house for his wife to see it, he wanted me to drive it to his garage for his mechanic to check it out. After a whole morning waiting in for him he rang and said he'd just seen another - yeah right - one and would I knock a couple of hundred off to make it worth his while to travel the whole six miles from his home to mine to have a look? After a whole day of driving it about, faffing around and emptying the tank in the process he eventually agreed to buy it but then changed his mind and actually snatched the deposit he'd just given me out of my hand.

Next buyer turned up, drove it round the block said "nice car mate, very nice, happy with cash?" We talked old Jaguars for a while, I burned him a XJ40 workshop manual on CD, he drank my coffee, used my loo, paid the asking price and drove off with a big grin on his face.

Hopefully you'll get one of those soon

Edited by Jaguar steve on Sunday 20th December 18:02

[BigNige]

Jaguar steve said:

Not you Nige, 'fraid the world really is full of them..

I sold a lovely old XJ40 recently, but not without a monumental amount of grief from a tt from the Emerald Isle first. He wanted me to fill the tank up, he wanted me to take it to his house for his wife to see it, he wanted me to drive it to his garage for his mechanic to check it out. After a whole morning waiting in for him he rang and said he'd just seen another - yeah right - one and would I knock a couple of hundred off to make it worth his while to travel the whole six miles from his home to mine to have a look? After a whole day of driving it about, faffing around and emptying the tank in the process he eventually agreed to buy it but then changed his mind and actually snatched the deposit he'd just given me out of my hand.

Next buyer turned up, drove it round the block said "nice car mate, very nice, happy with cash?" We talked old Jaguars for a while, I burned him a XJ40 workshop manual on CD, he drank my coffee, used my loo, paid the asking price and drove off with a big grin on his face.

Hopefully you'll get one of those soon

Edited by Jaguar steve on Sunday 20th December 18:02

Now that's how it should be Steve.

When I sold my Monaro I took it to a fellas house in Worthing (I work in Brighton but normally commute on the bike so it wasn't much out of the way but it did cost me extra in juice & time)

I turned up on time, took him for an extended test drive, let him roar it around a bit only for him to say
"Nice car...I'm going to compare it to a few others before I decide"
I nearly punched him.

The very next day a chap from the Lake District rang me, sent me a deposit by PayPal, came down 24hrs later and handed over his money without aggro or hassle.

If only there were more honourable and poilte buyers out there like him.

[SeismicGuy]

I have had nothing with my Corvette except for the biggest group of idiots and flakes. I even posted on a Corvette forum that I have been a member of for more than 10 years expecting that fellow Corvette enthusiasts would appreciate the condition, and my asking price is certainly fair compared with others. But it seems the folks there are looking for giveaways. Of course it is a tough time to sell cars, especially "toys".

Doug

[Darren156]

I have sold quite a few motors on PH and you always get idiots asking silly questions. I was selling a GTV V6 and someone asked 'Is it fast?', well, I could tell from that short and sweet E-Mail that this wasn't going to be sale of the century for this young chappy.

I replied with "It has a V6 kicking out 220BHP, what do you reckon?", sadly I didn't get an answer back to that, so I assume he didn't think so, lol

Baring in mind that I actually did quote the specs of 0-60's and top speeds etc and power blah blah blah, I'm quite amazed at how some people's brains work. Or how they don't?

[BigNige]

Indeed, now bear in mind it's advertised on Autotrader at the mo' where the primary contact method is by phone (and I gave 2 numbers too) I've had one bright spark email me asking for a contact telephone number.

[BigNige]

A fun email exchange I'm having at present.
My answers in bold.

==========================================================================

Dear Buyer

See answers below

---

From: Richard Robson [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: 22 December 2009 00:45
To: BigNige
Subject: Car


Dear Seller,

I was fortunate to spot your advert on the net and I like to know if it is still availabe for sale . if available,please get back to me with the following enquiries:

Are you the first owner:- I am the last owner

Your last price - the same as my first price

present condition- totally knackered

Also the pics- yes, the pics, the damn pics!.

where are you based- Waterloo Station, just under the clock tower, ask for Reg.

why did you intend to sell. to pay for a new leg for my orphaned Grandmother, will you send money to help as well? £4300 is enough, you can send it to my agent who will give half back, take away a third, then allow £3000 against the old leg and send the balance of £45000 to your bank who will deduct £47000 with all their love.

God bless us all.

[HereBeMonsters]

Why are you being a tt to someone who sounds like a genuine (if a little clueless) buyer?

[BigNige]

Now the reason I know this is a scam is because it didn't come via the Autotrader enquiry form but via a native email direct to me...which means in all likelihood it's a scammer that I previously made the mistake of answering when he did originally used the enquiry form and subsequently tried to fleece me with the old shipping agent thing.

Either way it looks like I have a buyer anyway so am going to have fun with this one I think.

[pr100]

HereBeMonsters said:

Why are you being a tt to someone who sounds like a genuine (if a little clueless) buyer?

That would be because he is using a template favoured by known scammers. They always ask for best price and pictures - even when your ad includes lots of pictures. They typically use gmail. They rarely include a telephone number (or if they do, it is unobtainable). And the biggest tell of all - they never make any specific reference to your car because their email is sent to multiple sellers at once. And of course, sooner or later, the old "shipping agent" will rear its ugly head.

I'm currently selling a £2000 2001 Suzuki Ignis which no-one in their right mind would ship to another country - and yet I have had at least 20 of these scam mails from people claiming to want my ageing little runabout so much that they are happy to pay shipping to another country.

[NormanD]

I agree


Earlier in the year I was selling our runaround, a VW Golf Mach 1.4
Nothing special, good nick and relatively low mileage
I was asking top price, the theory being I could always come down in price

Anyway the number of phone calls I had that it was just the car a customer someone had was looking for, again being shipped out
Funny I take it they would then put on their profit, there customer could buy a new one for the same price.