Timewasting sellers

[Setanta]

Looking at another R129 and just have to have a whinge about timewasting sellers.

"Car is perfect condition, everything working."

Get there and rear windows are ripped and aircon not blowing cold - receive the "needs a regas" rubbish and "but it is coming into winter so does not matter".

Er...no. I specifically asked you before I came about the roof and the aircon and you said that working.

Or the other classic - "don't forget this is an 8 year old car". Yes, it is....but my 11 year old CL was in better condition, my 14 year old LS400 is in better condition and you are asking thousands above other SL500's. For top of the market price, you expect a top of the market car. Certainly not the "private collection" calibre you ranted about.

The last one I saw is "I don't really want to sell it". Oh...I see...so I travel an hour to see an overpriced car that you don't want to sell and have probably overpriced it knowing that no one will pay that and you don't want to sell but if they did offer what you want, then you would sell it, assuming someone was silly enough to pay the price!

Sorry....just had to get this off my chest

 

[James Rothwell]

I know, I hate it when people tell me there part exchange car is fine over the phone and when it turns up they are usually wrecks!

 

[flango]

This really Pees me off too, when I was looking at cars for SWMBO the number of sellers that said no rust, no dings you get there and I've seen better cars down the local scrapyard. Do they really think people these days will but heaps of sh*t? time is valuable and I hate those with a passion that waste mine. (rant over)

 

[IanT]

Having just spent the last few weeks looking at cars, I completely agree. I both enjoy looking at them, but hate it at the same time. Particularly hate driving home again knowing it was a waste of time.

Dings, rust and aircon are among the most misrepresented faults I've seen. No rust to some means that there are no holes, a bit of bubbling isn't really rust... Dings aren't worth describing about unless they are deformations of 10mm depth... Air con - you summed it up well... it's an x year old car, no one uses air conditioning on cars this old... Bunkum.

Of course it's all dependent on price, I wouldn't want to risk a £300+ air conditioning repair on a top price car and indeed have walked away from several that were rusty.

Dings are different really, they don't necessarily put me off as they can be dealt with, but that costs money and it has to be reflected in the price.

Ian.

 

[Will]

I know the feeling all too well. The majority of used cars that haven't already sold in a reasonable timeframe are often overpriced rubbish - in-demand good cars priced properly sell quickly, very few exceptions IMHO.

In fairness to sellers, there are even more timewaster buyers who don't turn up as arranged, are just there for a joyride etc - so there's plenty of time wasted all round!

Will

 

[IanT]

In fairness to sellers, there are even more timewaster buyers who don't turn up as arranged, are just there for a joyride etc - so there's plenty of time wasted all round!

Yes, I'm sure that's true. Of course, we see the eBay ads that say that 'timewasters are not to make contact', leaving it up to the buyer to decide if they are a timewaster or not.

Presumably that means that it you're not carrying the cash with you, or if you have any consideration for condition you need not apply.

Time wasted all round, I'm sure.

Ian.


[EDIT: Oh, and we've not touched on 'First to see will buy' yet either.]

 

[alexander patie]

there are some that seem to be for sale by the lady owner. she greets you pleasantly when you arrive, and charmingly fails to answer any probing questions what so ever "well i THINK it worked yesterday, is it supposed to? i am not sure" etc. then when you want to make an offer the man of the house who seems to know the drill all too well is suddenly on hand to negotiate and defend the deplorably unkempt condition of said car! and the more he becomes aware of just how much you know, and that you can see just fine, the more desperate his defensive attitude becomes. usually ends with a slammed door, i try to make sure it is mine. there are genuine sellers out there but the chancers out number them 10 to 1.

 

[verytalldave]

If anything, I always do the opposite and play the car down without getting to the point of actually putting prospective purchasers off.
One car I sold (for the full asking price), the buyer said that it was the best example he had seen by far and snapped it up. He said he had seen loads of others described as "immaculate" and "as new" which he said were worse than mine - which I described a "average condition for the year". Which in all honesty, thats what it was.
Thats a far better way in my opinion.

 

[buccal]

The problem is the some of the blatant lies that are being told,

I looked at a car with a mate today which was advertised through a forum like this.

You would expect a high standard of car from an enthusiast, or at least an honest description.

The car was suppossed to have a full BMWSH

It did, apart from the 1200mile running in-service

 

[IanT]

If anything, I always do the opposite and play the car down without getting to the point of actually putting prospective purchasers off.

Same here, I listed everything on my old Astra when that went and there was no issue when the first person came out to look at it. As a token gesture, he offered £45 less than I had asked and seemed to be happy to have found a straight one.

Pretty much the same happened with a Vectra I had for a short while after doing a work colleague a favour by taking it off his hands - parked it outside our house with a for sale sign in the window, the car sold itself at the asking price within a week.

Ian.

 

[jonnyboy]

same here, i tend to be brutally honest, it means less viewings but the ones that know their stuff and are therefore serious always snap it up !

 

[ss201]

Worst viewing I recall was... appointment made, 2 hour drive through torrential rain, got stuck behind accident on motorway, local directions given were wrong. Phoned three times en route to give seller progress report. On arrival, seller was a trader selling from home, car was not as described, refused to start, no history (as stated in ad), then seller gave me the hurry up as he claimed he had left a party to show the car and was in a rush to get back. Then he accused me of wasting HIS time. Some poeple!

 

[peterg1965]

Having a comprehensive, logically laid out and above all else an honest ad is the way to sell a car in my opinion. The number of dreadful ads with just one line, or one sentence, of text is amazing. It is worse at the bottom end of the market, ie. less than £2-£3K. I think I put a bit of effort into the adverts for my cars, eBay and PH makes it easy as there is no real limit on text.

 

[HR17]

Whenever I read stuff like this, it reminds me how many really stupid, lazy, ignorant people there are out there. The worst thing being that they must think that we are more stupid than they are. There are also plenty who consider themselves 'born salesmen' who, in reality, are shockingly bad at their job, or just deluded when it comes to private sales as something it only worth the money if someone is willing to pay the price.

Don't know about anyone else, but how many times have you been talked over or shouted down by sellers like these? I blame the parents, teachers, government...............etc!