Car Selling Vent!

Nikkisun

No reason for this post other than to let off steam!

When did selling a car get to be so much of a pain?

It used to be:
advertise car,
people would come and see it,
test drive it and possibly (hopefully) make an offer.

Now it seems to be:
advertise car,
delete thousands of emails from people who are currently on board ships but want the car and will pay by paypal and have their 'agent' pick it up,
fend off phone calls from people based hundreds of miles away who want to negotiate a price without ever seeing the car (surely there are cars closer to them for sale - mines nothing special),
receive loads of emails/texts offering less than half of what the car is priced at (and it's already under-priced for a quick sale)

Bring back the old days!!

kev.s

i hate selling private for the same reason....... sounds all to familiar of gumtree!! which is why i won't use it, can't beat the local rag for selling

hollydays

I remember it well.

Over the phone-

"What's the least you'll take for it?"
Me" wouldn't you like to come and see it first?"

Also person picks out the one thing in the listing you haven't got eg sunroof, and says they really wanted a sunroof.

Several other people with the same accent ring you to pretty much tell you your car is rubbish.

Gavin83

Nikkisun wrote: »

receive loads of emails/texts offering less than half of what the car is priced at (and it's already under-priced for a quick sale)

I had this loads when I sold my old car.

I had the car online for £2200. Someone emailed me (without seeing it) offering me £1000. When I refused their offer they sent me an email back, fairly abrupt in nature informing me that the price was fair and they'd seen the car sell elsewhere for that and I was being misguided expecting the price I was asking. Ended up selling it for £2000 a few days later.

You'll always get chancers, it just a case of weeding out the genuine buyers.

forgotmyname

Sold a few on Ebay and never had an issue except one person that bought a cheap sporty car i listed for a mate. Then 3 months later left feedback saying they put it through its paces and it was all good?

First thoughts were they did a track day with it and pleased it didnt blow up. Just made me wonder if they were going to leave negative feedback if it broke down?
What were they expecting for £600?

custardy

Nikkisun wrote: »

No reason for this post other than to let off steam!

When did selling a car get to be so much of a pain?

It used to be:
advertise car,
people would come and see it,
test drive it and possibly (hopefully) make an offer.

Now it seems to be:
advertise car,
delete thousands of emails from people who are currently on board ships but want the car and will pay by paypal and have their 'agent' pick it up,
fend off phone calls from people based hundreds of miles away who want to negotiate a price without ever seeing the car (surely there are cars closer to them for sale - mines nothing special),
receive loads of emails/texts offering less than half of what the car is priced at (and it's already under-priced for a quick sale)

Bring back the old days!!

If you want the good old days. put a for sale sign in the car with your landline number and a card up in the local newsagents

Nikkisun

custardy wrote: »

If you want the good old days. put a for sale sign in the car with your landline number and a card up in the local newsagents

Have done this too!

I'm sure it'll sell, just fed up with dealing with time wasting divs!

Rolandtheroadie

Had similar problems too, one guy kept calling asking minimum prices etc and offering half, told him to come and see it then we could talk.

Told him I was in no hurry to sell, he says "Everybody says that, why are you advertising it then if you're in no hurry to sell".

To sell it eventually says me.

Anyways, that was over a year ago now, never got round to advertising it again yet and it's still here. As I told the guy, I'm in no hurry to sell.

PoorCharleyBear

we were selling our car...very low price on ebay,as we were migrating.
A guy offered to buy it, sight unseen as he was in Liverpool and we were in London. All he asked was if it ran.

He caught the train down, waited for us to turn up at our house (saw us screech around the corner as we were late!)
He did not do a test drive, paid cash, but said he dealt in these types of cars all the time, so knew their problems. Produced a document to say it bought it at xx time in case of speeding tickets, we both signed and off he went.
Perfect- if a little odd. But the car was a good one.

19lottie82

I know, the amount of timewasters out there is unreal, I had a corsa that I wanted rid of so was selling it a very reasonable price. put an ad on gumtree. £1800 for a quick sale, NO offers please.

then the texts start that simply read "£1200 Cash"

these crack me up.....oooooh cash, for a cheap second hand private car sale! well that's swung it, lucky for you my credit card machine is actually down right now!

You usually get a good laugh winding these folk up tho.

- "£1200 cash"
- OK LOL :-)
- you have photos? My Internet is broken.
- oh noes mine 2 :-(
- what's your address? Does it have full service history? How many owners?
- no. 12.
*no reply*
- hiya, you still want my address xxxxxxx
*no reply*

19lottie82

Don't veto buyers from the other end of the country tho.

I travelled from Glasgow to Leeds to buy my current car, as it was such a good deal. For some reason, second hand cars are usually cheaper south of the border.

Likewise my DH has travelled to London to collect before and he has had people come to him to buy from Cambridge and Newcastle.

If it's a good deal / car, it's worth the trip.