The downsides of using Craigslist

A few days ago, I picked up a practically brand new power cord for a dryer for 75 cents at a yard sale. Based upon its weight, I figured I could get 2-3 bucks for it at the scrap yard. However, I opted to list it on Craigslist for five bucks.

Fast forward about a week to this afternoon.... I've pretty much forgotten about the power cord. Around five o'clock, I receive a phone call from a number with a non-local area code. I didn't recognize the number, so I assumed that it was another telemarketer about to waste my time (I've been getting a lot of those lately). I answer the phone, and a woman who spoke relatively poor English asked "Is this the owner of (phone number) ###-###-####?" At this point, I'm pretty much convinced that this is a telemarketer, and with my infinite wisdom and tact, I ask "Who the HELL is this?" This stuns and somewhat pisses her off, and she repeats the same thing back to me. After a few moments of utter confusion between the both of us, she clarifies that she is calling about the dryer cord. Realizing my error, I profusely apologized to her and explained how I presumed she was a telemarketer. But it was too late. She, of course, stated that she was no longer interested in it and hung up on me.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Not everybody is a telemarketer.
2. If you don't recognize the number, allow the caller to leave a voice mail.

By the way, does anybody want to buy a dryer cord for five bucks???? :p

I try not to be rude until I KNOW they're a telemarketer. However, when the first thing out of their mouth is "May I speak to the business owner?" I say "No you may not!" and hang up.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

"May I speak to the business owner?"

---

"they've just won the business of the year award with an all expenses paid trip for 4 to, uhmm, hello?..... helloe???

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bear

"they've just won the business of the year award with an all expenses paid trip for 4 to, uhmm, hello?..... helloe???

---

hahahaha. yeah, that would be my luck. I generally let them finish their sales pitch before I say no, if I bother to answer any toll free number at all. I don't know why, it is just one of my many many many quirks.

I feel like a hypocrite because I hate telemarketers yet I am about to hire two. You have to use what works. If it wasn't effective no one would do it.

Quote:

---

I generally let them finish their sales pitch before I say no, if I bother to answer any toll free number at all. I don't know why, it is just one of my many many many quirks.

---

The last business we had was a CB radio store down in the basement of a big truckstop. Well, every week a telemarketer would call and being very persistent, refused to hang up until he did his "speil" trying to sell us vinyl siding. I had explained to him a couple of times that I had customers and he was keeping me from them. I'm a patient person but after a few times of this, I went ahead and gave them the address and said "sure I'm really interested in your vinyl siding and the windows to match". Imagine their surprise when they came out and spotted the big truckstop,,, Well, they never called again. lol

I answer all numbers that call me. I can't even tell you how many times what appears to be a long distance number is someone 20 minutes away needing a quote.

I never put my number on CL, always dreaded the 3am phone call

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bear

I never put my number on CL, always dreaded the 3am phone call

---

Never had that issue yet, but I am sure some do.

Thats why i have multiple phones.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bear

I never put my number on CL, always dreaded the 3am phone call

---

Put the phone on silent at bedtime.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

Put the phone on silent at bedtime.

---

but then there might as well not be a phone. I prefer to have it there for responsible calls (although I don't remember any at 3 am), it's just that too many CL users can not be counted on to be very responsible, hek I don't even post my email there

Quote:

---

hek I don't even post my email there

---

That's why I got a G-mail account, just for the possible junk.

Junk still comes in, and it takes some real speculation to determine which are real, and which are just phishing. My last email from a CL ad, I didn't even answer, it had my title with merely a ? added, definitely not a valid inquiry. If I replied I am certain it would merely feed the phish

Ha...Y'all should do what Jerry did on one episode of Seinfeld when a telemarketer called. He answered and said "Well, I am kind of busy right now. Why don't you give me YOUR home number and I will call you later on tonight. What? You don't like calling people calling and bugging you at home?" and then just hung up.

Yeah - I've fed the phish once. I still get some interesting pictures in my spam folder...

As for the phone - I list my phone number, but I have it set to not ring for numbers not in my address book. If it's family or friends, it will ring though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by waredu

Yeah - I've fed the phish once. I still get some interesting pictures in my spam folder...

As for the phone - I list my phone number, but I have it set to not ring for numbers not in my address book. If it's family or friends, it will ring though.

---

Put your phone on the no call list, yeah even the cell. I still get the odd telemarketer but just tell them I am on the no call list and they hang right up.

When telemarketers used to call the pizzaria i used to work at i would tell them the days specials and ask them thier address for delivery. they stopped calling soon after i started working there.

The telemarketer I keep getting calls from is tradeworkrsonline.... these people chap my hide! They got my number from CL and say they have an overbooking of"jobs" in my area and wonder if I would like to pick them up. Well if you "press one" you will them be directed to submit personal info so they can do a background check that costs you $90! no thank you d-bags!








TELEMARKETER
Would you be interested in a subscription to the New York Times?
JERRY SEINFELD
Yes. [hangs up]

Speaking of telemarketers, has anybody been getting the automated calls asking for your opinion for a political poll and offering a free cruise/vacation with a minimal booking fee after you answer? I've gotten several of those in the last couple months.

By the way, I did manage to sell the dryer cord on Craigslist. This time, I managed to be polite when answering the phone...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bamcis

Speaking of telemarketers, has anybody been getting the automated calls asking for your opinion for a political poll and offering a free cruise/vacation with a minimal booking fee after you answer? I've gotten several of those in the last couple months.

By the way, I did manage to sell the dryer cord on Craigslist. This time, I managed to be polite when answering the phone...

---

I was getting it Bamcis, until I finally listened to the end, thinking"i'm going to nail these rascals", but it finally said "press 9 to remove yourself from these calls", so.... I took the easy way out ; )

Always anonimize your email address and that way people will be responding to the cl address that will go directly to your email. I only put my cell # on the ads. Always state that "if responding by email please include a name and phone# or your inquiry will not be responded to". This way you can weed out the spam and phishing emails.

I dont know about you, but I wouldnt use my telephone number on any website (craiglist, ebay etc etc) because there are web-crawling bots out there that search websites for telephone numbers & they sell them to telemarketers & anyone else who will buy them.

If you MUST put your telephone number out there.... make it hard for bots to read them. SPell the numbers out. I refuse to put my phone number on any public website. On craiglist I have them respond via email & THEN give them my number if they want it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bear

I was getting it Bamcis, until I finally listened to the end, thinking"i'm going to nail these rascals", but it finally said "press 9 to remove yourself from these calls", so.... I took the easy way out ; )

---

Yeah, I did that myself..... two times already.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dirtymoney

I dont know about you, but I wouldnt use my telephone number on any website (craiglist, ebay etc etc) because there are web-crawling bots out there that search websites for telephone numbers & they sell them to telemarketers & anyone else who will buy them.

If you MUST put your telephone number out there.... make it hard for bots to read them. SPell the numbers out. I refuse to put my phone number on any public website. On craiglist I have them respond via email & THEN give them my number if they want it.

---

I use a mix of letters and numbers when doing mine on Craigslist. I also open it with a parenthesis and close it with a bracket, like this: (555-five five five-55five5]

At my office I got a call from "online yellow pages" stating that they needed to update our current listing. I was new and when they read off the company name and address I confirmed that they were correct. They then spoke really quickly for the next question all I caught was "mumble mumble ...authorized...mumble?" I told them I wasn't authorized for anything at the company. Despite this they recorded my voice and placed it to different question and proceeded to send us a bill for a little over $1,000.00 along with a lawyer threat and other meaningless garbage to try and scare us. My boss (and step-mom) called their office and let them have it! Calling them on their breaches of legality and all sorts of things. Needless to say we didn't see another bill from them but they called 3 if not 4 times every month for the next 6-8months trying to get me again. I always knew it was them because I would answer "Performance Tile & Stone, this is Julie" and there was no response. After a second I would hear background noise and a "Hello?" with an echo (key sign of being recorded) They would say "hello this is so and so online yellow pages calling to...." and I hung up before they finished. It was rather annoying after awhile.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dirtymoney

I dont know about you, but I wouldnt use my telephone number on any website (craiglist, ebay etc etc) because there are web-crawling bots out there that search websites for telephone numbers & they sell them to telemarketers & anyone else who will buy them.

If you MUST put your telephone number out there.... make it hard for bots to read them. SPell the numbers out. I refuse to put my phone number on any public website. On craiglist I have them respond via email & THEN give them my number if they want it.

---

The problem with making phone numbers hard to read for bots is you make them hard for people to read too! If a customer gets to a spelled out phone number they are pretty unlikely to call.

You can get pay as you go phones for $20 or less and use it just for sales. What I don't like about craigslist is there are tons of people pushing junk at 3x what they sell on ebay. Anytime you post something for sale you get nut jobs bugging you thinking you are broke and desperate for cash along with the long distance scammers.

I think I found like 3 decent deals on craigslist in the past 5 years, most times you reply to a post and don't even hear back.

Finding the perfect woman only to find she lives three provinces away from you, this story may have a happy ending yet.

Good thing I'm uisng voip telephone service and that I can talk for hours on the cheap.

Go git em! Gus ; )

This is what I do.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ckscreen-2.jpg

Google "black screen", save it, upload to photobucket, then edit, choose font/color.

Then choose "HTML" for use on CL.

Will it fool spammers/scammers? I don't know, but so far it seems to have slowed them down.