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Facebook Marketplace Cheeky F***ery stories.

90 replies

Conniebygaslight · 03/04/2026 15:12

I’m sure there have been numerous threads on this but thought I’d ask what audacious behaviour have you experienced on FB Marketplace?
Mine without exception is always when we’re offering something for free.
Advertised a number of kitchen cupboards FOC the other day. Woman turns up to collect, in a tiny car. DH told her they wouldn’t fit, she said that she’d need to make numerous trips. She had nobody to help her so DH had to break off from painting 3 times to load her car.
She just stood there and never said a word.😂

OP posts:
Keepingittogetherstepbystep · 04/04/2026 13:31

Luckily never had any of this but have just been told to not waste time trying to sell anything. I live in a different town and wonder if it's anything to do with that.

ATangoin · 04/04/2026 13:38

I sold a bed made by a specific retailer that specialises in children's beds and the many combinations that bed can become (high sleeper, low sleeper, normal bed, bunk bed, slide etc). To buy what we were selling new would have cost £1,500.

I made it clear we'd bought it second hand.amd that I'd repainted it.

I advertised the bed for £80. All of the pieces we had would have made two beds plus some extras left over. Therefore it could have been a high sleeper, mid sleeper, bunk bed or single bed. Came with two slides of different heights and two ladders.

Plus, it was possible to pick up extra parts on eBay if you wanted a different combination or to replace items.

Before they collected I spent about two hours cleaning every piece. There were about 50 pieces in total.

The person came to pick it up. We'd laid everything out and they were with us for an hour loading it all into the car after she'd had a look at what we had. We helped her load up her car.

She took it home. A couple of days later she messaged asking for their money back as it wasn't in a good enough condition. We think the husband saw it and wasn't happy with it as she seemed perfectly fine when collecting and had ample opportunity to change her mind at the time after inspecting.

Obviously there was some general wear and tear with it being a third hand bed where some paint had been scratched off when we changed the configuration as the kids grew.

If they weren't happy with it, they could have sanded our white paint off and left the original colour (a pale beige) underneath. We painted it as we weren't keen on the pale beige. Or they could have sanded our paint off and repainted it themselves.

Ger message was almost furious (we suspect written by the husband as the tone was so different from her other messages). Saying they were going to bring it all back to us and dump it outside our house, demanding a refund.

My argument was "You paid £80 for third hand bed(s). If you wanted a pristine bed that doesn't have the wear and tear of that third hand bed, spend £1000-£2000 buying a brand new one. Even then, when you put it together, you might chip a bit of the paintwork, let alone when your child starts using it. You had ample opportunity to inspect the parts as you looked at it and as you loaded it into your car with no complaints".

There was nothing major wrong with it and nothing actually broken, there were just scratches on the paint work and some peeling paint. What did they expect when they bought second hand for a massive reduction on the cost of a new bed?

Onadark · 04/04/2026 13:38

Conniebygaslight · 03/04/2026 15:21

Only one would fit in her car at a time….

After he didn't get a thanks or any help the first time he did it, he should have left her to do it herself the other 2 times. I think this is on your DH really.

MoonChild111 · 04/04/2026 16:42

DugnuttEyeBoogies · 04/04/2026 01:05

I hope you reported them for theft!

The Police weren’t interested 😔

CrushingOnRubies · 04/04/2026 17:12

Selling a barely used oven. It had been wired into the electrics so not a 3-pin connection. Buyer wanted me to find a plug and connect it to the oven to see if it worked. Firstly that would probably blow the oven or something. Secondly you’re going to wait around whilst the oven heats up and start cooking a pizza or something?

Crofthead · 04/04/2026 18:05

Conniebygaslight · 03/04/2026 15:14

What was he supposed to do?

Say ‘oh dear’ and put it back as available unless she made plans to hire a van

Conniebygaslight · 04/04/2026 20:40

Onadark · 04/04/2026 13:38

After he didn't get a thanks or any help the first time he did it, he should have left her to do it herself the other 2 times. I think this is on your DH really.

You may be right. He would never watch anyone struggle…doesn’t mean she’s not a cheeky sod though does it?

OP posts:
IHTProbate · 04/04/2026 23:33

Portakalkedi · 03/04/2026 19:43

I think putting a price on things, even if you're happy to give them away,discourages some of the bonkers types who then think they're doing you a big favour by 'taking it off your hands'.

Yes, this. I used to list things for free on gumtree and now put a very low price on instead. It still doesn’t stop some no shows or repeated nagging for delivery.

XenoBitch · 04/04/2026 23:59

I used it once. Never again.
A friend bought a Blu-Ray of Skyfall (James Bond flick) to take to his dads and watch. He took the cellophane off etc, but they did not get round to watching it. Asked if I could flog it on FB.
I got flamed to oblivion for wanting a few quid less than the new price, but as it was a Blu-Ray, it was more than a DVD anyway. Got told I was a rip off merchant because DVDs were less. FFS, it was a different format.
Anyway, a guy made me an offer of £12 which was ok. Came to my house.... asked me to put in it my Blu-Ray player to see that it worked... then said he will only pay £8 as it was now "used". He was big and intimidating. I was a woman alone with a stranger in my house. I took the £8, he had his bargain film, and I swore never to use Marketplace again.

MsGreying · 05/04/2026 01:22

I was selling a few bits of bedroom furniture on marketplace.

One person offered to pay asking but lived over 20 miles away. Furniture dealer so I assumed would be reliable and able to sell on to make money. His friend was to collect who lived 26 miles away was to collect.
Her car has 'something' hanging underneath and it needed to go to the garage. She discovered this on the Sunday as she set off.
And said they still wanted the stuff.
Thursday I asked how the car was ... And she said the car has been fixed the day before and she'd assumed I would have sold it to someone else by now.
So after a total of about thirty messages about it I had another buyer. I gave postcode and said message me as you are about to set off and I'll give you the house number..
Well he exploded into rage and said he had been done before by this and wasn't coming at all
More messages.
A lovely lady messaged. Fairly local and said when she could come and she was very keen as it would match her bedroom as she was collecting this stuff. She only wanted one of the items.
Frosty day. I assumed she'd be late as she'd have to defrost her car. She messaged me to say she had to defrost her car doors before they'd open.
She turned up in a tiny car. The dressing table fitted. She also bought one of the other items and I gave her a free picture too.

Chairs ..older lady is ten minutes late arriving. Apologised profusely but had let me know too so I didn't mind. I gave her one of the other items I had to get rid of too.

All in all about 100 messages and two buyers.
The rest of these items went to the charity shop.

Cabbage patch Dolls. Free. Very easy.

Stationery. Free. Lady collected boxes of it and said gleefully she'd sell on anything she didn't want.

Filing suspension files A4. Free. Again easy collection. I hope she had an A4 filing cabinet.

A ton of old laptops. Free. Collected by someone who repairs laptops. He came back for noticeboards for a community group.

Huge bag of ugly dolls. Free. Bloke with kids in the back of the car. Took two trips to get them all by which time the kids in the back were screaming with delight trying to get the dolls onto the backseat.

Mixing bowls..huge pile of them. Free. Lady turns up and collects them no fuss.

Black envelopes. Free. Bloke sends his brother. Prompt collection and the bloke says thanks afterwards.
Same bloke shouts up for more stuff and sends a different relative.

Selling stuff is more arduous than giving it away. I am still amazed at how keen people are to get free stuff though.

I found one Facebook group better than the others or even marketplace.

Have got a few more things to get rid of this week too. Then I can start on my house and declutter.

Feejoah · 05/04/2026 01:37

Favouritefruits · 03/04/2026 16:56

I sold one of those huge hot wheels garages, the man came on a bike to pick it up! I
as soon as he got to the end of the driveway it broke to pieces. My son had to fix it for him and I ended up giving him a lift.

The weirdest one I’ve had come to collect came to pick up a tallboy, he was very pleasant but after he came in to carry it out he asked me where I come from, I said ‘town’ he said no what country I told him the UK he proceeded to tell me why I didn’t and was I Greek like him? It was bizarre as he just didn’t believe me 😂

I sold a huge hotwheels garage. Man who wanted it clearly had English as a second language. I tried to explain as clearly as I could how big it was. He turned up in a tiny hatchback, wife in front seat, kid in the back, other seat folded down because the boot was full of gardening equipment including a lawnmower. I tried to ask him where he lived, thinking I'd deliver it instead. After many attempts to make myself understood it appeared he lived quite far away. We had to pull the garage apart and shove bits in wherever they fit. Had also sold him a truck with car storage and a large shoebox box of cars. He was very thankful but it made me more careful about product descriptions going forward.

Lovelynames123 · 07/04/2026 09:32

I got rid of nearly a full house of furniture when I moved, most of it was pain free but did have a guy turn up to collect a single divan, in one piece, in a Toyota Yaris😂 he ended up taking just the mattress which squished in, someone else took the base!

Another lady turned up full of apologies that she'd forgotten the cash, didn't have her phone. Turned out she lived on the same street as my sister so I said to put the money through her door, half thinking she wouldn't. Pleasantly surprised she did within half an hour of leaving mine!

FeelslikeMonday · 07/04/2026 09:55

Not Marketplace but Gumtree: I was giving away a corner sofa FOC. Made it clear that it would need 2 people to collect as it was heavy and a van. One bod turned up in a 3 door car to collect.

To add to the story I couldn't help as I'm mobility impaired.

EmpressaurusKitty · 07/04/2026 10:00

FeelslikeMonday · 07/04/2026 09:55

Not Marketplace but Gumtree: I was giving away a corner sofa FOC. Made it clear that it would need 2 people to collect as it was heavy and a van. One bod turned up in a 3 door car to collect.

To add to the story I couldn't help as I'm mobility impaired.

What happened, @FeelslikeMonday?

FeelslikeMonday · 07/04/2026 10:15

EmpressaurusKitty · 07/04/2026 10:00

What happened, @FeelslikeMonday?

He asked could my husband help. No, I don't have one. My neighbour who was with me was in her 70s.

He trundled off (I thought I'd not see him again tbh) and returned with a mate and a Luton van later the same day.

So why he didn't do that in the first place really puzzled me.

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